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Render time stuck on "synchronizing object" with extreme memory usage spike
I am using Blender 2.91 with Windows 10. I am using the Cycles Rendering Engine on my GPU which is an RTX 2070.
I have a project that I'm working on that takes an incredibly long time to render. I am doing all of the obvious things to reduce render times (ex. lowing the sample rate, decreasing the number of light bounces, changing the tile size to 512px because I am using an RTX 2070 card, turning off reflective and refractive caustics, checking "render region," turning down the number of max subdivisions, etc...). Even with all of these time saving efforts, I can't get a frame to render in less than about 8 minutes which is way too long considering that I might need to render a 1000+ frame animation in this scene.
I noticed that the lengthiest process for rendering seems to be called "synchronizing object." There are a lot of objects in this scene with many different somewhat hi resolution textures. Is there a way to simply bake every object together to cut down on rendering time? Even if that's not possible is there any way to quickly sum all of the objects together of print them as a single mesh object or something to make rendering this scene less computationally expensive?
Also, Idk if this is relevant or not but my memory is peaking at over 21GB which seems crazy on account of my video card is only 8GB and my computer only has 16GB of RAM total.
Update
I deleted about half of the materials and render time is FANTASTICALLY short! It still looks great even with only half of the materials present. The only problem now is that I can't add additional textures. I am trying to change the color and material of the main door to a wood material but the door material won't change at all. It just keeps the material of the wall for some reason. Any thoughts on why this is happening? I've included the Blender file and and a screenshot.

Here is the Blender File.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ik7SoVbX7c1LiEyj1An1GKJiyRTOnoCk/view?usp=sharing

Duplicate your blend file, remove all textures then test. Unsubdivide all meshes then test. Upload blend file so we can help troubleshoot.

Great advice! I tried deleting all textures but I think I messed up because I just deleted about half of the materials, but that DRAMATICALLY reduced render times. Now it renders in incredible time with what looks like half of the textures/materials still present. I actually really like the file like this so I'm satisfied to keep it this way. The only thing now is that I'm trying to change the material for the big main doorway and for some reason nothing's working. I will upload the file and update my question.

Close to 2 million faces, high levels of subdivision surface modifiers, large textures 2K  and 4k... all of that uses resources. You can adjust your ambitions to the computer power at your disposal and otpimize your scene, or you need to get the hardware that supports the complexity of the scene. Fast, Cheap or Quality. Choose any two.

Close to 2 million faces, high levels of subdivision surface modifiers, large textures 2K and 4k... all of that uses resources from your computer and eventually you will run out of them.
Read:
Why does Blender use so much memory for large textures?
Using 4k textures on something that will only be a few hundred pixels tall on the screen is wasteful.
Solutions:
You can adjust your ambitions to the computer power at your disposal and otpimize your scene, or you need to get the hardware that supports the complexity of the scene.
Fast, Cheap or Quality, Choose any two


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Blender 3d NURBS Path objects move
I was trying to create train tracks using NURBS path and everything looks to be great till I press play.
As soon as I play it in Blender Game Engine, the objects are no longer merged and have a clear separation (making it unrealistic).
I believe the problem is that one of the object moves till it reaches the other ones edges, but what I want is that they should not realign themselves.
Here is the blend file.

Recalculate your normals View 3D > Edit Mode > Toolbar > Shading/UVs > Recalculate Normals

Tried Merge and recalculated the norms and nothing works

Double check and visually make sure your normals are right View 3D > Edit Mode > Select All Faces > N-Panel > Mesh Display > Face Normals

It finally worked! I was trying to recalculate normals of the base but I was not recalculating for the tracks which were being duplicated. So the steps are the same for all objects and related objects to the curve
View 3D > Edit Mode > Toolbar > Shading/UVs > Recalculate Normals

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Is Blender 3.4 unable to open or save blend files with a different extension than .blend?
I'm using 2.93 on a regular bases, our unity workflow relies on the fact that we rename .blend files to .uniblend in order to avoid unity to import them while still being visible in Unity explorer.
However it seems that blender 3.4 is unable to open them with file association nor see them from the open dialogue. The same way we can't save files without the .blend suffixe being always added.
Is there a workaround this ?

As expected 2.93 can't see them with a blend file renamed with that extension here athough you can set Windows to open those files with  Blender. Even after selecting blender 3.4 it opens them in 2.83 here though! You can get .blend1 backup files to open from the file selector by checking them in the filter setting but not to see files with your extension in any Blender version.

Okay, my .uniblend are associated with blender 2.93 so indeed I didn't try opening them through the dialog.  however, I did try with a .uniblend34 extension to associate with 3.41 and I was unable to open my files (scene opens blank in blender, if renamed to .blend it can open normally). Hence the question for why is it different between 2.93 and 3.4

No idea I'm afraid. There are no developers here so you'd have to ask them directly on a Blender site but I'd guess that the answer will be that they only support opening of files with the correct extension.

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


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Nodes in the node editor are different than on tutorial
I'm new to blender and I'm trying to use the Volumetric light, I have watched some tutorials and none serves me, this for example
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67N7778WjLk
I use the version 2.72 b but when the boy tutorial, enter the node editor does not appear to me like I needed as indicated in the photo, someone can recommend me someone who can help me.
https://youtu.be/67N7778WjLk?t=3m36s

and me neither, not shown me the same components in the menu "add" in the node editor.
Thanks and sorry for my bad English.

Change Blender Render to Cycles. Top Right corner in your screen.

@LukeD oh man that really helped me, if you want to put an answer I would accept your answer

I have made an answer ;)

Just to remove this question from unanswered list.
To have the same settings as in provided tutorial change rander engine from Blender Render to Cycles.

authors: Лада Подмаркова

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


text:
How can I select multiple vertices and create faces with a single command
If I am not wrong once I saw a tutorial, in which something similar was done, but I do not remember, as it was, nor, the tutorial that was, I leave some captures to better understand what I want to do.
I hope you can to understand me and I'm sorry for my bad english.

I know I can do this by selecting the vertices and pressing the f

But how can I do it by selecting multiple verties and doing them all at once, with a single command.

There is a command called Grid Fill which sort of does this, might be what you are looking for.
There is also an add-on included with Blender called F2 which (amoung other things) makes filling rows of faces easier. Have a look for some demos of how to use this on Youtube, it is a big time saver.

Thank you, seems to be what I'm looking for, but I can not make it work, maybe because of my model, this bad? I install the addons, and pulse f several times but nothing happens, can you help me with that?

Do not worry and I solve it, I was selecting it wrong after applying the first face

You saved my day F2 is very cool.

Glad to hear it :-)


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How I can rotate `unwrap`, exactly?
How I can rotate unwrap, exactly, for example some menu or box to enter for example 90 degrees ?. This is possible?.
Sorry for my English I hope you can understand me.
I leave a picture hope it will help me understand.

Blender version : 2.72

Here is the solution, -> http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/40320/rotating-uv-with-precision?rq=1  not before I found with the search, but not if delete this answer or mark it as duplicate, I do not know how these cases are handled in Blender Exchange


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Xparts and Yparts Blender 2.63 or 2.72
It was looking like dividing by parts, a scene for rendering and reading this,
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Manual/Render/Options
see Xparts and Yparts but on blender 2.4, but the interface has changed I currently have the 2.63 and download the, 2.73 and see but I can not see the menu for Xparts and Yparts, someone can say me if these options are even, and if I could show where.
Thanks.

This change was made in version 2.65, described in the release notes here under 'User Interaction'. You now have to define the size of the tiles by pixels in the performance panel, instead of defining how many tiles. For example, setting a tile to be 100px x 100px when rendering a 1000px x 1000px image would results in 10 tiles by 10 tiles.
However, I personally like to also have the option to define by the number of tiles, using the old way as you describe. I wrote a small addon which restores this functionality which can be found on github here, which adds back render parts options at the bottom of the performance panel:


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How do I make hair collide with a mesh?
I just downloaded the release candidate for blender 2.74 because it said on the release notes that it has  "Support for hair collision with meshes" and I would like to make it so that my hair particles stay inside of a hood that I modeled for my character. If anyone could give me insight on how exactly I can accomplish this effect it would be greatly appreciated.

Isn't it enable hair dynamics and turn on collision for the other object in physics?

You can't just turn on collision on the object and expect it to work.
Here is how u do it: first of all create your hair particle system.
Next turn on Hair Dynamics and turn on collision on the object.
Now go to the mesh with collision on and turn up the "soft body and cloth" outer and inner paramaters to say around 5 for both.
Now you can go back to the hair and turn up the steps to about 40 in the Dynamics tab. Now you should have good collision without the other nonsense. Also be careful when changing the other paramaters, it can slow everthing down tremendously.

Did you maybe mean 0.5 for soft body and cloth? At least in Blender 2.77 both values cannot be set to anything higher than 1. Maybe this was different when you wrote your answer?

Yeah this is a really good question. Out of the four main physics units I've tried, them being Clothify, Soft Body, Particle Emission and Hair, the hair seems to be the type with the least consistency.
In the broadest terms, you would think the problem posed above would produce no problem, what with the way the system has handled during numerous tests over the past few days. Even in Particle Edit mode, moving a hair strand across a solid plane or face will cause the hair to refuse to pass through; instead it will stick to the surface. Whether there is an issue with the physics engine that has yet to be addressed or something we're both missing, I don't know.
As for the best solution to your issue, the only thing I can come up with would be to duplicate the objects for the moment, add a "collision" physics to both the body and clothing objects and then let the simulation run for a frame or two. Then, with the particle system selected, go into particle edit mode and start dragging, preening, cutting and replacing hairs in the system in keeping with the desired outcome. It would probably be best if any "quality" values in the particle system are kept as high as your system can handle and the number of segments likewise.
In addition to this, under the "Hair Dynamics", try adjusting the mass down as well as the stiffness and damping up to reduce too much movement on the ends. If all else fails, go into weight paint mode on the mesh's particle system and start increasing the weight on the more annoying and wayward hair strands.
Hope this helps.


