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Cement Bag project help
i am new at this Blender things. If i want to create a cement bag like this, then make it falls down onto the ground. Any tutorial for me for this project? Actualy i made a cube with cloth simutation and it almost there, but it keeps falling through the plane :(
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gDK8ymyBv0pFvh8cKgRb0gPMmtROQGhy/view?usp=sharing

Hello and welcome. Asking for links to resources about X is considered off topic here, asking directly about X is encouraged though. If you can rephrase your question to focus on the specific difficulties you are encountering, rather than point you to some site, please [edit] your post so it can be reopened. As it stands it is not a good fit for this site.

Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue in such way that anyone searching for a similar problem may easily find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this","issue with" or "question about". Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, answers you get depend heavily on how inviting it is. See "What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?""

You simply have to remove the Rigid body physics from the . There is no need for those for the cloth simulation to work. Remove them and the cloth simulation will start working properly.
You can keep the rigid body physics on the on the plane if you are planning to use other rigid body objects. But the cloth doesn't need it.
Some extra tips: As of right now the collision plane has too much outer thickness in the collision properties. Reduce it to reduce the distance between the cloth and the plane.

i added the collision modifer to my plane but cannot fix my problem. do i have to change anything in the Collision tab?

In that case please share your file. There can be some other reason as to why that's happening. Use blend exchange. Follow the instructions on the site and paste the link into the question by editing. Also provide the details that you added the modifier but it still doesn't work in the question itself.

i dunno how to add file directly in this site, so i add a google drive link to my file, tks for helping

Updated the answer. Check it out


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eliminate ALL motion damping in hard body physics
When I create a simulation of a hard ball rolling in a hard bowl,  the ball eventually loses energy, slows down, and stops.  Think of the bowl as curved spacetime and the ball as ... a ball.  :)
Since the simulated ball will be in a hard vacuum there should be nothing to slow it down.   Thus I want the ball to continue to roll with the same energy until I stick something else in the way.
I have tried turning off all damping for the bowl and the ball, friction to zero,  bounciness to zero, and rotation to zero and it still slows down.
I have been thinking of using scripting to add a slight boost to the velocity every few frames,   but I am hoping that there is an easier way.   Any suggestions?
TIA
Danl

pls provide blend file since we cannot know any of your settings or what you have done. thx.

How do I provide the blend file?  I don't see any options for "attach file", etc,,,

See this post

Here is the blend file.  It's really basic.  I ran the animation out to 500 so that you can see that the ball's oscilations are slowly being damped.

(Small advice: calculating physics on high density meshes can significantly slow down the baking. Prefer using lighter meshes and add a subdivision modifier on top of it. You will save yourself a lot of time baking. You don't need a sphere made of 16 128 triangles, 256 with lvl2 subdiv would perform way faster and have enough precision for what Blender's physics engine can do.)

@L0Lock -  Is there a good place to read about the actual functioning of the Blender physics engine?   For example,  I assume it's solving a series of differential eq's using something like a Runga Kutta algorithm?   If an object is impacting on a surface,  does it use the normal of the mesh FACE,  or does it calculate the normal from several faces, edges, or  ... does it use magic ???   :)
Meanwhile,  did you see how the ball slows down?    What mistake have I made?

Blender uses the Bullet engine afaik, you can check its documentation, but I don't think Blender exposes all the possible settings of Bullet so you are limited by Blender's implementation.

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There is a problem while Extruding
While extruding a plane (which is a import image as plane) I am having texture issues.
there is also no option opened for back culling or anything like that. but for the people curious about the settings I took a screenshot of the whole blender:

Did you check the normals ? Alt+N > Recalculate Outside

okay thanks @TheLabCat That was exactly the same solution I need, sorry that I don't know that much of blender terminology to find the question. thanks again!

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Odd bone rotation when keyframe position changed
When I press "g" and slide the keyframes to a different timeline position a specific bone starts rotating strangely. There are no constraints on this bone. I have tried several different things to try and prevent it from doing this.
Copy/paste works most of the time to prevent it from doing this but I still need to know what's going on.
Some curves (like W quaternion) for this problematic bone are flattened on the graph editor when you move the keyframes. See the gif below, or download the .blend.
Gif: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BkKycvXiytcV6V8FxGfvLewi9b8ZQM8f/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yeMbJ8QgiGbMrbdemtMt3x9JBTz2M5f0/view?usp=sharing

Hello, your gif doesn't really help to understand, maybe tell which bone and share your file? https://blend-exchange.com/

Added the file. bone027

You're talking about sliding the keyframes but which keyframes are you talking about?

It seems to come up if I move any of the keyframes past frame 336 on "Action" in the action editor. That action is a collection of different character movements that I'm simply separating out and trying to move them so they start at 0.

You have keyframes that exist between frames, and which don't make any sense for what you're trying to do:

You have keyframes at 629, 629.167, and 630.  Before you change your keyframes, you will never see the keyframe at 629.167-- you'll skip right over it.
The nature of this keyframe is weird.  This is a similar rotation, but it has a negative W while adjacent keyframes have a postive W.  This leads to a fairly strong rotation that, normally, you never notice.
But when you grab the selected keyframes and move them, you no longer have a keyframe for frame 630-- it has to interpolate between this keyframe that it never showed before and the keyframes that used to be on 630.  This is weird interpolation that you don't want.
These between-frame keyframes exist throughout the animation.  When you move them in the timeline, or in the graph editor with nearest-frame snapping, Blender has to join them to adjacent keyframes in order to snap them.  It appears to do so inconsistently-- but in Blender's defense, this isn't an operation that makes any sense, trying to snap multiple keyframes to a single frame.  In any case, however Blender combines them, it leads to rotations that you didn't want, that you never saw previously, because they are some combination of the older keyframes with invisible in-betweens.
I don't know how you got these keyframes.  They might have been made manually and then forgotten; maybe they were a byproduct of a weird import addon.  You almost certainly don't want them.  I'm afraid I don't know of a simple, scriptless way to select these markers (there's no checker deselect for keyframes) but some addon might exist somewhere.
Those keyframes are a bad idea for other reasons (for example, they'll screw up motion blur) but if you're okay with them, you just need to move some animation, then you can do so by turning off frame snapping in the graph editor and then moving by a fixed increment (like, g x 180 to move them 180 frames into the future) which will leave the on-frame keys on-frame and the off-frame, off-frame.  You will still need to deal with the interpolation for the spaces now left empty, but you should be able to do that just by box selecting and deleting a single set of off-frame keys, as pictured below:


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Make an object turn / rotate with its front face to the next location in an animation
I created a cube location animation, where the only keyframes set are from location A to location B to location C.
My goal: When I click play so the "front face" or in my case the arrow on top of the cube, always points to the next location destination it's going be. Think of it like a driving car, always forward.
My request: I don't want to create rotation keyframes manually nor set specific rotation at each location keyframe manually.
The reason for this is to be generic and apply for other location animations.
Solutions using scripts are also welcome.

Thank you.

I think I've found something that might work for you. Instead of using keyframes or trying to use constraints to make the arrow always point towards the next location (which would require keyframes either on the constraint itself or for moving the goal) you can use this solution that runs on scripts and with animation nodes. It automatically points objects in the direction that they are travelling, which should work for your purposes. https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/240066/61453

I don't want to create rotation keyframes manually nor set specific rotation at each location keyframe manually.

No problem.
Animate your cube's location as desired.  Set extrapolation mode in graph editor (shift e for me) to linear.  Duplicate the cube.  Disable rendering on that duplicate.  On graph editor, move all keyframes -1 in time (g x -1 enter.)
Give your original cube a damped track constraint targeting your duplicate.  Set the track axis to be whatever is the "front" axis of that cube (the direction your arrow is pointing.)


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Some faces are not reacting as expected to shading
I'm new to Blender and I've started learning how to create clothes for GTA V by converting Sims 4 CC into GTA V.
I sometimes have this problem where some faces don't react appropriately to the texture I applied. I've tried flipping the normals but it doesn't fix the problem. Any help?

Here's the file if needed: https://we.tl/t-Q6kHQhrKWu

Hello and welcome to BSE! Just tab to go into Edit Mode, then select all with a then then press m to merge > By Distance. Then while all is still selected, press Shift+Ctrl+N to recalculate normals. Then while all is still selected, go to menu Face > Tris to Quads. Then add a Solidify Modifier so the mesh from the top that turns outward will not have "inverted" normals.

@HarryMcKenzie Thank you so much!!


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How to recenter an object's origin?
So, I'm working creating a lamp... yes, newbie here.
After modeling for a bit, I noticed that my point of origin was no longer the center of my object:

How to I reset an object origin point to the center of it's geometry?

Press Shift + Ctrl + Alt + C (perhaps the longest shortcut in Blender) and select Origin to Geometry. Or, instead, open the Toolshelf by pressing T and press the Set Origin button in the Tools tab, subsection Edit.
Depending on how you imagine the 'Center' of your object, you might instead want to choose Origin to Center of Mass. The difference is that it calculates the center point based on the volume of the mesh, rather than the average location of vertices as Origin to Geometry does.
Visually, the difference is this (blue dot is the new origin point):

UPDATE for Blender 2.8
Press the Object button at the bottom of the 3D view and see the Set Origin... sub-menu:

Here you can find both the Origin to Geometry and two similar Origin to Center of Mass options.

There are other four key shortcuts too, e.g. Ctrl Shift Alt M.. :P Anyway, I edited your answer, feel free to rollback if you disagree with my edits.

Are you sure, that one doesn't seem to do anything

It selects non-manifold geometry in edit mode.

