text:
Join as shapes moves my mesh to a new position
When I make a shapekey by using "join as shapes" operation, if a deformed mesh which I am trying to turn into a shapekey has its location applied, this location also gets recorded to the shapekey and it moves my main mesh to the deformed mesh's position.
It also happens if I try to make a shape key out of an armature animation, location of the mesh in the scene at the moment of pressing "save as shape key" on armature modifier gets recorded to the shape key as well.
How can I prevent this from happening?

From what I see Join as Shape will copy the shape of the mesh of the first selected object, and it will take the location of the mesh relatively to the origin, if this is what you mean, Transfer Shape Key won't, can you use it instead?

Transfer Shape Key does not work in this case - because deformed mesh's shape is not recorded into a shape key, so, there is nothing to transfer.
I tried it with shape keys I got out of "save as shape key" on an armature modifier, and it still changes position of my mesh all the same.
Because "save as shape key" on armature modifier also record the location on the shape key it saves, so "Transfer shape key" transfers that data as well.

Can't you just create a shapekey for the mesh you want to copy and you'll delete it afterwards?


text:
I need a shader solution to render 3D objects like an animated Blueprint
I am compositing video of 3D machine parts into an After Effects project where all the objects have white lines delineating their edges [ external outlines AND internal edges ].
I would like to animate the machine parts so they match the 2D illustrator graphics of the rest of the project. There must be a shader that can do this? Ideally with solid filled faces, not transparent.

Do you want to see the edges through the filled faces?  (perhaps attenuated, or dotted). An illustration of your desired style might help.

Agree, it'd be good for you to [edit] this question with some examples

Actually the freestyle page in the manual has an example file for blueprint renders - the Martin M-130 https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/freestyle/introduction.html

The solution turned out to be the FREESTYLE NPR renderer. Thank you Allen Simpson for your tip to look there. And thank you to the other responders as well. So appreciated.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How do I turn a group of curves 3D?

Hello! I am having some trouble turning a group of curves to 3D from 2D. Is there any way so I don't need to turn them one by one? Thanks!

Select all the curves, put your cursor over the 3D button and press AltEnter

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


text:
Unity exported .fbx is not compatible with Blender
I follow the instruction in https://youtu.be/gqJTjuyNfh8, import the .fbx with character (from https://github.com/microsoft/Microsoft-Rocketbox/tree/master/Assets/Avatars/Professions/Business_Female_01 ) and animation (from https://www.mixamo.com/#/ ) into the Unity and export the .fbx with model and animation. Then I import the .fbx into the Blender and find the mesh is distorted.
Please see the data here and Assets hierarchy in Unity below.

First, I drag the Shoved Reaction With Spin.fbx under Assets/Avatars/Business_Female_01/Export into the Scene and then drag the mixamo.com animation into the the Shoved Reaction With Spin of the left Hierarchy window.

Then, I click the Play button and the character runs.

To export the .fbx, under Window/Package Manager, I install the FBX Exporter. Then I select the Shoved Reaction With Spin in the Hierarchy window and click Export To FBX… under GameObject button. The Shoved Reaction With Spin.fbx can be exported.

To import the .fbx into the Blender 2.82a, under File/Import, FBX(.fbx) is selected. The imported mesh is shown below and it is distorted.

Could anyone help me with this? Thanks in advance!

did you try testing the FBX and import it back into Unity?

@HarryMcKenzie, yes, importing FBX back into Unity works. Now I found that the hierarchy of the model and the animation does not match. But I have no idea about how to adjust the hierarchy.


text:
How can the rendered image be the exact same color with the imported texture and no additive lighting?
I just started using Blender and am really confused about how to render images. When importing the .obj and .tga (texture map), Blender should render the images with the same RGB value shown in the .tga (texture map). There should not be any additive lighting. When I deleted all the lighting and Blender rendered black images. How can I achieve this? I have upload the code and the data. Thanks in advance for the help!
from pathlib import Path
import bpy
import numpy as np
import json

world = bpy.data.worlds['World']
world.use_nodes = True
bg = world.node_tree.nodes['Background']
bg.inputs[0].default_value[:3] = (0., 0., 0.)
bg.inputs[1].default_value = 0.

def delete_object_iteration(obj_name):
    for x in range(1, 15):
        obj = bpy.context.scene.objects.get(obj_name + '.' + str(x).zfill(3))
        obj_ini = bpy.context.scene.objects.get(obj_name)

        if obj_ini is not None:
            bpy.data.objects.remove(obj_ini, do_unlink=True)
        if obj is not None:
            bpy.data.objects.remove(obj, do_unlink=True)

delete_object_iteration("Bip01")
delete_object_iteration("Bip01 Footsteps")

if len(bpy.data.materials.keys()) > 1:
    for i, material in enumerate(bpy.data.materials):
        if i > 0:
           bpy.data.materials.remove(material, do_unlink=True)

bpy.ops.object.select_by_type(type='MESH')
bpy.ops.object.delete()

avatar_path = '/home/tiantian/Desktop/question/Female_Adult_03/Export/Female_Adult_03.fbx'

bpy.ops.import_scene.fbx(filepath=str(avatar_path))

# Fix paths to textures
for im in bpy.data.images:
    print(im.filepath)
    im.filepath = im.filepath.replace('../../../../../temp/Humans/with_opacity_version/f003/textures', '../Textures')

# Workaround: make opacity texture fully transparent
bpy.data.materials['f003_opacity'].blend_method = 'CLIP'
bpy.data.materials['f003_opacity'].alpha_threshold = 1

# remove default light
bpy.ops.object.select_by_type(type='LIGHT')
bpy.ops.object.delete(use_global=False)

context = bpy.context
scene = bpy.context.scene
render = bpy.context.scene.render

RESOLUTION = 512

render.resolution_x = RESOLUTION
render.resolution_y = RESOLUTION
render.resolution_percentage = 100
render.film_transparent = True

scene.use_nodes = True
nodes = bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes
links = bpy.context.scene.node_tree.links

scene.display_settings.display_device = 'None'

# Clear default nodes
for n in nodes:
    nodes.remove(n)

render_layers = nodes.new('CompositorNodeRLayers')

# Create depth output nodes
depth_file_output = nodes.new(type="CompositorNodeOutputFile")
depth_file_output.label = 'Depth Output'
depth_file_output.base_path = ''
depth_file_output.file_slots[0].use_node_format = True
depth_file_output.format.file_format = 'OPEN_EXR'
links.new(render_layers.outputs['Depth'], depth_file_output.inputs[0])

albedo_file_output = nodes.new(type="CompositorNodeOutputFile")
albedo_file_output.label = 'Albedo Output'
albedo_file_output.base_path = ''
albedo_file_output.file_slots[0].use_node_format = True
albedo_file_output.format.file_format = 'OPEN_EXR'
albedo_file_output.format.color_mode = 'RGB'
links.new(render_layers.outputs['Image'], albedo_file_output.inputs[0])

xx = 0
# - camera
cam = scene.objects['Camera']
cam.location = (xx, -np.sqrt(3**2-xx**2), 0)

cam_constraint = cam.constraints.new(type='TRACK_TO')
cam_constraint.track_axis = 'TRACK_NEGATIVE_Z'
cam_constraint.up_axis = 'UP_Y'
cam_empty = bpy.data.objects.new("Empty", None)
cam_empty.location = (0, 0, 0.9)
cam.parent = cam_empty
scene.collection.objects.link(cam_empty)
context.view_layer.objects.active = cam_empty
cam_constraint.target = cam_empty

render_file_path = "/home/tiantian/Desktop/question/material0"

albedo_file_output.file_slots[0].path = render_file_path + "_albedo_"

bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)
```

1 - Change the render color management to Standard

2 - Change the material properties of the object, feel free to change color of your liking or to replace it with a texture or whatever you want it to be

The color space will be respected this way and there is no need for lighting because this objects are self emissive, and they don't recieve shadows because of its emissive properties, however they can cast shadows.
3 -
This image explains how to "disable" emissive light of your object leaking to the environment (notice how the scene is all populated with objects , i assure you they are nearby) but no light is beign calculated from the emissive object.

4 - This is the same scene with the previous settings turned on for the emissive object.


text:
Do I use bump node or normal/map node?
I'm pretty new to blender and while learning and using material assets I've come to realise that many of them come labelled as "normal" or "normal map" or something like that.
I've only made one finished project so far (the donut) and I'm familiar with bump maps. I tried plugging these normal map images into both a bump node and a normal/map node however im not able to tell which one is the "correct" way to do it.
I tried looking up what these mean and what I understand is that bump maps cant represent angles while normal maps can. However im still a little confused, is that the only difference between them? which is the "correct" way? if normal does what bump does but way better then why use bump at all?
please help. thanks!

Hi :). A 'normal map' belongs into a Normal Map node to be processed correctly :)

@JachymMichal thank you very much I did lear something more from that post however I also wanted to know some of the differences between the two which was somewhat answered by the person below. Thanks a lot

A normal map and a bump map do the same ultimate thing: they change the angle of a sample, which affects how light reflects off of it.  However, they use different ways to get there.
A bump map is a black and white map of height.  It can be used either in a displacement node (for material-wide bump mapping, depending on material settings) or in a bump node (potentially, for per-shader bump mapping within a single material.)  When the bump map is evaluated, it looks at the value of the bump for the sample, and then at the value of the bump for at least two adjacent samples, and it uses the difference between these values, as well as the distance between those samples, to create an angle.  For example, if one sample has a height of 1 m, and another sample that is 1m away has a height of 0m, that's a 45 degree angle.
There are two different kinds of normal maps, both of which are used with a "normal map" node.  A normal map is never black and white.  A tangent space normal map should be predominantly 0.5,0.5,1.0 RGB lavender.  An object space normal map will look much more colorful than that, and, for a manifold mesh, should explore (almost) the entire color space.  There is no material-wide option for normal maps as with a Displacement node for bump mapping; instead, the output of a normal map needs to be plugged into the normal input of every shader you want to use that modified normal.
An object space normal map represents remapped, object-space vectors.  It ignores the existing normals of the object and simply replaces them with the normals that it looks up on the image.  It is mildly better for static objects than a tangent space normal map, but is totally inappropriate for deforming objects.  Many people never bother with object space normal maps, because the benefits over tangent space are so small-- a little precision, a tiny bit of performance-- compared to the mental cost of thinking about two different kinds of normal maps, one for static objects and one for deforming objects.
A tangent space normal map represents remapped tangent-space vectors (naturally.)  Tangent space is a space where the Z vector is the direction of the unmodified normal of the sample and the X vector is the direction of increasing U, from the UV map.  Yes, that's a per-sample space: there are as many different tangent spaces on a render as there are samples, and each sample uses its own space.  This means that it is measured relative to the normals and the UV map of the mesh, which allows it to work with deforming objects.
Both types of normal map need to be made for a specific, fixed mesh, including that mesh's UV map in the case of a tangent space normal map.  However, in practice, texture artists routinely provide normal maps that are normal maps of planes (object space and tangent space are the exact same space in the case of a default Blender plane), which people then use as tangent space normal maps on arbitrary meshes with arbitrary UV maps, and this does something, but not the right thing.
The advantage of bump maps is that they do not need to be made for a specific mesh or UV map.  The disadvantage is that they do not tolerate magnification well: you will see pixelation as you zoom in on a bump-mapped surface.  There are other minor differences: a normal map is slightly more performant; a bump map can be more intuitive to edit, like when changing a cross-section with an RGB curves node, something that wouldn't make any sense with a normal map.
The way to take advantage of the strengths of bump maps and the strengths of normal maps at the same time is to bake bump mapped materials to mesh-specific normal maps once the mesh and UV map are finalized.
You can tell the difference between a bump map and a normal map by color; with very little experience, it's easy enough to tell the difference between an object-space and tangent-space normal map by color.  None of these are interchangeable: you can't use a black and white bump map as a normal map, you can't use a normal map as a bump map, and you can't use a tangent space normal map as object space or vice versa (except in the case of a default Blender plane.)  Again, trying to do any of that will do something, but not the right thing.  There is almost never any reason to combine normal and bump maps; if you're using a texture pack, use either their bump or their normal, not both.  There are slightly more reasons to combine within a particular style, but this can be difficult to do for normal maps, particularly with Blender's handling of normal maps, and isn't really combining in the case of bump maps, where you're just adding two different heights.
If you're looking for best practices, the best practice is to never use a texture artist's normal map, because they don't know what your mesh is and so cannot create an accurate normal map for it, and to instead use their bump map, but to ultimately bake that bump map to a normal map.  Or, to bake a normal map from the difference with a high poly sculpt, with a selected-to-active normal bake.

I always enjoy these deep-dive nerdy explanations :))


text:
Faces missing before Subdivision modifier and leaves small holes after
Im modelling a phone and so in order to create the speaker holes, I created a circle, applied an array modifier and then joined it with the main phone body. then I deleted the faces that the circles were sitting on and redid the topology by myself, working around the circles to create holes. then I extruded the circles inward to make holes. however after doing so the faces at the bottom of the extrusion/hole are not appearing unless I add a sub surf modifier, but thats not much of a problem since I intended to do so anyway but id like to know why this is happening. The problem arises when I add the sub surf and crank it up to 2 levels, a small hole/crack appears in the mesh when I do so. how do I fix this? (see images attached)

Note: I tried recalculating normals but that didn't do much. I could fix the smaller hole at the top by bevelling the circle that I extruded to make the hole but I don't really like how that looks plus the other hole doesn't get fixed by this.

The immediate problem is that these vertices are not connected to anything:

There are other aspects of the mesh that don't have good topology yet, but you may be on the way to fixing those in the way you want to, depending on your plans for the model.

thank you, this is only my second time using blender so im making a lot of mistakes. I got those vertices by just extruding the vertices to their right and I realise thats probably what caused the problem. I instead added a loop cut to get those vertices and it works great! As for the other mistakes, im not sure what they are yet but I will try my best to make this model decent. Thanks again!

Oh also what about the disappearing faces? why is that happening? is it the same reason?

Hi, @pythonnewbie ! ..  There are no disappearing faces, that's the subdivision surface around the  illustrated hole 'cutting the corner'  on the open boundary. If you're making round insets  in separate panels to be welded in, you need the vertices on the boundaries of the panels to match the receiving hole, You may not need to make separate panels at all. Check out the shipped add-on Loop Tools (> Circle ) if you haven't already, and have a play in a separate space turning various connected 6-gons  and 8-gons into circles.

I dont understand what you said in the last bit, what do you mean by welding separate panels?

@pythonnewbie  .. that instead of insetting faces in the existing geometry, you make separate faces with the holes, and fit them in, merging the vertices on the perimeter.

oh! okay ill try that, thanks!


text:
The UV editor shows that there's no stretching but my UV grid is still stretched
I'm pretty new to UV, so I think that I'm missing something simple. I've been stuck trying to texture this wall for almost a week now and for some reason even though the UV editor says that there's no stretching (all blue), the UV grid and any image texture I apply seem to be super stretched and sometimes even upside down or rotated weirdly. please help.

here's my project, I didn't pack any textures since they're unnecessary.

Did you smart uv-unwrap? It looks like, that your UVs are not the same format as your Objects Faces. You could try to Unwrap it with a different unwrap methode

Apply the scale in Object mode (CtrlA):


text:
HDRI lighting too dark and HDR image just acting odd
Im following this tutorial by blender guru about archviz. Im at the point where he's making the room however after adding the environmental HDR texture and the window glass texture, there seem to be a few problems.

even without the window glass texture, the HDR is far too dark compared to his, which seems odd because mine feels like it should be brighter if anything. I'm using this HDR

my windows seem to refracting different parts of the HDR? I'm not sure what's happening or how to best describe it so I've attached an image.

any suggestions for how I'd fix this? here's the file:

There are a few things you can do, I always tend to work on objects created with ArchViz because there is a problem with the windows.
For the refraction:
The ArchViz windows are usually a single face connected with the window frame, which on the one hand is not so good because you have non-manifold geometry. The other thing is, the glass material has an IOR of 1.45 which is okay for glass, but since the window is single-faced the refraction works as if everything on the other side is inside a solid glass ball.
And apart from the refractions being incorrect, the difference in left and right window are because they are oriented differently. One window refracts as if the room was inside the solid glass ball, the other window sees the outside in a solid glass ball.
To change this you can either set the IOR to 1 (no refraction) which would get rid of the incorrect look, but is of course not as realistic as if there was refraction in the glass. So the other option would be to select the window and press Y to separate it from the frame. Then press E > .005 > LMB to extrude it 5 mm. Now you have glass with a thickness and the refraction is correct.
For the brightness:
First of all, I have had brighter HDRIs than this one, but nevertheless you also have to keep in mind, a real sun and sky are very, very bright. In real photography your camera needs longer exposure times (or a faster lens) to get the same brightness in a picture than on the outside on a sunny day.
Which means, you need to either set the Exposure to a value higher than 0 under Render Properties > Color Management (by the way, setting the Look to either Medium High Contrast or High Contrast is also better than None) or to compensate for this, set the Strength in the World to something higher than 1. Or you do both.