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How should I apply a sub-dermal skin map in cycles?
I have been following this tutorial in zbrush and I am going to bring the model and textures into blender but I was wondering how can I apply a subdermal map like they made in cycles and what is the purpose of it? Thanks!


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How can I turn this math formula into a 3d model?
how can i turn a 3d model made in surfer into a 3d file that i can print

Yes. Just start a new model in Blender.  There are plenty of tutorials available on the web site that rhymes with noonube.  There are even simple snow man tutorials.  Surfer is not necessary for this simple model.  Tutorials ...Blender Mesh Modeling.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/74410/graph-in-blender-a-function-of-two-variables/74412#74412 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/73741/how-can-i-create-a-3d-curve-saddle-shape/73752#73752

I guess you could, but I can't think of efficient way of doing it. Your snowman is a procedural geometry, when most of the 3d computer graphics are based on triangles.
I think problem will be the precision, especially those equations describe volume rather than surface.
I've made quick test for the lemon from surfer example:
import bpy
import math

for x_ in range (-20,20):
    for y_ in range (-20,20):
        for z_ in range (-20,20):
            x = x_*0.05
            y = y_*0.05
            z = z_*0.05
            left = x**2 + z**2
            right = y**3*(1-y)**3

            if left-right<=0.05:
                bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(segments=3, ring_count=3, radius=0.005, enter_editmode=False, align='WORLD', location=(x, y, z))

you could probably generate a point cloud, and then use Meshlab or CloudCompare to reconstruct the mesh from point cloud

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


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How do I layer video clips of different resolutions within a Scene that has a single, consistent Render resolution?
I have video clips of different resolutions I want to layer within the same Scene / Render Size. What are preferred methods to accomplish this?
I've been able to scale individual Movie strips by adding and adjusting a Transform Effect strip to each. For each source clip, this involved manually getting resolution info, calculating the scale relative to the Scene dimensions, and adding these pixel dimensions to each clips' Transform Effect.
If this is the preferred method to accomplish this, 1) can I access source Movie strip resolution outside of Sequencer Context Menu ... Movie Strip ... Set Render Size?
UPDATE: The Media Info Extractor add-on addresses my strip resolution question with Source info added to the Strip panel.

2) When I create a Meta Strip from the source video and Transform strip, is there a way to access the Transform strips' scale values without UnMeta-ing?
Accessing the scale value of the Transform strip within the Meta Strip allows me to adjust the proportions of each Movie strip within the Scene dimensions. UnMeta-ing strips causes loss of adjustments made to the Meta Strip -- e.g. Compositing, Offset, and Crop values. UnMeta-ing strips can also throw off Sequencer Track order which throws off layer hierarchies.
This q re mixing framerates didn't address my use case. I'm delving into the Compositor and Crop nodes while hoping I can remain in the VSE

Suggestion. State your goal clearly.  What was successful and what was not successful ... spelled out. A specific question with a question mark would help.  I do see one question there .. but there seems to be a lot of room for interpretation.  Why do you want to  access to the scale value? if you care to explain.

Thank you for your suggestion and feedback. I will update my title as an explicit question and spell more out in the post.


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Particles Rendered from Collection Are Missing Their Material
I made a Blender File where I'm trying to emit "cold sparks" from a simple sphere. I created a sphere over a plane with a collision physics simulation on the plane. I put a particle system on the emitter sphere and set the render settings to "Collection" and selected "Embers" which contained my sparks objects. It looks like this:

I made the material for each ember a glowing yellow/organge that darkens with time.

But the embers that are emitted from the emitter sphere don't present with this glowing orange-ish material. They appear to not render AT ALL against the green plane (which is weird), and when visible, the embers present with the default white-ish material:
Can anyone show me how to get my particles to render with the correct material?

This cannot work, because lifetime and age are counted in frames.
But colorramp does take values only from 0 to 1.
So you should divide instead of add that values.
Also be aware that this node (particle info) only works in cycles.


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Bevel tool not working
I was trying to bevel some corner vertices on a plane mesh. I hit some key accidentally (not sure what) and now instead of shaping my corner, the bevel tool makes a grid of vertices when I use the Ctrl+Shift+B shortcut. I'm not sure what I have done, but I'd like to undo it.

Can u add an image of the issue to picturise your problem?

have a look in your keymap and try and alot any other key fro beveling

Most likely you enable Only Verties mode of Boolean operation. See https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/meshes/editing/edge/bevel.html#options

@Nxdhin2005 Your edit suggestion is good, but 'Bevel tool not working' is not descriptive of the problem. We probably need pictures to better understand the issue to be able to give it a better title.

Sorry and Thank you  again for the information. I will take that into consideration before editing any post on the future. I wanted to make the title smaller

back from work, now with a screenshot of my problem. ctrl+shift+B enters only vertecies mode by default. so the issue isnt that nothing is affected, but rather that where the corner of this plane would be beveled away, instead i create a grid of Vertecies and Edges that i would have to remove manually

Make sure to apply scale to the object (Object mode > select the object > Ctrl+A). Then bevel. So far seems like beveling the corner vertex should already give you smooth corner

I think that might have solved it. Beveling seems to work fine now. Thank you!


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Experimenting with creating an opal-like material (UPDATE)
I've been wanting to create a material that attempts to mimic the look of a white opal gemstone. The biggest issue I am having is figuring out how to effectively create the streaky rainbow effect on the surface. I want the streaks to have a color-shifting look that reacts to light similar to holographic materials, and it needs to be isolated out by a noise texture mask. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Some examples of what I'm trying to achieve:

EDIT: I hunted around online and I found this post: https://blenderartists.org/t/opal-material/1156421/13
There is a user named JettG_G in the comments that posted a .blend file for a procedural material that pulls of the look of a polished opal incredibly well. I'm including the link to the post in case anyone is interested in the material.

Hi :). Could you please add some images of what you have in mind?

These are a few examples I've found that I think demonstrate the effect very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVHWtXzqZoE&ab_channel=S%C3%A9bastiaanStevens

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/SOs2EJ3OszE

@RobinSebbag Hi. Please don't post essential information like links, file downloads or additional details in the comments section where it can be easily missed. Instead edit them into your original post with the [Edit] button above. Comments are transitory by nature, are hard to index or search for, and may be erased at any moment.

While files, images, and external videos or links may be helpful additions they should not be the only way to obtain information about your issue. Don't make understanding your question rely on downloading a file, watching a video or visiting an external site. Use the builtin tools to upload images or gifs, along with thoroughly explaining the problem in written form so it can be indexed and searched for thus helping future visitors with similar issues.


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Using the knife tool on a plane (mesh) makes the cut incorrectly connect to the vertices irregularly
I am a blender newbie and have been trying to figure out how to correctly cut a plane so I can mask a foreground object in my project. Whenever I use the knife tool to make a cut into the plane, points connect with the top vertices of the entire plane which messes up my cut. Even if you don’t understand my specific problem, walking through how to cut this step-by-step would be greatly appreciated!

can you include an imagine of what you mean by "messes up your cut"? what exactly goes wrong?

I added an image, and I want to know why the points of the cut don’t connect in the order and places I specified.

It looked to me like you are trying to create a cut that doesnt start or end at an edge. the knife tool doesnt let you cut a shape out of the mdidle of the face, you have to start on one side and end on another. if you don't, it will try to do it for you by connecting to the corners like you saw.

I cant reproduce your issue, just with plane in edit mode press K (Knife), clicking similar shape, enter ... works fine. BTW why to create hole into plane as mask? Why don't cut out surface around? Can you share your simplified blend to let as better understand what are you trying achieve? Thank you https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com Also for what are keyframes used?

BTW2 Im not a Windows user, but shortcut Win+Shift+S does screenshots under Win10 I guess.

Alright, I honestly don't understand what you are asking. But a quick way to get any flat shape cutout is to delete all but one vertex. Then you can press E to extrude another vertex. These will be automatically connected. Make sure you are in vertex select mode by pressing 1 on the top row, or by pressing the vertex button. Then at the end, you can select your first and last vertex and press F to merge them. Then take all the vertices one side and press E to extrude them and they should extrude into faces. Now you can flatten all the vertices by pressing "S" for scale and pressing Zero. This will automatically shrink all your points into one, press either "X, Y, OR Z" until you get the one that you want. Pressing these will scale only on those axes.


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bmesh - extrude face and end up with closed mesh
When you extrude the only face of a plane via the GUI you get a (closed) cube. If you do the same thing using bmesh you get a cube that is open on the bottom side.

I am trying to achieve the normal result through bmesh. (using regular operators is not an option because the mesh is still not linked to the scene). Right now I duplicate the original face before extrusion, extrude, and then remove doubles.
allfaces = bm.faces[:]
bmesh.ops.duplicate(bm, geom=allfaces)
r = bmesh.ops.extrude_discrete_faces(bm, faces=allfaces)
bmesh.ops.translate(bm, vec=Vector((0,0,height)), verts=r['faces'][0].verts)
bmesh.ops.remove_doubles(bm, verts=bm.verts[:], dist=0.01)

This however doesn't strike me as a very elegant way to do it. Is there some other way?

You don't need to duplicate the geometry prior to extruding (this will remove the need for removing doubles as well), and using bmesh.ops.extrude_face_region is what you're looking for to generate a closed mesh from the extruded face/s.

