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Patch Deform in Blender
I hope you are all good. As I am new to Blender, I was wondering if there is a modifier that can perform an object deform similar to 3DS max patch deform modifier.
I am currently building a track and I am using the curve modifier to model the kerbs but there is always some weird tilting going as the curve does not have the same normals as the surface it has been separated from. Does anyone know a workaround this problem?
Thanks a lot in advance.
Many thanks,
Stav

Hello and welcome. For those who don't know it might be worth it explaining what the Patch Deform modifier does and illustrate its effect, so that anyone that knows Blender may help, even those not familiar with 3DS Max. Perhaps also illustrate the issue you are facing, there may be workaround solutions that don't involve recreating 3DS Max feature set. See How to upload an image to a post? or GIF

It looks pretty similar to what you can do with the Mesh Deform modifier, or with the Wrapping Tool addon, or with the Tissue addon, I guess it depends on the case, could you please show a concrete case ?

See this video on Wrapping Tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1A22jfG-sc

Hi guys, thank you both for your prompt reply. So the 3 images I uploaded hopefully clarify what the small issue is. I am using the curve modifier and at the start of the kerb you can see there is a tilt which raises the kerb higher than the verge and at the end of the kerb the opposite happens where the kerb is actually under the verge. What I wanted to do is follow the curve but with the same slope as the verge. Thanks again

The closest to Patch Deform Modifier is Surface Deform Modifier in Blender https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/3.6/modeling/modifiers/deform/surface_deform.html. However it doesn't work with Curves, but Meshes. You could try modularize your path into tiles then use Array Modifier and Curve modifier next.

Hi @RumenBelev, thank you for your response. What exactly do you mean by modularizing the path into tiles? Sorry for the silly question, I am still trying to get my head around blender. Thanks a lot

I am sorry for not being clear. That means to make a cross-section strip of your path including the curb, which can then replicate in a long straight path via Array. Then using the curve modifier you can bend that straight path the way you want.

Switch the curve from Twist Method > Minimum to Z-Up, it it doesn't help please share your file

Hi @moonboots, thank you for your reply. I did try this which helped into an extend but did not resolve the issue. I actually found an addon called magic curve which extracts the curve from a surface and it maintains its based on that surface. This sort it my issue. Once again thank you all for the recommendations.


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After upgrading from Blender 3.6 to Blender 4.0 Some Options got Missing

The Header Options got missing is there any way or Option to get it back?

See if the last two comments here help: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/304902/missing-header-options-buttons

Hm, that's strange. It's definitely there in my 4.0 and I can't seem to find a way to disable it... so unfortunately I don't know how to get it back either. A bug maybe? Have you tried reinstalling or from the menu File > Defaults > Factory Settings?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Blender claims my platform is unsupported and wont open
I use a macbook air 2015 model,Mac Os montery 12.6 and was having problems in blender 3.9 where it wouldn't render one of my 2d grease pencil drawings and so i updated the application hoping this issue would be solved only to open it and see this

Hello and welcome! A Blender version 3.9 does not exist. Which one do you mean?

If you just went to the Blender download page and downloaded the latest version you will have Blender 4.0 which has updated graphics requirements. See the bottom of this page in the Blender manual.

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


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Making stitches in leather
What method is the best to make stitches like the leather foot stool example below?
I am using a UV mapped texture for my chair.

Blender isn't too great for stitches in my experience since it lacks proper texturing tools like a world space based brush size. But I found 2 decent ways:

Make the stitches in 3D by modelling one simple stitch, adding an array and curve modifier combo, extract edge loops from your model, convert them to curves, and assign those curves as target for your array and curve modifiers. This will create believable stitches.
Paint the stitches in Texture Paint mode to affect diffuse and height map, you can use this images I made as a texture for your brush, mapping : 'view plane' and stroke method : 'line' with big spacing. But be careful as your brush size won't change on your screen when you zoom in and out so you have to manually adjust, unlike in Substance Painter.

Thank you very Much!


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How to get rid of inaccurate, jagged mesh shadows
I am using Blender Cycles for a project. At the time of rendering, I am getting inaccurate mesh shadows, as seen in the screenshot below. How can I make sure the shadows are rendered properly?

I think it would also help if you were to provide a screenshot of the mesh, both wireframe and solid. The material is not translucent, right?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/160211/shadow-terminator-artifacts-issues https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/27982/how-to-avoid-terminator-artifacts-while-still-using-smooth-shading-and-the-new-p

It's probably the Terminator Effect, when Blender struggles to give smooth shadow, you can either increase the sun Angle value, or in the Object panel > Shading, increase the Shadow Terminator value:

Would you explain what this value does ?

Sorry, technically I would not be able to explain how it fixes the Terminator Effect problem. But Terminator Effect happens when the light is too sharp, it looks like in that case it's impossible to smooth the surfaces.


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I can't find the record button
I imported a model and am looking through Blender right now, but I can't seem to animate that model. How would I do so? I can't seem to find the animate option. I used to be able to see the Record button in the options. Normally the option doesn't show up.
I was following a tutorial on how to animate a model and I got stuck. Here is a screenshot of what my screen looks like now:

In the menu visible in the image, there is usually a record button, but I can't find it now.
This is what I mean by the Record option (see the sequence of buttons in the centre above the Timeline):

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

No offence but these tools seem poorly designed and needlessly complex.

What do you mean by 'animate option'? - In Blender, you animate objects by setting a keyframe for each movement with the 'I' (insert keyframe) key. The record button you're talking about is probably the one you see at the top of theTimeline for auto-keyframing, but you currently have the Acrtion Editor open. If you're new to Blender I'd suggest you look at a few of the many Blender YT animation tutorials that are online.

https://i.sstatic.net/Fk7Yq.jpg in this menu there is usually a record button. But i don't see the option. That's my question. I had an image but it got edited out by an admin. This is what i mean by the record option: https://i.sstatic.net/gPDRk.jpg

The blue and white button in the centre shows that you have autokeying turned on already which I assume is what you mean by the record button. If you move your object and move to another frame the keyframe will automatically have been set on the frame you've moved from.

Incidentally the only window with a record button on it in Blender is the Timeline (your second image). The Action Editor (your top image) doesn't have a record button.

Somewhere in the tutorial, they should have told you that to animate a rig you need to be in Pose model.  In the upper right of the 3d Viewport you can see a drop down menu that says "Object Mode".  For now, click that word and select "Pose Mode" from the menu that appears.  You should be able to continue following the tutorial at that point.

just open another workspace window and choose Timeline as editor type then you have the autokeying and the other buttons again. (https://youtu.be/HSm-cq7zd2s)

@Ilda There are many questions here that would help you find the "Record" (properly called auto keyframe) button.

You don't see the RECORD button because you are in the DOPE SHEET Editor.
You need to change the Editor from Dope Sheet to Timeline.
Hope this helps :)


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Creating Lego-style hair in Blender
I'm trying to create Lego-style hair in Blender, but I'm unsure how to achieve the desired effect. I want the hair to appear as a single, solid piece, like a molded plastic part. However, it currently looks more like a collection of separate elements.
Here's what I've done so far:

I've sculpted the base for the hair.
I've created individual curls using curves, and added custom bevel profiles.
I've combined all the objects and converted them to a mesh (while also saving backups).

Does anyone know how I can merge these objects to make them look like a single, cohesive piece, resembling real Lego hair?

Remesh and Smooth
Starting from the point where the hair is made out of curves:
Convert to a mesh with Object > Convert > Mesh or search for "convert" in the F3 command palette.

Switch to the Sculpting workspace and use the voxel remesher to merge the hair strips. for the scale I'm working I used a Voxel Size of 0.05m but your resolution may need to be different.

Use the Smooth Brush with a large brush size and a low strength to eliminate remeshing artifacts and further merge the hair strips.

Thank you for such a detailed response! Your response is very helpful; it's the solution I had in mind, but I didn't know how to do it because I'm not very familiar with Blende


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Adjust physical bounce of the emitter particles
I have set collisions for the object, but when the particles collide and bounce back, they look very rigid: how can I make it look more natural (like sparks)?

Image (click for higher resolution)
Video (link to Youtube)

Can you define 'rigid'? Do you want to add random rotation to the particles as they bounce off the sphere?

yes, i want to random rotation to the particles as they bounce.
I have Particles' Rotation option turned on, but it rotates as soon as it is spawned, I want is that it only rotates when bounce.

With Rotation checked, set Randomize to 0, and turn off all velocity in the Velocity segment, like this:

Now your particles should spawn based on the initial rotation of your blueprint object, and only rotate once they bounce off of something.

The more important setting here is Dynamic, which is disabled by default. This might work when bouncing of a sphere, but looking at the screenshot the particle objects are some kind of longish rods... if you let them fall onto a plane as floor, they will bounce around rotating, but they won't use their physical shape for these movements and not lay down flat in the end. They won't act like rigid bodies.


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Wind force not affecting hair particles
I have made a field of wheat using hair particles and I added wind. My windmill is affected by the wind but the wheat is not! How can I fix this?
I am sharing my wind and particle system options. I want my all objects to be affected by the wind.
These are screenshots of the particle system settings:

And these are my wind settings:

What am I doing wrong?

Check if the wind force field and particle system objects (emitter and instances) are located on one 3D layer. It's likely they already are on one layer with the windmill

Thay are on the same layer look at this picture: https://image.prntscr.com/image/z0qtE2AlRIyX8MOiNQ5rhw.png

In hair dynamics turn down stiffness.

Possibly there's a checkoff in the "field weights" settings that enables forces?

i did turn down but just spring long time. not wind effect.