Taking pictures with a real camera inside a room with a window in the background usually results in the outside getting exposed correctly and the inside of the room is dark, or the room is bright enough and the outside is really overexposed. In your screenshot the outside looks exposed correctly, so it's normal that the inside is quite dark.
Another thing is, the windows of the room look as if located on the shadow side of the building, as the sun in the HDRI is in a different direction. When you rotate the Environment Texture of the world in the Shader Editor so that the sun shines into the windows, it already gets brighter in there.
And last but not least, in reality light bounces around many times whereas in Blender the bounces are limited to a certain, not too high amount so that rendering won't take forever. This also has an influence on the brightness inside the room, but I think it's negligible in this case.
Here are some example pictures for brightness comparison (the glass refraction is already corrected and I've set the Look to Medium High Contrast). On the top left is the render with the default settings, the Exposure is set to 0 and the Strength of the world HDRI is at 1. Top right I just increased the world strength to 10. Bottom left strength is 1, but exposure is 3. Bottom right finally has an exposure of 2 and the world strength is 2 as well - it's almost identical to the one left to it.

But as I said before, you also have to keep in mind that here the windows look outside on to a shadowy part. If you rotate the Environment Texture by 260° on the Z axis, the sun shines inside the room and even with the default exposure and world strength it's already much brighter, not to mention the other settings:

Thank you very much! I'm still new to blender so some things confuse me but this really cleared it up! Thanks again


text:
Particle system rendered as object has weird shadow issues in Cycles, that is fixed when using children or random scale
I'm using particle system to distribute feather objects on a bird body. When I naively set it up and try to render it with Cycles, there is some of the objects shadows are not realistic (many of the feathers are in the dark although they should not be). Eevee render looks OK. The material on the feathers is a relatively simple Principled BSDF with alpha, roughness, and color channels textured.

I've found a few workarounds: I can either use interpolated children and set the amount to 1, resulting in good shadows:

or I can add something about 0.2 scale randomness - lower amounts do help the issue but they don't remedy it completely. Note that adjusting only the scale does not help at all.

However, I still don't understand the underlying issue. Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?

I had a similar issue recently with rendering grass using particle systems. what worked for me was increasing the number of light bounces in the light paths tab. Increasing the transparent bounces helped the most but try playing with the other settings too.


text:
Is there an addon to automatically stacking similar (not necessarily the exactly the same) UV islands?
Let's say pair of similar UV islands is such a pair, where you can take one of the UV islands, move around its vertices, and get exactly the same looking UV island as the second one.
Basically, I'm asking a very similar question to:  Is there a way to overlay two similar UV islands with identical vertex count?, but knowing from the answers there is no such functionality in a vanilla blender, I'm asking whether such addon exists.
I found that Magic-UV copy+paste functionality is close, but it tends to rearrange the vertices seemingly randomly sometimes, making it unusable in many cases.

The functionality I'm looking for:

Select similar UV islands you would like to stack.
Press "Stack UV islands"
Every selected UV island now inherits the shape from the firstly selected UV island, then rotates/scales to occupy the same texels.

Is there such an add-on?

Yes, such a free add-on exists, and it doesn't break UV.

Disclaimer: I am the author of this add-on.


text:
Why is there color in measured specular reflection of a ruby and other non-metals?
According to this article: http://learnwebgl.brown37.net/10_surface_properties/surface_properties_color.html#id2
measured specular highlights of some dielectric materials such as ruby or emerald are not white (or grey). This goes against the common belief that only metals have coloured reflections. Why is that?
I could not find the original source of the values of the article. It is however cited/used in multiple places on the web. I have verified that i.e. ruby is indeed non-conductive (see abstract of Negative Absolute Electrical Conductivity of Optically Excited Ruby: Microscopic Nature of the Phenomenon
.)  Looking at pictures of rubies on the internet, I'm not sure if I can see any colour in the specular highlights. Could it be the redness in measured values is just an artefact caused by the translucency of rubies?

This is a lovely question, but I'm not sure it's a Blender one.. :)

Maybe ask on a forum dedicated to physics


text:
Get vdb motion blur in blender (from embergen)
I made a basic fire and smoke simulation in embergen and exported it as a vdb sequence (with the velocity data). When I put it into blender I get three velocity float values instead of one float vector value.
The  problem is that I don't get any motion blur on this sim when I render it.
Any Idea how to get it right ? I tried using the vector pass to get the motion blur in the compositor but it doesn't seem to do anything, which doesn't surprise me that much ...
Ps : second screenshot is from a tutorial where it shows how my vector is supposed to look

Try to export the velocity as one single grid containing vector values, not individual floats for each direction (float vector means XYZ in one grid). Not sure whether there is a way combining the float values in blender though.

I merged them but it still does not work...

The things that you're doing are probably correct (the second image) but motion blur with VDB files has been broken for a long time in Blender.
This was a report for liquids but it is the same for volumes:https://developer.blender.org/T78442


text:
Animated mesh is glitching in cycles 3.5
I never encountered this problem before but on two different projects some  armature animated meshes start glitching (weird lines) on random frames in the render (not the viewport), as you can see on the photo. Any ideas on the reason ? I've tested the project in blender 3.3 and the problem isn't here...

Just tried the moving bones thing. Indeed the glitch was gone. I went to an already keyframed point in my timeline, just moved (slightly rotating it will do) a bone a tiny bit, and keyframed it again.

Not sure on an actual problem, let alone a proper solution, but for the time being, I've noticed that moving the bones within the rig and setting a key seems to remove this weird vertex issue.

Thanks ! Can you explain your "moving the bones" fix ? I'm not sure I understand


text:
RAM Usage in VSE
I've just rendered a video in the VSE, and the output is 14.8 MB. When I use the option to "Prefetch frames" with Proxy Render Size set to Scene render size, or even "No proxy, full render" the memory consumption goes up to 6.33 GB. That's fine for me, I have the memory to spare for these short videos, but I am curious to know if this is an artifact of the method chosen by Blender developers which results in a huge waste of RAM, or if all video editors suffer the same problem of showing previews 4000 times larger than their rendered result.

@susu Thanks for your help!

The VSE is not an efficient tool at all. It's archaic design will use a lot of resources and will limit the responsiveness.
Note that the final output size has nothing to do with the resources needed to get there, the output is compressed, but blender uses the full uncompressed image before compression.
For video editing you should use a more optimized tool. In this day and age dedicated video apps are way more efficient and responsive than blender.
But if you still want to put yourself through the pain of using the VSE check out
this post:
How to import footage in the VSE for optimal playback and organization?


text:
Interpolate motion between motion track keyframes
I'm trying to get a simple 2d track from points on a finger. Sometimes the finger moves quickly and the tracker loses it for a few frames. Once the finger settles, I'll manually move the track back into place, so I'll essentially have 2 keyframes; before and after the blurry motion. Since I'll be constraining an empty to the tracking point, I'd like that motion in between interpolated. Just like any animation in blender using keyframes. Currently I've had to go frame by frame to add those points back in, even though the motion is directly vertical and a normal keyframe animation would do the trick.
So far the closest solution I've found is after linking my track to an empty, I click 'Constraint to F-curve', then clean up the keyframes in the graph editor. This isn't practical though for a long track.
I'm aware I could make my track settings better, which I'm working on, but would love to know if it's possible for blender to tween motion tracking points. I often 2d track in other software this way, and it saves a lot of time for simple tracks where only a few frames here and there are lost.
Thanks!

Indeed, the whole point of keyframes is to animate between them.  Haven't found a way to get Blender to acknowledge them yet.  Although sometimes it says "estimated" in the tracking info, but those frames don't seem to count.

Tracking is an art. Perfect automatic tracking is hardly ever possible and will require some manual supervision and/or interpretation.
For a few frames you can manually move the tracking points in the tracking graph (that green and red graph that gives you the speed at which the trackcers are moving in the horizontal (red) and vertical (green) axis)
Other things to try: animate the settings for weight and stab weight. Or bring down the coorelation when tracking fast moving objects and bringing it up again when the motion slows down. And of course you can always use the clean-up tools in the solve tab.

Thanks. I'm aware dialing in my settings better will definitely help, just specifically trying to find a way for blender to fill frames in between my manual intervention. Basically as if I had the footage as a camera background, and then key framed an empty manually. Just would like to keep it in the motion tracker so I can get Blender to track where possible.


text:
HIDE_HEADER in bl_options over rides the panel location in the UI
I am assembling my first add-on and I have a particular order I would like my panels to stay in inside the UI. This is easily done by rearranging the order in which each panel is registered.
However, one of my panels I would like to hide it’s header and as soon as I use the bl_options to remove the header my panel jumps to the top of all my panel list.
I have a quick test code shown below with 3 panels. As you can see I have it setup so panel 3 shows up second in the panel UI. Run the script and you will see the 3 panels N Panel in the order as intended. Then un-comment the line "#bl_options = {‘HIDE_HEADER’}". Then IMPORTANT close blender. Reopen blender, run the script and the panel 3 header is hidden but it moves to the top of the list. If you DO NOT close Blender and rerun the script after the change the panel stays in place and hides the header…it appears to work. But this is the last UI register. You have to close Blender and reopen to get it to reset the UI and see the issue.
import bpy

def main(context):
for ob in context.scene.objects:
print(ob)

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
bl_idname = “object.simple_operator”
bl_label = “Simple Object Operator”

@classmethod
def poll(cls, context):
    return context.active_object is not None

def execute(self, context):
    main(context)
    return {'FINISHED'}

class HelloWorldPanel1(bpy.types.Panel):
bl_label = “Hello World Panel1”
bl_idname = “OBJECT_PT_hello1”
bl_space_type = ‘VIEW_3D’
bl_region_type = ‘UI’
bl_category = ‘Mine’

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    row = layout.row()
    row.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add")

class HelloWorldPanel2(bpy.types.Panel):
bl_label = “Hello World Panel2”
bl_idname = “OBJECT_PT_hello2”
bl_space_type = ‘VIEW_3D’
bl_region_type = ‘UI’
bl_category = ‘Mine’

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    row = layout.row()
    row.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add")

class HelloWorldPanel3(bpy.types.Panel):
bl_label = “Hello World Panel3”
bl_idname = “OBJECT_PT_hello3”
bl_space_type = ‘VIEW_3D’
bl_region_type = ‘UI’
bl_category = ‘Mine’
#bl_options = {‘HIDE_HEADER’}

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    row = layout.row()