This worked code fine with a 1-face plane with its sole face selected in edit mode:
import bpy, bmesh
from mathutils import Vector

bm      = bmesh.from_edit_mesh( bpy.context.object.data )
newGeom = bmesh.ops.extrude_face_region( bm, geom = bm.faces, use_select_history = True )

bmesh.ops.translate( bm, vec = Vector((0,0,1)), verts = bm.select_history[0].verts )

bmesh.update_edit_mesh( bpy.context.object.data )

And here is the code that I finally used, and that doesn't require the vertices to be selected.
r = bmesh.ops.extrude_face_region(bm, geom=bm.faces[:])
verts = [e for e in r['geom'] if isinstance(e, bmesh.types.BMVert)]
bmesh.ops.translate(bm, vec=Vector((0,0,height)), verts=verts)


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how can I invert the weight paint of dynamic paint?
I have a surface with all vertex weith set to 1, when the object set to brush in dynamic paint came over, the vertex must be setted to weight 0.
Any solution?

In Weight Tools panel in the left, there's a option "Invert", it solves your problem?

I need the inversion for animation

Use a VertexWeightMix modifier to subtract your non-inverted (dynamic weight painted) vertex group from your base vertex group, effectively inverting the animated (weight painted) vertex group.
Example: I have a "pinned group" that is all set to 1. I dynamic painted a "paint group" that paints 1's on a base model weight of 0 (red painting on blue).  Then, I use VetrexWeightMix modifier and subtract B from A, and now I have the animation of blues being painted on red instead of the red painted on blue.  I hope that was clear enough.


text:
How can get ad image data without for, but with a custom ID prop?
I want to manage a list of image in a collection, but I need to search the image in bpy.images.data, but is a Panel class, so it make a lot of refresh.
I've create a ID prop to bpy.type.Image, so each image ave a unique ID wich I assign in other process.
The collections prop have the ID of the image, bat the only way is to make a for:
name = "no image"
images = bpy.data.images
if bpy.context.scene.paintPBR_index > -1:
    for img in images:
        if img.id_pbrpainter == layer.image_ID and img.id_pbrpainter != 0:
            #print("get_image")
            name = img.name

    return name

There is a way to search the image in bpy.data.images by the custom prop?

Can you expand on the code,  The code you posted will only return the name of the last matching image.  Later versions of blender allow an object reference to be saved in a groupproperty, could be useful in this case, I think.

Are you saying about the 2.8?

Available in 2.79 The example here uses bpy.types.Object whereas you would use image type.


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Cloth simulation stuck at frame #20 for a while before moving to the next frame
I set cloth simulation and hit the play button, but the timeframe indicator goes from frame #0 to #19 in the speed 1f / 0.5s. And when it is at #20, it stops there. If I leave it and come back 30 minutes of 1 hour later, the cloth simulation will be done. But why it happens? Anyhow to fix it?
I use Ryzen 7 3700x and RTX 2080ti.

Hey there and welcome, while there are not endless possible reasons, the problem atm. is that we have not enough clues to go on. So may i suggest that you add a picture of the 19th frame where it seems to start getting problematic. Also which version of Blender are you using, and in general, a bit more details regarding the simulation you run to allow us making a picture of the situation would be nice. Based on experience i can though give you a tip that you could try. Selecting the object in edit mode, "A" to select all, followed by "Alt"+"M" -> "by distance", to get rid of double vertices.

Thank you for your tip but it is not the solution. I added the picture of the 19th frame. I use Blender v2.82. Every setting of the simulation is default. Model's body is the collision, the shirt and the pant are separated, each has its own cloth simulation. The shirt has like 7115 vertices and the pant has 347.


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Blender bone origin gone wrong
How to set the bone origin of rotation from picture 1 to picture 2? The origin of bone is set to the Grid Axis' root, not the root of the bone itself

It sounds like you changed the origin position of a bone to something other than its head, which I thought was impossible. Regardless, can you provide a mesh-less version of the armature to study (mesh-less to protect your model, but be sure to “purge all”)?

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

This is the mesh-less file. But without mesh, the rig is back to normal like the picture 2, I don't understand why

Probably you have globally set the transform pivot point on the 3D cursor instead of the default median point (check the 4 buttons on the center of the header of the 3D window).

@joshsanfelici yes that is it. Thank you.


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How do you generate stacked fonts in blender?
There are certain Indian languages like Malayalam where there are stacked characters. The letters un-stacks itself and the individual letters stay nearby. I am using Blender 2.8 on an Ubuntu Machine. In the Libre office, the font appears correctly. However, in Blender, it does not.
Any help on this, much appreciated.
To describe more...
"ട്ട " - This is the letter. It is actually formed by using the letter "ട" two times. In the Libre office, it appears properly like this. But when you add the letter in Blender it appears like this "ട് ട". I was able to recreate this by having a space between the two letters. If it is not there, the letter immediately forms the first stacked letter. In Ubuntu, I am using "Swanalekha", the language setting where you can type Malayalam by transliteration.

However, it should be appearing like this.

Would you mind to provide ant image reference or screenshot? It's hard to imagine what exactly you want and how that can be resolve in Blender

I just added more information. Kindly have a look. Thank you.

Ahh... It might be the Font Ligature issue, Blender might not be able to enable the functionality of the ligature.

Possible workaround: Use an application that displays them correctly export it to SVG or PDF if unavailable, convert to path in Inkscape and import as SVG

Thank you all so much for the replies. (I am an absolute beginner here, I do not know how to mark as useful or so. I guess I do not have the privilege now.)

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos - I tried this and it worked.


text:
Using one calibration matrix to render different objects's images?
I have a deep learning project that I need to generate 1500 synthetic images by Blender for 15 classes' objects with 100 for each of them. My purpose is to make my synthetic images as similar as possible to the real objects' images.
What I think is to use camera calibration to find the real world's camera matrix, then set the camera matrix in Blender.
Since I am quite new to Blender, my questions are:

Once I set up the camera's matrix, can it be used for all my objects in Blender? I took photos of the objects in the real world in the way that keep the camera being fixed, no matter the angle or its position. Then I took photos for each of the objects and I tried to keep them stay in the same position. But there much be some slight difference in the position and also due to their shapes are not same. Or do I need to find each one's camera matrix in the real world then apply in Blender?

If it works, could you tell me what is the Python script to set up the camera matrix in Blender?
Thanks.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=camera%20matrix

Yes, thanks. I also found them. But there seems no answer to my second question.

Hi. Please only ask one question at a time. You are welcome to ask multiple questions but as separate posts. I suggest editing your post using the [edit] link below it to reduce it to one question and ask the other questions separately. Thanks.


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Hide Transform Widgets Display Panel

Greetings. Is there a way to hide this Transform Widgets Display Panel within the 3D Viewport, using python or otherwise? Also get it to stretch along it's width wider than it will go? I have multiple 3D viewports I'm using (in different tabs), so I only want it hidden in one of them. Also, I have a custom panel underneath it, I would like that to stay visible. Blender 2.83.3

Press T and it should go away.

T hides it, as well as the custom Panel that I made, which I don't want. I'm looking to do it in Python

@Increality Sorry, I don't know anything about python.

@Increality, or at least not how to code in it!


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cannot export .glb with material setting like specular
When I export the scene as glTF 2.0 file format, it exports it with textures, but without any material information like specular-ness. I literally set it to 0 in principled BSDF, but when it's exported as glTF 2.0 .glb file it exports without that material setting.

Above is my node settings in shading tab.

And this is the result, which shows it exported without material information.
Thanks in advance.
**Solved, Thanks!

glTF 2.0's core material system uses the metallic + roughness PBR system.  You are correct that the specular channel is not currently included.  This may change in a future version of Blender, as there is a newer glTF extension proposal for including it inside of the metal/rough workflow.  But it could be some time before that appears in Blender's importer/exporter for glTF.
In the meantime, for this model you may be able to work around this by setting Roughness to 1.0.  That should make the material diffuse enough to not show any specular reflection.


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Merging two bones that are children of 'one' parent
enter image description hereThere are two child bones - sleeve bone, hand bone.
And there is a parent bone - arm bone
And the sleeve bone and hand bone both are one down below from arm bone. which means they are direct child of arm bone.
I don't know how to merge these two bones into one, while automatically keeping the two bones' parent relationship to mesh into one bone that just has been made.
In internet search, they say press Alt+M or just merge, but it won't work as what it says, I'm guessing because these two bones I'm trying to merge together aren't a parent-child relationship. I should not delete any bone, since it will mess up the armarture's parenting mesh, and to re-parent mesh to changed armarture, it will take so many time.

Hi Shinhu, I see you have tagged your question with inverse-kinematics, how is inverse kinematics related to your question?

In Blender there is no way to merge bones. You can only delete either bone or change the parent relationship.

Hello. Sorry, the reason why I added 'ik' is... because the final aim for this is to make a arm able to do inverse-kinematic. but since this bone has some parallel children like sleeve and hand, when I try to 'copy rotation' together with 'Inverse kinematic' constraint to a same bone, matching two constraints to the same target bone, it goes weirdly freaking out. I don't know why. I'll add more screenshots and a link that I watched for tutorial learning.

if you want to delete, let say, bone1, and you want to keep, let say, bone2, with influence of bone1 being given to bone2, you can delete bone1, then go in the Properties panel > Object Data > Vertex Groups, select bone1 group, press Select, select bone2 group, press Assign, now the vertex group that was linked to bone1 is linked to bone2... is it what you want?

YES! Wow, I really never thought I could visually see and keep the bones' vertexes like that. I should go watch more videos about vertex group. Question solved. Thank you so much. I also removed the ik tag. I'll keep this in mind.

If you want to delete, let say, bone1, and you want to keep, let say, bone2, with influence of bone1 being given to bone2, you can delete bone1, then go in the Properties panel > Object Data > Vertex Groups, select bone1 group, press Select, select bone2 group, press Assign, now the vertex group that was linked to bone1 is linked to bone2.


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Texture paint not working on sculpt Blender 2.8
So I have followed many tutorials on how to paint textures and it does work in simple objects, but not on a this sculpt. I can paint vertices and weight but not texture. I have tried to change to edit mode and back like suggested here: https://blenderartists.org/t/not-again-cannot-texture-paint-in-3d-viewport/532884 , no luck.