Oh, nice; But I looked through the user preferences and found no such shortcut

Sometimes neither of these two is sufficient; in that case in edit mode select whole object (A), Grab it, move it to such a location that the desired center is at 0,0,0. Then in Object mode set 3D cursor coords to 0,0,0 and then Ctrl Alt Shift C, Origin to 3D Cursor.

@SF. What do you mean by not sufficient? If you want to position the origin, then you can use the 3D cursor, but otherwise, I don't get what you mean.

@someonewithpc: Just recently, I had a part that was a tube 3 meters long, hollowed out one meter deep through one end.  I needed the origin squat in the middle of its length.  Center of mass would shift the origin towards the full end where most of mass is concentrated. Center of geometry would gravitate towards the bunch of vertices of the bore hole (versus the "plain" full end). Putting the cursor 1.5m from one end did the trick.

@SF. Oh, ok. In that case, standard practice is to select the circles at both end and snap the cursor to them and then move the origin to the cursor.

Click on Set Origin, then click Origin to Geometry.

RMB  on the object in object-mode
Select Set Origin
Select Origin to Geometry.

This to me is the most intuitive approach, yet considering how earlier Blender has scarred some of us to only go for the most cumbersome approach, it didn't even occur to me to right click in 3.0 to see what "options" the object has. Thanks.

Other way if you want change arbitrary the center is selecting a face or a point, press Shift + S (move the cursor to this position) and from object mode set the origin to 3D cursor.

To complete Someonewithpc's answer, since 2.8 you can manipulate the origin itself: go into the Options panel, enable the Transform Affect Only Origins option, now you can move (or rotate or scale) the origin. Don't forget to disable the option once you're glad:

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Constant errors with Rigify (Blender), and ultimately can't import to Unity3D
I sat down today to try and learn animations in Blender. After a few hours I was rigging bones to simple structures, making key frames, and saving FBX files for import to Unity3D. I felt like a pro.
Then I tried Rigify. Theoretically this makes it easy to create humanoid armatures and animations.
I started with a free humanoid model I found online. After about 20 minutes of carefully positioning every finger and knuckle I was happy with the result. Previously at this point I would have let out an aggravated scream, knowing I now had to assign a vertex group to every bone - however not with Rigify! I was all ready to test out this beautiful feature. So I select my armature and I hit Generate. The result was... disastrous.

This looks nothing like the beautiful armatures in all the Rigify tutorials and examples. Rings were out of place, the hips are 8 feet in front of him, there's some weird convergence of bones behind him on the floor... I don't quite know how this happened, but I figured - hey, I'm not the Rigify expert, right? Maybe it's supposed to do that. So I tried to select my rig so I could attach it to my mesh.

It only selects part of the rigging instead of the whole thing. That's... scary. I used the B shortcut to select the entire rig and tried now. Select the rig and the mesh, make sure the rig is the active selection, hit ctrl+P, and... there's a new menu item?

What on earth is "Bone Relative"? No matter. I'm not selecting that, anyway. So I click "With Automatic Weights" like a good little lemming. This should connect the rigging to my mesh, right? OH GOD WHAT ON EARTH-

So my mesh has committed suicide. It's not quite seppuku, as that requires you have a stomach through which to ram a sword. It completely removed the stomach. And the legs. And the arms. It was like a self-dismemberment.
To my surprise, the rigging still worked... kinda

The few remaining faces move as one would expect. I wasn't really sure what was going on, if this was successful or not, so I figured I may as well import into Unity3D and see what happens.
Now with my previous experiments in Unity I was able to select the armatures in Unity and manipulate the model manually. This was the expected ability with my new mesh:

So we import our test asset to see what will- well, this doesn't look promising

Attempting to import the character to my scene caused Unity to all but freeze. It now takes 3 seconds for any mouse click or button press to register. What on earth is going on here? I fight through the pain. It'll all be worth it if I can make it work. I had to destroy everything in the scene and only add this one character to be able to move the camera, and even still it's extremely laggy. Two things seem amiss, though...

The root bone is.... the pinky? Also, WHAT ON EARTH ARE ALL OF THESE?
Clearly I'm a little bit lost on how to use Rigify, or what I did wrong, or why it's making rigs that don't make sense, or how to use the rig it creates, or why it isn't bonding to the mesh,... or anything... Can someone point me in the right direction? I've tried Googling all night and every tutorial and video just makes it look easy. You line up the bones, hit Generate, and voila - you have a perfect rig that works like a charm. No dice.

The circles out in front aren't the hips, they are the IK target for the knees. 2. The WGT objects are mesh objects that give the armature shapes instead of the octahedral appearance of the initial rig. 3. The lines going down to the root bone are parent relationships, you can turn these off in the properties panel under display. Not sure about the mesh disappearing, if you select the mesh and go into edit mode is it there? Do you have multiple armature modifiers?

Go into Blender's User Preferences and on the File menu, tick 'Auto Run Python Scripts' on and regenerate the rig. This will fix half of it missing. However, when you move into Unity, you'll notice that Rigify creates a lot of controllers and widgets, that while very helpful in Blender, are rubbish for Unity. I suggest taking a look at the Rigify to Unity package in the Asset Store as well.

Game engines have their own ways of doing things. Operations and features that work in Blender do not always translate well when carrying them to a game engine (such as Unity3D). The reason is that game engines have a lot of the same systems that blender has. Unity3D has its own particle systems, animation system, materials system, etc.
If your goal is to use 3D models for games, I would focus first one what the game engine supports. There are  lot of things in Blender that just won't work when you try to open it up in Unity.
I would also spend a lot more time looking through the documentation from Unity3D. Here are some simple guidelines importing blend files.
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/HOWTO-ImportObjectBlender.html
Here is a great video that helped me out when doing animations from Blender.
http://cgcookie.com/unity/2011/12/05/exporting-characters-from-blender/
I do game modeling with Blender to Unity. You will find that 90% of the features in Blender can't be used because Unity just can't import them in. Learn what the game engine supports first, then use the modeling program appropriately.

While this might explain the failure in Unity (I'm not sure how Rigify works - I presumed it created an armature like I had been doing manually) it doesn't explain the utter failure while still in Blender. Why did my mesh turn invisible the moment I joined it to the rigging?

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Cleanup Vertex Weights
Is there any way to cleanup/remove empty vertex weights?  Namely, on each vertex in a mesh, remove any vertex weights that have a value of zero or something close to it.
Note that I am referring to something more distinct than vertex groups.  When you have a vertex selected, a "Vertex Weights" tab will appear in the Properties Panel, and it will list all of the vertex weights affecting a particular vertex.

Stuff like that in the image.  I'd like something to remove all of the vertex weights that are at 0 from each vertex.  Or any that have a weight of less than 0.001, since the display there only seems to go out to 3 digits past the decimal point.

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23432/how-to-batch-remove-zero-weight-vertices-from-vgroup

You want to be in Weight Paint Mode.  From there, goto Weights >> Clean.  The settings for which threshold you want (if its other than zero) can be found on the tool shelf, on the Clean Vertex group Properties.

In Blender 2.8X, the "Clean" option in Weight Paint Mode has a slight small issue if set to 0.00 value. While the note tip appearing state that it will remove any weight group (on selected verticles) with a value lower or equals to the number, there's an internal error margin (float precision) for the 0.00 value which return a value below zero (like -0.0000134), hence doesn't remove the 0 weight groups. Setting it to a super low value like 0.001 is a work around.


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Antialiasing with compositor?
Is there any way to apply anti-aliasing to an image in the compositor?  I have a complex compositor setup, and during the compositing, some of the anti-aliasing is lost due to the bilateral blur filter.  Does anyone know of a way to perform antialiasing within the compositor?

I don't know of any way to create an anti-aliasing filter in the compositor (It might be possible, but I'm not sure it's the best approach). Instead you might want to try and fix whatever is aliasing your image (I.E. find out why the bilateral blur filter is doing this). Could you upload a screenshot or two of the nodesetup/problem?

try turning full sample on under the render settings > anti aliasing. you will have to render again. not sure if this will work in your case but if it does it will look properly anti-aliased after the render and composite is complete


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Ideal camera settings to approximate human eye?
As far as things such as Focal Length, Sensor Size, etc., what are the ideal camera settings in blender that most closely approximate the human eye?  Right now, everything in my scene seems like it is way smaller than it should be at the default settings.  I believe this is because the defaults assume a scale of 1BU = 1cm or 1mm, whereas I am using a scale of 1BU = 1 meter.  I am doing so largely because I will be constructing large indoor and outdoor scenes (including an entire city) where working with a scale of 1cm or 1mm would be too unwieldy, and possibly run into internal software limits.
Now, I realize that because blender's camera uses monocular imaging instead of binocular imaging (like the human eye) it cannot perfectly match how a human would view the scene.  However, I'm not looking for perfection: I'm looking for a close approximation that is "good enough".

Could you add some visual reference on the mismatch you noticed?

Yeah, on this render.  Looking at it, I feel like I'm looking at a miniature set, rather than some full-size buildings.  https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1x2WUEE4G4c/U0We-GrwW6I/AAAAAAAAD8g/hY2_GQFMbds/s0/PromenadeDistrict_Render9.png

The default in Blender assumes 1 Blender unit = 1 meter, so you're actually on the right track there.
As for the question regarding a match on the human eye, that's a tough one. Not just because of the monocular/binocular thing, but also because your retina is curved and most cameras and digital approximations assume a flat sensor.
That said, I've done a bit of my own research on this (reading advice from photographers is interesting... not always accurate, but interesting :) recently and landed on the following settings that seem to work reasonably well:

Camera Sensor - 35mm
Camera Focal Length - 45mm

Clipping distances, you'll need to adjust to taste.