    row.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add")

classes = [
SimpleOperator,
HelloWorldPanel1,
HelloWorldPanel3,
HelloWorldPanel2,
]

def register():
for cls in classes:
bpy.utils.register_class(cls)

def unregister():
for cls in classes:
bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)

if name == “main”:
register()

Any ideas of how to keep this from happening would be greatly appreciated.

Sub Panels
Blender now has subpanels. Recommend making "Holding Panels" and make your other panels children.
Example https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/155517/15543
On rearranging panels

This is easily done by rearranging the order in which each panel is
  registered.

Maybe a poison chalice.  Remember the user can move panels around. The expected result is the register order.  Been my experience this is (generally but) not always the case.  Registering panels in startup scripts places them higher than via addon.
As mentioned above, would now use subpanels.
If the same issue is the case re a headerless panels panels moving to top, recommend using an appended or prepended draw method.
Here is example rejigged from link above
Panel 2 and 3 are children of panel 1. Both panel 1 and panel 3 are set to hide header.

2 results of running script below. Both preserve order. The render of the no header subpanel is strange (bg color).  Panel 1 is Ok, perhaps explains why no header panels are moved to top.
import bpy

class EXAMPLE_PT_panel_1(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Panel 1"
    bl_category = "Example tab"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_options = {"HIDE_HEADER"}

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.label(text="This is panel 1.")

class EXAMPLE_PT_panel_2(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Panel 2"
    bl_category = "Example tab"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_options = {"DEFAULT_CLOSED"}
    bl_parent_id = "EXAMPLE_PT_panel_1"
    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.label(text="This is panel 2.")

class EXAMPLE_PT_panel_3(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Panel 3"
    bl_category = "Example tab"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_options = {'HIDE_HEADER'}
    bl_parent_id = "EXAMPLE_PT_panel_1"
    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.label(text="This is panel 3.")

classes = [ EXAMPLE_PT_panel_2, EXAMPLE_PT_panel_3]

from random import shuffle
shuffle(classes)
classes.insert(0, EXAMPLE_PT_panel_1)
print(classes)

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)

def unregister():
    for cls in reversed(classes):
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Here is another example that dynamically generates n panels.  Test script uses driver namespace to hold panels to unregister while running from __main__
Gives some options to play around with. There is a bl_order flag that the base PropertyPanel (Custom Props) uses always be at the bottom.
import bpy
from  bpy.app import driver_namespace as dns

for p in dns.get("panels", []):
    if getattr(p, "is_registered"):
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(p)
else:
    dns.get("panels", []).clear()

from random import shuffle

use_parent_zero = True
hide_second_headers = False
n = 5 # number of panels
shuffle_order = True
random_shuffle = False

order = list(range(n))
if shuffle_order:
    shuffle(order)

class TestPanel:
    bl_category = 'TestPanel'
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "object"
    bl_order = 0

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        cls = self.__class__
        layout.label(text=f"{cls.bl_label} Order {cls.bl_order}")

panels = [type(f"Panel{i}",
                (TestPanel, bpy.types.Panel),
                {"bl_label" : f"Panel {i}",
                 "bl_idname" : f"TEST_PT_Panel{i}",
                 "bl_order" :  TestPanel.bl_order + order[i],
                 }) for i in range(n)
                 ]

panels.sort(key=lambda p : p.bl_order)
if random_shuffle:
    shuffle(panels)
print([(p.bl_label, p.bl_order) for p in panels])
for i, p in enumerate(panels):
    if i and use_parent_zero:
        p.bl_parent_id = panels[0].bl_idname
    if i % 2 and hide_second_headers :
        p.bl_options = {'HIDE_HEADER'}

    bpy.utils.register_class(p)

dns["panels"] = panels

About the only conclusion is sub panels are displayed in registered order.

Thank you!  Using the Parent is really what I am after..this will resolve my issue. Thank you for your time.

Cheers.  Added another test script to look at bl_order.  Consider accepting answer (check box LHS of answer) if this has answered your question.

Excellent...Thank you for the additional test script....lots for me to learn


text:
How can I add light from emiision,but not affect texture?
I have material with emission, but when I set emission to 500, light shows, but texture becomes white. I want to keep texture same and add light from emission. How can I make this?
I have this:
But I want this:

For it to cast light on objects the way you are describing the "Is Camera Ray" technique will work. But if you want that glow too, then you will probably have to do that in composition.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/53359/how-do-you-make-an-image-emission-without-washing-out-the-image/ https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/58272/making-an-emission-shader-emit-a-different-colour-of-light-than-the-colour-assig/

For the material, you will have to use the Light Path Node and use the Is Camera Output to us as an input for the mix shader node. This mix shader node will basically have 2 emmision shaders plugged into it. Both the emmision shaders will have the same image texture as their input. The strength of one that's plugged above will be what is actually cast into the scene. The strenght of the second one will be what is seen by the camera.

Now since the output rendered image does not have pixels which are bright for that emmisive part we cannot use the glare node directly. So somehow we will need to get where the emmisive part is and use glare on that specific part.
For this we can use cryptomatte!
We can simply use the Material Cryptomatte Pass for this purpose.
(Enable them in the View Layer Properties)

Now in the Compositor Node Editor, use the Cryptomatte Node and click the plus icon. (Open a image editor on the side) Now hover over the emmisive material part in the rendered image and click. (Or simply just type the name of the Material in the blank space)
Now put a Brigtness Contrast node to increase the brightness.(Otherwise the glare won't be strong enough) Now add the Glare Node set to Fog Glow (Make sure that you have set the Mix value to 1). Multiply this by the inverted mask of the cryptomatte (Otherwise the entire area will be white)
Now Combine the originial with this glare.(Use the Add Blending Mode)

Now for some reason, the glare in the Compositor has a size limit. So it won't be as big as Eevee's Bloom. But in your case, this is probably the only way possible.

I don't know if it is possible to get the emission without the surface emitting the light too, but you can fake it.

In edit mode, duplicate the emitting faces and separate them.

Go back to object mode and select the separated mesh. This will now have the same emitting material.

Make a single user copy of the material and reduce the Emission Strength (this way you can add some slight emission to the surface to let it look better imo). But you could also use another material.

In the Object panel of the new mesh, go to Visibility > Ray Visibility and turn Shadow off.

To avoid z-Fighting and visible emission borders from the underlying original mesh, move the separated geometry as little as possible (like +-0.00001) in the direction of the face normals.

It's work, but I want not to light surface, but have the aura(?)
https://imgur.com/5iC1OJQ

Ah ok, misunderstood your question. See the other answers then.


text:
No matter what, Motion tracking WILL NOT align with scene
I'm absolutely ripping my hair out at this. Followed 9 different tutorials, and used more than a dozen different clips I've gone out and recorded, to no avail. I've always managed to get a solve error less than 1 on a 4k clip, but no matter what I do or what settings I set the tracking scene moves completely differently than the clip. I even recorded a clip where I am walking forward, with as little rotational movement as possible, literally the easiest shot to motion track and still the tracking scene moves completely differently than the video clip. the markers that show up in the tracking scene don't line up with the background video. I'm about 8 years deep into blender at this point and i've done motion tracking before, but back when blender was still in 2.79. Have they changed things?
before you all ask, yes I set the scene frames, made the framerates match, input my camera info, tried using all the refine features, manually edited the distortion settings, all that. And I can get great tracks, some as low as 0.35 in some cases, but the scene that is created seems to just not follow the video at all. It moves in such a way it's like I had a solve error of more than 100 pixels, it's so strange. Setting the scene scale doesn't work, and picking tracking markers to use as the floor and stuff doesn't make a single difference. I've even downloaded clips from other peoples motion tracking tutorials and followed the EXACT same steps, but the same thing happens. WTF am I doing differently? Is my blender messed up?

It would help to show exactly the problem you are having, using screenshots of GIFs would help understand what's going on. Ideally, it would greatly help if you could make a sample scene showing the issue, uploading it on Blend-Exchange and [edit] your question to add the download link so that we can check ourselves how you did things and what's happening.

Thank you, I don't quite have the time to make a sample scene cause all the videos I used I ended up deleting it all, so I decided to skip using blender completely and I'm just handling all the tracking in after effects and porting it to blender. It's  still not perfect for some reason so it must be the video, even though I know the exact specs of my camera and moved it in an easy to track way. I'll keep experimenting and If it persists I will edit or start a new question with a link to a demo file but thank you! It's the only thing in my opinion that needs work in blender


text:
Geo Node: Distributing Points on Selected Faces Above Average Z
I'm learning about geo nodes and came across a situation. I would like to distribute points on the faces of an object that are only above a certain Z value, calculated from the average z of all the faces of the same object. I could, of course, select the faces and separate them from the object in edit mode or use weight paint, but I had this theoretical question while using geo nodes. Thank u guys!

The Attribute Statistic node can be used for this.
Basically separate the Z component from the position and feed it into the Attribute Statistic node. Now simply use the mean (mean and average are the same thing) output from the node and compare it with the Z component using Compare: Greater Than. Use the boolean output from the compare node as the selection for the Distribute Points on Faces node.

Thank you!
I had considered this logic, using the node attribute statistic and grather than, but had not been able to "link" the separate XYZ, thank you very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Thomas If your question has been answered satisfactorily, please consider marking it as "Accepted Answer" so that the question appears as solved. Thank you!


text:
Need Help Creating Arches Around Main Structure - Array Usage?
everyone, I created a building shaped like a bowl, inspired by the Brasília Cathedral (though with some different measurements).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Bras%C3%ADlia
Similar to the Cathedral, I want to create "arches" around the main structure...
I've tried making an arch, and I know I should probably use something like an array, but I just can't figure out how to use it properly!
I took a look at other questions about arrays, but I confess I couldn't find the answer. The funny thing is, I know it's something simple haha!
Could someone help me out?

You want that circular distribution of the arches?

Create a cube, in Edit mode move it away from its origin, scale it on Z, in Object mode create an empty at the exact same location:

Give your object an Array modifier, Count > 16 or whatever, enable Object Offset instead of Relative Offset and choose the empty as object:

Rotate the empty 22.5° on Z:

Model your object as needed, the instances will deform as well:

Thank you very much.
Btw, your structure is really nice haha
haha

Add an Array modifier and turn on Object Offset
Add an empty in the scene (technically any object will do)
Set this empty as the object for the offset
Make sure the location of your empty and the arches is the same.
The empty will most probably be in the center. Place your 3D cursor in the center. Select the arch > right click > Set Origin > Origin to 3D cursor.
Now simply rotate the empty around the Z-axis.

Result:

exactly!
Thanks!!!!!


text:
Pivot point doesn't move in edit mode
I have an issue where if I move entire objects in edit mode then the pivot point won't move with them. it does move in object mode though. I checked if "Affects only origin" was turned on but it isn't. Can anyone please help? Im new to the software.
PS: I'm assuming that the pivot point is the green dot thats used as a centre to rotate or move an object. thats the dot I'm having problems with.
Here's my file if it helps:

Perhaps you mean "origin" not "pivot point"? If so, edit mode is designed to change the position of a certain number of vertices/edges/faces, but not all, so the origin does not move in edit mode. To move an object along with a origin, you need to turn on the object mode. You can also set the placement of the origin in the "options" menu or from the drop-down menu "set origin -> ..."

You can't edit an object and origin at the same time. To control the origin position you need to:

Select the object and press tab to enter Edit Mode
Select a vertex, edge, or face
Shift+S > Cursor To Selected
Then tab back into Object Mode
RMB > Set Origin > Origin To 3D Cursor


text:
Snap to face with project individual elements giving weird results
I've seen several duplicates of similar questions to mine already but none of them have the same problem as me. Im following the donut tutorial for blender 3.0 and am at the stage where I have to make the icing. while im able to find and turn on snap to faces and project individual elements, Trying to grab and move the topology results in a weird output where it kinda sucks into the donut. please help.

Figured it out. If anyone's having similar issues, check if snapping is turned on and/or if there's another mesh under the mesh you're trying to edit.


text:
How to make subtle Camera movements?
Not a very specific question, I'm just looking for tips on making sweet subtle camera movements, the smooth kind that those RnD showreels have.
My camera game is horrible rn, It's the one thing holding back my work.
Any help would be appreciated.

Hello, what are those RnD showreels you're talking about? Maybe link some example. If you want some noise in your camera movement you can use the modifiers in the Graph Editor but I'm not sure that what's you want

Please don't expect us to know what 'RnD showreels' are. Please illustrate with an example of what you mean, and how it contrasts with what you've got.

In many cases it's not that exciting, it's just a very slow motion and extremely long render times.
I always change the left pane on the animation tab to Graph Editor.

After you key a couple of positions on your camera you get bezier handles that you can move and scale to affect the interpolation.  Or maybe setting them to linear makes more sense for some things.

Now, unfortunately the more things you are keying (Location, Rotation, Focal Length, etc) the bigger this hairball becomes, but for large sweeping motions this makes a lot of sense and provides good control.  In some cases you can even eliminate entire channels, I picked a motion that doesn't change over the z axis, so I right clicked the Z location and clicked *Clear Single Keyframes to delete that channel's keyframes and clean up the graph to the two channels you see.

My only other real piece of advice; to me it's hardest to start and end such things, so I'll usually key a much larger motion and then set my render boundaries to a portion that I think looks nice.


text:
How to change material color in geometry nodes
It is a very simple caveman geometry node setup.
I want to change the color of these bars as they rise [from black at lowest to orange at full scale]

and please explain in detail, how to control material from geometry nodes.

To color geometry procedurally created inside a Geometry Nodes setup, you need to capture a certain attribute of that geometry and pass that information over to the shader nodes. Capturing part is usually done with a Store Named Attribute node. You then retrieve and manipulate the captured data inside the Shader Editor via an Attribute node. Do note that you also need to assign the relevant material to the geometry inside Geometry Nodes using a Set Material node--assigning a material the usual way, through the material window in the Properties panel is not sufficient.
In this first example, I'm capturing the Instance Scale information as a named attribute called 'i_s', then accessing it in the shader nodes and converting it to color through a ColorRamp. Since scale is a singular value, I'm capturing it as float. Additionally, since I'm capturing this information in the Instance domain, I need to use the Instancer mode of the Attribute node:

This second setup is very similar. I'm still capturing float values in the Instance domain, but instead of their scales, I'm using the Index numbers of our instances. ColorRamp node only uses values within the $0-1$ range, so if my captured values contain smaller or larger values than that, mapping them to the $0-1$ range beforehand is a good idea. In your setup you have $2500$ instances, which means our index numbers go from $0$ to $2499$. I use a Map Range to fit that between $0-1$. I also use the Constant mode of the ColorRamp node so there's no interpolation between colors, just to demonstrate that it is an option:

Since we've been employing the Instance domain, our cylinders are colored one by one, as singular instances, regardless of their shape or number of faces--the whole cylinder is always just one color. You're not limited to that. If you Realize Instances, you get access to their internal, raw geometry: vertices, edges, faces. In this third example, after realizing the instances, I'm capturing the Z location of eeach point of our geometry, and using that information to color it. Notice that in the Attribute node we've switched to Geometry mode, and since the captured attribute is evaluated and converted to color between each and all points, cylinders can have multiple colors at the same time. Using the B-Spline mode of the ColorRamp also makes the interpolation between points more gradual.

A last example from an older answer below, where I'm coloring the sphere instances according to their distance to the outer capsule mesh they're located in:


text:
how to make cycle renders look more octane
I'm quite fascinated with the soft view in renders with octane

all octane renders have a particular light and softness; somehow, I cannot reproduce that blender cycles.
Any suggestions on how to make cycles render look like Octane.

This is just an opinion, but I would start by changing View Transform to "Standard" and using "Medium low-contrast" for the Look.
For the material, use a small amount of Subsurface Scattering (colored to match your basecolor). Increase specular to 1. For even better results, use a Clearcoat value close to 1 (small difference, but still looks better - not pictured).

Further softening can be accomplished with any combination of these nodes in the compositor - The defocus and blur provide further "softening" of the sheen, and the Glare emulates bloom:

Going even further, one of the things that looks characteristic of the Octane render is what appears to be colored Ambient Occlusion - to get this in Cycles, enable AO as a render pass under View Layers, and then from the compositor, you can use a Color Balance node to add color to it (not a huge difference, but it all adds up):

This is incorrect. The question asked about Cycles specifically but only EEVEE has a bloom setting

@cat40 My bad, I missed the cycles part  - serves me righht for answering a Q at 5AM ;) I updated the answer.

Thanks for the answer @ChristopherBennett
I noticed that perfect lighting and adjusting the settings to get "colored ambient occlusion" does give somewhat octane feel


text:
I am getting weird pointy edges
So, the thing in simple words is, I cannot even think of the right word to describe this, but like this simple wave texture will end up making the sphere with these weird pointy vertices, how do I get rid of these?
Please try to suggest an efficient answer coz my GPU is a poor 1650Ti.

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

It's hard to tell without seeing your base mesh, but my guess is that it isn't sufficiently subdivided. Add a Subdivision Surface Modifier and see if that helps. Also, the primitive UV Sphere is not ideal for displacement, as it has tri's at the "poles". A good way to make a quad-based sphere is to start with a cube, add and apply a Subdivision Surface Modifier level 2 or 3 or so, then add and apply a Cast Modifier set to sphere (default) with the Factor set to 1. Then add another subdivision surface (this time don't apply) at level 3 or 4 to see the displacement properly.


text:
Object A make Object B expand on ingoing and then shrink on outgoing
I like to create a animation where a "bullet-like-objekt" hits an object ("cube") and then the object shall expand from the bullet. And when the bullet goes through the object shall enter the normal state again.
Here is some prints of how i like to have it:
Normalstate:

Inside 1:

Inside 2:

On the other side:

I just trying to understand how the object can interact with eachother so I then can make an animation.
Thanks!

You can use Cast modifier for Cube and set bullet as Object in modifier to controll effect. https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/deform/cast.html#options

Thanks, that helped it!
I just need to learn the modifier and then I thinks it will be awesome!

Cast modifier as Vklidu says, Lattice modifier would work as well

or you use shape keys ;)

@moonboots and then scale the lattice after the bullet?
I dont understand the Lattice function in this :)
Chris: Ah yes the shape keys! Well I tryed but I found it very hard to get a good solution.

you can parent the lattice to the bullet, and give a Lattice modifier to the object you want to deform, then when you'll move the bullet, the lattice will deform the object when crossing it

I still dont get it, its the parenting thing :)
I have a Lattice modifier with "Lattice" on my cube. Should I make "Lattice" parent or child to the "bullet"?

@Chris, shapekeys will be a bit complicated for complicated object imho

@moonboots you are totally right. But the objects which are shown here look simple

@Chris  it still seems a bit p*in in the *ss to use shapekeys even for such a simple shape but I may be wrong. The deformation acts like a kind of wave through the object, not so easy

As Vklidu says you can use the Cast modifier, you can also use the Lattice modifier:
Create a lattice, scale it in Object mode so that it can contain the cube object that it is supposed to deform, put it at the same position as the bullet, parent it to the bullet, give your lattice a bit of Resolution in the Object Data panel, modify it in Edit mode so that it has the deforming shape you want, give your cube object a Lattice modifier with the lattice as lattice Object:

Now when you move your bullet the lattice follows and deforms the cube:

It seams kinda tricky to use Lattice, the cube follows the bullet if i move it along the Z-angle. But I believe it to be my experience with Lattice and Blender thats need to be better! Anyhow thanks, it solved my problem!

yes you're right if the bullet moves on the Z axis it won't work fine, so Cast modifier is probably the best solution if you need a more complicated movement, it will wok fine for a simple deformation

you can play with the modifier's Strength value though, it may help if you want to deactivate it


text:
How to access/calculate tangent and bitangent vectors from BMLoop via script?
This question has an answer when using MeshLoops:
Script access to tangent and bitangent, per face: how?
But I'm working with BMLoops to collect vertex data. I haven't yet found a good way to calculate or access tangent/bitangent vectors using bmface/bmloop/etc.
I did find a possible solution, which is to just find the corresponding MeshLoop, but I'm not yet sure this works 100% of the time, and I feel like there should be a better way. (For this to work, all face and loop indices must match up between bmesh and mesh, I don't know if that is guaranteed?)