I can't paint in 3D or UV
I see the cursor I see my texture in the same color
it is connected to the model
I can flood fill and change
the color of everything (again proving that the texture is linked)
Mask is not activated
my normals are correct (I can not paint inside or outside)

but the brush does nothing.
/edit: here is the file as requested

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

@moonboots, Thank you for mentioning that. I have uploaded the file and attached it to the main post

There might be a new way to paint in 2.8 but for the moment your object doesn't have any material, so create a basic node chain like Image Texture (with your "main Okulossos Paint" image loaded) > Base Color input of a Principled BSDF > Material Output.
Now you still won't be able to paint, it's because you've opened a completely black texture for your brush, so close it and you'll have access to the normal color palet:

Thank you for the answer, but I can't really figure out what you mean. I can't find the nodes you are talking about. I checked tutorials on this, but they also give no indication of how this is done. Could you give me a bit more information?

The nodes are in the Shader Editor window. You'll easily find tutorials on this topic, maybe for a former version of Blender but it hasn't changed a lot, example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNxmh5UVi08  or  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FobUOuISak

ah, shader, got it. The icon looks very different in my version. that is why I could not find it.


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Why does it seem my skeleton is working fine in Blender but it completely fails in UE4?

I am very new to blender but after spending a few days I feel like I've finally given the mesh good weight painting. I can move around the joints and while there are a few flaws in it, it shouldn't nearly as bad as it is in UE4. Note that the left is a photo from a pose, not an animation, I'm not sure if that makes a difference.
Here is the file I'm using. In it is Buzz and also the model with the Mixamo animation I'm trying to use for Buzz. I couldn't find how to use that exact animation on Buzz, but I would really like to, because I could then determine if this is an issue with the animation or an issue between the programs.
It's one solid mesh, pretty sure I'm using default settings, except for turned off the leaf bones. The bones have the weight painting on very close to the bones, except for the chest because Buzz's chest isn't that flexible, but that shouldn't be affecting the legs which work perfectly fine. I think it's worth noting that I am also able to bend Buzz into poses in UE4, so it appears this issue only comes up when animating.
Any ideas?

"Note that the left is a photo from a pose" - which photo? There aren't any in this question.

Thanks for letting me know, I've added them back in.


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My Cloth Sim with Pressure is Acting very Unusually
So I've been making this scene with some balloons. They have been absolutely fine until now. The sim plays through absolutely fine (sort of) and then the 2nd time around, even if I bake the sim, it starts going all crazy and i have no idea why. I think it's a bug. I've made the scene exactly the same before, it had self collision and collision with other objects and they were all interacting fine. Then all of a sudden the animation wasn't playing back and kept crashing blender. So I remade this scene and now this is happening.
Here's a link to the blend file
And Here's a link to a video of the problem: https://vimeo.com/549503971/9e965b00bd
Here's a link to another video with exactly the same setup and it's working fine: https://vimeo.com/549505660
Hope someone can help because it's driving me nuts. Remade this project a few times and goes fine for a while then starts going nuts for some reason.
Many thanks!

Hi Arta, you should use https://blend-exchange.com/ to upload your blend files. and IF you provide a link to your google drive - you should NOT let us ask for permission ....you want help, right!? so make it easy for us!

@Chris thank you, I've just replaced the file. Apologies, never done this before! Hope you can help!

i got a "good result" by changing this:

change back gravity on "F" to 1 and applied scale for your cloth object

change gravity speed z on world settings to 10

changed pressure to .1

then i tapped delete all bakes, and bake

got this:


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Using bpy in a standalone python script dies when rendering
EDIT (Solution):
I was able to fix this by adding the following line:
bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'

This works fine for me as I need to use the cycles engine anyways
Original Post:
I'm writing a standalone python script to render .OBJ files automatically, without a .blend file or anything.  I installed bpy 2.82 on my windows machine using the instructions found here.  And I have python 3.7.9 installed.
Currently, as just a test to get my bearings, I tried the following code to try to setup a simple scene, load in a .OBJ, and render it out:
    import bpy
    import os
    from math import radians

    maplet_path = 'obj_files\\bunny.obj'
    image_out_path = 'render.png'

    # Create a Scene:
    scene       = bpy.data.scenes.new("Scene")
    camera_data = bpy.data.cameras.new("Camera")
    light_data  = bpy.data.lights.new(name="Light", type='SUN')

    # Import the maplet data:
    local_path = os.getcwd()
    bpy.ops.import_scene.obj(filepath=os.path.join(local_path,maplet_path))
    scene.render.filepath = os.path.join(local_path,image_out_path)
    scene.render.image_settings.file_format='PNG'

    # Get handles for all objects:
    maplet = bpy.context.selected_objects[0]
    scene = bpy.data.scenes.new("Scene")
    camera = bpy.data.objects.new("Camera", camera_data)
    sun    = bpy.data.objects.new(name="Light", object_data=light_data)

    # Setup camera parameters:
    scene.render.resolution_x = 1920
    scene.render.resolution_y = 1080
    camera.location = (-2.0, 3.0, 3.0)
    camera.rotation_euler = ([radians(a) for a in (422.0, 0.0, 149)])

    # Setup scene:
    sun.location = (2.0,2.0,2.0)
    sun.rotation_euler = (radians(10), radians(15), radians(20))
    maplet.location = (0,0,0)
    maplet.rotation_euler = (0,0,0)

    # Add camera to the scene:
    scene.camera = camera

    # Update the scene:
    bpy.context.view_layer.update()

    # Render:
    bpy.ops.render.render("EXEC_DEFAULT",write_still=True)
    bpy.data.images['Render Result'].save_render(os.path.join(local_path,image_out_path))
    print('hi')

Unfortunately, the program runs perfectly fine, but once it gets to the line:
bpy.ops.render.render("EXEC_DEFAULT",write_still=True)

it hangs for a moment, and then just exits.  It never prints 'hi', and it never writes any image.  It also doesn't print out any errors or anything else, it just stops running.
I tried stepping through with pdb and it appears to hang/fail at:
c:\......\python\python37\2.82\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py(182)idname_py()-'render.render'
-> return self._module + "." + self._func

Is there something wrong with how I went about installing bpy?  Or something wrong with the script I've written?

Can you start python 3.7.9  from terminal, and do a bare bones import bpy followed by bpy.ops.render.render() ?  Just checked (have bpy 2.90.2 built against python 3.8.2 (ubuntu)  and that simple test segfaults)

@batFINGER I just tried that, and you're right, it fails.  It doesn't give me any segfault errors, it just exits (so thats likely whats going on).  Which is weird...  because I have 100% used the my computers python37/bpy install to render from a .blend file (for some automation I needed before).  I'm not sure what could have changed...

@batFINGER I was able to fix this issue by adding: bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES' to the script.  Which is a desireable fix for me anyways, since I want to be using cycles for this project anyways.  Unsure if that'll help those looking for eevee

Adding
bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'

Fixed this issue


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Cursor barely visible when editing mesh
I wonder if there's any way to change the cursor's appearance or size. I guess not, I couldn't find anything (there used to be a couple of checks in Preferences but not since 2.8 I think), but just in case, I'll leave this here.
Thanks,
EDIT: Yes, I especially meant the crosshair cursor, and I'm on Linux (adding this new information here according to the guidelines because of the first answer I got, thanks anyway).

Hello :). Which cursor do you mean? The crosshair cursor can be changed in your system (Win/MacOS) settings, not in Blender.

I don't know if I was blind before, or if this was added with the latest update I got (2.82.7), but now on Preferences->Display there is the "Large Cursors" checkbox (and there's also the Line Thick picker). So problem solved.


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Help! Normals rendering every edge in substance and marmoset!
Teaching myself blender and am having a blast, but during test bakes im running into this issue that has me smashing my head against the key board. No matter how many times i smooth, sharpen, or average the normals my mesh keeps rendering all of its individual edges. I never really had an issued with this from maya, so i figure that this is just me not knowing blender well enough!

As you can see even when i sharpen them the normals get all wonky. Any ideas on whats going on?

heres the wireframe, ill throw the blend file up as well!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yesV5NHGlWuFPoP7x3heN9yvtvGRl5vm

It would help if you included a screenshot that included the wireframe mesh, though I'm going to guess you've got a case of n-gons.

This looks rather strange indeed. it could also be that your flat surface is not perfectly flat. We definitely need a wireframe and possibly a blend file.

Sounds good, ill throw the blend file and an screenshot up as well

Link to drive is up, also ive flattened the fins but the shading on the quads is sill messed up. reseting the normals so far has no effect. Do normals lock in blende?


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Unwanted transforms in animation
I used animations from Mixamo for a game project, a humanoid character (ybot). I used an add-on called Godot Game Tools to combine different animations and duplicate them. I duplicated the animations and modified the rotations of spine bone and replaced the key frames. When I opened the project later the animation had some unwanted transforms in it. The character is shifted slightly to up.
Screenshots:

When I was modifying this animation there was no such problems, when I changed the animation to something else and back the problem occurred. Every animation I made this way has problems like this. I did it yesterday and I noticed this today when I opened my Blender project.
As a workaround for now I opened each animation and changed the transform of the hip bone individually. I have to again modify many animations to correct this.
Is this a bug ? What causes this problem and why ? How can I fix it ?
Please help!
Edit: Here's the blend file

Please share blend with before and after armature via https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com

I think the problem is when I key frame, the root bone (Hip) changes its position. I'll try to provide a blend file.

When I created a new project and did this, this glitch is not seen, It maybe my fault :D. Should I delete the question ?. Sorry for the trouble.

if you provide more info to your question, so you or others will be able to answer it, you can keep it. (Also others can get into the same issue.)  But ... like now, it would be better to delete it. Thank you

I thought I solved this problem and again it reappeared, I have provided the blend file. The original file had many files and it was 100 MB, I deleted most of the animations to reduce the file size. Please help

Once this glitch comes it spreads to the other modified animations like a disease in the original blend file. Every animation I have modified is above the ground, there are more than 20 animations affected.