Yee your mean is here?
https://image.prntscr.com/image/WkroP5T-QIS6hJyiqHPuXw.png

Try changing the Initial Orientation under Rotation from  "Object Y" to "Velocity/Hair".

Keep your other numbers as they are; those in this image are for my particle system.
This will probably mean that your wheat will not stand up right. To fix that, select "Rotation" in the Render section. Then, if the wheat is still not standing up, try rotating your actual "Bugray" object by 90 degrees along first the X, then Y then Z axes.

Each time come back to your main layer with the particle system on it to check the effect, then if the wheat is still not upright, undo the previous rotation and try a different axis.
Eventually the wheat should stand up, and because it's rotation is following the hair, it should be affected by wind and other force fields.

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


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How fill face between irregular curves?
Hello Blender Stack Exchange,
I am trying to fill a face between 4 surfaces. Two are straight edges and two are a curved line made up of short vertices that came from a SketchUp export.
The problem: I select the vertices on the top and bottom and fill the hole. It creates a strange face that ruins the curve. I would prefer it create some sort of complex curve. I want it to be smooth.
Images attached to better explain.

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


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Bevel tool creating intersecting faces
I am trying to use the Bevel tool to make my cinder block have some slightly rounded edges. When I select the edges or verts and use the tool it makes a weird explosion. Any ideas?

This is cause by the new beveled faces overlapping. Check your normals, and i wouldn't have done that from the corners. You may need to subdivide the outer edges to get it more even.

Poor topology (like that generated from boolean modifiers) generally doesn't play well with bevels. Is it possible you could upload your .blend for us to play around with? Perhaps we can come up with a suitable solution.

http://www.pasteall.org/blend/33486
Here it is. Any help would be appreciated.
Would be nice to have rounded edges because my object mapped looks too sharp!

This sometimes happens when you are trying to bevel 5 or more-edged vertices - the bevel operator does not handle them well.
The solution is to use n-gons, and if you want - to triangulate that n-gon back after the bevel.


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How do I fill these holes, fill space without information, and deal with overlapping meshes
Hello user forums and those interested,
I have scanned a brick using a 3D scanner and the mesh it provided has lots of holes, overlapping mesh, and it missed the extruded interior of the holes.
How can I fill the random holes more efficiently than selecting edges and filling the holes? How do I deal with the overlapping faces? How should I fill the extruded interior?

Try the remesh modifier. This will generate an entirely new manifold mesh made exclusively of quads.

Thanks for the reply @gandalf3. It looks as though it helped with the surface although losing detail. But it has now filled the holes totally and I need a method of rebuilding how they should look... I feel like I should somehow build two cylinders + a rectangular prism and somehow fill the walls with that. Not sure
http://i.imgur.com/i51V5TW.jpg

@Peter Not sure what you mean..? I can't help but think it might be easier to model the object from scratch, instead of trying to fix the scan..


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UV mapping rendering wrong
When I render my UV mapped object it shows fine in the design stage but the rendering looks very wrong. What is happening and how do I fix this?

Please show your material settings in a screen image. Please show your textures that are attached to your material.

Check your texture setting in the material panel.  Try being in render mode rather than texture mode.  The render mode and texture mode can show different results.
On the texture panel. Select type Image. Open the image. Select Mapping UV Map.

The issue was that coordinates was not set to UV!


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Lightmap strange bleeding
I'm trying to make a Lightmap to use in Unreal Engine and it's producing some weird effects with the lighting. I've tried spacing everything very far apart by scaling everything tiny, increasing the Lightmap resolution, snapping to pixels in Blender... still no go. Can anyone help?

What does the baked texture itself look like?

The baked texture of what? The diffuse bake? If that's what you mean, the mesh I have made I am not applying a texture to but instead in this other program am applying a flat white texture to it. I've seen other videos on baking a light map texture based on the scene's light source, but this method doesn't require that as the other program does the lighting internally

Oh I see. For some reason I thought you said it was baked lighting :P It looks like the artifacts are on the ngons, so maybe that's the problem. Try triangulating the ngons before exporting.


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Rigid Body breaking links of chain
I have made some chain links. I used the Rigid Body Tools and made the two end links passive and the others active. They are all set to shape Mesh. I've tried setting the weight to acrylic, cardboard, etc to lessen the pull they have when falling. How do I prevent these links from coming apart? I've even tried scaling up the scene but that also doesn't work.
Peter

Try using constraints. See http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/7280/599

What about then still having the links collide? I disabled No Collision on all the empties and made the links object type mesh and still they all slink into a strand

@gandalf3 Looked at your other post on someone doing a similar thing but it doesn't solve the situation

Works just fine for me.. Is it possible you could upload your .blend?

@gandalf3 I seem to have fixed it. I had to individually select each constraint link after hiding the meshes and deselect No Collision. Do you know how I can do this without manually selecting each one? It didn't want me to do it in bulk.
Here is my .blend anyways http://www.pasteall.org/blend/33389

Select all the empties (Box select B and Circle select C can be useful here), then disable no collision and right click on the (now disabled) checkbox and press Copy to selected.

2835: It's better to use (Select / Select pattern../ Constr* )  to select all the empties. And then yes, use needed value's "Copy to selected" (from active) command.

From Blender 2.91, there is now a "compound parent" shape option dedicated to this kind of shape (with concavities):

You can find its description from the release page here.
And in the documentation:

Compound Parent
Takes the collision shapes from the object’s children and combines
them.
This makes it possible to create concave shapes from primitive shapes.
This usually results in a faster simulation than the Mesh collision
shape while also being generally more stable.

The file below is the demo from David Vogel (all credits to him):

Lemon dl'd this to potentially answer https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/238085/hanging-chain-help-up-by-two-ends in the end no matter what I tried could not make other end also animated, (to hang from both or hang from swapped end)

I downloaded the compound parent project (I am having similar issues to the OP). If I delete and re-bake the Rigid Body Physics, the chains fly apart. This is touching NOTHING else in the project. Is this broken in 3.4.1?

You need to raise the accuracy of your simulation, by changing the Steps Per Second and Solver Iterations in the scene panel:

Raise those to values.
Also, in this tutorial, it is recommended to change the mass of your objects.
Note:
This will influence simulation times

Easy fix: do not use type Passive, instead use type Active without Dynamic. I think Blender simulation will skip too much stuff with Passive objects and as a result, active objects can pass through those pretty easily if force gets high enough.
When you set type to Active the simulation gets more accurate and disabling the Dynamic feature, the object still stays unmovable similar to Passive.

Had the same problem.
When I set the origin to top link in order to rotate the chain,
I just needed to set the origin to geometry for all the links after finishing with the rotation...
easy to miss


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3 small holes on a sphere
I've been trying for many days to make 3 small holes on a sphere without distorting it with a Subsurf modifier, i tried with shrinkwrap projecting, with hexagons, triangles, ngongs, booleans, to-sphere, there's something beyond my understanding :D
I would appreciate any help. thank you!

You cannot do it with subsurf without distorting. You can have a boolean after the subsurf or a shrinkwrap after the subsurf, but not before it. Else it is only approximation and you can make the distortion smaller to the point it is no longer noticeable, but it'll still be there. Corrective displacement is also a way.

These videos from cgcookie might probably help: https://youtu.be/salpctjEdAA https://youtu.be/RGQgqlVq_Cg

@AshutoshBudhdeo Yup! I already tried that one but it only works with large holes not with many small ones. thanks though!

I began with a cube that I subdivided smooth several times. And actually I ended up with a sort of UV Sphere. But anyway you could include the 6 holes part anywhere in a smoothed cube, as shown with the second sphere.
Note that in my modifiers stack I've used a Mirror, then a Subsurf, then a Shrinkrwrap.
The Target of the Shrinkwrap is also a smooth subdivided cube (or UV Sphere),as big as my object. It allows my object to nicely stick to a spherical shape. In my screenshot I made it invisible, of course.

is there any reason you placed the holes on the "pole" of the sphere?
Thanks to everyone I'll give it a try and I'll post the result

no, no reason, actually I just ended up with a kind of UV Sphere because it's lower in quads, but as I said you can put your 3 holes wherever you want, see my edit


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Creating a 3D printable 2- part mold which are separable for a curved shell
My Question is about creating a 3D printable negative mold for an irregular concave mesh/object which has an outer convex and inner matching concave surface with irregular outline/edge.
I have made a mesh surface solidified (using knife tool, boolean modifiers, solidify) which will cover a curved defect on a model (like a lid).
I want a mold (negative)for this object which is

2 part and separable
Which can be 3D printed

I read multiple tutorials on creating a 2-part mold for objects most of those objects are convex on both sides. They work like charm for something object like "()" but not for something that is like "((".
I am having troubles to have matching concave surface in one mold and convex surface in another mold and both when put together we will have a space between then matching the object attached.
These molds need to be 3D printable.
I will attach the blend file and the outline of the png (drawing of how I want the mold to be).
Blender file for the object:(for which I want to make a mold)
https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/5572/
The outline image file for the mold:  (The red and blue are two parts of the mold and the while space is an empty space matching perfectly the object above)
https://ibb.co/yp5LjGJ

I posted this similar query in another forum and got some pointers and so I am sharing it here for the benefit of other users. You can read the entire post here but I am summarising it below.
I used the edge vertices to make a land area and then extruded in opposite direction to make a mold. For the other side, I first  extruded the edges in upward direction and then translated the entire mold by same units and repeated the same in other direction.
I am not sure if the final result is printable. But I got close to what I was trying to achieve.