I've found and tried: BMLoop.calc_tangent(), but this appears to give the wrong vector (pointing towards the center of the face, not aligned with uv coordinates).  BMFace also has a few calc_tangent_*() function, but again, these don't appear to be the tangents I'm looking for.
Sample code:
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(me)

    me.calc_tangents()

    for face in bm.faces:
        for loop in face.loops:
            meshface = me.polygons[face.index]
            meshloop = me.loops[loop.index]
            tangent = meshloop.tangent


text:
Render window and final image is different
Render window and image output is missing objects. So i have laser object and is not there in the final output.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/222837/blender-does-not-set-the-alpha-channel-correctly  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/272917/transparent-emissive-objects-glow-effect-not-visible-in-rendered-output-files/272919#272919 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/173932/exr-color-difference-to-png https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/205911/glare-on-transparent-background-using-cycles


text:
Applying materials to FBX file from 3dsky
I'm very new to blender and have very little experience with anything in the node editor.
I'm doing a blender guru tutorial linked below. He states you can download models and simply annd plug the materials into where they should be.
Blender guru tutorial: https://youtu.be/wrzSrjAY69c
So I'm trying to then replicate it with this model https://3dsky.org/3dmodels/show/lawson_velvet_gray_2_seater_couch and just getting stuff with the different textures and bump maps etc. Could someone show me a screen show on how they would set up the node for the back wooden bits?
Thanks

Hello :). You need to show what you've got so far, or you probably won't get much help :).

Related: How to properly hook up various maps types in Cycles?

Thats the problem, I'm not really getting anywhere. In imgur link below shows where I'm at but obviously there are many issues like wood not facing thr right direction, not knowing what bump maps mean what or anything really.
https://imgur.com/a/gROKkKm

Hey :). That is actually an intermediate tutorial where he skips a lot of things. I'd suggest to try Blender Guru's Donut tutorial where he explains and teaches all the stuff you need to now first :).

Yeah I started it but to be totally honest kind of got bored on that one, I'll get back to that one then! Also might do his chair one as I'd expect some of the issues I'm facing will be in that one too!  Thanks though, really appreciated!


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Opacity for reference image not working

Currently trying to do some modeling using reference images, and found out that in my current blender install (2.90.1) for some reason the image transparency does not work. I'm modifying the transparency using Object Data Properties, ticking the transparency box and adjusting opacity as shown in the attached image. Is there something I'm missing here?

I asked a more detailed version of this question (with more screenshots and a link to a tutorial where the transparency feature worked as expected) here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/233517/how-can-i-set-reference-images-to-semi-transparent-in-blender-2-93-2 Hopefully the extra detail will lead to a good answer.

I believe this is caused by an issue with Intel Graphics on Linux; are you using Intel Graphics on Linux? https://developer.blender.org/T77572


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Distance between parallel face or constraining width of cube
I'm using blender to create simple shapes I want to cut out of wood (not what Blender is for I know). The wood is 18mm thick so I created a cube that was also 18mm thick. The problem is that as I move certain vertices and faces, the 18mm isn't maintained.
The two faces are still parallel and I can drag them along their axes using the Normal option in Transformation alignment, but I've no way to drag them to exactly 18mm because their is nothing to snap to.. because the object is warped, I can't see width in the transform box either. Likewise, the measure tool doesn't work because again, there's no appropriate snap point.
Below is one example shape. The measure shows the two faces that need to be 18mm apart. But, because the edges that the measure is snapped to are actually bevelled, this is not acurately giving the actually perpendicular/parallel distance between the two faces.
This was a 18mm cube where the face at the lower left of the image has been dragged downward to snap to another object in the scene. Doing this throws off the 18mm. I could try rotating the cube instead, but trying to align it this way, rather than dragging faces/edges/vertices is just going to be insanely difficult.

and this is the final intended shape of the whole thing. How do I keep the wood at 18mm? :/

Just so as to be able to give a fitting example, is your final object a regular pentagon? Could you give radii, measurements in elevation? Which length do you want to be 18mm?


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GLB (GLTF) export, how to include color/material information?
As a complete beginner with Blender, I have been creating simple 3D models to export as GLB and import into another program. For this purpose there is no animation, no physics, etc. I just need them to be visually correct.
When I export the object, it is always the default white color. I only need relatively flat color (that is, I don't care about textures nor do I want to map a bitmapped material onto the objects for this particular project), but I do want there to be something besides white.
I would appreciate if any answers were very step-by-step from scratch. Most answers I have seen here assume one is already very familiar with the Blender interface, and I am not. For example, one says to "Set the Workbench viewport to Flat-Vertex color." OK, but there's nothing on the screen with the label Workbench. Is that a Workspace? It seems not. The manual is unhelpful. So more specific instructions like, say, "On the right side of the Blender workspace is an icon like a wrench. Actually there are two wrenches sometimes, I mean the light blue one right next to the workspace. Click that and select foo."
I'm using Blender 2.90. Thank you.

Let's assume you have your model like this. Click on your model to select it. Then open the Material Properties panel by clicking the sphere in the Properties Editor.

Click on the New button to add a new material.

You should see something like this. You can edit the properties of the new material. Click on the Base Color button and a color picker will come up. You can now pick a color.

Your model will now export with the color you picked, but to see the way the model looks with materials applied, make sure the 3D View is in Material Preview mode.

Also when you export, make sure the Geometry > Materials option is on (it is by default).

Thank you. That's the exact information I needed. I thought I had done that (except the "Material Preview mode," which I had no idea what the "hourglass superimposed on a circle" icon meant). I must have missed a step. Mind you, Material Preview mode has absolutely no effect, but I'm sure I did something else wrong or missed another step somewhere, and I can export the GLB and import it into my VR environment, and it works, which is my actual need. Thanks again.

Sorry about the repetitive comments, but ... Material Preview didn't change the preview at all, until I unselected an object and selected a different one, at which point the entire thing (both objects) suddenly updated. No idea what's up with that.


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Cloudy plastic material
Any idea on how to make that kind of cloudy plastic?

I've tried to add subsurface to the principled BSDF texture but im not fully convinced by the result. Any thought?

Thanks !

This is definititely subsurface scattering. The lighting is important though, since the effect is dependant on the position, direction, color and intensity of the lights in your scene. Also, you can teweak the subsurface radius if you want certain effects

Thank you so much @Gorgious

As suggested by Gorgious you should use Subsurface Scattering. Here I've tried with a Subsurface value of 1 and with a Radius setting of R = 2.5, G = 1.3 and B = 1. It's probably easier to get the desired effect in Cycles but in Eevee I cheated with a bit of Emission, otherwise it would have looked a bit too dull. Also, give it a bit of bump:

Awesome thank you for this answer ! It looks amazing !


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Long cushion for lounge chair or sofa
I was doing some research and found this interesting lounge chair concept where the cushion connects the seat and backrest.
I have been watching tutorials on making cushions in Blender mainly using the pressure tool in cloth.
But in this case, the cushion is longer, with 2 different angles and a crease in the middle. What would be the best way to achieve this result in Blender?
Thanks a lot
Valentin

Create this kind of mesh, assign these vertices to a vertex group that will be your cloth pin group:

Make it bloat with the Cloth physic, here the Pressure is set to 1 and I've cut the Gravity so that it doesn't fall, stop the animation when it is bloated enough:

To get the border seam, apply the Cloth modifier and extrude a face loop around the side:

Result with a Subdivision Surface modifier:


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Random parts on my model disappeared?
I'm new to blender. i was in the middle of sculpting my character and out of nowhere a bunch of faces disappeared and everything moved around. I applied all my modifiers so im not sure what happened..

even by undoing i couldnt get it back. this is the second time this has happened now. for ref here's what it looked like before

Could anyone tell me what happened and how to avoid it?

I think we need a little more details. What modifiers did you apply, and in what order were they in modifier stack, and in what order did you apply them?

I was using the mirror modifier and the subdivision surface modifier. the mirror modifier was first in the stack..i think i applied them in a random order for all the objects though..

Edit the question and provide all the info there so other people can quickly read everything without going through all the comments. The two modifiers you used should not cause this effect. You didn't press H by accident when in edit mode?

is this problem the same in the edit mode?


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How do I export my model with some light (in .gltf)?
I'm working on a model and I'm trying to export it in .gltf format.
In blender, I put a light to brighten the model, but when I export it, the lighting goes away.
I'm quite new to blender and I've tried some things, such as using a tool called ssgi but with no success.
What should I do to have the lighting in the export?

The model with the light when I'm working in blender.

The same model but with no lights when I preview it.

There's an "Include: Punctual Lights" option in the exporter that will include point, spot, and directional lights in your exports. However, note that (by default) Blender also displays "Scene World" lighting, and you can't just export that. You'd typically need to enable it in whatever viewer or 3D engine you are using to view the model, and that depends on the engine. A typical term for this would be "IBL" or "environment maps" in some engines. Metallic materials, in particular, require this type of lighting to look correct.

Thanks for your answer Don. I tried what you said with the export option, and just to test it, I imported it in a new blender project but there was no lighting. Also, forgot to mention I'm using the 2.83 version.

You may want to file a bug on https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Blender-IO then. Another option would be to run gltf-transform inspect model.glb (with https://gltf-transform.donmccurdy.com/cli.html) and see if the KHR_lights_punctual extension is listed at the top. If so, the file contains lights and your engine may not be importing them. If not, they aren't being exported.


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Generate mesh from 8 sides textures
I have some sprites that have 8 angles and would like to know if it would be possible to create a mesh from those 8 images with blender? The images look something like this:

I remember once asking on Blender discord and someone mentioned a tool within blender that could generate something decent to work with as we have 8 angles but can't remember the name of the tool anymore.


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Animating Faster (NLA)