Any idea anybody ?

Since nobody ... I cant reproduce it. Can you share screencast of your worklow? If I go to NLA > Push Down Action (imported one) > Keyframe changes > Bake Action.

I don't understand what you meant by workflow. I modified the animation in the Action Editor. I don't actually know much about animations and whether it is the right way to modify the animations. If I switch the current animation like crazy the root bone (hip) will change its position. Is it because the animations gets corrupted ?

I'm not sure how you was able to do transforms in Action editor, but I'm not so experienced as well so probably someone  can answer better. I will try to answer what I would do in your case.

You use Replace blending mode for these strips, but I would say you probably used Add when you edited action. Changing back to "Add" blend type - seems solved the issue here.

There of course matter what blend mode you used while editing, also there matters what action is used bellow.

BTW
To do changes on imported animations I would use NLA editor to adjust animation. If you use GGT add-on its automatically imported as NLA action strips (animations).
I cleaned up all unused tracks and left only one to keep it more clear.
("Riffle_Crouch_Walk")

Action editor
- create a new action
(or delete existing and add keyframe for selected bones in Pose mode)
- here you can do all edits that are Replaced, Added or what ever (is set in NLA strip properties) on top of imported track (action)
NLA editor
- top action is always used (if not disabled)
- top row (with dope sheet icon) is always editable one
- all bellow (with star icon) are "Push Down" for strip mixing
(like now "Riffle_Crouch_Walk" imported action)
When you finish edits, you can search "Bake Action" (with cursor inside NLA editor) into one animation.
See blend file

Thank you for helping, but any idea why the root bone (hip) got displaced in the animations aim down and up animations ?.

@Icosagon: OK, it seems to me I got it, check beginning of the answer.

Thanks for helping


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Armature is not symmetrical
I am trying to follow this awesome tutorial on making characters in Blender by Sebastian Lague, but I have a problem. After setting the armature as the parent of the model, only one side is morphed correctly. The other one looks weird. Its hard to describe so here's the screenshot:
Before:

After:

There are a few errors here. For one the head is in a totally different place, and secondly, left side of the body is deformed inward, while the right one is a bit stretched. I think that the problem may be with mirroring the bones (I used symmetrize).
Here is the file:

May be the armature is not in its rest pose. Did you adjusted it in Pose Mode, before the parenting?

@FFeller I'm not sure, I might have changed something by accident, how could I reset it to rest pose?

In edit mode you will always see the rest pose. To reset the transform in Blender even in object or pose mode, select the object or the bone, hold alt then hit the appropriate transform button. (Hold alt+r,g,s). If you want to make the new pose to the rest pose select everything in pose mode, hit ctrl+a and select apply as rest pose.

@FFeller I did that, but unfortunately, it didn't fix the issue.

Please share your file here: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

@FFeller I uploaded the file. Is it possible that the source of the problem, is that I am using a mirror modifier?

The twist coused by the IK constraint. To fix it, adjust the Pole Angle to 0. To fix the dislocations, remove all the armature modifiers from the meshes, and remove the parent relations from them (Object Properties>>Relation). Move them to their right position, select all of them and hit ctrl+a and select rotation & scale. Then assign the armature deform again.

@FFeller It worked! Thank you so, so much! I would have never figured it out by myself.


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Turning head of Makehuman model causes problems
I have an MHX rig attached to a Makehuman model in Blender and I've posed the model to look at the camera and turn her head, but there's a deformation that I don't want going on. I have "Armature" "Corrective Smooth" "Collision" and "Subsurf" modifiers on her. Nothing helps to remove except for the armature modifier for obvious reasons.

Which is exactly the issue. Is it the neck? looks like your model is very low poly. Maybe you should add some edge loops (and correctly wheight them). Give some more info or upload your .blend file.

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=BE95339348EC8314!31234&authkey=!ABgnfk4sIxjLOfI&ithint=file%2cblend There's the .blend file


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Grass wind flow in waves
You know how when you look out into a field of grass you see waves of the gusts blowing along? How do you create that in Blender?

Your question isn't well worded. It sounds like you're asking for a tutorial, which is outside the intended scope for BSE. If you've tried something and are having a hard time understanding how to make it work, or why it doesn't, that'd be a much better question to ask than something as open-ended as what you have here. Try to be specific.

I wanted it to look like this :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qtIvxTeL1c See how it's in waves? What I found out yesterday is to use cylinders to create the "waves" of wind, and just have them graze the top of the grass field.

Here is waving grass:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5577/how-do-you-create-grass?noredirect=1&lq=1


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How can I convert the data from an image node into data for a mix node
I want to use a grayscale image to smoothly blend two shaders together onto one mesh using a mix shader and an image node. How can I convert the data from the image node into data for the mix shader?

Plug the output of the image node into the Mix Factor of the mix node:

lol, I was just posting an answer. You just beat me :) There is a difference between a color and B&W input I find in my tests

@NoviceInDisguise I seem to remember noticing that at one point, but I can't reproduce it now.. Anyway, I read the OP's question as already having a greyscale image.

Yeah, the whole convert thing threw me off a bit. I think what you posted is what they wanted

You can use the Hue/Saturation node (Shift+A > Color > Hue Saturation). If you set the saturation to zero then the information will be black and white.

You could use the RGB to BW node to do this quicker Shift+A > Converter > RGB to BW)

You can also switch the image to the non-color data type like so:

This for use with bump or normal maps and similar image files that have data other than colors. It can also help when using a standard image in such a way.

Note that there is an RGB to BW node which also can be used for desaturating things


text:
Is there a way to control children hairs so they don't cut through a mesh?
I need to have the children hairs spread out so that it covers the hea, unfortunately this causes the problem of the children hairs not following the mesh it is on and cutting through the mesh, unrealistically.

Please post screenshots and/or your blend file if possible.

Try using interpolated children instead of simple.
Interpolated children are interpolated across the surface of the mesh between the parents. Simple children, on the other hand, are just placed in space around the parents.
Here is a comparison of simple vs. interpolated (click to enlarge):

The left two planes are using simple children, the right two are using interpolated.  You can see how the simple children are hovering in mid-air, poking through the mesh, and not evenly spaced.  While the interpolated children stay on the surface of the mesh and are more evenly distributed.

I am using interpolated. I think my problem is that I have 1000 hairs on the head total, and the bangs part (The part that cuts through the head) has 300 parents when it doesn't need 300.

@MarcusMravik Hmm... that's interesting.  If you upload your .blend file to Blend Exchange and post the link in your question I can take a look and see if I can determine the problem.

The file was too big to go onto Blend Exchange so here is the shared .Blend file from my One Drive https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=be95339348ec8314!30332&authkey=!AHh6u6zOCRFY9F0&ithint=file%2cblend1

authors: Константин Марков


text:
Is there a way to have Cycles skip rendering alpha?
If I wanted to create an animation, each frame would have several seconds of rendering a completely transparent part, which adds up obviously. Is there a way to eliminate this waste of time?

A partial solution might be to make these black; in newer versions of Blender (2.73 if i recall), if the world background is black, it will be removed from the sampling tree making it faster. Try this and see if the render is any faster.

Fully black background does render slightly faster than a non black background, but transparency is still slightly faster than both. In my mind the only things that will control this issue is tile size and render frame size. Perhaps if your animated element doesn't move around the whole frame, you could render a cropped frame and composite it back into the shot in the right place later.

@someonewithpc I believe it's 2.74+

There is nothing specifically designed into Blender to tell it to ignore the transparent areas currently.
That being said, there are some things we can do to help speed up the render somewhat.

Transparent Background - Choose transparent in the Film section of the Render properties panel. This will render faster than a coloured background (whether full black or not)

Tile Size- Choose a smaller tile size than your current (this tip is mostly for CPU rendering as GPU rendering generally uses larger tiles). This will help the render times when the buckets are processing the edge of the foreground element.

Targeted Sampling - Use the Branched Path Tracing option in the Sampling section of the Render Properties panel. If you reduce the AA sample some what and raise the bounce samples (Diffuse, Glossy, etc.), you will reduce time spent on rendering the sky/transparent background.

Cropped Render - this option is a little more extreme, but if you    have an object that doesn't move much on screen, you can crop the    render to only include the portions of the screen it's in. You'd then    composite it together with the rest of the full frame renders.

I did a quick test, and you're right, rendering with transparency seems consistently faster (even if only by a few milliseconds), which surprised me. Any idea why this is?

I'm not sure why, but I would have thought it would be much faster, which it isn't. Cycles needs some sort of mask pre-processor to skip the alpha area completely.

The only thing it's doing is replacing the sky with alpha for the camera, it still needs to send rays to get reflections of the actual environment (I guess since the environment still influences the scene it can't be skipped in any meaningful fashion). As a matter of fact I can't see any reason for transparency to be faster at all..?

Full disclosure, the add-on I'm about to recommend is a paid for add-on created by me, but I think it does what you need as it was built partially for the very task of skipping transparent parts of an image.
If you were rendering a still image you could use the 'render border' feature of blender to skip areas outside of the chosen area. For animations you can use my add-on, the Animated Render Border (link to Blender Market product page for add-on). This updates the render border every frame so it always surrounds the selected object or group and works both in the viewport and the final render, allowing the skipping of transparent parts for all frames. It also has an adjustable margin to allow for a slight border around the object.
Here is a (choppy) gif showing it in action:

I'm specifically looking for a render layer border animator, is that a feature in your addon?

Ah, I see. It supports render layers if you are rendering them separately or if each of the render layers requires the same border (unlikely). Basically, the border can update in between renders but not inbetween different different parts of the render, e.g. render layers.