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Turn off Automatic finger Curling in Rigify
This can easily be tested with the Rigify addon:
Drop a Human metarig (that has fingers)
Generate the Rig
Select the base finger control on any finger (1st control)

When you rotate in X axis, the entire finger curls because the subsequent 2 controls are set to Inherit Rotation. (Under Bone Tab > Relations ...)
When you rotate in Y or Z axis however, even with the Inherit rotation on, the subsequent 2 fingers do not bend like the do in X.
Now try turning off Inherit Rotation on all finger controls.
Select the Base Finger control again.
Rotate along X axis, this one behaves as expected, the base rotates but the subsequent 2 controls are just acting like Children Of. Which is best.
When you rotate along Y axis however, now the subsequent 2 controls counter rotate to preserve their initial world space orientation.
Am I missing anything or is this intended behavior ?
This happens regardless of whether rotation is set to Quat or Euler.

Did you have any lock constraints on the fingers?

@Nate_Sycro27
No, no constraints were ever added. All I did was:

Shift A to create a metarig
Click the Generate rig button
rotate the top control of the finger.

I realised somehow the fingers were set to tentacle. I just now learned the workflow of setting the rig type in the metarig at the base of each chain.
Setting the rigify type to basic.copy_Chain get me the plain FK finger setup I was looking for.
The problem illustrated above is a feature of the tentacle chain which is what it was set to. The tentacle chain uses rotation constraints to automatically rotate every bone according to its parents rotation. you can simply disable the constraint for every bone if you want to use a tentacle chain without the automatic curling.


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How to not show shapes behind object in edit mode?
I imported this model from other blender 3 to blender 2.79, but I can't turn off x-ray in edit mode, it wasn't on while i was working on blender 3? Can someone tell me how do I change this?
This is how it looks imported from blender 3

This is how I want it to look like

It's not recommended to open Blender 3 files in previous versions of Blender, especially as far back as 2.79 as there's no guarantee they will be compatible.

As far as I can remember you need to activate Limit selection to visible in the middle of the area header between Face select and Proportional Editing (icon with two squares).

@relaxed, its seems that he already has it deactivated tho.

@MoonMoon can you share the file?


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Can't access custom properties of a linked characters proxy rig
I have a rigified character.
I added a custom property to the rig object to drive a shape key on the face. It works as expected in the original file: the custom property slider of the rig drives the shape key on the face.
For ease of iteration, I link the rig (as a collection) into my animation file and make a proxy out of the rig so I can animate it. Animating the rig controls works as desired.
The problem is: the Custom properties of said rig are greyed out and inaccessible in the files where the rig is linked.
This makes it impossible to animate the shape keys for the face.
Is there a way to unlock custom properties in a linked proxy rig ?
if not, is there a workaround people use to animate custom properties on a linked rig ?
Here is a screen shot of the Rig's data panel after it has been linked and proxied. if you look at the bottom, the smirk property I wish to animate is locked. Is there a way to set it up so it stays accessible even when linked, like other properties of the piccolo_rig object are ?

What worked for me was going to the original armature and setting the custom property with the Is Library Overridable.

I'll have to give this a try ! Thanks for the reply.

Yes I ended up doing this. Worth noting that in the file where it is linked the property is not automatically overridable, you need to right click and set that in the Linked file as well. I guess Blender keeps these switches off by default to keep things running faster ?

I decided to use a workaround. Being able to use the custom properties would be a slick option as far as UI / user friendliness goes.
But for now I've decided to create one bone per face shape and treat them like sliders where translating the bone in Y axis would drive the face shape.
This works in linked files.
If anyone wants more details about this setup I can write up something.

I think you will have to drive the custom property value with a bone, so it will be "proxied".

Hi. I think it would be useful if you could describe how the user should drive the property with the bone. What do they need to set up to do this?

Josh, Thanks for the reply. I added a screen shot of the panel, the custom property is part of an object that is proxied. Some of its properties are unlocked and others are locked. I wonder if there is a way to specify to a property to remain unlocked when linked ?


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Issue with Volume Absorption inside Glass
first time posting here and very new to blender, Im following BlenderGuru's latest tutorial and I'm having some issues with volume absorption, this is of course not a job, I don't have a deadline, so I wanna know what is wrong with it and how to fix it not just do it in a different way.
I rendered each picture at 128 samples using denoiser with cycles in blender 2.80, I'm not sure the exact value I applied to the volume as I changed it a lot to check different results and they were all basically the same, with that foggy look, however it should be at around 700 for this one.
One thing I noticed is that the material looks a bit different in the material preview than in the last picture here where it looks opaque on the sides while in the preview it looked glossy
In the first one the water is the same material as the cup, so you see there shouldn't be an issue with the geometry
Edit: Just found a way to add the blend file so is easier for you to check http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=52500

Do you have two intersecting surfaces in the fluid content zone? See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/35726/fluid-in-a-glass which I think this question is a duplicate of

Yes the liquid volume intersects the cup volume a little bit, when they don't it looks weird, with stripes in it so is easy to notice and fix, however in that post you showed me they talk about a different method and sorry that's not what i'm asking for, I followed the geometry/volumetrics method and is not showing me the result that blenderguru's and other people get, I was mostly wondering if there is a default option I'm missing or if it's in fact an issue with drivers but the first picture where I'm not using volumetrics and the top of the coffee look perfect so I doubt is drivers.

I was facing the same issue when doing the Blender guru tutorial. I tried searching in a lot of threads for multiple hours but did not find a solution that worked. Then, I found an alternative method from a blender StackExchange thread that worked quite well for me. It talks about tweaking the IOR values of the faces of the coffee which face the glass.  The link for the thread is given below -
Liquid IOR
Image before tweaking the IOR value-

After tweaking the IOR value of the coffee faces by following the solution in the link and setting it to 0.8-

IOR set to 0.91 based on the formulae used in the link-

You can play around with values further to get the desired look.

The default light bounces for Volumes is 0.

This is a pretty terrible default, in my opinion, because it causes a couple of issues.  One issue is that whenever the volume is behind another shader in the scene, the ray is reported as lost.  Observe that this shape should be colored blue inside.

If we raise the Volume bounces by just a couple, we start getting the expected results.

I have an answer I noticed just now, (I'm also learning from Blender Guru) I just deleted the glass material (the glass of the cup stayed) and the liquid was grey-blueish color, and I added the transmission and it was un-transparent! (it was black!)

Hi there :) Can you make the answer more clear? It's hard to understand what you are conveying from the current answer. Keep the answers detailed and simple as possible.


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Can't delte this cube
That black cube is just in the middle of my scene, I am pretty sure it is messing with the water flow, if anyone know how to fix it let me know. I have to get it ready soon for a video of mine.

What black cube? What scene? Water flow, where? We are not hacker, we cannot see inside your computer. Consider take a screenshot and specified what are you creating in this scene.

I forgot to press the add picture.


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Mask Map Displacement
I'm making a Brick Wall texture, from the Rob Tutyel course. The main problem with this wall is the Sandstone border. It's just bulging way too much.

I hope you can see that hard transition with the Sandstone.

Here is the hard line, it's really weird and un-realistic.
I've learned why this problem occurs. I'm using a mask maps to tell Blender where and where not do the Brick Wall displacement. For the part where it isn't supposed to do displacement, it just over does it. I'm not sure if there is some sort of "null" node. But it would sure as hell be useful right now.

Here is Sandstone mask map. I had to take a snippet of it, because the file size is way to large.
I am aware that the plaster is using the Brick Wall displacement. I was trying to solve one of them, because they are both basically the same thing.
Here is my project
Here is a screenshot of nodes related to the mask map.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/44880/multiple-texture-displacements-mapping-in-one-scene and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/144017/how-to-combine-the-bump-maps-of-two-texture-maps?noredirect=1&lq=1

Have you tried to adjust the strength and distance on the Bump Node.https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/shader_nodes/vector/bump.html?highlight=bump%20node

@atomicbezierslinger They reduce the displacement itself. I'm trying to make the Sandstone less visible, but in the process it reduces the Brick Wall displacement too.

@susu I tried to do some of the things that were mentioned in the post, but it didn't solve my problem. There is still the hard transition.

Have you tried setting the white stop of your color ramp to a darker value ?

@Gorgious Yeah, it didn't work. If you want to play around with the Brick Wall, I included the download. I tried everything I know, but I'm still pretty new to nodes.


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How can I change the particles density and its direction in volume?
I'd like to have the number of particles greater in the bottom , and they get lower towards the upper parts of the cube, it's because I don't want them to spread homogenously. How can I make it I have no idea? can you please help me? thanks

Use weight painting to create a vertex group which will control density of the particles or create new texture in the particle system settings.
Weight painting
Prepare mesh topology
Weight paint affects on vertices, so in order painting to be smoother you'll need a lot of vertices. The more of them, the smoother will be painting, and so distribution of particles.
Use loopcuts or Subdivision Surface modifier to make topology of the mesh more dense.

Use Weight painting to determine how to spread particles
Create new vertex group (or it will be added automatically), switch Object mode to Weight Paint and use brushes to paint areas where you'd like particles to be located more dense. Weight of 0 will make no particles in that area, weight of 1 will make to add maximum amount of particles (if the vertex group effect isn't inverted).
You can also use Weight tools, located in Tools panel (opened with T) to mirror, invert, normalize weights etc.

Set created vertex group to control density of particles
In Vertex Groups scroll locate Density field and choose created vertex group.

Note that you could also invert vertex group influence, to make particles being distributed in the top of the mesh instead of bottom (button just near the dropdown menu where you choose vertex group to affect).

Use texture to control particles' density
In the settings of the Particle system create new texture:

For simple setup Blend texture may be used. Moving control points of the ColorRamp will make density of the particles change.