I've been using blender's NLA approach to join several individual animations together (ie run, jump, roll, turn). It seems slow having to reposition the rigs starting location for each new animation. For example, the character starts the second animation at the (x,y,z) location where the first animation ended. I can't image how complicated and long it would take to string together 10+ individual animations.
My question is if there is a better/faster/automated way of joining animations together so that the character simply starts at the x,y,z position where the last animation finished?
Is there any add-on or python script that does what NLA does, without having to join each animation together manually?

Does this help: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/144719/fixing-starting-location-for-nla ?

That approach is what I've been doing currently, but I'm looking for a simple "one-click" way to "auto-adjust" the next animation. I'm going to be joining 15+ animations sequentially to the same character, so this is going to be very time consuming. I thought there might be some add-on or python script out there but it looks like I might have to try developing some code to do it

I'm no expert but I think you'll have to roll your own for that one!

https://blenderartists.org/t/combining-bvh-files/599655 is close to what im looking for. The only problem is that the animation is not continuous


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Circle is appearing as 2 separate circles rather than circle with a fill. How can I merge them and add a fill?
I'm looking to combine 2 paths to make 1 circle that can have a fill. I would appreciate any help. i have searched online and tried all the suggestions but it won't work. I'm also trying to add a black background but the fill is priority. I may be able to add the black background in photoshop if not possible.

hi Niall try to select both curve objects and join them -Ctrl+J- that should make a compound path... may need to change fill mode later -in Object Data properties panel-

(..... and the curves must be 2D to work that way)


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Extruding vertices along normal
I'm facing this problem: I want to extrude the 4 vertices of a plane along the normal to the face.
The operations I perform are:
· Add > Mesh > Cube
· Scale > X > 0
· Merge > By Distance
· Delete > only Edges and Faces
· Extrude > X
As you can see from the screenshot when selecting X I'm not able to see any extrusion, while it works if I do on Z or Y.
Any clue of the problem?
I'm using OSX, Blender 3.1.
Thanks.

If you are scaling a cube by 0 that means that any coordinate on X axis will be 0,
because any value x 0 = 0. Scale cube in edit mode.


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Geometry Nodes Street Generator: How to rotate street parts accordingly?
i'm trying to create a street generator which positions the right street part's relative to the count of the vertex neighbours.
I got it more or less working for every important part: normal streets, street corners and street crossings. (Yes i know the corners are still not completely right, which is a later point of concern.)

All my attempts boil down to one problem: how do i rotate the single parts so they fit together accordingly? Here is the simple form of the geometry nodes:

My idea would be to check every vertex if it has neighbours on the x and y axis and rotate the instances according to that, but i am running against a wall trying to solve it that way.
Does anybody have an idea how to tackle the problem?
Cheers

i think this is a very interesting but not an easy to solve problem....i think you underestimate the complexity

My approach is similar to yours, except I instance from four shapes, (cross, elbow, straight, and tee).  I think it comes down to how to determine the angle that two edges make at a vertex. I'm also starting to think that this might be better solved with a Python script than geometry nodes.

I suspect I went about this in a bit of a roundabout way (especially with the boolean math nodes—I basically brute forced my way through those because they hurt to think about) but I got something working:

Like you, I have three pieces: straight (—), middle (+), and corner (L). I noticed that you need at least one more (a T for 3-vertex-neighbor points) but I didn't bother with that for now. Middle pieces are easy, since they have no chance of being mis-assigned. Same for straight pieces with only one neighbouring vertex. For the other two variations, I figured I needed to check the normals of the vertices; however, vertices and edges can a bit unpredictable when it comes to normals, so I usually like to extrude the neighbouring edges to "force" the orientations and get my normals after that:

Once I have the "walls", the question is how to use them to differentiate between the tiles. I started by asking two questions: 1. Does it face any cardinal directions? and 2. Does it have two neighbours? If both is true, it's a mid-point straight piece. If only one is true, it's a corner piece. After picking out the straight pieces, I checked them a second time to see if they face either north or south. If yes, i.e. horizontal, rotate them 90 degrees; if not, do nothing.

Now we're left with the corners. How can I use the walls to determine their orientation? I don't know if this is stupid or grossly inefficient, but I noticed that if I cast two short rays from towards the top left part of each piece, one straight in the +X axis, and the other directly in the -Y direction, I could differentiate all 4 possible orientations by checking which combination of "hit"s I can get, then rotate them accordingly:

Edit in response to question about how to implement the raycasting check with Tee tiles (3 neighbours):

This solution works perfectly! Thank you very much. I went ahead and created the building generation around the street generation. It might be worth sharing: Example Grid creation based on bounding box Pointcloud boolean and building instancing

You're welcome. Can you mark this as an answer then? Oh, and do let me know when your generator is finished if you can remember, I'd love to see the final result!

While i've got everything working right now, i couldn't implement the T-parts. They are at the right position, but i still can't get the right rotation, mostly because i can't exactly wrap my head around your raycast/check method.  Would you mind explaining how you would incorporate them with your node structure? It's literally the last "missing piece". Also, this is my progress as of now: CityGen I also tried to implement a LOD based approach, because if you create a big city, it can get a bit slow.

@wavezz Since it has 3 walls, 2 rays wouldn't be enough, you'd need to cast a 3rd one: https://i.imgur.com/agYeeNo.png (I'm assumin tile 1 is the default) Hope this helps. It looks great, btw!

After some headscratching i got the t-piece to work. Here are the nodes: Nodes for rotating the T-piece Thank you again, i learned a lot by trying to understand your thought process!

Well done. I try to answer questions here not because I know so much, but because it's a very good way to learn. Your question was a really interesting prompt, and I learned a lot trying to solve it so I should thank you as well.

Stunning answer. I'm still trying to work out if there's a way without raycasting.

@RobinBetts Is raycasting very expensive, I wonder? I was hesitant to use it as well, but couldn't think of a simpler way immediately and didn't wanna get lost chasing perfection.

@Kuboå sensible. My method proposes encoding NSEW as 1248 and using the sum to identify tiles.

@RobinBetts But not all straight pieces face E, for ex, they might just randomly face W (it depends on their and their neighbors' order of creation), and corner pieces don't face cardinal directions at all? It's a fun puzzle though.

@Kuboå that's exactly the 'fun' puzzle I'm trying to solve, with the Edge Vertices node, but transferring the attribute from edges to points is turning out to be painful.

Here's an other option, just looked back at it after a few days and added the missing element... maybe it's not a direct answer as it uses more tiles and does not rotate them.

It encodes grid intersections as a binary number, checking clockwise if there is any segment going up, right, down or left... this result in one from sixteen posible tiles, then it converts it to an instance index number to pick that mesh from a collection.
here's the blend file
I've just seen in the comments RobinBetts had a similar idea, guess it can be better implemented... I had it half baked but I was using vertices and it would close segments where it shouldn't, checking against 1/2 edges works better.

a very dumb tool for drawing, just snapping verts

Beautiful. I never used Geometry Proximity before so it didn't occur to me you could utilize it for checking to see if there's an edge. I think this is the way to go to build it, and you don't really have to use 16 tiles either if you don't want, you could use these direction checks after vertex neighbor elimination to pick your tiles instead of index number assignment—fewer tiles, and you can name them freely.

thanks @Kuboå, I liked that there are 16 possible variations, that's what led to the binary idea


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How to change Bone display color in 4.0
How does one change the bone display color in 4.0? I simply can't find the option. Where are the buttons?

Bone display color can be accessed in both Edit and Pose mode in the Bone Properties tab (the green bone icon)

This change not only adds more work but also prevents changing the color of multiple bones.


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How to project a vertex to the nearest point along a vector?
This is probably a dumb question. But how do I find the nearest point along an edge? I'm not good at vector math and can't figure this out.
So for example, I have a singular object. That object has 3 verts. That's all. Just 3 verts. Arbitrarily placed. From that, I imagine a vector defined by 2 of the verts. Then, I imagine the 3rd vert projected to the nearest point of the vector. That's the position I want. How did I get it? There are a number of explanations on other websites for this, but the math equations still go over my head. Can someone show me how it's expressed in geometry nodes?
I thought it would be as easy as subtracting point A from point B, then projecting point C onto that. But no, the projection snaps down toward the origin point. As the magnitude is relative to the origin of the object I suppose.
So I guess I need to add the projection with another vector to get it back up to where it's supposed to be? IDK. I'm lost.

Given the positions of points A, B, and C, what is the position of point D on line AB such that AB is perpendicular to CD?
One way to solve this is using the dot product.  The dot product of two normalized vectors is the length of the projection of one vector onto the other.  If we re-orient these vectors such that one is the horizon, the dot product is the length of the shadow cast from the other by a noon-time sun.

Using our three positions, we first create two vectors, AB and AC, and normalize them.  If we take the dot product of these two vectors, we get the "shadow" cast by normalized AC on AB (or vice versa.)  We can scale AB by the length of that shadow to get the projection.
AC is probably not a unit-length vector.  But as AC gets longer, the length of its shadow gets longer as well, in the same proportion.  So we multiply the length of the shadow by the length of AC.
We have this shadow as a vector relative to A.  We need to add it back to A to get its position relative to the object origin.
I'm creating a line both for CD and AB and joining them so you can see that they are perpendicular.

I do wish there was a "sample nearest edge" node to simplify problems like this (and several others.)  But, alas.

Just curious: Why don't you actually project AC onto AB?

this is the quellenform's suggestion: https://i.imgur.com/AzvujEI.png

This long form solution will help me understand the math behind it all I think. Given time to study it more. Though, I do see why the short solution is more expedient and tighter, I'm glad I got the long form to help me "see" it.

@quellenform Well, because I didn't know that existed :)  Thanks; happy to see it was useful to Smeebit anyways.  Come to think of it, doing a pair of transforms by - and + A.pos at beginning and end would probably also simplify it a bit (ie, think of it as a different coordinate space.)

I would think that this is the easiest way to solve it:

Here I simply project vector $\vec{AC}$ onto vector $\vec{AB}$.

Adding A after project here is important. Otherwise, this method only works when A is on the origin. Markus von Broady's image has it