Seems to work, but now I'm getting weird rendering anomalies on my image, black triangles that appear on some objects past a certain distance.  https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-1iSFfHH5VZw/U0WjxcJ3LjI/AAAAAAAAD88/ns8yFSlzkuU/s0/PromenadeDistrict_Render10.png

You should take a look here for the black triangles issue : http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21/how-do-i-avoid-rendering-glitches-from-overlapping-faces

Adjusting the camera's Near and Far settings can help with those artifacts you are seeing so long as the poly's are close but not actually in the same position.  The error has to do with precision of the depth buffer.  It's often called z-fighting if you want to do a bit of reading on this.

Yeah, I'm familiar with z-fighting.  In my case, it was caused because I had set the near clipping distance to 1cm, down from 10cm because I had been doing some close work on something.  I had no idea it would have that kind of effect.  On the plus side, I made my geometry a bit better as a result of trying to combat the issue.

Thats interesting I thought that the common 50mm lens length (for 35mm sensor) was the on that most closely approximated the human eye.

Try with real factors.
The focal length of human eye is 17mm, so set focal length to 17 millimeters.
The size of retina in human eye is 22mm, so, set sensor size to 22.
I am doing pretty big objects and this settings are very close to real life. To me, looks awesome.

Perspective, or panoramic?

This looks good to me in my indoor scene.

Focal Length: 17mm and Sensor size: 22mm.
Also, 1600x900 as a resolution.
This is what has worked best for me.
I created my house in Blender, and set the camera as I'm sitting on the model couch. The objects I see in the camera compared to real life are best fit with the above numbers.

I landed on 4:3 ratio. Felt that works better.


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Create HDR map from render?
Is there a way to create an HDR map from a rendered scene in blender?  I'm asking because I'm working to optimize an indoor scene that will be used multiple times for rendering scenes in a comic, and it has open windows which look out to a cityscape.  I would like to cut the cityscape out and replace it with an HDR version of it, so that it doesn't have to calculate as many bounces and (by extension) renders faster.

Yes, there is in cycles.
To begin select your camera. You will need to make changes to its settings. In the camera tab under lens, set it to Panoramic, and the type to Equirectangular.

Now, to make it more HDR friendly head into the color management section of the Scene tab.

I would select raw, since it will save the most color data. depending on the amount of dynamic range you want, you can make more or less images at different exposures.
You image is HDR strait out of blender, as long as you choose a format that supports HDR images, like .EXR, your image should be good.

A few incorrect statements in this post.
First, "Raw" will not preserve any more data than any of the other formats as your file format and bit depth control that. That is purely the display transform by default.
Second, Blender is already an HDR scene referred rendering system if one renders with Cycles, so Luminance could be entirely unnecessary here. Simply save the render as an EXR.

@TroySobotka Good point, could you add that as an edit. Thanks!

For completeness Blender now supports the export of the .hdr filetype.

@GiantCowFilms  I am trying to save my rendering results in 16-bit PNG files. After loading the PNG files in Python I noticed that the highest number for all pixels is never more than 255 (8-bits). I posted a question here.I would appreciate if you can take a look and tell me if I'm doing anything wrong.I may note that I wanted to initially save my rendering results in OpenEXR but due to this issue,I cannot do this as of now. So I decided to continue with PNG to get some preliminary results until Blender people fix the OpenEXR bug

The Short Answer
I'll post a new answer here because it seems that there is a good deal of confusion, and editing the existing accepted answer isn't the most optimal way to deal with this.
The answer is that Blender is already scene-referred enabled by default. In fact, the entire Blender architecture leans this way, it is just that many learning artists are unaware of the division between a scene referred and display referred working model.
TL; DR If you select Cycles as the default renderer, and save as an EXR, your saved file will already be high dynamic range.
The Longer Answer
So what is High Dynamic Range imaging?
If we explode what we think we know about imaging, we can probably get a good handle on what HDR is, it becomes clear why Cycles renders its data in accordance with scene referred models.
In the physical world, light is a strictly linear phenomenon. If you use a spot meter and measure a point in your frame at 100 units, something in the frame that is twice as illuminated will read 200 units. There is no white. There is no black. Just ratios of light from zero to infinity.
That's right... our values go from 0 all the way up to whatever our highest and brightest value is. This is a scene referred model.
Blender and Cycles and Scene Referred Models
The same holds true in Blender. If you take a default cube and render it in Cycles with 30 point lights in close, the rendered output window might look odd and show the cube as blown out white. But in the internal model, nothing is further from the truth.
If we use the swatch to measure the values on the cube, we can see that the values in the information bar that show up extend well off into the crazy zone. The values to the left of the CM information show the internal model, and the values to the right show the values after the CM transformation. On the left then, are the internal scene referred values, and on the right we see the display referred transformation. So when we flip the various output transforms listed in the color management panel, we are changing the display output transform, and not, in fact, changing the underlying scene referred data at all. Raw, sRGB, or otherwise.
By default, Blender uses a blind and ignorant clip cut that shaves off all of the excess values above the display referred value of 1.0. This means that if you save to an inappropriate file type such as JPEG, PNG, etc., the values on the right side of the CM information bar will be plopped into the file.
If however you save into a data-preserving file format such as EXR, the scene referred data values will be preserved in the file format.
In Closing
So the short answer to how to get HDR values out of Blender is... don't do anything, it already is! No need for Luminance. No need for software magic. Just render via Cycles.
The slightly longer answer involves understanding the differences between a scene referred linear model and a low dynamic range display referred non-linear model, and why the two are vastly different. It also involves understanding why each model is different, and what important things each bring to the table regarding needs.
Phew... a longer explanation than likely wanted, but one that only barely does justice to the complexities of these two models and the science of pixels and light. If anyone reading this finds it at all interesting and want to further their craft, I would strongly suggest you go read the Visual Effects Society Handbook available at CinematicColor.com.

Hide everything except the parts of your scene you want to put in the environment hdr (or put them on separate layers).
(this step isn't necessary, but it makes things easier)
Add a new your camera at the same location as your current camera, but with the rotation aligned to the axes. Then make it the active camera (CtrlNumpad 0)

With the new camera selected, set the lens of the camera to Panoramic and the type to Equirectangular in Properties > Object data:

Set the output format to OpenEXR in Render settings > Output:

OpenEXR is a hdr format which can store values as 32bit floats the amount of light (brightness) per pixel as floating point values.
Render and save (F3) the panorama.
Load the hdr into the world node setup in an Environment texture node, and rotate it 180° around the Z (for some reason it always seems to come out reversed):

Now you can hide/remove your environment objects (including the extra camera), and unhide the rest of your scene.
Result:
Rendered with hdr image background:
Time: 2:41 (12:08 to render the background at 1920x1080)

Rendered with actual geometry for the outside environment
Time: 6:32

Note that replacing a 3D environment with a 2D image will not work with animations where there is parallax motion (translation of the camera).

I am trying to save my rendering results in 16-bit PNG files. After loading the PNG files in Python I noticed that the highest number for all pixels is never more than 255 (8-bits). I posted a question here. I would appreciate if you can take a look and tell me if I'm doing anything wrong. I may note that I wanted to initially save my rendering results in OpenEXR but due to this issue, I cannot do this as of now. So I decided to continue with PNG to get some preliminary results until Blender people fix the OpenEXR bug.


text:
Best way to make a coin pile?
Okay, here's a little something in need of a solution:
I am planning on making some piles of coins for a dragon's treasure hoard.  This would be for game content, so it would all need to be low-poly, probably as a mesh pile with a textured surface.
Is there any good way to do this that would make the pile look authentic, or at least believable?  Like, for example, would it be possible to create a particle system, and then bake its output to the surface of a mesh?  Or would there be a better way to get natural results?
EDIT 1: If possible, I'd also like to get decent normal maps for the coin pile.

Model a coin (depending on how detailed you need just a short cylinder). Then use rigid body physics to drop the coins into a pile. cg cookie tutorial (archive). After you have a pile of coins then you can bake a normal map to a low poly mesh. Short description of the process on bottom of that page.
For the color, bake that too (also on that page). You would want a full render, or a Textures bake for the diffuse map.
If you are using cycles, the bake options are a little different.

Along with a diffuse map as well, aye?


text:
How to hide vertex colors in Texture Paint?
I am currently trying to paint a texture onto a character model.  However, I cannot actually see what I am doing because one of the vertex color layers is being overlaid on top of the texture, causing it to appear solid black in most areas.
Are there any way I can stop this from happening?

Are you sure it is from Vertex Colors and not because you do not have Shadless enabled?

As I said, "solid black in most areas".  The areas where it is not solid black correspond to the likewise areas in the vertex colors.  Further, toggling shadeless doesn't do anything other than make stuff full-bright, and the areas that were black stay black.

Alright, just wanted to be sure.

Add a Vertex Color layer that is solid white and keep that one activated when you are not doing any Vertex Painting.
It does waste a layer and definitely counts as a work-around but it's the only way I know of to do this and it works.

A commit was made a few days ago by Antony Riakiotakis, one of the blender developers, to fix this:
rB711a5c79d8c4: Don't use vertex colors in textured mesh display during texpaint
To quote Antony:

Don't use vertex colors in textured mesh display during texpaint.
Wasn't that irritating?

Because of the timing of this commit I imagine the fix will appear in 2.75.