The last thing is that by default this texture affects only time, not density. So in the Influence scroll check Density (you can leave Time if you need it).

thank you very much for this very helpful and informative reply, i'm gonna study them now :)

yes weight paint method did work very well for me too , thanks again.. I haven't tried the texture method yet tho, I kinda preferred the randomness of hand painted weight paint

Mr Zak have you experienced success with Blender Internal Render .... with a image sequence to control location/density?  Not Cycles Render.

@atomicbezierslinger If I remember correctly, that was the BI where I've done the test file presented in the answer. However, I tried that in BI now and it works for me. Still I'm not sure what do you mean saying "image sequence". I used simple texture for particles - either procedural or image file.

In the Cycles particles, then texture panel, [Type] field Image or Movie, Image Panel ... [Source] field.  There are 4 choices on the drop down menu in the Blender GUI.  Generated, Movie, [Image Sequence], Single Image.  Perhaps [Single Image] is the most common.   I selected more than one image, which is an animated texture, image sequence.  Because I want to generate particles from an image sequence, rather than a single  image.    You can try this out by selecting multiple images in an new particle texture example.   ..... Have you had any success with an image sequence?

I didn't understand because this is a question on another tricks. It didn't work exactly with images in the way as described here (and it's quite expected as all the particles're already born), and I think it's worth trying to use single image and changing its offset instead. However this is definitely not the place to discuss this topic as it's completely another question and wasn't included in the original answer. You may want to ask another question instead.


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How can I make flaky edges for cinnamon stick?
I would like to achieve as much realistic result as possible for a cinnamon stick, one of the things i find challenging is making the flaky fragments at the edges only.
REference image as indicated with number 2 below

here is my blender file
thanks for the help

Rather than getting other people to model the flakes, at some point you're going to have to learn how to model better. Practice modelling  bigger things which don't have intricate shapes, like a pair of headphones or a memory stick. If you can model those you can model these flakes easily. Model what you see, at least show that you have tried -- else we can't be certain that our suggestions will be much help in the long run.

I agree Questions here should be to learn how to catch fish, not to get fish directly...I understand your point @zeffii and accept that my model is not finished yet, but I thought whilst i was on modelling the stick part of cinnamon I can learn the difficult part as well.many thanks to MarcClientDionfor for his support.

I separated the Object Data so I could modify each model independently.
The model on the left has the Solidify Modifier Applied since it restricts Vertex Painting and UV Mapping, (I wanted to try a few things there.)
The model on the right is mostly the same as you made it.
I used Vertex Paint and a Particle System on both of them.
There is a Group of several jagged models on a hidden layer that are being used to simulate the flecks along the edges.
It's really now just a matter of cloning those pieces using the particle system and using weight painting to control the distribution on the cinnamon stick models.
To make a series of Objects connected using a Group, press g while in Object mode after you have selected all the Objects for the group.  They should now all be highlighted in green.  I find this works best when you have the Objects facing down the y-axis with the Origin at (0,0,0).  I also, prefer to rotate them in Edit mode to avoid having to apply the rotations.

In the Particle's Render tab, activate the Group option and Select the group.  It would be better to change the name 'group' to something more like 'flecks' since Blender also calls Vertex Groups 'group' and since Weight Painting adds a Vertex Group, this can be confusing.
Also, in the Particles tab, add 'Group' to the Vertex Group's Density
field.  Now any weight painting that you've done on the model should control where the flecks show up.  Adding the Vertex Group control to the Length helps here as well.

Here's the modified .blend file.

This question is part of a series of questions. http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/32392/how-can-i-add-banded-lines-to-the-end-of-cinnamon-sticksor-sheets-of-wood/32444?noredirect=1#comment51037_32444


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how can I make droplets placed on a cup properly?
I am trying to achieve a scene where a cup of glass covered with droplets. I'm using particles system and a group of droplets from separate layer, to make it possible, but I can't get droplets appear with correct direction. I was wondering what kind of settings should be done to fix this problem, please see the screenshots below

I have tried changing the positions of each droplets in the group, but didn't work
I have tried changing the rotations under the particles but couldn't reach a good result

thanks for your help

Thanks for your prompt reply @gandalf3 ,I have tried to change things according to questions you directed above, finally I can get the droplets in correct direction but this time they are not covering the surface properly as shown below https://www.evernote.com/shard/s96/sh/a5e33412-1c30-480f-b85b-48efbe79d611/d5d0d90560d497c8d568e3d402231f21/deep/0/GLASS-DROPS.blend.png  sorry for if I skipped something which has already mentioned but I really cant figure out what causing the problem and how to fix it

Try using Velocity/Hair as the initial rotation. If that doesn't work, is it possible you could upload the file?

ok, tried the velocity/hair but it didn't work either, i'm sending the file, can you have a look at it please? thanks http://we.tl/3PZ39DCGHj

Ah, remember that when rotation is enabled in particle settings > render the objects should be aligned with +X (yes, it's weird like that). If I rotate the droplet objects 90 degrees on the Z it works as expected.

YES! :) that worked, thanks a lot for your help

just one more thing which  i realised when going top view, the droplets ( particles) are spread out only the half of the cup which is facing the camera, the other half there's no particular, is this normal?

That's because you specified a vertex group for the particles to go on, however it only covers half the cup. Switch to edit mode  and press Select in Properties > Object Data (inverted triangle icon) > Vertex groups to see what vertices are in the vertex group. Select more vertices and press Assign to add them to the group.

thanks a lot again, its all fine now , appreciate taking your time helping me out, Bests


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Wrapped packaging model?
I want to make a plastic wrapped packaging as shown in the photo. its wrapped and folds on sides towards the back and overleaps.

where should i start? I tried playing around with vertices in edit mode after adding a simple box, but i am having problems with getting the realistic fold effect. thanks

dynatopo starting with a scaled cube.

So the problem is not related to the modeling Process? if so You can use the cloth on collision object with high subdivide mesh and in the cloth properties play with the structura and bending i used 100 and 3 and it seems what you're looking for

Unfold the complete Package and remember how it was folded. Remodel the package size and "fold" it back in Blender to the needed shape. Then you can use a subdiv modifiers etc. to get the needed smooth result. This should be the easiest way. Before folding back do a uv unwrap. In this way you'll get the right texture information. Adding shape key layers saves the source mesh.


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UV map not applying to certain faces
As you can see, certain faces are not being textured, despite the map covering them. On the UV view there are vertexes which are unselected, but selecting them manually makes no difference - they are unselected as a result of an unmapping, and I suspect the issue is linked to those vertexes, although deleting them and remaking them only makes the problem worse. Please note, the textures are not invisible, but white, so I know the normals are all fine (I checked them anyway, and they are all the correct way round). There are no doubles either. I'm genuinely stumped by this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou.

The one face which isn't working is an ngon, but I don't think that should make any difference.. Is it possible you could upload a .blend?

Sure, http://www.mediafire.com/download/ur7nq6h2j278rjo/PT99.zip I didn't link the textures since it's late and I forgot how. They're in a separate folder. Thanks.

That works, thanks. Been struggling with that for ages.

That part of the UV map is not assigned to an image. If you just select the face, you'll notice that the image in the UV/image editor disappears.
Select the face and then select the image in the UV/image editor to "assign" it. To be sure of this not happening again, you should probably do this with the entire mesh selected (A).
Note that with proper materials/textures setup, this won't affect the render.

Also see How is this blendfile hiding textures?


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How could I transform the vertices of my mesh to appear in Perspective view, as it does in Orthographic view?
I have a model that appears to have fake depth, where objects in the geometry are smaller rather than further away. That said, the model looks fine in orthographic view (if you position the camera correctly) and appears there as it actually should appear in perspective view.

In perspective view, of course, the objects that are "further" away are smaller than they are supposed to be when you get close to them.
How could I transform the vertices of my mesh to appear in Perspective view, as it does in Orthographic view? As far as I know, it would involve:
1) translating each vert along the x and z world planes as they appear on the perspective screen coordinates to line up with the same vert on the orthographic screen coordinates.
2) scaling the mesh along the world y, eyeballing it until everything starts to look correct.
The first step is where I find myself rather stuck. Anyone got a way to tackle it?

Is there a reason to not simply use an orthographic camera?

Expanding on Mutant Bob's answer (he provided the code, I'm commenting from the math point of view):
It is, unfortunately, impossible "in general" (except some fringe cases) to recreate the real positions of some points in space from how they appear from one point of view (and your scene essentially represents one point of view - from the front - even though it's technically 3-dimensional). You need either two points of view (two different variants of the scene; one would look as if you're observing it from the front, like you have here, and another would look as if you're observing it from the side, for example); or you need one point of view AND a depth buffer for that point of view.
Suppose you have the first situation (you have two points of view). Then the task of recreating the original positions of vertices in space would be pretty demanding (depending on whether or not we can biject vertices from one scene to another easily), but theoretically possible to pull off.
Suppose you have the second situation (one point of view and the depth buffer info). Then the task of recreating the original positions is fairly trivial (you might get lost in the equations, but the algorithm itself is pretty straightforward).
But: unfortunately, even though you have a 3D scene, it's essentially "2D": you only have the "screen positions" of vertices stored in there and placed onto some plane that is parallel to the camera screen. As a result, you have only one point of view and that's all; no second point of view, no depth information.
Here's an example: see that lever on the wall behind the character? It could be a big lever far behind the character, or it could be a small lever right next to the character. Both of these situations would result in the same projection (same image). Thus, it's not possible to "backtrack" this operation and determine where that lever really should be.
The opposite operation to what you want to do is absolutely possible to perform, but what you're asking for is, sadly, impossible since the depth information is lost.
However! If your scene isn't completely flat (all vertices being on one plane), then you could, in theory, multiply it by an arbitrary factor along the axis of depth and then multiply the coordinates along the two other axes, the further you get from the camera position, the more the multiplication factor. However, it will be a very approximate solution (you'll have to eyeball it) and it will largely depend on how (if at all) the relative depth is preserved in your scene.