@Smeebit Absolutely right, very well observed! ...that got lost here in a hurry and has of course just been corrected.


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Launch the full Dialouge of another script from within my own script (Export Add_On)
I have written a small add on that allows a user to create a mesh in a particular way. Once the mesh has been created I would like the user to be able to export the mesh to a dxf file for various reasons.
I have been able to figure out how to enable the 'io_export_dxf' add_on from within my own script while checking to see if it is already activate or not.
The issue is when I actually run the dxf export operator from the console or the script it does not launch the full built in dialogue box for file export that the add_on has built in to itself. From reading multiple post I can see that this is the intended function.  However, I would like the end user to have the full functionality of the dxf export add_on without having to go to the File Menu - Export Menu - Autocad DXF selection.  I tried other built-in export and import operators to make sure that it was not only this one particular add_on and I get the same results.
In short...I would like to run any built-in import or export operator from within my script and have it use the existing add_ons pre-built dialogue.
Any help  you can provide would be greatly appreciated

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/193237/is-it-possible-to-write-a-script-which-opens-blenders-existing-fbx-exporter-win

That was it!! I was obviously using the wrong search term. Thank you very much.  Sorry I am a newbie so I am not sure how I can make a comment an Answer.


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How to replicate a Laowa 24mm Probe lens in Blender cameras?
I've replicated plenty of lenses, MM, f/stop, etc. Its all pretty straight forward but this one has me baffled. I've adjusted the camera scale but that doesn't work either. Anyone ever tried to mimic this lens?  If so your advice would be greatly appreciated.

What matters is the  field of view. Set it to 84.1 degrees and get the camera close to the objects

Camera settings don't scale in Blender. If you scale the camera object in the 3d Viewport, all you're doing is changing how big it displays and not the lens or any of the settings int he camera properties.
What you're trying to achieve is a perspective trick. If you shoot anything in real life from a low angle and with a wide enough lens, the subject tends to feel bigger and more imposing.
So to take this into blender, you can do it a couple of ways. Set up a wider lens or scale up your models. The latter I wouldn't recommend. it messes with the realism too much because of lighting and textures etc.
So shoot low, and wide.

Lockey, I went back and figured out I actually increased the size of the object to give the illusion you're talking about. (Its been a long week) Regardless, it still never looks quite right. Is a 24mm Laowa probe actually a true 24mm?


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I can't make freestyle to work in blender 2.8 (file provided)
I can make freestyle to work when I start a new project. But I can't make it work when I'm working in my scene. I tried reading lots of post everywhere but I can't solve this problem. Please help me.
Here is the file in case someone is willing to help.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/fcf321ap1lntuk8/Test_Anime.blend/file

Hi, welcome! If possible please add some detail about how you have setup the freestyle for your use case, maybe add a relevant screenshot with the question image tool, it will help others to understand what you did, and help you or learn from your example, thanks!

You overfiltered the line selection.
Here is a working setting:

And HERE is the blender file.


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Nodes not in Shader Editor
I am editing a leaf in shader editor, Nodes are not visible not even a material editor. How to create the nodes, or make them appear?

Without any screenshot it is difficult to tell what's going on. Here are some tips:
You don't have the shader panel visible:
You can split any area and choose what kind of editor to show.
You can create a new Workspace based on templates (click on the + button next to the top tabs and choose General > Shading.
You don't have any nodes
Select your mesh and click on the New button from the Shader Editor. It's also possible that there are some nodes but are not in the actual view. So move the mouse on the Shader Editor, select all nodes by pressing A and press dot key NumPad . to center the view on selected nodes (otherwise you can zoom out till you see something)
Here a video showing how to split an area:
https://i.imgur.com/I9lYQYM.mp4


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find out if vertices are inside or outside of another mesh, using geometry nodes
How do you tell if verts are inside of another mesh using geometry node and store them as boolean attribute?
I tried the attribute Proximity node but it returns absolute distance to object so couldn't tell if the vertex is inside or outside the other mesh.
Assume both mesh are manifold.

Using the  Ray Cast node, you can fire a ray in an arbitrary direction from each point in the modified geometry, seeking only the designated target geometry. Self and  intervening objects are ignored. 'No hit' returns 0. If-and-only-if the source vertex is inside (a manifold) target, there will be a hit-point, whose normal is  back-facing  to the ray:

Thus:

Clever ! I have a feeling this node's going to be used in a wild range of ways :)

@Gorgious Yup! Agreed. I reckon it could often be used to wriggle out of doing tricky maths :) .. I don't know how expensive it is. If the BVH or whatever is already built, maybe not so bad.

i am not sure, just by trying out and changing the geometry...shouldn't it be greater 0? [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/MBOrfWkp.gif

@Chris Crikey! What the hell has 0.5 got to do with anything ? Thanks! I don't know how I missed this twice, and somehow it hasn't been shot down in 2 years?  Will fix ASAP. Unless you want to go ahead, yourself. I know what it is.. it's the default in the GT node...

what is Crikey?  no problem, i thought i missed something again  and if you wanna be my here - you also update the blend file ;)

@Chris .. for ''Crikey' .. read: 'your favourite expletive' Thanks for the heads-up! .. done now, I hope .

i cannot give u another upvote, because i already did that some time ago ;)

@Chris "Crikey!" wäre auf Deutsch so als wenn man in Erstaunen oder auch Erschrecken "Mensch!" oder "Junge, Junge!" ruft. Apart from that everybody listen to Lawnmower Deth's 1990 album "Ooh Crikey it's... Lawnmower Deth". Sorry for the off-topic.

@GordonBrinkmann: ok, danke, hab ich noch nie gehört! wieder was gelernt

@Chris kenne ich zwar schon seit 34 Jahren, aber nur wegen des Albums und auch nur sehr selten irgendwo anders gehört...

... Nehmt euch ein Zimmer, guys !  :D

@RobinBetts: don't be jealous...just join!! :D


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is there a modifier that can smooth geometry but keep boundary vertices position unchanged
Is there an modifier that can smooth out vertices while preventing its boundary vertices from moving?
What I am searching for is basically smooth modifier but with "Pin Boundaries" functionality of smooth corrective modifier.
If there is no such modifier is it possible to somehow create this functionality in geometry node?
I hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp9_KqGJNrk Maybe this is what you're looking for?

thanks for helping, but what I am looking for is a modifier, not operator/ python script/ sculpt mode tools.

You can use a Corrective Smooth modifier with "pin boundaries" and "only smooth" enabled.  There's nothing that's really "corrective" about the modifier at that point.
Alternatively, you can create a vertex group to specify which vertices you'd like to smooth, and then designate that modifier in the vertex group field of a Smooth modifier.  So you could, for example, assign all vertices except boundary vertices to that vertex group.  (Or, assign boundary vertices, and then click the "invert" button to the right of the modifier's VG field.)
You can quickly select boundary verts via "select non-manifold" operation in edit mode, so marking verts with VGs is a perfectly reasonable way to handle this.


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Material gets applied to everything that was previously its own object
Basically I made a diffuse, normal and roughness map following this guide:https://artisticrender.com/how-to-bake-textures-in-blender/ and when I try to assign these maps to the mesh by removing all material slots and creating a new material, they are applied to everything that was an object before I hit ctrl + J.  I need the pistol on the right to look like the pistol on the left but I don't get how to apply the texture to the entire mesh and not as if it was all separate objects.

hello please pack your images and share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/ (upload and copy paste the URL it will generate)

Hope i did it right: https://pasteall.org/blend/e438b29fc10043d88d2405c52e7aa927

so you want to mix all the textures into one? In that case you need to look into how to bake. As you have materials with glossiness you'll need several maps

I have baked the maps but right now I am just trying to get the base color to work and the problem is that the maps are applied to every part of the mesh and not as one thing. For example: when I try to apply the diffuse map to the mesh, the red dots that are only supposed to be on the safety are applied to every component of the gun. The same goes for every part of the diffuse map

oh ok I get your problem, you need to delete the former UV Map

You need to delete your former UV map, otherwise the new one won't be taken into account:

Worked perfectly, thanks


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Working with actions as aset, when using NLA and asset managmet, unespect keys are added during action assigment in blender 4.3
I am trying to make following.
I have generated rig of human using metahuman and rigify.
When I am creating isolated action( only single rotation or location chage for example fingers close) with action editor. And then when I am trying to add it to NLA, additional key frames are added, furhter more they are directrly added to asset library and changing action it self. Sometimes the additional keyframes are scale, in or out like in the picture or unaused location position. I am creating initial keyframes by slecting fingers contrlos hiting K and select rotation only. And in the action they look like this until I am transfering back to action editor with assign action. Am I missing somthing ( should I lock somehow action before importing it in NLA)  or there is a bug and I should reported it.

Some additional info. After some investigation the new keyframes appear in  the moment of creating a new Pose Asset in Action editor. It adds additional Scale, Rotation and Location keyframes to the Bone + In and Out keyframes. If you delete them manualy afterwards you can save clean asset. For me this is unwanted behaviour it could be a bug or setting.


text:
Tilt face 45 degree angle
Just starting with blender coming from SketchUp
I Tried shear tool to tilt the face at 45 degree but get undesired artifacts
What could be a good approach? maybe a cut out of some sort?

If you need the bottom edge to stay vertical, put the 3D cursor at the bottom of your selection and in the Transform Pivot Point panel choose 3D Cursor, then select the part you want to tilt, press AltCtrlShiftS then Enter, in the Operator box enter Offset > -1 so that it tilts 45° (the Shear tool moves the selected vertices along the X axis of your view by default):

The Shear tool is available in the Tool bar:

Another solution would be to use the Knife tool with an Angle Snapoing Increment of 45°, or rotate your object 45° and cut perpendicularly (K to activate, A to cut perpendicularly, C to cut through):

Wow these solutions are more elegant I think then using a boolean modifier.
Will definitely give your solution a try, many thanks for replying to my question!

Note you can access the shear tool from the left hand shelf in the 3D viewport, it can be more helpful because it has gizmos associated with it

Oh ok I didn't know, I'm going to edit my answer

Shear tool did the job for me after some fiddling around, the little screen casts are golden!

Yes nice idea to put the Shear tool in the tool bar  ;)

Got it using a boolean modifier to cut out the difference.