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Changing properties of a keyframe
Often I'll try changing the position of an object or whatever it may be, and forget to apply the keyframe, then the timeline moves, I quit the program, I start to render, or whatever, and either the keyframe before the change or the saved keyframe on that frame takes over and I loose all my work. Autosave isn't reliable so is there a way to have the keyframe auto-update to changes made to the properties it defines?


text:
Artifact when DOF is applied to layered render

Notice that the background follows around the skin of the body and cuts through the hair, which is on a separate layer from the body

Can you post the blend?

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=BE95339348EC8314!33330&authkey=!AA7asqnYZplo8pA&ithint=file%2cblend1

Files are now packed, should be up in a few minutes or so using the same link

I just tried going there with no success. Did you remove it?

It's the same copy that I work on, so maybe when it syncs (every time I save) it's unavailable. I'll make a shared copy and send that link.


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Videogame like object variant switcher
Is there an addon for Blender that allows a person to switch out parts on a model car like you can in a videogame? (One click selection that shows one part variant and hides the previous, and also lines up the parts so when they switch, it doesn't look off kilter)

Have you thought about using group instances on parent empties?

Just watched a part of a youtube video on them, I'm not wanting to copy objects multiple times (in this case). I'm trying to have two objects share all the same information except for material and topology, if that makes sense.(I don't know if group instancing allows for that because I've never to my knowledge used them)

You can switch witch group they reference aka switch the part

If you have different parts/part groups that you would like to switch out, then group those parts, and reference them from empty objects:

This forms a good basis for using drivers in the future to automate the switching by mixing drivers with the use of Custom Properties:


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Copy settings from one particle system to another
I'm trying to copy specific settings (that are the same across all of my hair particle systems) on a character to all other systems... but I can only see how to do it manually and I'm thinking there has to be a way to simply apply the same settings to other systems. Ex: I want all of my hair particle sysyems to have Adaptive render enabled with 2 degrees and 3 pixels while also having B-Spline enabled at 5 steps. I have one setting that's the way I want it but the others need to be updated. Any ideas other than manually going through all of them? (I have 12 systems so it's very tedious)

What is the "one setting that's the way you want it" 12 particle systems?

There are actually several settings (and quite frankly, I change settings to figure them out). I just need a way to copy a setting from one particle system others simply and easily without having to manually go through all 12 of them individually.

If you can do some python.
Traverse all the objects and then traverse all the modifier of this object, if the modifer is a subsurf set the modifier correctly.
for ob in bpy.data.objects:
    for m in ob.modifiers:
        if m.type == "SUBSURF":
            ob.cycles.use_adaptive_subdivision = True
            ob.cycles.dicing_rate = 3
            ....

And do the same for the particule system:
for ob in bpy.data.object:
    for psys in ob.particle_systems:
        psys.use_hair_bspline = True
        psys.render_step = 5
        psys.adaptive_angle = 2
        psys.adaptive_pixel = 3

I'm not talking about adaptive subsurf. I'm in the hair settings trying to apply the same setting for all particle systems.


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Exporting 3D models for dynamic texture changes on web
We have received a few blender models which we want to make configurable by our users on the web. What is the best way to export the 3D model for this kind of operations? We were thinking the best way would be to export the textures for each part of the model separately and then apply them on the model as the user selects the materials, but we're not sure if that's possible.
The reasoning behind this is that the models have too many combinations which would be hard to export as a whole UV map for the model for each and every one. Also, the content is meant to be used on the web and a whole new UV map has approx. 5MB, whereas the part of the texture for e.g. sofa's legs is significantly smaller.
User would start with the default combination (default materials) and should be able to select the material on various separate parts of the model (example: wooden legs, red seat, etc.). After that, user can choose to open the configured model in AR View.
For all of this we're using the <model-viewer> web component by Google if that's any help. Thank you in advance.

The most popular format for web atm is GLTF, there is a Blender Addon for that.
Ofc. you cannot unwrap some vertices and ignore the rest, if you want separate UV Maps, you need separate objects (not files). Having an atlassed texture is always more perfomant than using multiple ones, not sure if that's an option in this case though.
It's probably easiest to separate the parts into different objects, use different materials on each part and set their textures individually.  if your UV Layout alone is 5MB, consider decimating your objects either manually or by using the decimate modifier.

Thank you Frederik for taking the time. I will surely try the suggestions. It would also probably be the best fit for the other cases where we'd like to replace a part of the model for the other part (like replace the furnitures legs for with some differently-shaped ones). I guess if we export the legs as a separate object we could do that easily. But, first of all, I need to make sure to learn how to export those parts as a separate objects. I'll make sure to mark it as the correct answer when I figure that out. Maybe you could provide me with some materials on how to separate that objects?

Thank you. As long as they are separate objects in Blender, they also will be in your GLTF. Give them appropriate names, so you can address them by script. I made configurator for Wedding rings, if you need consulting, let me know.

Thank you once again. I managed to achieve what I wanted and it gave me a good start for swapping various models parts (objects) in the model preview.


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Imported model has weird, unusuable UV Layout
When I import a model I got using Ninja Ripper and export it to Blender using Noesis to convert it to other file types (including FBX and OBJ), the UV Map Layout is a long straight vertical line going up and down the right hand side of the UV Editor window. The guide for Ninja Ripper suggests using "forced" to get more duplicates of the model and hope that one of them has a better UV Layout, but none of them do. Obviously I can just unwrap the mesh myself, but then it won’t fit the diffuse or normal texture maps that came with the model. Does anybody know what could be causing this?

I exported from Ninja Ripper RIP files to a wide variety of file types including FBX, OBJ, and others using Noesis to Blender. There are many duplicate meshes from Ninja Ripper, but they all look exactly the same, and I'm not sure how "multiple UV maps" work. The guide on Ninja Ripper suggested that I simply use "forced" mode to get more rips and find one with a good UV Map layout, but so far that hasn't helped, because all the ones I've tried had the exact same UV layout.

Hey :). I don't have experience with N-Ripper, but perhaps others do. You can edit your comment into the question, to make it more specific. (About multiple UV maps)

OK, I updated it. I don't think multiple UV maps is the issue... all the ones Ninja Ripper gives me are exact duplicates of each other.


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How to retopologize asymetrical meshes not aligned to a global axis
I have a high poly mesh that isn't symmetrical. The body is turned one way and the face another. Also, the face itself isn't completely symmetrical. I'd like to be able to use the mirror adjustment when I retopologize as much as possible, but obviously I can't just mirror along a global axis. Is it possible to mirror along a local axis, and if so, how would I appropriately set up that axis to mirror the face?
If it isn't possible to mirror the face properly, how important is it to make the face topology symmetrical? I tried just doing the whole face manually and I suspect I screwed it up. How much does it matter if I have edge loops going off any which way?

Credit to Patrick on BlenderArtists.org for helping me find the solution. (https://blenderartists.org/t/how-do-i-retopologize-asymetrical-meshes-not-aligned-to-a-global-axis/1236449/3). The mirror modifier is local. My mistake was setting the retopology mesh origin as the center instead of the high poly mesh origin as the center. Also, my topology work above is pretty hamhanded. http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/FaceTopology seems to have some nice color coded examples of how the flow is supposed to look on faces.


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UV Unwrap - random faces chosen to be islands
I used Ninja Ripper to get a mesh for a dress, but when I unwrapped it in blender, it chose to unwrap random faces of the mesh into their own separate islands. I tried putting seams along the edge of the dress to encourage the program not to do that, but it made no difference. What causes this to happen and how do I fix it?

I can't put my finger on it, but something seems strange about the geometry (at least based what I can see in the picture). Any chance there are some duplicate faces, or sections where an outer face has been "pulled through" an inner face?

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

OK, I added the blend using blend-exchange. See below the picture. Also, I thought maybe I caused the problem because I had to flip the normals and set them to faces in order to be able to paint on it. However, when I tried unwrapping the original model that I ripped, it had the exact same issue. Is there a simple way to check for and fix duplicate faces or outer faces being pulled through inner faces, or is that something I would have to do manually face by face?

The mesh had disconnected vertices. (For anybody who is interested, it looks like Ninja Ripper simply doesn't connect vertices that go along seams, which is why I was able to get a UV unwrap like the image above with no seams. However, it doesn't find seams perfectly, so you wind up with some faces not attached to anything in the UV editor).
I solved the problem by going to the edit layout, selecting the entire mesh, and using "vertices->merge->merge by distance" to bind all the loose vertices together. Then I manually recreated the seams where I knew they should go.


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Mesh seams practical advice
I imported a model from another program and it didn't include any seams or a UV layout. When I unwrapped it, there were a lot of left over polys and I want to try and clean it up and have fewer islands to deal with. (e.g., I want larger islands with fewer small pieces that are unconnected and logically should be connected). The reason I want to do this is to make editing the texture in photoshop easier and more intuitive.
To start with, I'm looking at jewelry on the character model as shown below. It's kind of a complex shape and I'm struggling to figure out where to put the seams. I started with the loop cut tool and created a seam for every loop edge the tool could find. However, I'm not sure what to do next. Edges tend to go inside other shapes where you can't see them, and the ALT select is not a reliable method for getting the seam all the way around the mesh part.

it really depends on what you want to do with your object, actually you don't tell enough, if you just want to paint on it, as Frederik Steinmetz says, you don't need any seam, just use Smart UV Project and you don't have to care about the UV map.

There isn't one good method for unwrapping an object, it needs some experience, here are the steps I would do:
Make sure it doesn't have a UV map, Seams usually do not get shared by different programs, so sometimes they do have a UV Layout, just no seems. Make sure that's not the case.
Don't create additional Vertices (Knife tool)
Worth a shot: in Edit Mode hit U and choose smart UV project. It will probably create a lot of small islands though, which might not be what you want.
In edit mode select everything and hit ALT J. That gets rid of as many triangles as Blender  can do. If you're lucky, now you can use ALT click on edges to select loops and turn them into seams.
Try to hide the seams (less visible places on your object), because that's were texture artefacts can occur. It's not super important when you're drawing yourself, but it's a good practice none the less.
Create as big islands as possible without distortion/overlapping.