If you are painting on an image texture mapped to UV, you might get around this by using GLSL if you are using Blender Internal materials, and disabling the effect of the vertex color in the shader until you are ready to use it. If you are using Cycles, then using vertex color through the Attribute node is easy to disconnect from diffuse input until needed.
All this is using the Texture draw mode, but with Cycles you are supposed to be able to use the Material draw mode to get a semi-GLSL experience.


text:
How to get Anisotropic Filtering in Blender Internal?
Is there any way to obtain Anisotropic Filtering with Blender Internal renders?  I have it enabled in User Preferences->System, but that only affects viewport rendering, and does not affect the full render.

Anisotropic filtering affects the sharpness of textures at oblique angles. The setting under Preferences -> System affects only the OpenGL viewport (and games) as designed.
Blender Internal renderer's texture filtering is controlled by the Image Sampling settings under the texture panel. Changing the value from the default Box to something like EWA with 32 samples should give very good result.

Box Filter on the left, 32 tap EWA on the right


text:
How to change hair color along length of strand?
At some point (not right away), I'll be wanting to make a character model which has multicolor hair.  Namely, it will be one color closer to the roots, and another color closer to the tips.
Is there any way to do this in blender?  I would be using Cycles for this.

You can accomplish this in multiple ways, the easiest way is to use a Hair Info node, and use the Intercept value to drive a Converter > Color Ramp node. Use this to drive the Factor on your mix or add shader node. Here is a quick example node setup:

And here is how it renders:

As you can see, the lower input into the Mix Shader is on the base of the hair, and the upper input is on the top of the hair. This will work on a Color > Mix RGB node as well.
EDIT: It is also possible to add another set of colors on top of the first two, giving even more controlability:

How it renders:

More realistic colorings:

Aye, this does the trick, thanks!  The setup I used based on this was a little simpler, though.  I put the color values directly into the ColorRamp node and then passed its output to the color of a single diffuse shader.  I had thought that would be more efficient, but doing a quick test found no difference in rendering speed or memory usage.

To add to what was said in this answer, you can use Is Strand to make the hair and the base material different using only one material.
The Is Strand output of the Hair Info node gives a black and white mask. White on what is hair, and black everywhere else (the plane in my example.)
Take this colorful spiky image. I have only one material on the plane. That material is controlling both the checkers and the hair's color.

Here are the simplified nodes for the material I used in the image above.

I'm simply using the Is Strand as the mix factor to determine where each part of the material goes, on the hair or on the plane.

I am not sure about previous versions. But from 2.8 at least forward you can get a very simple set up with the Hair info node and a color ramp. Set the hair info to "intercept".

Also you can get a random seed color look by using the "Random" setting.

Continuing with this concept, you can now also combine these effects with your desired blend mode and amount with a Mix RGB node.


text:
Using RNA Property in Drivers?
I'm currently trying to modify some drivers so that they are disabled when they're not on a proxied armature.  Right now, I'm using the following script to set a custom property, which is used by the drivers:
import bpy
from bpy import context

class UseHeight(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    @classmethod
    def register(cls):
        ob = context.object
        if("UseHeight" in ob.keys()):
            ob["UseHeight"] = (ob.proxy != None)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(UseHeight)

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

However, I have to put this into every script I use, and with how my memory has been impacted by my health problems, I don't want to add yet another thing for me to keep track of.  I've attempted to use it as an addon, but it fails to work due to this error:
Exception in module register(): '/home/zauber/.config/blender/2.69/scripts/addons/MaelstromUseHeight.py'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/zauber/Desktop/blender-2.69-linux-glibc211-x86_64/2.69/scripts/modules/addon_utils.py", line 311, in enable
    mod.register()
  File "/home/zauber/.config/blender/2.69/scripts/addons/MaelstromUseHeight.py", line 12, in register
    bpy.utils.register_class(UseHeight)
  File "/home/zauber/.config/blender/2.69/scripts/addons/MaelstromUseHeight.py", line 7, in register
    ob = context.object
AttributeError: '_RestrictContext' object has no attribute 'object'

So, what do I need to do to get this working?  Or is there a way I can directly check if the object's proxy value is equal to "None" inside the drivers?

You may not access any bpy.context and bpy.data members (with a few exceptions like for keymaps): Restricted Context

I just spent an hour trying to adapt my code to work around that.  My line count has already doubled or tripled, and nothing works at all.  I've tried stuffing the needed value into a PropertyGroup, but (a) I can't actually get data recorded to it, and (b) it seems that the drivers can't read from the property groups anyways.

Okay, got it to pull data from the property group by having it's data put into a panel.  However, when I try to change the data by adding the poll function to the panel class, the panel just disappears.  No error output on the console.

A poll() classmethod is supposed to return True or False to indicate whether the class can be used or not. In case of operater classes, it determines if the context is suitable to invoke/execute the operator. In case of panels, if they shall show. def poll(cls, context): return context.mode == 'OBJECT' (only show panel when in object mode)

Okay, so if it's not something that is meant to be used, what should I be using?  I'm assuming that Operator classes are executed on invocation.  I'm looking for something that just runs automatically.

You can circumvent the context restriction at registration time by using an app handler, that removes itself (scene_update_pre), but this seems all wrong... I tried to add a property function to the driver namespace, but it doesn't work. An exp var did not work either, although I registered a prop on Object type (but showed red as unrecgnized property...)

Trying to use an app handler with scene_update_pre, as you suggested.  However, I don't know how to make it operate on my objects.  It doesn't seem to have any context field I can plug in, and right now I can only access the currently-selected object, when what I want to do is access armatures.  Also, it appears to be running continuously, several times a second.

From the advice of CoDEmanX and reading documentation, I figured out what to do last night.  I changed it all to use a pair of handler functions.  Here is the altered script:
import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

bl_info = {
    "name": "Maelstrom Height Handler",
    "category": "Object",
}

'''
Called when the scene is updated, and calls height_general_update if
any objects in the scene have been updated.
'''
@persistent
def height_scene_update(scene):
    if(bpy.data.objects.is_updated):
        height_general_update(scene)

'''
Iterates through each scene object to see if the "height" property
is present, then adds and/or adjusts the "useHeight" property.  Does
nothing if the height is unchanged, to prevent other potential code
from running.  Runs when a scene is loaded or when called by the
above function.
'''
@persistent
def height_general_update(scene):
    didChange = False
    for obj in bpy.data.objects:
        rigChanged = False
        if("height" in obj.keys()):
            val = int(obj.proxy != None)
            if("useHeight" not in obj.keys()):
                obj["useHeight"] = val
                rigChanged = True
            else:
                if(obj["useHeight"] != val):
                    obj["useHeight"] = val
                    rigChanged = True
        if(rigChanged):
            print("Adjusting useHeight flag of", obj.name)
            didChange = True

def register():
    bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_pre.append(height_scene_update)
    bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(height_general_update)

def unregister():
    for idx, val in enumerate(bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_pre):
        if(val == height_scene_update):
            del bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_pre[idx]
    for idx, val in enumerate(bpy.app.handlers.load_post):
        if(val == height_general_update):
            del bpy.app.handlers.load_post[idx]

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


text:
How to fix blender particle hair explosion
Hi I'm not that good with hair particles.
Somehow it explodes, flies off the head and grows into a huge electrostatic ball of wool.

https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/5263/

Hey Riezze, welcome to BSE. The first image you tried to attach didn't work. If you can, please upload a .blend to https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ that shows your problem

oh hi thanks for the tip, i think it worked.hehe

You can edit your post to insert that link in your question :)

Apply the scale of your object and it will work fine


text:
How to separate the selection of a duplicate mesh?
I just duplicated a part of a mesh but as I select one of them, both are being selected. I learned about the 'P' hotkey, however, it's not working in my case. I'm using the latest version of Blender.
I used the 'P' button for the selection menu but it's not working.
Please tell me another way to do it
Project link:http://www.mediafire.com/file/mcqsc88v7rb911j/FirstProject.blend/file

please give us some screenshots or share your file, because we can't help you without more informations

P hotkey obviously works. It's a stable feature of Blender and always have been, so you're doing something wrong.

here is the project link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/mcqsc88v7rb911j/FirstProject.blend/file

This works exactly as expected. After hitting P>Selected.. the top section still shows (inactive) selected, but as an object, not as part of the mesh you are editing. As a new object, it has a new name: 'torus.001'...

You need to go to edit mode for separate by 'P' to work. If you just want to separate the top portion in your screenshot, go to edit mode, select those vertices that you want to separate, press P and choose 'Selection'


text:
Damp the movement of an animation curve
I am quite new to Blender. I am writing a script for a scientific study. So I want to do it in the script change the angles of a motion in order to have quantifiable data. I have been struggling for few days to come up with a method to damp a motion of a predefined motion curve. For example:

The curves are in Quaternions. So far what I tried: Get a keyframe value w, x, y, z for the Arm and Forearm and generate a Quaternion. Then multiply each with a float value such as 0.5 (dividing by 2) to reduce the amplitude. Then update the Quaternion back.
Example:
newQat = 0.5 * (current_quat)

However, this did not quite for me. Working with Quaternion does not seem to give me the fully control the amplitude of a curve. That is at least my understanding.
Second attempt: Convert them to Euler and then multiply with a weight. For example, I want to damp the z angle of rotation of the Forearm. Then I simply, for all key frames of forearm, Get the w, x, y, z value, convert to Quaternion and then convert that to generate OldEuler. Then generate new Euler this way:
newEuler = (OldEuler.x ,OldEuler.y, 0.5 *OldEuler.z)

Then again convert back to newEuler.to_quaternion(), then update the curve. No great success on this method either.

