text:
How can I print a the outcome value of this script live to a property?
So I made this script:
import bge
from bge import logic

scene = logic.getCurrentScene()

cube = logic.getCurrentController().owner
speed = cube.getLinearVelocity()

cube['Velocity']=speed`

as you can see, speed is the holder for the outcome of the script. I tried to print it to a property called Velocity the way someone told me but it doesn't work. Can anyone please tell me what I did wrong?

there's a ` behind speed. If it's meant like that then that's the mistake. If not you might want to post the console output if there's any error. To do so you have go to 'window' and then 'toggle system console'

No, I accidently placed it there, it isn't in the script in blender.

Semantic
Precision
This is a problem of not being precise enough.
Request

I tried to print it to a property called Velocity the way someone told me but it doesn't work

Your code does not "print" anything. I guess you meant "copy", "assign" or "fill". Printing usually involves a call to "print".
Code
The code itself is correct. It places a value into the property. You can verify that be adding
print("Velocity:", cube["Velocity"])

The issue is that you call a velocity "speed". While Python will not care, you as a reader instantly get an incorrect though of what it is.

Speed is a scalar (a number) like 2 km/h.
Velocity is a direction and a size = a vector for example: (1.0, 0, 0) = along one unit along the X-axis.

Luckily the property name brings the reader's mind back to where it should be.
So lets use the other term to make it more clear:
import bge
from bge import logic

scene = logic.getCurrentScene()

cube = logic.getCurrentController().owner
velocity = cube.getLinearVelocity()

cube['Velocity'] = velocity

There is not functional change, but the semantic is more precise.
"but it doesn't work"!
Unfortunately you did not tell what "doesn't work". As said, assigning the velocity to the property does work (the print statement shows that).
I assume you wanted to use Game/Show Debug Properties to let the BGE print the property value to the screen.
This will indeed not work.
The BGE debug output only supports properties created via GUI. The Debug Renderer expects the format you entered at the GUI. This means when "Velocity" is a float, the value should be float too.
Linear Velocity is a vector (see above). A vector value can't be converted to a float and not shown in the debug output.
[Edit:]
You can use a string property and fill in a string representation:
cube['VelocityText'] = str(velocity)

[/Edit]
The question
is ... do you want the velocity or the speed?

authors: Олег Яковенко


text:
How can I get the world grid and backdrop grid to be visible in a render?
I have tried to find the answer to this question in the blender manual and in various forum but have not had any luck.
What I want to do is to make the world grid and the backdrop grid (orthographic view) visible in the final render. I do not wish to create a grid from the add mesh button since they do not look the same as the world grids.
Is this even possible?
Thanks for any advice!

Nay if you want to see a grid in your scene you have to add a grid...What makes the mesh look different from the world grid anyway ? Use a wireframe texture for rendering and you wil be able to control the thickness of the edges and their color...

Welcome fivefootnine :)  Does this help? If you want to know more about the site, please see the help center and start with the tour. Anyway, enjoy blender.se!

@poor It states in the question that he would not like to use a mesh as he requires the grid to look the same.

Thanks for the replys. yvain said that I can use a wireframe texture for rendering to be able to control the thickness of edges etc. This does not solve my problem since I want to render in solid mode? The backdrop grid is a feature that is built in in blender. Is that feauture impossible to incorporate in the render? Maybe with a script?

Not that I know of. Even with a script the best the script would do is add the mesh and colour it for you. You need to add some sort of image or geometry if it is to show up in the render. And when you say solid mode do you mean the way the view port is rendered? If so you can change the view port colour of a mesh in the material settings. You could use this to create a grid, although you would have to do some work if it is to look the same as the grid in blender. If you don't mind adding an image as long as it looks the same, look at my answer below.

@SchoolBoy Good point. I appreciate your answer, but I think using geometry can look the same (since it's a simple OpenGL drawing) and let you stay in blender as well. The best solution is probably a bgl script to achieve the same result or style, but writing solid code would take too much time for this too vague question (IMO).

Unfortunately, this is not possible using the standard render methods.
However, one way you can add it is by capturing an image of the grid as a screen shot from top orthographic view after hiding all visible objects. The grey background can then be removed using an image editing program and added to the scene as so:
Grid image (you are free to use this one if you like):

Then create a plane exactly the size of this image (6x6) and UV unwrap the plane
Cycles:
Set the material to the following node setup:

This makes the material only visible to the camera and transparent where there is no grid.
This can then be used in your renders :)
Blender internal:
For blender render simply enable Z-transparency in the materials and set the alpha to 0. Also enable shadeless and disable cast shadow.