ALT J was like a magic spell that suddenly made things a lot easier. I marked this answer correct for that alone. If you don't mind, I could still use some pointers on the best places to put the seams to get the largest possible islands. I've looked at some videos on unwrapping, but this is more complicated and less intuitive than the faces, clothing, and limbs I've done so far.

On your screenshot the upper kind of hidden one is perfect, the ones inside the toruses are good, but you could move them below the structure. The rest are the "worst", because they are in plain sight, move them to the back of the structure. None of those are a catastrophy, just room for improvement.

Thanks for your help!


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Why are my faces warped with strange artifacts?
My faces have a weird shading to them even though the normals are facing the correct way. There are also no n-gons. When I import into substance it also looks warped.
How do I fix this issue?

https://mega.nz/file/KuYTGSBa#N_XIE9_6hwaLDLE3oil-pTeiAGkU5k4wZwuae_2-vHY
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/url/ffd1618da5df50df41ca145d84ef9082e2b3dfd20931e0c25b1b828fc6854b79?nocache=1
https://www.filescan.io/uploads/656a6d9d2efa450749b2e038/reports/19aa5b31-adb0-4eb2-b80b-bee5bc825758/overview
I noticed that when I select faces near each other they are separate on the UV map. Could this be the issue?

Have you got Shade Smooth on? Have you activated Auto Smooth in the Data Properties tab?

I think a file (with packed textures) would be very, very helpful for anyone that felt like helping.

@Psyonic I do not have either of those enabled for this model.

@Nathan added a mega link for the file along with virus reports.

You've messed your normals somehow.
Edit the mesh, select all vertices and do Mesh > Normals > Reset Vectors.
This cleaned up most of it, but you also seem to have custom split normals as well, you'll need to clear them.

I did this but it did not change anything. When I remove the edges and redo the entire area the same thing keeps occurring.

@Aeryes I've revised my answer

That fixed it. How did that happen? I never changed anything to make those other than remove faces from a cube to create a desired shape.

You may have accidentally hit a key combo you didn't mean to, happens sometimes

The second thing I notice (after checking to verify normal direction) is that you have custom normals:

I know that this is the case because of the button in properties/object data/geometry data, that offers "clear custom normals".  I have no idea what those custom normals are-- they could be anything.  Let's clear them.

Now, we have what is basically a flat-shaded mesh.  It's flat shaded because it's autosmoothed (also in properties/object data) to mark all edges representing a face angle of 30 degrees or greater as sharp.  Is this what you want?  Then you're done.  Not what you want?  We'll disable autosmooth:

Now, we have smooth shaded normals across the boundary faces.  Of course, these smooth shaded normals are interpolating rather wildly, over +- 90 degrees across a single face.  Perhaps we should add a few loop cuts, so that those normals only interpolate across 45 degrees, over a fraction of the faces:

We can create an additional loop to hold the interpolation of normals on the other side of the angle, and adjust the spacing of those loops we just made.  There's no right answer here (it's not reality, it's a high-level abstraction of reality); we just do it to eye, until it does what we want:

There are ngons.  But in this case, that's fine.  For the surfaces we're concerned with, the ngons are planar with their neighbors.  And because there are no packed textures, there's not yet any reason to care about the triangulation of distorted UV, not any reason to care about vertex color, which doesn't exist.  So ngons are fine here.  (And, since ngons are often easier to work with than quads, when they work, ngons are the appropriate thing to use here.)


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Color/image to alpha in Blender
I want Blender to compare two images and subtract the one image from the other and create an alpha. So far, it turns it white... but I need it to be alpha. I can't just turn white into alpha as there are some times where I want white to be a color left behind on the final image.

There is a Combine RGBA and a Set Alpha nodes that will add the alpha channel to the image data. Also are you rendering with transparency or is the white coming from the background colour behind the transparency? Are you saving to PNG to keep alpha or jpeg that will fill in the transparency?

Using the compositor, you can use an Alpha Over node with the top socket set to 0 alpha and plug your main image into the bottom socket. This puts the 0 alpha under the image, and then using the image with the white in it as a mix factor for the alpha over node. To get the result I think you wanted, I inverted the color of the image used as a mask. Notice that since the image I used had a slight gradient of white in it, the black was not pure and so the image left has a slight transparency to it.
I also wanted to point out I saved the image result from the 'Viewer' output in the UV Image Editor, and then brought it back in as an image node to confirm that it had a definite alpha. Might need some cleanup with a dilate/erode node, but this gets you there.

Assuming you're doing this in the Compositor, you need to make sure these are enabled on your Subtract node and the Composite node:


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Sometimes when using Sheepit I get the error "Internal Error, no token for adding a project"
I don't know what causes this, but sometimes I get "Internal error, no token for adding a project" after I've waited the hour for my file to upload. Admittedly, I sometimes wait 8 hours or more because I upload in the morning and hadn't in the past had access to my PC while at school.

There is a less than 30 minute timeout on the multi-part form.
Sheepit also has it's own forum, where your issue is discussed in greater detail (after Xylef happened to find your post here)
https://www.sheepit-renderfarm.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=425

This is my therory: I think the maximum number of projects in the waiting list is reached, that's why you can't add yours. Unchecking "Renderable by all members" before clicking submit helps. Your projects is then private but still uploaded and you could try checking "Renderable by all members" again if there are less projects rendering. You can't check it afterwards if there are too many projects, i tried that. But you still can add a Team even if its private or add members to your project.


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Blender crashing on one specific frame every time
For some reason Blender keeps crashing when I try to render frame 7. It worked at least a few times before, but now it won't work at all; not even sheepit is able to render it. Here's the file https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhSD7EiTM5W-gp4EBKjmS1SbkJHtRg

In your case it is the usage of the experimental rendering that is causing the issue. The experimental feature implies possible bugs or crashes so don't worry about your scene not being set up accordingly.
Until the experimental features you are using are stable you can put the render engine back to supported. Then it renders just fine like it is supposed to.

Maybe I'll have to keyframe the feature set since I use experimental solely for getting the details on the rims via a displacement map and adaptive subsurf. Thanks, I hadn't it might be the feature set simply because it worked on all other frames.


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Shadow only plane isn't working. Keeps sending me the ground as being pitch black, and I have compared it to a working file
I have tried copying the settings from (http://rgbmix.blogspot.com/2014/08/shadow-only-material-in-cycles.html) To no evail. Here is my .blend (http://1drv.ms/1GO6f2F)

I realised that these methods I have tried to create a shadow only plane do not, for some reason, work with HDRI's I'll post a new question with the HDRi/Shadow only plane problem EDIT: I found the answer to that too

Could you post the answer?

Any questions on this solution I came up with, just ask. Sorry for the late reply. Hope this helps the rest of you! You can use an HDRI with this BTW!


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Why my GPU rendering time is more than CPU rendering time?
I have recently installed Nvidea geForce GT610 graphic card (CUDA enabled) to enhance the rendering time for a simple scene under cycles. To my surprise I found the rendering time with GPU setting is much longer (more than 2 time) than with CPU setting.  Searching the net could not provide any solution.  Can someone exlain me why this is so?

What are your tile settings?

It looks like your GPU has only 48 CUDA cores, which, if I'm not missing anything, just doesn't sound like enough.

I had the same problem. Changing the tile size to 256x256 fixed it for me.

I would recommend increasing the tile size.

Are you sure your GPU is receiving the 300W it needs? I had the same problem with mine...

I used the tile size 256X256 (even tried 512X512)and set the No of bounces to the minimum.  Still I am getting the same result.


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Can't select vertices by right clicking in UV editor (2.7)
I was working on a project, trying to texture a castle.  Everything was working as intended, but then suddenly, the UV editor started acting up. My cursor became a circle, the only way I can select vertices is by using Select -> Border select, and the hotkeys aren't working at all.
When I open another blender file, it works normally. Did I save the file with a wrong parameter or something?

You probably have activated 'UV Sculpt'.Disable it and you should be able to work normally again.


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Bones act different comparing camera perspective and Z view
I have camera with the following configuration

I expect of camera perspective view and Z view to be the same, but I see different positions of bones
I'm not changing the position of anything during switching between view points
Camera perspective:

Orthographic view point:

EDIT:
Top perspective Z view:

How I can get different results?

The 2nd image is in orthographic view instead of perspective view.
You can change it to perspective view simply via clicking the grid icon like button

If you are not sure what orthographic and perspective views are you can read about it here
What are the differences between Orthographic and Perspective views?

Thanks, I'll read about it, but also using perspective view, it's not exactly the same, Does it make sense? I added top perspective view

See default view of the camera is perspective only, if you want perfectly same result as the camera view, you will need to line up your view ( which is also a camera that you move around) with the camera perfectly other wise it will not be same as the camera.
A simple way to understand is look at something with one eye closed and then quickly open your other eye and close the first one, you will notice that the thing you were looking appears to have "moved" slightly in relation to other objects.


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MMB to rotate perpendicular to view
Is there a way for the middle mouse button to rotate the object perpendicular to view? Currently, no matter which angle my view is at, when I press and hold my MMB to rotate, the object will rotate along the Z-Axis.
I’ve been a Solidworks user previously and hope to change the rotate to similar. I believe it should be a setting but I’ve already tried most and it doesn’t work. I’ve search the net for the answer and nothing seem to work. Please help me, new user to Blender.

I think you might be looking for this setting, rotate around selection, in Edit > Preferences

Go to Edit, Performances, select Keymap, on the top you will see a seach bar, type "rotate" and you will find the key map for rotation of the object.


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How to model a non-standard oval shape
I'm pretty new to modeling and I'm creating a 3d model of the Mandalorian helmet just for fun. I started creating the oval base, cut it in half (for mirroring it later), then I went up by extruding and scaling constraining on the X axis first and then on the Y axis, because the helmet has a non-standard oval shape. After closing the whole thing I realized that the edges, due to the X-Y scaling, are all zigzaggy and I don't like it.