Can scale keyframes directly in the graph editor. Choose 2d cursor as pivot point, place cursor at y=0, select keyframes, then SY.5 will scale by half.  There are also a number of fcurve modifiers that could be used to this effect.  btw Not sure scaling a quaternion correlates to "damping" it.

Thank you for your reply. I think I should add the comment, I am writing a script for a scientific study. So I want to do it in the script to have a quantifiable data.

Can alter the keyframe coords in script too.  The keyframe coords is, after all, the curve to flatten.  Using UI suggested as quick way to test result, eg that scaling a quaternion may not have the result expected.

I have found a solution to this.
#Retrieve the current roation

current_q = Quaternion((kf_w.co[1], kf_x.co[1], kf_y.co[1], kf_z.co[1]))

current_eulr = current_q.to_euler()

#Element-wise multiplication with a weight vector

new_euler = Euler((x * y for x, y in zip( weights,current_eulr )), 'XYZ')

new_q = new_euler.to_quaternion()


text:
Error using subprocess to call blender
This different from Calling Blender From Python Script in that it concentrates on a different part of the code which results in different error messages. It is also a more clearly stated problem.
I have a very simple python script that I copied from How to Run blender from a python program?
import subprocess
subprocess.call("blender", "proj001-master.blend ")

When I run this, I get the following error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "testsubprocess.py", line 2, in
      subprocess.call("blender", "proj001-master.blend ")
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python@2/2.7.15_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 172, in call
      return Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs).wait()
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python@2/2.7.15_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 343, in init
      raise TypeError("bufsize must be an integer")
  TypeError: bufsize must be an integer

I changed the code to:
import subprocess
subprocess.Popen("blender", "proj001-master.blend ")

When I run this, I get the following error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "testsubprocess.py", line 2, in
      subprocess.Popen("blender", "proj001-master.blend ")
    File "/usr/local/Cellar/python@2/2.7.15_1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 343, in init
      raise TypeError("bufsize must be an integer")
  TypeError: bufsize must be an integer

What am I doing wrong here?

If you needed to amend your question you should have used the 'edit' button below it, not asked it again.

Possible duplicate of Calling Blender From Python Script

looks like the arguments have to be in a list format https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17824096/bufsize-must-be-an-integer-error-while-grepping-a-message

I tried:
subprocess.call(["blender", "proj001-master.blend"], stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
Same error.

Try
subprocess.Popen(["blender", "proj001-master.blend"])


text:
how do I make one empty accelerate to the second?
The movement driver already looks in the direction of the empty, and I want it to accelerate towards it as well. I've tried making a function, adding it to driver namespace, but I still get the "invalid python expression" error. How would i do this properly?
import bpy

def driverFunc(object1, object2, acceleration):
    direction = object2 - object1
    delta_x = direction * acceleration
    value = var + delta_x
    return value
bpy.app.driver_namespace['driverFunc'] = driverFunc

It doesn't matter how to fix your problem of calling the function (which requires you to use actual objects as arguments to the function, instead of what you're currently using), as the function itself doesn't work. It was likely generated by chatGPT. Your question would be better if instead you asked for a solution to your actual problem: "How to make one object accelerate towards another?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

i see, I will edit this question then


text:
My Render is stuck at 0%
Right now I'm trying to render an animation, but whenever i try to go to render it just stays at 0%. I've already tried render layers but that didn't help. I've been trying to fix this for the past 2 days and its driving me insane. (Also i noticed i forgot to enable render layers and it doesnt help). FIXED
Anyways here's my render settings if needed: blender render images in google drive
Blender file: blender file 1.69GB

at first i would reduce your samples....to maybe 10 to see whether it is a performance or another problem

Apart from your render settings it depends a lot on what you have in your scene... is this just a defualt cube or a complex scene with many polygons, maybe shader displacement and hair systems etc.? And I don't know if you have a decent GPU to use, but in your render settings you have chosen CPU as device, which is usually a lot slower than GPU Compute.

Just tried 10 samples and still have the same problem, also I'm making an flag waving using cloth physics with wind on top of an mountain. right now i have 662,325 vertices, 619,464 faces and 1,239,272 triangles. (I don't know if that's a lot or little)

For cloth it's probably a lot.  Do the cloth sim with lower poly and then you can subdivide after by changing the order of the modifier stack

Didn't help I'm going to add the blend file soon.

Also, open the Window::Console prior to rendering and see what the last message is.  Perhaps it's loading one of the large meshes into the render engine, or is it actually saying that it's rendering sample 1 (in the render window)

"662,325 vertices, 619,464 faces and 1,239,272 triangles" is quite a lot, depending on your machine.   If you run a monitor, is main or video memory maxing out?

I tried a render with your file.   Cannot do on a 16GB host.  Just loading took 6.6 Gb main memory.  Couldn't even render with Eevee.   Time to trim away at your meshes:  search for reduce memory in this forum.  Things like Edit :: Mesh :: Clean Up :: Decimate.

Nothing is outputting in the console and the render window is displaying nothing
cpu is maxing around 50%, memory around 80% and gpu around 40%
I'll try to clean up my meshes

I think it's the mountains that are causing it and I've managed to clean it up alot to ~200000 each but I'm still not getting anything in the render window. I'll update the blend file to the cleaned up one in a bit.

Here is a command line render so that you can monitor progress on a command-line console: blender -b "NATOPROPAGANDA.blend" -o "//out" -s 1 -e 1 -j 1 -a

I get:
File "<blender_console>", line 1
blender -b "E:\blender stuff\models\NATOPROPAGANDA.blend" -o "E:\blender stuff\Renders\videos" -s 1 -e 1 -j 1 -a
^
SyntaxError: (unicode error) 'unicodeescape' codec can't decode bytes in position 23-24: malformed \N character escape

hmm. some garbage char between your "blender" and "stuff".  Try hand-typing into a command prompt (windows=CMD, linux=bash).   Windows?  Linux?  This command line will also use less memory as -b (background) mode doesn't start up the user graphical interface.  I use these a-plenty in .bat (Windows) or .sh (Linux).  Do not run this in the blender console or the blender script window.


text:
Fluid simulation Artifacts
I have created a waterfall scene of height 95feet (considering real life measurements) using flip fluids addon.
The material given to the fluid surface is complete transparent.
I have baked the simulation at 700 resolution and render engine used is cycles.
There is a blue colour appearing on the parts of water simulation in the rendered image.
I have changed fluid material and HDRI considering it might be the sky reflection but the issue remains the same.

without seeing any of your settings - we can just guess. So i recommend providing your blend file (maybe an easier/smaller one with the same problem)

Just to be sure, have you tried rendering a frame in a world with a completely uniform colour? (If this is a lighting problem, it's a Blender problem.. if it's a Flip problem, BSE might not be the right place to ask)

Looks a bit like a shader issue ... like brighters areas represented by some Volumetrics ... or isnt there in your node tree colorramp node with forgotten blue color at the 0 or 1 position? :)  Chris +1


text:
Strange issues when using boolean to create indentation of pattern
I've been trying to create a pattern indentation into a mesh surface using Boolean, and been facing some strange issues which I'd greatly appreciate any help on.
To start off, this is the pattern which was originally a SVG which I shrinkwrapped onto the surface and "thickened" using Geometry Nodes:

This is the desired result I would like to achieve using Boolean - this works before I click "apply":

However, when I click apply result, I see the following:

The above deviates from what I want - where parts of the pattern is not "imprinting" on the mesh surface. Do you know what may be happening?
I've also attached the Blend file here:
TIA!

Hi. I don't know if it's what you want, but apply the modifiers for the Pattern shrinkwrap object, then apply the modifier for the cube.

$\hspace{15pt}$My guess is that your objects are in cyclic dependency. The pattern's Shrinkwrap modifier depends on the 'Cube' geometry, but the 'Cube' geometry is modified by the Boolean modifier which depends on the pattern object.
The solution is simple:
$\hspace{15pt}$Disable the Boolean modifier, apply the Shrinkwrap, and then re-enable the Boolean modifier.
Or, if you need to keep the Shrinkwrap:
$\hspace{15pt}$Duplicate the 'cube', using one with no Boolean modifier and hidden as the Shrinkwrap target, while the other continues with the Boolean modifier.

apply scale + rotation for your pattern object
apply shrinkwrap
apply GN


text:
How do I delete/remove/replace an image using a script?
I have a script that inserts three images (Image1, Image2, Image3) into a blend and then renders the video. It works great. The images show up exactly when and where they are supposed to.
The problem is that I want to be able to run the script as loop, picking up a different set of images each time through the loop. I have that part working just fine except...
The new images (Image1.001 - Image1.00n, Image2.001 - Image2.00n, Image3.001 - Image3.00n) simply overlay each other. Since I am using .png images with transparencies, this is a real problem. To be clear, these are foreground images, not a texture or anything similar.
I have tried everything I can find to delete, remove or replace the original images with the new ones via my script. Nothing I have found and tried has worked. I have to believe there is a way to do this.
Help??? Please.
Here is the relevant part of the code:
import bpy
import csv
import sys

csv_path = sys.argv[5]
file = open(csv_path, 'rU')
reader = csv.reader(file)

fnt = bpy.data.fonts.load('../fonts/Helvetica-Bold.ttf')

s = bpy.context.scene
sed = s.sequence_editor
sequences = sed.sequences

header = next(reader) # 1st line is header`

data = [ ]
for row in reader:
    name0 = row[0]
    pic2 = 'gfx/'+ row[2] # car(s)
    pathout = 'renders/proj003/' + row[4] + '.m4v'
    f = s.objects['Text']
    f.data.body = name0

    frame_start2 = 202
    frame_end2 = 266
    image_strip2 = sequences.new_image("Image2", pic2, 5, frame_start2)
    image_strip2.frame_final_end = frame_end2
    image_strip2.blend_type = 'ALPHA_OVER'

    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = pathout
    bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)

bpy.ops.wm.quit_blender()

Image1
Image1.001
Image1.002
Note that 'Text' is replaced properly.