Then select the image in the textures tab. Then ensure that the texture affects the alpha of the material by turning up alpha (just under color) to 1.

If the grid is too thick you can scroll up to image sampling, disable MIP map and lower the filter size. This should make the grid thinner.
You can now use it in your renders :)

There's no need to remove grey color of the scene from the screenshot from top ortho view; change world background to the full white in World Settings and choose it to be shown in the Toolshelf.

@MrZak But then you'd have to remove the white anyway since a transparent image is needed.

Probably (I thought about OpenGL render viewport but don't think it's option now). Either way this method will be less accurate because it involves taking screenshot and editing image; it would be more flexible to create several curves with Vector type handles and setup them appropriately (covered in the linked answer); optionally bake result into image.

@MrZak I know that it might be more flexible, but then more work is required to get it to look the same. This to me seems like a really quick solution. And yes, OpenGL render is available but it does not render the grid. This is what I originally tried too, I thought it could simply be rendered out for as big of a grid as required. And in fact, I don't think it will be inaccurate because even if it is an image, the grid when taken a screen shot of is exactly one pixel. And as long as the plane being used is the same size as the grid it will fit perfectly to scale.

@SchoolBoy ... you stated ... [a really quick solution].  I would say you have really quick sufficient solution.  ¡ Bravo !.  You may be  helping other readers.  You may help the original poser of the question.  You may help yourself.  Any combination is fine.  You do not need to fulfill or agree with the validity of every aspect of a question. Having different answers is good.  Many questions go unanswered here.  Other people can leave an alternative answer.

Yes I know, I also agree with the fact that having different answers is good. I just went for the approach of trying to achieve every aspect of the question. Like you say, other people can leave alternative answers. For some reason, it seems to me like you are trying to say that I was forcing this answer onto people. I am sorry if I sounded like that but I was merely discussing it and in no way did I mean that any other suggestions were wrong.

Thanks to everybody for providing help and especially Schoolboy for the detailed answer and file attachments! I do think there should be possible to render the grids in a future version of blender without all the hassle it takes now.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Why is my material solid white?
I was following the tutorial of Blender Guru on YouTube, to make an Earth in Blender. I was finished with the first part. But then somehow my clouds were deleted (the Material of Clouds doesn't exist anymore). And I started making a new material for the clouds. But the whole sphere is white, cloudds can't be seen like in the first time. What could be the reason?

The big sphere is the earth and it is fully white. If I turn the opacity of the Clouds down (eye symbol), the Earth can be seen. So the problem is with the clouds

I can see a mistake in your node setup, the "Fac" input of your Mix shader can't be driven by the "Generated" output of the texture coordinate node...

Also the Mix shader shouldn't be plugged in Color input socket; either it represents actual material's surface being connected to Material Output node or it should be substituted with another node. Probably you should swap Diffuse and Mix shaders.

Thank you for your help. Like Mr Zak said I had to swap diffuse and Mix -solved-

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


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Why does the blue line in the timeline cause errors if I render past it?

How can I reset this blue line? Because an error occurs when I render this file, the footage stops moving after the blue line ends (= frame ~250)

Thank you, but how can I do that? And does it also expand the frame duration? For example to 1000?

Thank you, it was a waving flag, and I used a cloth simulation like Timaroberts said. I had to change the end frame at Physics -> Cloth Cache

Now everything is solved


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How do we control which 3d View the render result is displayed in when multiple 3d views are visible?
I'm rendering some simple 3d shapes to an isometric perspective (orthographic cameras etc) using the Blender internal.
The render is lightning fast so I dragged out another 3d view so Blender is divided into two 3d Views, one on the left one on the right. (Properties editor is on the far right as usual).
When I press F12, initially Blender displayed the render result on the right hand view.  This was great as I could make small changes to the camera (on the left) and immediately see changes in the full render just by pressing F12 again.
However every so often when I press F12, Blender seems to randomly decide to put the render result in the left hand view and the right view now returns to the 3d View.
This a a real pain as I then have to re-open the tool and information panels and select the camera again etc.  It then also happens in reverse after a while (right now I'm rendering to the right window again).
I thought it may depend on which view I last selected an object in, but in my testing it seems to make no difference.
Does anyone know how I can lock the render result to a specific 3d view when there are multiple 3d views visible?