Reference:

How can I fix this?
I'm using 2.79b
Thanks.

Please edit the question and include the reference images you are using. It may be difficult to help without seeing what you are trying to make.

@MartynasŽiemys done, thanks. it seems a normal bowl but actually it's not, changes in curves are very subtle but they're there...

Let say you have a part that is completely messed up, Select it and delete:

Select the borders and press CtrlF > Grid Fill:

Play with the parameters in the Operator box (on the bottom left of your 3D view) to fill properly (here: Span 3, Offset -2):

That didn't work. In your example, the outer edges are straight and so the one created with fill grid "copies" from that and that's ok. But all of my lines are zigzaggy and the tool doesn't work when I delete too many vertices

so make sure that the outer edge is rounder. Maybe share your file to give a try: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


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Wierd shading when cutting faces
I'm a blender newbie. I'm trying to build an helmet, and I've got to the point where I have to cut the global object I've built so far to get the visor.
After creating the bulk shape (basically a half sphere on top of a cylinder), I've selected the knife tool and started cutting and everything seemed fine, until I reached this point.

Here, the shading is weird:

I thought maybe was just something with the calculation of the new normals so I used Tools > Shading: Smooth and now the weird "box", the most visible problem, is gone. That line on the upper side, however, remains.

How can I fix this? Is there something I can do or is related to something I did/didn't do when I cut the faces to get the visor shape?
Thanks!

Shading issues most commonly occur because of the presence of non-quad geometry (especially near edges).
As can be seen in your picture, the "quads" surrounding your highlighted section have more than 4 vertices apiece. This is as a result of your use of the knife tool. There are a myriad of methods you can employ to "correct" the geometry (often this involves moving unavoidable n-gons to flat sections to avoid shading issues), but could also involve simply extending the new edges all the way around the mesh - it all depends on how "clean" and "orderly" you need the final mesh to be.
A second reason for shading issues (and what seems to also be the case here) is a case of supporting geometry. Generally, supporting geometry is used to sharpen the appearance of edges,however, it can have the side effect of causing "ugly creases" to appear (especially on curved surfaces) when there is uneven spacing between edges or edge loops. If two edges on a curved surface are too close together, they will highlight the "crease" between two flat faces that are being shaded to appear smooth.
I suggest you spend a bit of time practicing some simple topology exercises, just to get a feel for the "rules" so to speak, as well as what you can and can't get away with without causing shading issues.
Best of luck.

oh, the SURROUNDING faces are not quads... I was so focused on those two faces that I forgot to check the surrounding ones. Can you please elaborate on the supported geometry subject or at least point me in some direction where I can learn more?

Sure, as always, look to the Guru - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lITV4F_P4E0,

As Christopher Bennett explains, you have ngons all around, it creates artifacts when the surface is round. What you should do is use the current topology, here is a solution:

Considering that I'm following a background image as a reference, then I should change the topology altogether, right?

It really depends, actually the topology may evolve because at one moment you'll realize you need more or less edges


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How to join objects on an already weight painted object?
I created a shoe in Blender and I already rigged it and made vertex groups. I now plan to add more details on the shoe. I tried to join all the objects together, but the other objects I joined to the shoe didn't want to go with the bones. I wanted to weight paint the details but it completely deformed them. Do you have a solution for me?

Hello, please give more informations, show pictures or even share your file: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Okay I'll do it.

if it's too hard in Weight Paint mode you can select the vertices, go into the Properties panel > Object Data > Vertex Groups, then assign to the vertex the vertex group they are supposed to be part of

You also don't have to join them. You can have two seperate objects assgined to the same armature. Just in case you didn't know.

I did it, but the ring got smaller and is in a completely different position afterwards. I would like the ring to bend as much as the shoe and stay in the same position. Is it possible that I copy the vertex groups from the shoe to the ring so that it bends in the same way?


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How to keep triangles connected and the same shape, while modifying/transforming?
EDIT:
All green triangles should keep the same shape as the purple triangle. They may not deform in any other way than location and rotation. If I work with modifiers the triangles keep deforming.
I also don't want to move all triangles manually. The triangles/blender need(s) to know that the triangles form one structure, connected on the corners.
All help is appreciated.
If necessary I'm willing to learn Sverchok or Houdini or any other way to solve this...

old:
I want to do the following:

I model the shape like a i would normally do, the triangles will 'replace' it.
All of the structure is made of one base triangle, without the triangle being deformed.
(Only) the corners of the triangles are connected (snap to vertex)
I can change the scale of the base triangle for more or less detail
In the end I will replace the triangle for a more complicated object

All help is welcome

There are matrices inside sverchok.
Category Analiser - origins node to find matrices.
use category Viz - viewer bmesh to show triangle and matrices to make multiple items.
Or use category Scene-mesh instancer node
Also surface way of this task exists
Please, import this node tree https://gist.github.com/78da59d7bcba7ee9b90e9276a09022d5
in "sverchok import panel"
copy link and press "import from gist"

If you are trying to build a mesh out of triangles and keep the triangles connected together as one, try this method.
1) Press Ctrl + J to join them all as one object (if not done already).
2) Go into edit mode and assign a vertex group for all of the vertices by pressing A, then in the vertex tab, creating a new vertex group. While in edit mode, press 'Assign' in the vertex group tab to assign those vertices to the group.
3) In the modifiers tab, select 'Weld', and select the vertex group you used for the triangle. Set the distance value to something around 0.015m, and the duplicate vertex value to 0.
4) Apply the modifier.
Now all the triangle vertices should be connected (where they are touching each other), and they form a single mesh.
If you are still having trouble with this/this didn't fully answer the question, please say so in the comments below.

I managed to weld the corners together. Now I still need to be able to move the triangles without changing the scale or dimension. None of the triangles edge lengths should change. They are allowed to rotate and move in space.
Maybe it would be easier to be able to generate/convert a mesh to equal and connected triangles. A bit like the decimate/subdivide modifiers. Let me know if i'm not clear.

You can individually fill the holes in between the triangles after welding, to create a tri- lowpoly mesh if that's what you are asking.

I edited my original post to explain my problem more clearly.

You may be able to add hooks to the triangles that have scaling drivers controlled by the main mesh. This would cause the triangles to increase or decrease in size, but I'm not sure if that would work.


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How to add coastline detection (for smoother transitions between the water and the coast) using blender cycles material nodes?
How to add coastline detection (for smoother transitions between the water and the coast) using blender cycles material nodes?
My intention is to do something like this water shader made for the Martinsh from BA.
http://www.blendernation.com/2013/06/22/waterunderwater-sky-shader/
But insteed of a real time shader, I wish a blender cycles shader!
I managed to recreate all major aspects... volumetrics, caustics... but I can't find a way to do the smooth transitions between the water and the coastline!
Someone have a hint?

I think dynamic paint is what you are looking for.

besides dynamic paint... Maybe something with the normal or geometry nodes... some trick to run in the shader itself, if you know what I mean...

This just isn't possible using only material nodes currently, without drivers you only have information about the object using the material (even then, I don't think you have enough information). It might be possible with OSL, but I don't know enough about it.. This seems right up the alley for dynamic paint, why not use it?

thanks for the explanation man! For some reason I was thinking that it was possible to do with material nodes, like it is possible in game engines like UDK or Unity... I'll try with the dynamic paint then!

Keep looking, there is a tutorial on this very thing that I saw last fall but I've forgotten the relevant details to find it right away.  I'm just saying this so you have some extra motivation to keep searching since I know it's out there somewhere close.

@MarcClintDion Thanks for the hint mate! I'll search for it! ;)


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It is possible to add modifiers to a group?
I made a group of different objects with different set of modifiers for each one. I wanted to add a lattice modifiers to this group to be able shape its form... it is possible? I tried with no sucess... It seems something very useful, i'm impressed something like this isn't implemented in blender yet...

Possible dupe of Array a group of objects.

No, unfortunately not. Modifier nodes are planned for someday, which would allow for this kind of thing. For now you will either have to add the modifiers manually or with a quick python script. Or apply the existing modifiers and join the objects with Alt C > Mesh, Ctrl J. Then add the modifier to the resulting object.

If you are asking how to add the same modifier to all the selected objects without having to do each one manually then you can select them all and add a modifier to one of them and then use Make Links(Ctrl+l) then choose->Modifiers.  It's not entirely clear what you are asking so I could be way off here.

@MarcClintDion Your tip may help me... thank you!;)

@gandalf3 I'm not wanted to join the meshes for memory saves (I've made copies ALT+D of these objects to reduce memory usage and render time) it is a high poly stairs handrail with a lot of details. But I've discovered that I can apply the same lattice for each one of the objects and then I'll be able to shape them all together. Lets hope that the ability of apply modifiers to mesh groups arrive soon in Blender. It will make the solution for these situations, a lot easier. Thanks for your explanations! ;)

@MarcClintDion Note that that will copy all the modifiers of the active object and overwrite any modifiers on the selected objects.

That's a good point.  I have an older version of the cgCookie QuickTools Addon and it can add a Sub-Surf Modifier to all selected objects at once without affecting the Modifiers that are already present.  Unfortunately, this ability does not extend to the other QuickTools Add Modifier options.  Maybe it can be adapted without too much trouble.  Maybe the newer versions have overcome this.

Modifiers can be easily added using python.
target_lattice = bpy.data.objects['Lattice']

for obj in bpy.data.groups['Group'].objects:
    new_mod = obj.modifiers.new(type='LATTICE', name='Lattice')
    new_mod.object = target_lattice
    new_mod.strength = 0.5

Instead of all objects in a group you can use the selected objects with bpy.context.selected_objects
By changing type='LATTICE' you can add any modifier you want. Each modifier has different property names which can be seen in tooltips when python tooltips are enabled.

Awesome! I'll try that! Thank you so much! ;)