This question would benefit from some more information. Could you post a screenshot of the resulting "overlaying"? Does overlay mean, they are at the same position? If yes, how are you setting the position? Could you post your code (or a condensed version of it), which creates/places the images?

Here is a condensed version of the code:

Let's try this again. Here is the first part of the code:

The editor for responding is being a royal PITA.

How the hell do I include code in a comment???
How do I attach screenshots???

OK, I finally realized I needed to edit my question rather than respond to your request.

Some options
Result  with image strips are overlapping would indicate you are  setting start and end frames incorrectly in loop. If the idea is to make an animation of all the added strips,  not sure then why the render operator is inside the loop.
If that is how you want it, will need to  remove the image strip, replace the image strip, change the image strip data,  or batch render one make at a time
Remove the image sequence  Not sure if this will work, could be dodgy removing parts of a scene before it is fully rendered. Add code after render op.
 sequences.remove(image_strip2)

Secondly create the strip once, and change image settings, rather than creating new strip each time. This is equivalent of how you are resetting font body. (py console example) added strip with some dummy image, changed directory and element (image) name to a real one.
>>> im = sequences.new_image("Dummy", filepath="/tmp/xxx.png", channel=2, frame_start=3)
>>> im.directory
'/tmp/'

>>> im.directory = '/home/batfinger/Desktop/'
>>> len(im.elements)
1

>>> im.elements[0].filename
'xxx.png'

>>> im.elements[0].filename = "images.jpeg"
>>> im.update() # required???

Thirdly, rather than loop the csv inside the script, could set up a blend file to render a single car make, pass the make string and images to it and run from some shell script.
How to pass command line arguments to a Blender Python script?
For batch scripts there is no need to call the exit operator, as this is default behaviour.

For the record, sequences.remove(image_strip2) is exactly what I needed. Thanks.

Good to know. Was my first instinct ... and without bothering to make a test to check.. added the caveat.   Would have to choose the Acura for roads around here.


text:
Remove sequence Text strip in Blender 2.80
In 2.80 I can add a Text effect strip with the following:
    effName = "eff" + tCStr[-3:]
    effName = sequences.new_effect(
        name=tField,
        type="TEXT",
        channel=tChan,
        frame_start=fStart,
        frame_end=fEnd)

That works fine.
However, I also need to remove the strip.
I can remove Image strips with:
sequences.remove(image_strip1)

And I can remove Sound strips with:
sequences.remove(sound_strip1)

I have tried all of the following to remove the Text strips with results as shown.
I'm sure there is a simple way to do this, or failing that, at least some way to do it.
Notes:
• effName is set to a range of values from eff000 to eff010
• tField is set to a range of values from Text0000 to Text0010
• xName is set to either effxxx or Textxxxx
sequences.remove_effect(xName)

AttributeError: 'bpy_prop_collection' object has no attribute 'remove_effect'
sequences.effect_strip_remove(xName)

AttributeError: 'bpy_prop_collection' object has no attribute 'effect_strip_remove'
sequences.remove(xName)

TypeError: Sequences.remove(): error with argument 1, "sequence" -  Function.sequence expected a Sequence type, not str
sequences.remove(eval(xName))

File "<'string>", line 1, in
NameError: name 'eff000' is not defined
sequences.remove(eval(xName))

File "<'string>", line 1, in
NameError: name 'Text0000' is not defined

You have to pass an object of type bpy.types.Sequence into bpy.types.Sequences.remove(). This means you can pass the return value of sequences.new_effect() into sequences.remove(). In the example in your question that reference would be stored in effName.
bpy.context.scene.sequence_editor.sequences.remove(effName)

If you don't have a reference to the sequence anymore, you will have to retrieve it from:
bpy.context.scene.sequence_editor.sequences_all

Update: Since there seems to be some misunderstanding about my explanation, you find a fully functional code example below. As I said before, you need to store the return value of new_effect() to later us it as input for remove().
import bpy

sequences = bpy.context.scene.sequence_editor.sequences

names = ['a', 'b', 'c']
tChan = 0
fStart = 0
fEnd = 50

text_effects = []

for name in names:
    text_effect_strip = sequences.new_effect(
        name=name,
        type='TEXT',
        channel=tChan,
        frame_start=fStart,
        frame_end=fEnd
    )
    text_effects.append(text_effect_strip)

for text_effect_strip in text_effects:
    sequences.remove(text_effect_strip)

When I tried what you suggested i got:
TypeError: Sequences.remove(): error with argument 1, "sequence" -  Function.sequence expected a Sequence type, not str
So I tried bpy.context.scene.sequence_editor.sequences.remove(eval(effName)) and got:
File "<'string>", line 1, in NameError: name 'eff000' is not defined
I assume this means I need to use: bpy.context.scene.sequence_editor.sequences_all
How do I do that?

I assumed that effName contains the return value of sequences.new_effect as shown in your example above. Store the return value of sequences.new_effect and pass that value to sequences.remove.

I have tried every possible iteration I can think of for sequences.remove; see the notes in my question. None of them work. What am I missing?

@batFINGER, any insight?

For clarification, I am adding anywhere from 6 to 10 text effects per scene, and am using a for loop to add the effects. I do this for two reasons: 1) it saves having to repeat the code for each text effect added (Duh!), and 2) I can vary the number of text effects added per scene. This works perfectly for adding the text effects. I just need to be able to remove them.

@mcgeo52 That doesn't really change the approach though. I have added an example to my answer that should make things more clear.

Thank you! It is working perfectly!

@mcgeo52 If this answer solved your problem, please click on the checkmark next to it. Thank you!

I would be more than happy to click on a checkmark, but I don't see one. I did click on the up arrows.

@mcgeo52 No problem. It should be right below the arrows (it's grey).

It was a star, not a check mark on my browser. Found it and clicked it. Thanks again for your help.


text:
Polyhedra triangulated on a plane
Hi I want to create a circular shape with polyhedra triangles.
So I can push or pull the connection spots up and down.
Eventually I want to have the structure of polyhedra into a "flat" circular surface to make it in to a 4mm plate with the structure on both sides of the plate.
This is how far I've got.
UPDATE: To simplify: I don't want the spherical result. I want a "plane" with the surface of the polyhedra shape.

This is sort of what I want.
I want a disc with the triangulated mesh in it. So I can push-pull  the point inwards and outwards. The disc itself should be 5mm thick and have the same triangulated points on the bottom as on the top.

I'm a bit confused, do you want to flatten all the vertices you have and then turn it into the example below?

@NascentSpace No, the spherical shape hase inward and outward pushed vertices.
I want to have a "flat" circulare surface with the same vertices inward and outwards.

I think you're going to have to specify this more closely. Do you want  a view of the surface's vertices  projected into the flat circle's geometry, or what? Can you illustrate the desired relation between 3D and 2D?

@RobinBetts I want a disc with the triangulated mesh in it. So I can push-pull the point inwards and outwards. The disc itself should be 5mm thick and have the same triangulated points on the bottom as on the top.

what are "polyhedra triangles"? "So I can push or pull the connection spots up and down." - you can do it with any subdivided plane. "Eventually I want to have the structure of polyhedra into a "flat" circular surface" - and yet somehow Jag's answer doesn't satisfy you? " I want a disc with the triangulated mesh in it." - OK, create a disc, and CTRL+T triangulate it. Done. "he disc itself should be 5mm thick and have the same triangulated points on the bottom as on the top." - extrude the disc down, and triangulate again to convert side quads to triangles…

I got it to work with a plugin Loop Tools.

making a circle.
Adding a grid fill then adding subdivide.
Extrude the whole thing

Lastly, pull the points up and down on the triangles.

Indeed as stated, the question would benefit from clarifications.
Anyway, here's a tentative to answer from what I understood.
First create an icosphere that looks a bit like what you're aiming for.

Remove the lower part then flatten the half sphere.

Using the dissolve tool (CTRL+X) and the knife tool (K), create the pattern of your liking:

Finally , using proportional editing with the spherical option, grab the center part and raise it as far as you need it.

It's not exactly what I want. This is more flattening the object, which results in a sphere like object. I want a disc with the triangulated mesh in it. So I can push-pull  the point inwards and outwards.

Create a Circle mesh. Define the number of vertices you want. Go to Edit mode, select all vertices and press F to fill with a Face. Press I to Inset just a little bit and click. Press M to merge all those points, and choose Merge at Center.


text:
Why does my render in blender look like this?
I'm new to blender and have no idea why the render looks like this. Does anyone know how to fix it? Thank you.