But, the information stored in the actual data of the objects locates each vertex in three dimensions, right? Couldn't that be used to calculate a depth buffer?

Oh, wait. I guess that since the depth of the vertices is also only correct in orthographic mode, it will also be inaccurate when thought of in perspective, so that wouldn't really work. Never mind.

Sorry to comment spam, but here's a thought: if the model looks accurate in both front and side orthographic, you should mathematically be able to make that work, right? That would be the two points of view you were mentioning.

This sounds like a job for math, python, and bmesh.  You'll have to have an understanding of the mathematics behind orthographic and perspective projections so that you can compute replacement coordinates for the vertices.
Once you have the formula, you can write python which iterates through the vertices of the mesh and rewrites their coordinates.  Something like this:
obj = bpy.context.active_object
for v in obj.data.vertices:
    v.co = funkify(v.co)


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When rendering my object it is darker than the preview. How do I fix this
When looking at my object in preview it looks like this which is what I want

But when I render the object it looks like this

I have the scene world tab off because I tried looking for answers before posting and that's what I saw but it still shows up like this and I can't use viewport render because it shows the circles around the metaballs. And it's the same issue for my metaballs
Here is my Blender file:

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

Looks like you are using shading Viewport Shading "Material Preview" that view has HDRI to let you see your materials with illumination. If you switch to Viewport Shading "Render Preview" you will see your scene darker because you have no lights SEE. If that's not the case, make sure to add more information

Viewport render is a preview of your final render, you need add lights or an HDRI to light your scene, the reflection and light that you see on your first image is just to get an idea of your render, you must add lights or HDRI so you don't get a dark scene


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Preview not matching with what I want
blender newbie here, I've been struggling trying to figure out why even tho I got the same nodes and connections the final result is different, I want the result on the right.
Edit: Added new picture after pressing f12 (to render)

Before the Compositor takes effect, you need to render the scene. Try to press F12. Also, it seems that you're using a different MatCap. Your render is most likely going to look different.

Edit: To change the selected MatCap, switch to the Workbench Render Engine (marked blue in the screenshot). This will cause the MatCap UI element to show up (marked red in the screenshot). If you click that element, a row of available MatCaps will show up. You just need to select the one that looks close to the reference.

Thank you for your answer, I already did it. How can I get the result of the right?

@Sergio I updated my answer with instructions on how to change the MatCap.

Thank you so much for your answer. It really made a huge change setting that and twiking other settings in that section.

You're welcome!

Sorry to bother again sr, I'm having a little trouble but with other scene, I checked the render engine and all the settings there, and they're the same but the final result looks different, i eidted the post with the other scenario.

The result I want is on the right

@Sergio I am sorry, but I can't tell what's missing. You have a sphere in your scene while the reference has a horse. Do you want your sphere to look white?

Yes! exactly, I want the sphere to look white like in the right image

Since you'll be using Eevee to render, replicating the render settings won't be enough to get the same look. You will need to give the objects the same material, and you will need to use the same lighting setup (environment light and direct lights). If you don't know how, let me know, and I will update my answer with more screenshots.

I played around with the materials and some settings and indeed, it was that, ¡you've helped a junior programmer implementing his first feature! Thank you.

You're welcome! I am glad I was able to help.


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Divide any high poly object into cubes
I’m trying to figure out how to divide any organic high poly object, like an island, into separate cube objects.
I've tried the solution in this post, "Destroying any high-poly object into cubes," but I have some artifacts.
I've tried to cut this island (349k faces) with no success, the smaller the cube size the more errors appear.

Any chance the remesh modifier set to voxel would work for this?  Or do the cubes have to be separate objects?

They have to be separate objects because I need to work with each part separately. The remesh boxel will not work for my purpose; I need the objects to retain its original high-poly form


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I have added the rigid body modification but the problem occurs when the animation starts, why?
I have created a pulley system that would fall when more mass is added but when the animation starts it flies off in another direction other than just falling down.
How do I fix this problem?

This is the blend file: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2uf7g523efpaxr04tujpq/rub_goldberg_assingment.blend?rlkey=703sme1asl31e0fhp0ery4cyd&dl=0

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

It is in the description above.

it looks like the previous problem, it doesn't look like the images you show

The scaling problem? I have tried applying scale to all of the objects and I changed it slightly because I was trying to use the animation keyframes until they were no longer needed once the dominos fell on the platform. but before it would fly off in another direction just like in the beginning.

As @moonboots says, that's the wrong Blend file. There's no pulley system in that file.

I apologize for that I updated the link to the correct file but it was larger than 30 mb so I had to use dropbox, I hope it works!

rope has a Y position driver dependent on "Cube" Z-location; 2) "Cube" (CubeAction.002) has no Z-location animation. Not sure how this could work as is. 3) If I set location keyframes on "Cube" z-loc, all works well, both in setting the keyframes and during playback.

Also note how I could use blend-exchange by reducing the objects down to the essential ones around the question/problem area....


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How do you animate a model that consists of multiple different objects?
I am looking to animate a model that is comprised of multiple objects.
I'm experienced with modeling but I'm totally new to everything animation. I was wondering if anyone could give me the first few steps so I start heading in the right direction. As you can see in the picture, the model consists of 12 different objects.
during the animation they will act as one piece and then disconnect into their individual parts. Some parts will disconnect fully and others will just rotate while still being connected to the main piece. Thanks for the help bros.
(also any YouTube links that you guys think would help would be greatly appreciated)

Hi. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue so that anyone searching for a similar problem is likely to find it. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on how insightful it is. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

I would use the child-of constraint for that.
By animating the influence and the location keyframes (especially the visual location) you can achieve what you want.
A real good explanation can be found here: https://youtu.be/ul6dDAOc7zY?si=6sLOiKKNSezOYzBW

Awesome, thank you!


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I can't find the Retopo menu
I am very new to blender but have made some good progress recently. I have a curved surface that I need to cut a precise hole in and from YouTube videos it seems that the Retopo method is the way to go. The problem I have is that I can't get to the menu where I can call upon it.
I am using a MS Surface Pro 3 with a Bluetooth keyboard. It doesn't have a dedicated F9 key but if I push the F key and the F9 multi key it should be the same thing.
Can anyone help?
Cheers
Chris

Which retopo tool? Grease pencil retopology?

The one described in this video Charles.

http://cgcookie.com/blender/2009/09/09/tip-cutting-a-hole-in-a-curved-surface/

Thanks Stacker I'll give it a try. Are any of you guys familiar with the Mesh Panel and how to get to it?

The video you mention is very old, it uses blender 2.49 which was before the major interface overhaul that started with blender 2.50. The mesh panel you are looking for had several things grouped together that are now in different places.
The retopology part that you are after is now better defined under snapping options. With transform snapping enabled set the snap element to face and you can have vertices you move snap to an existing surface.
Blendercookie has a more recent retopology video that you should find helpful.

Thank you very much sambler. You have been a great help!

@ArnoldBennett If this answer has satisfactorily answered your question, consider marking it as accepted by clicking the checkmark.

The link seems dead as of 2016-07

@fabriced I updated the snapping options link to the new blender manual site. I'm not certain which cgcookie tutorial that was but the stone retopology tutorial that is now in the archives seems to be from the right time. - it is also on youtube

To cut holes in other objects can choose between the Boolean Modifier and Knife Project
Select the surface and a circle in object mode.
In Edit Mode select Top-View 7
And click Knife Project from the Tools-Panel* or Space and enter knife.

Unselect the contour of the circle with Shift-Alt-RMB

Delete the selected vertices X:

In case your curved surface is currently no mesh you could convert it from curves to mesh Alt-C.
Related:

How would you cut a shape out of an object using another object?


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Aligning Instances for DNA unwinding in Geometry Nodes?
I am using Blender 3.6.0. Apologies if my question wasn't clear. I am using Geometry Nodes to model and animate DNA and have figured out a great node setup thanks to Brady Johnston's wonderful tutorials for procedurally modeling DNA. This essentially involves procedurally generating two helical curves around a parent curve. I will include an image of that node setup.

Now, I want to be able to unwind and unzip DNA in two directions. I have achieved this in the past by using stacked Curve Deform modifiers, allowing me to create a transcription bubble that opens in two directions. I have been able to animate this before on one axis by creating two helical curves (the curves that will be the DNA strands) that I deform using three Curve modifiers: two twisted curves that "pull" the DNA open, and one that deforms the DNA based on a "template: curve. When I animate the pulling curves moving away from each other, the DNA unwinds from the middle, opening in two directions. I was once able to use this method to create an animation I was satisfied with. I have not figured out a way to replicate this effect in geometry nodes because doing so usually involves only one curve meaning that I can only move the DNA in one direction.
My animation test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUgEo50dtY0
This method seemingly worked in my video because the helix was on a single axis. However, I run into trouble if I try to do this with a curve that isn't a straight line - the instances do not align as desired. If I use the same node tree I used in the first image, I can align the instances to the tangent of the deformed curves, but I cannot align the instances to rotate inward along the "template" curve like that of the first image. I cannot figure out the combination of vector, normal, position, and/or curve tangent nodes needed to get it to work and I cannot predict the behavior of the instances or why they aren't aligning like I want to. I will include an image of the Curve Modifier stack I used.