@Carlo, Thanks, yes this is absolutely a duplicate of that.  Happy for it to be closed etc.  Sorry, I did search first and also reviewed the suggestions when I was writing the question biut missed that somehow.

It took me a while for me also to remember where I saw a similar question...I think that your title is more accurate and easy to find, so it'll help who has the same doubts in the future.

We don't normally include an 'update' or 'solved' section in a question marked as 'duplicate' as the duplicate should provide enough information. I have taken the liberty of removing this section, though you could always roll back the edit if you feel it is really necessary.

No problems, I just thought it might be useful for someone else with identical question.  I'm new to this stackexchange so happy to fit in with the norms.


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Why does my scene take longer to render on two modern GPUs, than on CPU?
I have a performance issue with cycles GPU rendering.
The scene I built takes 2:35s  on CPU, but 8:47s on two HD 7950s. I tried all tile sizes from 16x16 all the way to 640x1024, and 8:47s was the quickest time I got.
I have two 3GB Radeon HD 7950 graphic cards in my desktop. I have the latest driver on a fresh install of Linux Mint 17. The benchmark performance is great. The standard BMW benchmark scene takes just 48.06 seconds, even with 480x540 tiles. My laptops CPU, an i7 3632QM, needs 5:19s for the same job.
What is going on? I was expecting a rendering time of around 23s not 527s! It makes sense that my heavier scene would take longer, but it does not make sense that CPU would be faster than GPU. Why is the benchmark behaving as expected, but my scene is so slow?
I only use diffuse surfaces, a few simple models and one sun light.
Is there a setting I missed that really slows down GPU rendering?

It entirely depends on what you're rendering. If you've got 2,000,000,000 polys, that's going to take a long time. Can you add an image of what you're rendering? Maybe also include a screenshot of your render settings.

...if you don't have enough rep to add the images, link them in the comments and I'll add them for you.

I do understand that, if i have a very complex scene to render, it will take a lot of time. Regardless of CPU or GPU rendering.
My problem is:
The BMW Benchmark takes 5min19sec on the CPU and only 48sec on GPU
My scene takes 2min35sec on the CPU but 8min47sec on the GPU
If i only consider CPU times i would say my scene is about half the workload of the BMW benchmark.
And if i look at the BMW benchmark performance i would expect the GPU to be 6.5 times faster on my scene.
But it is actually 3.4 times slower than the CPU!

My scene has got 325k vertices, 190k faces and about 374k triangles.
The BMW benchmark scenen has 99k vertices, 94k faces and 187k triangles.
I have about double the amount of polygons. But i only need 144 samples and i'm only rendering diffuse surfaces. No glossy or transparent objects and no subsurface scattering.
My scene is not unreasonable complicated. Im not using several orders of magnitude more polygons or samples.
If the number of polygons i can use is the limiting factor,
is there an upper limit for the polygoncount where the GPU is still reasonably fast?

Slower on GPU than CPU? I hadn't noticed that before. That's the most interesting detail.

Yes, that is my issue! I thought the only performance limit to GPU rendering would be the available GPU memory. And if you run out of memory cycles crashes. Im going to switch of layers for rendering and see if the promised GPU speed finally shows itself.

I tried this on a friend's machine, and he had the same issue, he has a very powerful Octacore processor, and two powerful AMD graphic cards, since it's a MAC pro machine, his test turned out to be faster on CPU. I believe it's because of two things, first of all, his processor is too fast, which makes CPU render too fast (24 buckets) and AMD's compatibility issues with Blender, make their performance less than expected.

Oh FFS! There is actually a second switch you have to enable in order for cycles to render on the GPU!
So the answer to why my two Radeon HD 7950 graphics cards where so slow, is that cycles wasn`t using them! It was still rendering on the CPU.
It is simply not enough to "enable" GPU computing under the Blender User Preferences (Ctrl+Alt+U) -> System -> Compute Device!
What you have to do, to actually render your scene on your GPU is:

Use Cycles to render your scene
"enable" GPU computing under the Blender User Preferences (Ctrl+Alt+U) -> System -> Compute Device
After this a "Device" option pops up under the "Render" options. Which you have to switch to GPU.

then, and only then, your scene will render on your GPU.
Now that i got this figured out, i have a few follow up questions:
Why is there a second switch for the same option?
Why is the default selection for this option CPU?
Who thought this would be a good idea?