Hello and welcome to BSE. Have you tried searching for any tutorials on how to get started with Blender?

either you have no light in your scene, or you have a graphic card problem

Welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue in such way that anyone searching for a similar problem may easily find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this","issue with" or "question about". Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, answers you get depend heavily on how inviting it is. See "What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?""


text:
Is there an option to hide/disable the "volume" display in edit mode?
It seems that when the object is rotated in Edit Mode the "volume" representation will sometimes change, appear and disappear and various angles and distances.  I figure there is an option somewhere that I haven't discovered but, in the meantime, does anyone know if it's possible to turn the "volume" display off?  It's not bad but it can be distracting.
thanks

AFAIK, there is no "volume" display. As already mentioned by ideasman42, I think what you are seeing is the problem mentioned in this question. this is caused by Z fighting (also as already mentioned by ideasman42)

I think your issue is related to the display camera's clipping distance. Clipping distance is basically the distance the camera can view.
You can change the settings around in the properties panel (N):

You're right that the clipping distance is influencing it.  I need to work with it more to understand what it's really doing.  Still seems more confusing than not.  Thanks for the direction to look

@askinner432 if this answer has solved your problem, remember to mark it as "accepted" :)


text:
Is it possible to expand/collapes all panels in a region with a keystroke or shortcut?
In particular, I'm looking for a simple way to collapse all the N and T panels.  I'm using a number of addons and things are starting to get a little cumbersome wheeling up and down to find something so I'd like to collapse them all at once and then expand just the one I want.
If not, is there an API that could make use of?
thanks

hovering over a collapsible region and pressing A toggles it, but I don't know about all at once.

Since this question is tagged with python-api:
Currently the Python API can't handle opening and closing panels (it's possible but not exposed, in general Python scripts should not care about which panels are open).

If you only care about the panel's default state, it can be set with Panel.bl_options.

I get that it's not scene data, but it would be nice to be able to E.G. collapse hundreds of modifiers at once on hundreds of different objects so I can get an overview of which ones are enabled. Maybe the API could be write-only to prevent script behaviour from depending on panel state? (And I freely admit that is probably also a terrible idea for different reasons.)


text:
How to activate another addon and have it stay when default blend is called on new file command
How can my script be sure that some other script used gets loaded.
For now, I'm using
    addon_utils.enable("some_needed_addon")
inside the register() function of init.py of my script
and
    addon_utils.disable("some_needed_addon")
in the unregister()
and at the biginning or this init.py I have
if "bpy" in locals():
    import importlib
    importlib.reload(my_first_py_file)
    importlib.reload(my_second_py_file)

else:
    import bpy
    import addon_utils # To use some other addons

etc.
With all that, when you call the new file command, the other script is no longer activated so it is not callable, because I didn't save it in user preferences and don't want to because I'm not sure user will want that.

If your add-on depends on another.
You can enable it from the script like this:
import addon_utils
addon_utils.enable("another_addon", default_set=False, persistent=True)

default_set: to leave the users preferences alone.
persistent: to keep the add-on loaded, even when the user runs File -> New.

This can be called from the register function.


text:
Follow active quads does not "flatten" all the poligons
I modeled the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 and my next step is to unwrap it before texturing.
At the moment, I'm working on the unwrapping of the "disk part", but I'm having some problem. Here you can find an image:

What I would like to do is to use "Follow active quads" to "flatten" horizontally the UV map and texture it easily. However, it seems that "Follow active quads" doesn't work completely.
In my example (the image), some parts don't get flatten horizontally (in red). It seems that this behaviour is caused by the extra details in the pulse propulsion.
I had a similar problem with the upper and lower part of the disk, connected to the pulse propulsion (in yellow). It's not shown in the image, but I tried to put an extra seam to flatten horizontally the upper disk (in pink) and I could not flatten the yellow parts.
Hopefully I was clear enough on the explanation. If not, feel free to ask.
EDIT 1:
Blender file available here.

I Don't know how you got that. I rebuilt your mesh and I don't get that. And also you have ngones which is not good for your topology or your unwrap. So maybe correct this, select your mesh again and U > Reset, and again select your ring, select a quad of your ring, and U > Follow Active Quad.

Unfortunately it doesn't work. But, look, your model is different than mine. In the red and yellow parts, there are more details made with "subdivide". Moreover, the red parts have a different angle with respect to the other poligons in the side part of the disk. If this degree of details is not enough, can it help if I upload the file?

yes please upload

I edited the question. You can find it there.

again, it looks like it can't work with your current topology because the active quad needs to be a quad and if you choose a quad in your ring it will cut off your ring. You really need to make a good topology for this reason and many others, always try to avoid ngons

Just one more question before leaving: if you had been me, would you have done the propulsion using loop subdivide?

I read my previous message and I don't even remember what I meant, anyway, yes, try not to use ngons, use quads, and tris if you can't avoid it. For the propulsion, I'm not sure what you mean, yes you can subdivide as long as it gives a good topology.


text:
(Solved) Trying to Bake Texture from multiple materials - Blender baking UV texture problem
I'm trying to bake the lighting onto this scene, I believe I did all the steps correctly, but the texture I get when I press Bake just comes out as these diamond-shaped blobs. I tried to google and look around, but I can't find anything.
The model I'm using was made from just a plane so the bottom of it is hollow, it's all joined as one piece, save for a few point lights I put inside the houses with translucent windows as an experiment. I also have 2 sun lamps and some of the windows are using an emission material.
I checked the normals and they all seem right, I switched on Backface Culling for a second to make sure.
Is there something I'm missing in the baking settings or something? Are there things in the scene that aren't compatible with baking? I've never changed it so I'm pretty sure it's set to the default. I followed a tutorial by Blender Guru and it looks like all the same settings, so I don't know what the problem is.
Thanks for any help.

EDIT:
I added a world color and closed of the bottom of the mesh, the last image is the current baking result and all my settings. A little more of the texture managed to actually bake, but it's grainy and messed up looking.

I added an image texture node to all my materials and this is what I got now lol
EDIT 2:
Okay, so I added the image texture node to all my material and then I selected the actual mesh in edit mode, then I baked it, and it seems to have actually worked. Now I'm just messing with the clamping and the sampling to get ride of the fireflies and graininess and it seems to have actually worked. So problem solved.

Welcome, @fdd. Did you add a world color? It looks like only the interior lights are baked.

@LeoNas Hi, I just added one and it seems I'm getting the same result. I also closed up the bottom of the model and it seems to have baked a little more of the texture, but not much, and it's grainy and strange looking. https://imgur.com/a/clGqeuL

@LeoNas nevermind, i figured it out

@mr-zak ok sure

add an image texture node to all the materials, select the mesh in edit mode, then bake it


text:
Uneven geometry on semisharp edges
How can I smooth out these harsh edges(circled in red) and make the geometry look more like what I have circled in green.
I've tried using the smooth tool in sculpt mode, and while that does seem to fix the problem, it also ruins the overall shape of the edge by rounding it off.
Do I have to retopologize this mesh altogether or is it saveable?

Hi, please add the blend file to the question so we can take a closer look. You can use: Blend Exchange.

Although retopology would be the best/most logical solution here, you could try to use the pinch tool, which pinches/squeezes geometry, and hold  Shift  to do the reverse (spread out/smooths the geometry out). A subdivision modifier here would be impractical since your mesh is already pretty dense as shown in the image you've provided.
If the pinch too doesn't, I suggest you go straight to retopology. It's good practice to do so.


text:
Is there a way to blend vertice overlaps?
I'm trying to accurately deform a cylinder to show the riveting process from the inside of a blind insert. For that I've used a cylinder, cut it to shape with bool tool, added thickness with the solidify modifier (which can be manipulated in this state) then used shape keys to get it from it's origin state to deformed.

However, as soon as I hit a certain threshold, there are creases forming at the points where the vertices start to overlap that also show in render mode.

My model here is built from several cylinders that are merged together through linking the separate objects so the modifiers only affect the parts of the model they're assigned to. While render mode really nicely blends over the gaps between the separate parts, it does still show the creasing.
Since this is a major part in all of the inserts I'm trying to animate with Blender, this is a major hiccup for me.
Any ideas on how to fix this without needing to make the cylinder thickness baked in and then modulating all the vertices one by one?

There is another way to face this modeling.
Start with a 2D curve profile (Fillmode None) and sweep it into a cylindrical shape via screw modifier.
If the profile has a Shape key animation, the swept cylinder will show the changes.
You can have two duplicates acting as a caps (Fillmode Both) with the same Shape animation and the automatic triangulation being fine during the shape deformation.
In this example the riveted profile was drawn in Inkscape and imported into Blender. Then the profile was edited to an "unriveted" shape in Blender for the shape key animation.

I suppose the easiest way would be move vertices forward/backwards to camera so slightly, so that it would not be visible for viewer, but reduce z-fighting:


text:
Camera viewpoint moves to inside 3D object
I'm new to blender, I've checked other similar problems on this forum, however I dont see any that describe the problem I'm having.
I'm trying to change the viewpoint of the camera for an animated 3D model (glb) I'm editing.
In the viewport and the rendered image (Pic 1), it's fine, however when I export as glb and view in VR headset the viewpoint is now inside the model looking back (Pic 2).

I've tried changing so many things with no change in the final result. I'm sure it's something simple, but it's killing me!!
Please help!!

Any chance you have a second camera in your scene? The render view looks like it's from the perspective of the world origin - exactly where a new camera would be placed if it were added to the scene. OR, you may have accidentally used the "Make active camera" shortcut (Ctrl+Num0) on some other object (The bones perhaps). To fix it, select the camera you know is "good", and make it the active camera by pressing Ctrl+Num0 again.

Hi, thanks for your reply. Yes there's only 1 camera and I've set it as the active one. I agree it seems as though it thinks the viewpoint is at the centre of the object, but I dont know how to change it. I changed the cameras position over and over but it never changes the view in the output model.

I have the exact same problem with a different model. And have tried deselecting "local camera', but nothing changes in the output model.


text:
Ambient Occlusion map not ideal
In UV map editing I tried to bake an ambient occlusion texture, the baking is done but some of the parts of my object are not filled with the white color.
this is the object
In latest update, the top right rectangles in UV map is not filled properly

The blender file is:

Have you checked your normals?