Is there any way I can achieve the effect depicted in my video with non-linear curves either using Curve Modifiers + Geometry Nodes or just Geometry Nodes alone? I would like to be able to have fully controllable DNA that I can unwind and unzipe using randomly-shaped curves to get a natural, dynamic look in animations. It would also be great if I could add "noise" or "randomness" to the single-stranded regions of the unwound DNA so I can animate DNA strands being threaded through enzymes as with DNA replication, transcription, etc. I will include the blend files of the correctly aligned DNA and the DNA that is giving me problems. My apologies if my question or the format of my post is unclear or messy, it's my first time and I'll do my best to clarify anything. Thank you!
DNA with properly aligned instances using just Geometry Nodes and a single curve

"Wrong" DNA using Curve Modifier Stack + Geometry Nodes

The geometry node settings:

Make two helix around the initial curve, with opposite default angles (-pi / pi).
Join them and set the arrows as instances, oriented to their tangent.
The helix part:

The curves are resampled at some scale.
Then we use normal to go to the helix diameter and rotate it around its tangent at some speed, depending on the curve length.
The unwind part is defined by a position and some size around it. In this interval the angle stay the same.
On the other parts, the angle is relative to the curve length.
 (Blender 4.0)

Update, in order to make the arrow both align to the curve and point inward to the original curve:
It uses a stored attribute to remember the direction to the original curve, then align a second vector to this direction.

Hi lemon. Thank you for your response! What a great approach! I am impressed by how your math node setup - the rotation between the unwound portion and the wound portions are seamless! The instances are now tangent aligned.
Is there a way to align the instances such that the Y or Z axis face inwards - like in the first image in my post? I would want one of the axes to form the inner "rungs." In my first image, the Z axes are connected inwards and the X axes are also connected to each other but perpendicular to the Z axes. Thank you so much for your help!

@IvanPerez, I've updated the end of the answer. Does that respond about the axis aspects you ask just above?

Or do you mean that for instance Y of one helix points to the other helix?

The latter: I would like for the Y axis of each instance to point inwards towards the other helix, such that a "ladder rung" is formed by their connecting together, if that makes sense.

something like that, so? https://i.sstatic.net/t6FT0.png

Yeah, exactly like that!

Thank you very much! Marked as answer :)


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The phenomenon where a model created in Blender does not load in VroidMobile
You've successfully converted a model created in Blender to a VRM file and uploaded it to VroidHub. However, the model isn't displaying in VroidMobile on your smartphone.

VroidHub and VroidMobile accounts are linked, and you've set it to "Only Me" for use.
VroidHub→https://hub.vroid.com/
VroidMobile→https://vroid.com/mobile
I want to add this link to VroidMobile in advance.

I'm using ChatGPT to translate into English.

Welcome to BSE. What have you used to convert to VRM? This is probably their problem, not Blender's

The approach to try is to cut the model in half, and see if either half works upon exporting. If not, continue cutting until you end up with a single triangle. If that triangle still doesn't show, cut something else than geometry - start removing materials, and whatever other attributes there are. This strategy should eventually succeed in finding the element that fails to export...

@RobinBetts
I used the following add-on to convert it to VRM.
link


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VBD volumes looks transparent (EEVEE)
So far I have not found anwer, VBD volumes looks of course good on Cycles, but i wanna use them for simple stuff on EEVEE, but, most of the times, they barely work or are visible on render, i moved the density on the principled volume, changed the settings on volumetrics, distance etc, and nothing
Here is what Im talking about

Top one is how it looks on viewport, the bottom one is how it looks when switch to rendered, and looks worse when hit render, i knwo could be easy to just go to cycles, but i want this work for eevee too
No matter how much i move density, antisotropy, samples, distribution,end or start, most of the times the VBD is basically invisible, UNLESS, the camera is really close
EDIT:
Sorry i forgot to add how i have the settings, but as I said, it doesnt matter, it doesnt work, for me, no, its not disabled on render:

Without seeing any settings (just knowing "no matter how much" you tried get it to work) it is hard to tell anything. I never use Eevee for, but a quick test showed me it works. When the camera needs to be really close that is a hint it could be a problem with start or end values. You say you tried that... but in which range? And what are the dimensions of your scene? Many missing informations to give an answer. Please provide more details or even better, upload the file to https://blend-exchange.com (you cannot pack the vdb inside the file though, but to check your settings it's okay)

+1 GordonBrinkmann ... one forensic tip from me :), contrasted image shows some shadows on building, so probably you have disabled VDB from rendering in Outliner ...

1 @vklidu Good idea as well. But would this make the smoke show up when the camera is very close?

Sorry, but now you are wasting your time ... as said by Gordon - please share your blend, you can delete all objects in the scene, keep just a volumetric object and the light source you use to light the scene (we need to see whole scene setup). To share file you can use blend-exchange mentioned above but for .vdb file you would have to use another way (vdb can't be packed just linked and BSE allows you to upload only blend file kind.

I have the answer to this! Go to the render panel for Eevee, scroll down to the volumetrics section, and increase the end distance as much as necessary. That should fix it!


text:
Geometry Nodes: Phyllotaxis using Repeat Zone as a For loop
I would like to make a pattern of points following a phyllotaxis (like on a sunflower).
The algorithm I use is:
for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
{
        float r = sqrt(i);
        float t = 2.4 * i;      // (137.5° to radians multiplied by i)
        float x = r * cos(t);
        float y = r * sin(t);
}

I would like to use the repeat zone node introduced in Blender 4.0.
I don’t know how to use it properly, though.
I have made a setup using the algorithm above, without the for loop:
It works but I would like to do the same thing with a loop.

That is the beginning of setup I have made with the repeat zone (it does not work, though):

Does anyone have any hint?
Thank you.
(Blender 4.0)

You don't need a repeat zone for that, since the formula for each point does not depend on the data of the previous point. Your code snippet is a loop, but only because you have to iterate over all values of i. In geometry nodes however, you're always operating in a loop over all vertices, so the repeat zone is moot. You can just do this outside of a repeat zone by using the point index as the value of i.

Related: Geometry Nodes - How to lookup a value from another geometry? (Index at Value) For Phyllotaxis

Thank you very much @Hadriscus, no need for Repeat Zone in this case. A simple Point Index makes the job.

Cool, looking good !


text:
Identifying why Blender 3.0 crashes constantly
I tried to find out what to do to find out what the cause of Blender constantly crashing is. The only thing I could follow was to find a temp file (.txt), but my temp folder does not have any text related to Blender.
The temp folder I am checking is the one where the recovery files are present.
Is there any other way to find out why Blender crashes constantly? Sometimes after the crash, I can not even re-open Blender anymore and I need to restart Windows.
I'm using Blender 3.0 in Windows 10.
The computer I am using:

AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
128 GB RAM
RTX 3090

As explained on Crashes — Blender Manual, you should try to use the cmd files to run Blender, it will write logs with explanations.
Alternatively, from Windows — Blender Manual, you can see how to manually run Blender from the command prompt. Which has the advantage of having all Blender's output right in the command prompt even after it crashes.
If you can find errors, try to google them, people might have got the same issue before and got solutions you can try. If nothing can be dealt with, post the result here, so we might try to help you with that.
If it is definitely a bug, go to Blender → Help → Report a bug and follow the procedure. Also have a look at Process/Bug Reports - Blender Developer Wiki.

Thank you, this is the report. I am trying to upload the report, but I can not see any "attachment" button  here .

You need to upload it somewhere, like pastebin or something. Then share the link here.


text:
Eevee transparent glass on transparent background?
In Blender 2.8's Eevee renderer, I have "Transparent" checked in the film tab, and my material settings follow all listed in this video.
Yet my glass is always this white gray:

My volumetrics are off. I don't see a transparent glass checkbox. What is the problem here?

I really hope someone finds an answer to this, I thought eevee was the answer to all problems of render times. I think eevee just needs to adopt some of the things the blender internal renderer did, (allowing more control over shadows and such)

Currently, you have to cheat it with a specific shader set to alpha Blend, and enabling screen space reflections:

The Transparent Glass option only exists in Cycles. Eevee doesn't have this feature.

are you sure? I'm sure eevee can render transparency somehow.

So there's no way around this?

yet... maybe 2.81 with new transparency in Eevee (could someone test it?)

@HenrikD Is there supposed to be different handling of transparency in 2.81? I haven't read/found anything about it and the options are the same in the UI.

@rjg https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.81/Eevee

@HenrikD Doesn't apply to Glass BSDF and Translucent BSDF out of the box, you would have to use it in combination with the Holdout. I'll see if I can come up with a node setup for this.

@HenrikD A Mix shader between a Glass BSDF and Holdout and Fresnel as factor for the mix doesn't really look good.


text:
Are Cycles particles less voluminous than Eevee particles?
Does Cycles produce particles different from Eevee?

In Cycles
In Eevee

Unfortunately, the size of my .blend file is too large to upload to https://pasteall.org for posting the file.