And now that i got it on my own and posted the answer, it is so nice that blender stack exchange started to sugest the right answer under "Related" from 2 years ago: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/14779/gpu-rendering-but-it-appears-cpu-is-being-used?rq=1

The computing device selectors in the prefs are only there to make the hardware available to Blender. Under the render panel you have to choose what computing device you want for the current render. I think it makes sense.
Also notice that the GPU is not necessarily always the best choice. In complex scenes with motion blur the GPU can be slower than a decent CPU.

Also, GPU has a more constrained amount of memory for textures, that may be not enough in some scenes with lots of textures. CPU is always the safest choice. You may have a GPU that is not powerful or modern enough for Cycles, but your CPU will always be adequate, so it's a better default.

The compute device selection also allows to select wich GPU to use if more than 1.

@Gez: Yes the CPU is the "saver" bet, but it is impractical if you need 1231200 Frames renderd. Each with a 5120x4096 pixel resolution and at least 20 samples per pixel. If i had used the current best bang per buck CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 it would have taken me 10.5 years to complete my task.

@somethingISworngHERE: It really depends on the complexity of the scene. I've done work that took longer in the GPU than in the CPU (one of the car shots in this year's Cycles reel, for instance). A closeup with fast motion blur chokes the GPU, and multiple small tiles of your CPU do a better job.
Also, the kind of job you mention (high resolution, lots of frames, several samples) is the kind of job you'd send to a renderfarm anyway. You can never beat dozens of Amazon EC2's Xeons with your GPUs ;-)


text:
Where can I find beginner videos for Blender?
The YouTube Channel videos for beginners which start out with hotkeys, and learning the interface are based on an older model of the program, and the location/function of the buttons seem to be outdated.
The purpose for which I am using the program is to create housing and environmental structuring on Second Life.
Can anyone kindly direct me to a location that will guide me through the steps of getting acquainted with the program so that I can begin implementing it, please? Thank you all very much.

Heres the playlist I used, its well done:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrgQj91MOVfjTShOMRY8TLmkJ7OFr7bj6

These are short, to the point, very easy to follow along.
https://vimeo.com/channels/blendervideotutorials/videos/sort:alphabetical/format:thumbnail
Some more here on the blender site but they might be more intermediate.
https://www.blender.org/support/tutorials/

I find that tutorials are great, but project based tutorials are better. They are better because they leave you with a fantastic result at the end of each one. There are many people who do project based tutorials. BlenderGuru would be a good one to look into when you become more advanced. For now, I would suggest Tutor4u. His tutorials range in length, but are so easy to understand that you can literally just listen to the audio and work in Blender while it's playing.

The OP asked "Can anyone kindly direct me to a location that will guide me through the steps of getting acquainted with the program". In this case project based tutorials aren't what the OP is asking for.

authors: Роман Мищиряков


text:
How to do a round railing/ fence
I am a very beginner in Blender. I am modelling a tank and want to make a round railing at the top of the tank and a ladder.
The ladder should be no problem, but what is the easiest way to make a round railing with the same curve as my tank?
Here is a photo of the tank:

I am not asking for a whole solution, just some tips, since I notice there are lots of features, that makes things easy in blender, but I don't know them at the moment :(...

Could you add example of how it should look like?

Something like http://www.teatucson.com/images/railing_on_one_tank_with_guy_cropped.jpg   or like http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/f3676bd5d2dc45de9d4784e629b80d42/concrete-cylindrical-industrial-silo-with-metal-stairs-with-safety-j8mjxd.jpg

I am wondering first how to decide if it should be a "separate object" i.e I model the ladder and railing and "paste it" to the tank or if I should use extrude etc to model them from the tank....hope you understand what I mean

Please try following steps

Please select the set of edges on the top of your tank, using Alt + click on the edge as show in image below:

Hit Shift + D to duplicate edges
Hit p to seperate the edges
Go to the object mode and you will get a duplicate in outliner
Go to edit mode - Select edges using Alt + click
Extrude a twice as shown in the picture below:

Select alternative faces and hit X and delete Only Faces

You can do it as a single obect too, I hope it help you


text:
Why does mesh shrink when using shape keys?
This is the first time I've used shape keys, but from what I understand they should be pretty straightforward.
I have the Basis key and I've added an Arms_up shape key, see mesh examples below:

Basis shape key

Arms_up shape key
The problem I have, is that half way through the interpolation of the Basis and the Arms_up keys, the arms are shrunk. What could cause this? Are there considerations should I take into account when using shape keys?