It looks like there are one or more other objects being incorporated into the the lower part of your spaceships  AO bake.   In the Outliner,  (panel top right)   check that all the hidden objects are also set to be "Disabled in Render" ( little camera icon disabled.)

thanks @RobinBetts, This solved most of the issue but I still have the following problem the top-left four rectangles not getting filled in the UV map. I already checked the normals the issue was with the "Disable in Render"

thanks @3fingeredfrog can ya debug how the rectangles problem can be solved?

Perhaps, but only if you can share your .blend file and add a screenshot showing the problematic area of the UV map.   You can use Blend Exchange https://blend-exchange.com/  to add your .blend file to your original question.

@3fingeredfrog i've attached the .blend file to the post. thanks for taking the time to debug and help me as I'm new to UV editing and game dev Thank you so much Do you have a YouTube channel or anything? thanks in advance

@Jassim.. Your question is perfectly good, and well-put, but  after a while,  it and its answer may be closed as a duplicate.. this is an easy slip to make, but it is just a slip, and has cropped up a number of times before on BSE, in various guises. I hope you would understand that.

Baking is rendering. Anything set to render will be probed by the 'Ambient Occlusion' preset in the Bake panel.
It's possible for scene elements to be set to render, while not visible in the viewport. That is the case for many building meshes in your scene.. 'Floor and Ceiling' etc.
Switch off the rendering (the little camera icon) for all collections other than 'RocketParts' in your scene, and you will be good.
A way to debug quickly is to check out the scene, rendered, using an Ambient Occlusion node in your material. That has more options .. ray length, a 'Local Only' setting.. you can even plug that node straight into the Material Output, and bake 'Emission' from there, if you like.

thanks @RobinBetts but what's the reason for that to be not filled like other parts, now I only have to fill those four rectangles...how can I do that?

@JassimShaji  The ends of your struts are inside the body of the rocket, so they will show up black; probing rays from those shading-points won't get very far.. and that's how AO works.


text:
How to avoid other meshes when creating "cobblestone" with Geometry Nodes
Inspired by this popular CG Matter tutorial I set out to make my own object covered in cobblestone. With the method shown in the tutorial the individual stones interlock perfectly, making this technique different from randomly scattering objects.

However when trying to deal with objects protruding through the cobblestone surface I quickly ran out of ideas to avoid intersections. I would like the stones to stay clear and nicely "incorporate" the red protrusions.

I tried both the Raycast and the Geometry Proximity nodes in order to clear out space for my protruding objects but ultimately had no success, especially when trying to account for objects with varying sizes (compared to the "cell-size" of my cobblestone pattern).
The minimal working example can be downloaded here:

What about a boolean-difference operation between the pillars and your base object before applying the cobblestone transformation?

@JagJB good idea, I already tried that. However the boolean algorithm created "indentations" in my mesh. Manually deleting all points inside my red pillars would lead to huge gaps...

I kept going using the boolean approach and it worked :)
Here is the simple modification to get the result you're looking for I guess.
I scaled up the obstacles in the geonodes to get a nice gap with the stones :

Here is the file

Oh, using the boolean on the triangulated mesh is smart. Okay that should work, thanks a lot!


text:
Separate disconnected geometry with geometry nodes
Is it possible to separate geometry, that is not connected, with geometry nodes, similar to Separate -> By Loose Parts in Edit Mode?
Edit: Since I've been too vague with my intention during my initial question here is my concrete problem:
I have a mesh consisting of disconnected diagonal edge loops (created from Multiresolution modified sculpt, manipulated with Geometry Nodes; see image). Now I want to use the vertices in these loops as points to position instances of another mesh. However both the loops themselves as well as the vetices within the loops are way too dense and thus I would like to "unsubdivide" them.

My plan was to separate out each loop and delete some of them as well as dissolving a portion of the vertices within each loop by index.
However the "separation" part gives me some trouble.
I hope this makes my intent a bit more clear!

https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/83G5/?sorting=hot

You can't separate objects using geometry nodes, because it is a modifier, and modifiers can't create new objects, they can only modify the existing one.
There is a mesh island node, that allows to identify the separate parts of the mesh, so that you can use information to modify or delete separate mesh islands:

Update.
From your description, I believe that you want to do something like this:

Is that's right?

before another "knowitall" steals your answer....maybe it would be better to use a separate geometry node?

Don't know. It would be better if the answer had more information about what they try to achieve. But at least I have answered correctly. Good question is the half of the answer.

you are right. But he writes about "separate geometry" - not about giving separate materials.

But what does it mean separate in this context? Breaking into separate objects? Making separate instances? Apply different nodes on different parts? I've shown the node and added a minimal example how it works.

I think the answer is that it is not possible, because it's not possible to create several objects from an object with a geometry nodes modifier. (Separate > By loose parts)

Nice point, @Gorgious I've added it to post

@Crantisz I apologize for the confusion, I hope my edit helps.

@TheBeautifulOrc I've updated the post

@Crantisz Yep, that's exactly what I meant, however the second part is still missing. Do you know how I would go about deleting every n-th vertex within these separate "isles"?

quellenform has already posted a nice suggestion for this

@TheBeautifulOrc I do not understand this. Is this now about edges, faces, curves, or what question should be answered here !? ;-)

@quellenform it's complicated

@Crantisz ....Yes, looks like it :D

The only way I know of here with Geometry Nodes is to play about converting edges to curves.

If you have separated edges, then this is helpful.
Unfortunately, you didn't provide a blend file, so in this example I used a dummy that I created from a UV sphere.
You can then convert them to curves with Mesh to Curve.
These curves (segments) get their own index, which you can use to filter some out with the math node Modulo.
The remaining curves can be easily converted into curves with a lower resolution using Resample Curve.


text:
Rendering doesn't work after switching on the denoiser
Rendered the animation without denoising before and it was fine.
but i wanted to denoise it in the composite with nodes.
but when i rendered it it overrided the previous animation, plus nothing renders at all even image or animation.
Thank You.

Hi Bill, in it's current state this question is impossible to answer. Please provide further information: Which type of denoiser are you using (Intel or the built in solution)? Does the image render again, when you turn denoising off? What are your render settings? How does your hardware look like?

The built in one. No the image or animation never renders ever, just black even if denoising is off. It rendered nicely earlier (2 hour render on cycles 150 frames btw) but when i tried to denoise w/ nodes in the compositing tab it renders blackness in like a second.

FYI the denoising node in the compositor is not the built in denoiser. That node is called the Intel-AI-Denoiser.


text:
What is the position of my keyframe animated object?
I'm an experienced developer but completely inexperienced with 3d modeling and python.
I have a modeled a Rubik's cube containing 26 (center omitted) cubes where the center cube, if I had one, would be at 0,0,0. When I rotate a face with keyframe animation, all of those 6 cubes report a location of 0,0,0. I think that is because it is reporting their pivot which I have set to the 3d cursor at 0,0,0.
somecube.matrix_local appears to be interesting but the documentation does not say what the return values actually represent and I cannot see the pattern I would expect on the results of adjacent cubes.
All I want to know is how I can find cubes by name on a certain "face" of the Rubik's cube. So all cubes on x = 0 or all cubes on x = 1 or all cubes on x = -1 and likewise for y and z. Or more generally, how do I get the center coordinates of an object that has been animated by keyframes?
If the object has not been animated, the location is obvious but I'm lost once I rotate anything around 0,0,0 which is where I set the 3d cursor.
for reference, cubes (each size of 2) that I would expect to be at (2,2,2) , (2,0,2) and (2,-2,2) show:
>>> ob1.matrix_local
Matrix(((1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)))

>>> ob7.matrix_local
Matrix(((1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 2.0),
        (0.0, 1.0, 0.0, -2.000000238418579),
        (0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.999999761581421),
        (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)))

>>> ob4.matrix_local
Matrix(((1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)))

HI.  The pivot point setting has no influence on the object matrices.   Are there any constraints or parenting involved? Are you keyframing location?  FWIW I would set up to  only keyframe rotation. The locations are set by the size of the cube. Each mini cube is one of  three types, corner, face centre, edge centre.  Make all 3 positive quadrant cubes  with origins at (0, 0, 0) (or positioned and parented to empty at (0,0, 0) etc.) Others are a mirror copy across the three axes. (akin to 90 degree rotation steps)

@batFINGER there is no parenting and I don't think there are any constraints (I'm not even sure what that is). Only rotation is keyframed, not location. The Google has failed me in figuring out what the 16 floats returned from matrix_local represent. Should I even be looking at that?


text:
Array tool not working properly - Blender 3.4
I'm trying to make a tyre model in blender, following a tutorial video exactly. I'm not sure what causes my version of blender to do this (first image) and not that (second image). My settings are exactly what it says on the video, except I'm on a different version.
Tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a90cYLEbpi4 27:30

Firstly add an image showing Blender's complete window which you can do via the Window > Save Screenshot menu in Blender, and secondly we have no idea what tutorial you're trying to follow so please add a link to it at the postion where you're having problems. (You can do that, at least under Windows, by pausing your video then right-clicking on it and selecting "Copy video URL at current time".)

I'm not sure how to edit questions on this I just signed up but this is the tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a90cYLEbpi4

please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

@GUPPYFISH1030 There should be an Edit button just below your question. What timestamp in the video does Darrin detail how to array the tire tread? As moonboots says, we'll problably need to see your file. You can share it via https://blend-exchange.com/ following the instructions there to copy the link to it and then edit your question and paste the link into it.