Use https://blend-exchange.com/ to upload file

I learned that inside the Particle System, changing the Children from 'None' to 'Interpolated' will add more hair.
If more thickness is wanted, in Hair Shape, the hair root and/or tip can be thickened, producing a similar effect.


text:
Draw and update text in viewport without modal operator in blender
At the moment, I'm drawing my text in the viewport with this modal operator:
_handle = None

def modal(self, context, event):
    context.area.tag_redraw()
    if not context.window_manager.show_text.enabled:
        return {'CANCELLED'}
    return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

@staticmethod
def handle_add(self, context):
    VIEW3D_OT_ADH_display_text._handle = bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(
           draw_text_callback,
           (self, context),
           'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')

@staticmethod
def handle_remove(context):
    _handle = VIEW3D_OT_ADH_display_text._handle
    if _handle != None:
        bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(_handle, 'WINDOW')
    VIEW3D_OT_ADH_display_text._handle = None

def invoke(self, context, event):
    if context.window_manager.show_text.enabled == False:
        context.window_manager.show_text.enabled = True
        VIEW3D_OT_ADH_display_text.handle_add(self, context)

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}
    else:
        context.window_manager.show_text.enabled = False
        VIEW3D_OT_ADH_display_text.handle_remove(context)

        return {'CANCELLED'}

    return {'CANCELLED'}

Is it possible to draw my text without a modal operator, and update it with the following whenever my mesh is updated?
bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_post

You don't need the modal operator to draw things to the viewport. Calling bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add is all you need. Instead of (self, context) you could pass an arbitray object and alter its attributes to modify the drawing. I.e.
class foo:
    def __init__(self, prop):
        self.prop = prop

def draw_text_callback(data):
    #...
    blf.draw(data.prop)

data = foo("Test")

handle = bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(
           draw_text_callback,
           (data,),
           'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')


text:
How bump node reads images in Cycles
When I plug an image to the "bump node" ( or "Displacement" ) Does it consider the black value as 0.0 height or the gray ones (0.5,0.5,0.5)

Short Answer:
It doesn't matter at all.
Long Answer:
Bump mapping doesn't really care whether the colour of a particular pixel is black or grey or white or even negative. What it does care about, is the relation between that pixel and the pixels surrounding it.

The only thing that matter is the difference between the values. The two sets of pixels in the image above will give identical results, because the difference between black (0.0) and grey (0.5) is 0.5, and the difference between grey and white (1.0) is also 0.5.
As proof, here are two identical renders:

Why is it like this?
Under the hood, Blender is simply calculating the surface normal for each pixel. A normal is simply the direction that point on the surface is facing, irregardless of its position.

Note: None of this is true for actual displacement, only bump mapping.


text:
Blender crashing on Soft Body Simulator
I'm doing a soft body simulation on a grass model that I made. The settings that I changed from the default are the Mass, Soft Body Goal (Default & Damping amount), Stiffness and collision. Here's the blend file.
Whenever I tried 'bake all dynamics', Blender froze and crashed all the time. Maybe my computer's not very strong. But is there any settings on the soft body that I can change in order to ease the baking for my computer?
Thanks.

You probably don't have enough RAM; How much do you have?

4Gb in my computer

And what about the Ram that Blender is allowed to use?

If you are using a 32bit system, Blender is able to only use 2GB per app by default. It takes 10 minutes to open the file on my computer (i7, 8GB RAM), so I am sure we can optimize it.

The short answer is the softbody simulator is not designed to simulate a mesh with this much complexity. Can you describe what you are trying to achieve? I feel like a hair system will be so much better suited for this.

I would just like to animate the grass and I needed it to be soft body in order for it to be affected by wind.


text:
Bake texture from view
I have a wooden crate with textures and all. I want to turn this (Figure 1, see below) into this (Figure 2).
The only way I can think to explain it would be projection baking, where I project my 3D view unto a new image to get my desired image. I'm trying to lower my poly count so I need to take the second image's 3D view and actually turn it into an image, so that I can use a single poly on it instead of multiple.
It's hard to explain, but I'll try: if you just finished making a high-poly model with textures, and it's unwrapped and everything, then you make a low-poly model. If you switch to the high-poly front view, and were to take a picture, then that is what I would want the image to be for the low-poly.

Figure 1:

Figure 2

You can render with a camera from the object side or create a low poly model and bake directly from high poly model to low poly model.

I have tried that with normal mapping, however when ever i try it with texture (im using blender render at the moment because i could not find a "texture" option in cycles) it just gives me white.

I think I figured out how to do what I want but its glitchy and I need help. I kept my original uv map and made a second but unwrapped it from view. I then duplicated the object so I have two objects now. I set the original object to use the original uv map and the second object to use the projected uv map with a different material from the original. I then use cycles and select "diffuse color" as the thing I want to bake, then kept the original objects uv / texture image what I wanted it to be,  and created a new image and assigned it to the duplicated object. So now the original should have the desired texture and the duplicated object should have the default black image as its texture. I then enabled selected to active and hit bake and this is what I get. It works EXACTLY how I want it to be but part of it doesn't bake.

Create a new material
Create a new texture
Now set your Type: to Image or Movie, Open up your Image then set your coordinates (under mapping) to UV
Lastly UV unwrap your mesh, unless it's already unwrapped then that's fine.

Ohd thats what you mean. Yeah i can do that but thats different. It has to be in the exact was as front view. Not the uv wrap

try facing (what ever your obect is) and then UV unwrap it from view

I didnt know you could do that!! I will have to try that when i have time. Another way i thought to explain what i want would be if you scaled your front view down so it was completely flat and then could some how use that as your texture.

Try to rendering the image with a transparent background.
First create a camera and make it face directly to the object or image, then follow the steps in the below link. Lastly begin rendering then save the render by simply going to 'Image' then 'Save as Image'. http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1303/can-blender-render-pngs-with-the-background-transparent
Or you could switch the cycles render and bake diffuse (make sure you UV unwrap it from project view). The save that image.

@EthanSmith make sure you highlight the whole object when baking.

Highlight? So i have to select all faces in uv image editor to bake? Or do you mean in the 3d viewport because if thats what you mean then i always do that.

Hmmm try uploading an image so I can better understand what's happening

authors: นายศุภวัฒน์ จิรประเสริฐสม


text:
How can I make this toothed gear wheel?
This is part of something I'm doing, a mechanical part resembling a gear wheel with a great many teeth.

All I can think of is to make one tooth, then use the Array Modifier to do a radial symmetry of 40 copies of it. How do I then join them up cleanly?
Or is there a different approach than this?

Maybe this YouTube video will help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TkqLlK9R9U

Hi. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue so that anyone searching for a similar problem is likely to find it. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on how insightful it is. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

You can enable the addon Add Mesh: Extra Objects in the Preferences, then you can add an object in the viewport with Shift+A > Add > Mesh > Gears > Gear and play with the settings to get a custom shaped gear object. Or build it from scratch with the answer by @moonboots

There are several ways to do it, you can create this shape:

Array it 40 times:

Give it a Simple Deform modifier, Bend mode, 360° on Z:

Just to make this more helpful for the OP who anticipated this answer: are the segments joined cleanly?

You'll need to apply the modifiers, select all and press M > Merge by Distance, or if you want to keep it non-destructive, enable the Merge option of the Array modifier and add a Weld modifier under the Simple Deform   ;)


text:
Transform manipulator is not aligning with transform orientation
I am on Blender version 4.0.2.
I am attempting to make transformations on an object while using global orientation. To my understanding, when you switch transform orientations, the transform manipulator should align with the new orientation. However, when I switch to Global orientation, the manipulator does not align itself. In this image, I would expect the green arrow (Y axis of transformation) to be parallel with the green line (global Y axis) on the left and similar with the red arrow/line (X axis):

When I press G to move and Y to constrain the axes of movement, I thankfully get the correct axis of movement, but it is clearly different than the Y axis of the transform manipulator:

Since I am able to get the correct movement, I can still work; however, it does complicate the process of more complex movement. For example, if I create a custom orientation from the normal of a face that is oriented in a random direction, like in the image below.. :

.. I sometimes need visual confirmation that the orientation is correct.  Instead, what I get is a transform manipulator that still points in some arbitrary direction rather than aligning with the orientation of the selected face that was used to create the transform orientation:

If this is just a lack of understanding on my part, I am open to being educated! Otherwise, help with aligning the transform manipulator with the active transform orientation would be appreciated.

Maybe make sure that the Orientation on the top left is set to Default so that it takes the selected Transformation Orientation into account:

aaaand my problem is immediately solved!  You rock moonboots


text:
Making flat reflective surfaces look realistic
If I create a simple shiny metal material, by using Principle BSDF, crank up Metallic to 1.0, and drop the Roughness down, then apply it to a sphere and a cube. I get this:

The sphere looks good, but the cube does not. I think I understand what's happening: the sphere has a convex surface, so it reflecting the whole environment texture, but the cube is flat and therefore only reflects a small portion of it. But the small portion looks blurry.
How do I get a realistic-looking shiny cube? Do I need infinite resolution in the environment texture? Does the environment need bringing closer? Have I got the wrong idea completely?
Edit: as per someone's suggestion, I switched to Render Preview, added a world environment texture, and I also switched to Cycles rendering. The image below is the result - still a blurry and unsatisfactory cube!

please pack your image and share your file

Sorry, I'm new to this forum, and I don't quite understand your comment. Do you mean share the .blend file? How can I do this? Thank you!

To pack the image, go into File > External Data >Pack Resources, and to share your file use a platform like workupload. It's weird that your HDRI seems blurry if the Roughness value of your material is at 0...

https://workupload.com/file/2Nu7g7LCjZc

Put the Roughness of your Principled BSDF at 0 and the glossiness will be maximal and sharp (the sharpness will also depends on the HDRI resolution by the way):

Amazing, thank you!

You are viewing your objects through "Material Preview" mode (aka LookDev) - this mode uses a hidden (blurred out) HDRI for the lightings and reflections. You can either extend the viewport shading options (top right of the viewport next to the 4 "circles" - click the little arrow) "and unblur" the world (second image), or use Render Preview mode, which requires you to provide your own HDRI in the World Shader (good free ones can be found here - https://polyhaven.com/hdris).

Notice the "blurry reflections" are simply a good reflection of a blurry HDRI.

Thank you, Christopher. I have edited my question with the results of your suggestion. I still don't think the cube looks right!


text:
I am unable to get rid of some persisting shadows when the object is transparent. What am I missing?
I'm attempting to animate the Alpha value of a basic material using the Principle BSFD surface. However, I've noticed some strange shadows persisting, and I'm unsure how to eliminate them. The Blend Mode and Shadow Mode in the material settings are both configured to use Alpha Hashed. I'm relatively new to Blender, and I'm certain I must be missing something obvious, but I can't seem to pinpoint what it is. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
The blender file can be downloaded here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t7vzef1esf56qoctu6n8b/MRIscanner_shadowIssueWithCycles.blend?rlkey=lz64be9kpsspbtxuvxlrobau7&dl=0
This is the rendered image using Cycles and no transparency (Alpha = 1). For the sake of simplicity, I've used a single material across all components of the scanner.

This is the rendered image using Cycles with transparency (Alpha = 0)

Blend Mode and Shadow Mode in the material settings are both configured to use Alpha Hashed.

I have unchecked "Shadow" under "Ray Visibility" to ensure the objects don't catch shadows.

pls provide blend file so we can check it out, thx

You need to increase the bounces under Render Properties > Light Paths > Transparent. In the screenshot i reduced the bounces by purpose to 4 to show the problem.

That worked! Thank you so much!

Welcome, happy blending!


text:
Problem with piston pushing mesh to make it rotate
I've got a problem with the solution to my previous question, can anyone figure out what is wrong with what i've done here:

PS: I will try to comment on your answers, if you need some more information to solve my problem.
File:

if my answer helped you, please click on the checkmark left of my answer. thx.

you nearly had it....just parent the MESH to IK

in object mode, select the MESH and clear parent-> keep transform
shift select the armature
go to pose mode -> select IK

ctrl-p -> Bone
result:


text:
Bevel the edges of a cube and then add new face to the top face of the cube breaks the topology
In Blender 4.0.2, on the default cube, if I want to add a face using the Inset Faces tool in Edit Mode on the top face of the cube, then select two edges of the cube and bevel them, I get a nice topology like this:

But if I first select the two edges and bevel them (with 20 segments) and then select the top face and add new face using the Inset Faces tool, I get this mess:

My question is: is it necessary to always add a face first and then bevel the edges? Or is there a workaround, and can I add faces cleanly on objects that are already beveled?
PS: I tried to apply a modifier to the cube, but it beveled all the edges and I want just two of them to be beveled.

In Blender the order of your actions are very important. And it doesn't matter if it is sculpting, editing vertices, order of modifiers....the result will be different in nearly all cases. So yes, you should bevel at last (in normal cases)

That's how I'd expect it to work. One thing I'd say is that you should use far fewer segments on your bevel, maybe 4 or 5, and then right-click > Shade Smooth in Object mode to smooth the bevel.

in this case, instead of inseting the face, you can use E to extrude, right click to leave the face in place, then scale it down with S. You wont have any overlapping issue that way

@Alex You might only have to change the pivot point then, because the default Median will scale the face more towards the beveled edges instead of the center of the orginal face before beveling.

@GordonBrinkmann Yes, I forgot to mention that. Bounding box pivot point should work in this case

@Alex Yep, in this case it would. Also with a square face you can scale and the distance from the outer edges will be even in X and Y direction like an inset. With a non-square  face of course not.

In this case it isn't really a topology difference, the mesh itself is very different. If you inset the face before the bevel, the face on the top of the cube will have only four vertices. When you inset after the bevel, the face on the top has to deal with the extra vertices on the bottom two corners due to the added bevel. You should decide on whether you want to deal with the extra vertices on the top face depending on the final look you want to achieve.


text:
How to fix meshes ripping in half after rigging them
I'm currently learning rigging using Rigify. So far, everything is working great except for this one issue that I really don't know how to fix:
If you pull on the arm, leg, neck, or another bone, it will tear, as shown in the picture below. I would appreciate it if anyone could tell me how to solve this.

In your model, is the head a separate mesh? For the rigging to only 'stretch' the mesh, it needs to be a single mesh.

But it's single mesh. I'm not good at blenders.. Here is the link to download my blend file, if you don't mind, can you check my work? https://www.mediafire.com/file/giuuckhc81g8uuh/rigging.blend/file

Your mesh is in a single object, but it is made out of multiple meshes. As we can see by going to Edit Mode, hovering a mesh part and pressing L to select the connected mesh underneath: it selects only a portion of the mesh:

Furthermore, moving the rig around let us see that some parts of your mesh are disconnected, it's even more visible when enabling the Face Orientation Overlay:

You could in theory keep the mesh like this, and just edit the weight painting so that each vertex that is overlaping is moving the same way from each bones controlling those vertices. There isn't really an automated way to do that, it's just plain boring weight painting/editing.
Personally, I wouldn't want that if possible. I would instead join all overlapping vertices.
For this, go back in Edit Mode on the mesh object, select all with A, press M > Merge by distance.
After this, you will still need to fix the weights. But since now you have a nice mesh, you could just try to re-generate automatic weights.
Regenerate automatic weights

Select the Armature, and in pose mode select all bones with A and go to the menu Pose > Clear Transforms > All.
Select the mesh object in Object Mode.
In the Mesh properties > Vertex Groups, use the popover menu to delete all groups:

⇧ Shift select the armature object and press ⎈ CtrlP Set Parent To Armature Deform with Automatic Weights.

Result:

There's a pretty automated way to make them match-- at least, a little better than selecting vertices one by one.  Separate mesh islands to new objects; mark margins with vertex groups; use data transfer modifiers by nearest vertex, modulated by vertex group, to copy from one mesh island to another; rejoin objects if desired.

Thank you so much!


text:
Blender crashes on baking (ambient occlusion)
Whenever the Blender Engine reaches 100% on 'Bake' for Ambient Occlusion, it crashes.
Is there any other way to do this?

Options are -

No Duplication

Well, Although I've only Baked once, I notice you have the width and height of your texture map set at 4096, I would suggest maybe lowering that to 2048. According to Darrin lile's videos on Texturing, he encountered glitches when using a number that high.
Now if this is the same as your other textures you should probably scale them down too, just for the sake of them matching up. I could be totally wrong, but I'm just telling you what I think may work. I hope I'm helping here!

The maps don't have to match in size (although you might have to set up different UV coordinates for different sizes). As for lowering your AO map resolution, that would have been my advice, as well. +1


text:
How to animate the shape of an object based on two splines
I want to animate a beam (a cone) between two splines: one defines where the beam comes out of, and the other where the beam hits (you can think of it as one ship pointing with a laser to another ship, while both are moving).
What would be the easiest way to do it?

If you mean something like this ...

... so here is the cone Parented to the moving Cube and for Cone object is set Constraint > Track to center Cube

In case you want the Cone to end at object's origin (or any specific point) you can, but it is a bit different solution ...

Instead of Cone ... parent a Single Bone to the moving Cube, parent the Cone to Armature > Bone. With Armature selected switch to Pose mode, select the Bone and assign Constraint > Stretch to center Cube.

Or ... for the same result (but without a bone) you can make it in opposite way ... parent the Cone to the center Cube (you just have to have Cone's origin at center of bottom face). In edit mode select Cone's tip vertex and search for Add Hook. It creates an Empty. Position the Empty at place of moving Cube you want the tip beam to start and parent Empty to moving Cube. For the Cone object Add Constraint > Track to moving Cube.
All versions are stored in collections ...

Brilliant in solution "Hook To" to set origin at circle end of cone, and hook the single tip vertex to empty following path!

thank you very much! this is exactly what i needed i'll try it!


text:
Why doesn't boolean cut?
When I cut my object it doesn't cut it, all it does is make an outline of the cylinder:

I have looked up videos and stuff, but none has yet explained why this is happening.
Does someone know why?

The modifier is currently in error. This is illustrated by its red icon (marked red in the screenshot below). It's in error, because its Object field (marked blue) is empty. You need to set the object you want to perform the Boolean with in that field.

Once you set the object, its icon will turn white, and you should be able to verify that it is working by hiding the boolean object.

If one of the objects involved in the operation is not manifold (fully closed, can hold water), then enable Hole Tolerant under Solver Options.


text:
Sun Lamp doesn't show when background lighting is used
Situation: I'm creating an ocean scene. I have an ocean with reflecting material. Therefore, I used a picture on a plane as to have the background image reflected on the ocean.
Problem: However, a sun lamp doesn't seem to work when rendered with the background plane. When I just rendered the sun lamp and the ocean, the ocean is lighted. However, with the background image rendered, the sun lamp doesn't seem to show up. (I had tried increasing intensity and changing color to bright purple first). How could I have the lamp reflected on the ocean together with the background plane on the scene?
Here's the blend file.

Rendering only ocean and light

Rendering with ocean, light, and background image (there should be a purple light, but it doesn't show)

Your plane is casting a shadow. moving the sun lamp will not help since unlike point, the sun lamp casts global lighting. To fix this, move your sun into the same layer as the water and select This Layer Only

I tried placing the sun, water, and background plane on the same layer. But the sun still doesn't seem to appear during render.

Sun and water goes on level one, background plane on level 2


text:
Unable to Weight Paint in 3D viewport
I'm currently trying to spread pebbles along a plane using particle systems. Moreover, I wanted it so that it only spread on certain areas of the plane (which can be done using weight painting & adding a vertex group).
The problem is, whenever I tried to weight paint the plane, nothing shows up in my 3D viewport. No red/colors that usually appears during weight painting.
Please take a look at this 'blend file', and see what's wrong with my weight painting. I'm pretty confident that it should've worked like normal.

You have 'Face selection masking' turned on in the 3D view header (2.79):

The selection masking options in 2.8 are found here:

This means that only faces that are selected in edit mode will be able to be painted on when weight painting. It's useful to use as a mask in case you want certain parts of the mesh to be excluded from weight painting.
Either disable this button or select all the faces that you want to weight paint in edit mode before returning to weight paint mode.