Here are my shape key settings.

Where am I going wrong? I should also note that I have two unapplied modifiers in the stack, a mirror modifier on the X axis and a subsurface modifier.

Note: 2.70 has a laplacian deform modifier which looks like its doing something closer to what you would want: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.70/Modeling#Laplacian_Deform_Modifier

@ideasman42 - indeed this looks promising, isn't this already in 2.6? Or is it being improved?

Its new in 2.70 - see release logs, you'll need a testing build.

Shape keys work by smoothly, but blindly, moving each vertex from one location to another. It's likely that as each vertex is blindly trying to get to its destination, the intermediate result is this shrunk version of your mesh.
Shape keys are "dumb." They do absolutely nothing to maintain volume, do any kind of skinning, or anything "smart" like that. It's a SUPER simple transform.
I wish I could upload images from where I am, but imagine a plane with 4 vertices. You have a Basis key that looks like the plane, and then you have a Flipped key that moves the vertices in an X pattern. The top-left vertex goes to the bottom-right, the top-right to the bottom-left, etc. So that the end result is also a plane, but it's upside-down and backward. Each vertex is going to go straight to its designated destination without any concern for any other vertices, so you can imagine that exactly half-way through the process, they're all going to be basically a really tiny point in the middle of what used to be a plane. Something similar is what's happening to your arms, there.
This is what rigs are for ;-) Rigs can preserve the relative position of the vertices so that they don't do weird things like this.
EDIT: For some reason, my image isn't supported on this site, but you can find it here.
In this animation, I add two blendshapes, basis (which you always have) and key1, to the default cube. Then, I select all the verts in edit mode and rotate them around the x-axis (this will be hard to follow, if you can't see the gif). This is now my key1 blendshape. The point of all this is that it doesn't matter that I rotated the verts. If I were using keyframes, the rotation would matter, but not with blendshapes. When I adjust the strength of key1, each vertex will move along the shortest path between its two positions, regardless of where any of the other verts are. This means that all the verts pass very closely to each other about half-way through the transition, which makes a really skinny prism.
This is basically what's happening to the arm. Each vertex is blindly moving to its designated destination, and the intermediate result can sometimes be undesirable.
The solution might be adding intermediate shapes, but this is not the way blendshapes are usually used.
I hope that helps!

Great explanation, would be nice to see an example image to support this.  I chose shape keys over rigs because I want to use morph targets in three.js, based on your answer I am now thinking this could be achieved by providing further intermediary keys to lessen the effects?

Yes, intermediate keys would certainly help. You'll have to figure out how many keys you can afford to add before it costs more than it's worth ;-)

...I'll try to add images at some point.

any news on your images? This is a good answer and I think they would help others.

I'm sorry, I totally forgot. I'll get them added sometime today.

You'll note there's a "jump" when I tab back into object mode. This is because key1 still has a strength of 0, so it's jumping back to Basis.


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How to cut two intersecting faces?
I want to cut the crossing highlighted faces.

What I want to do is a place for a car tail light.
The idea is for the light to go into that slot.

What I want is to get new vertex where the red dots are painted.

Any way of doint that witout doing it manually?
Link to the blend file:

feedback is appreciated! Thanks!

I don't quite understand, why not just extrude/shape the area into a light?  If you have an extra edge just join it to the vertices where you want them or are missing an edge just add a loop cut and use that.  You say you don't want to do it 'manually', what other way is there?  It appears to me that you have a somewhat regular potentially thought-pausing geometry problem

You can try a Face > Intersect (Knife), then Merge by Distance, but as Jon says, there must be a simpler way

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


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Why do I get funny glich in my viewport?
I'm seeking for some infos about a glitch that happen in my viewport when I make volumetric clouds in eevee. I'm working on a iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013). Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 and my graphics is an Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB
I hope someone would be able to answer me about this problem.
Thanks!

Are you using Blender 2.81? I've experienced the same thing, especially with volumetrics. My Amateur guess is that it's just a bug. It usually works fine again after a restart.

I just downloaded V2.81 and same thing is happening. Like you said. Espacially with volumetric.

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


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How do I change the units to meters or create an object that is X mm wide?
So I want to make a model for 3D-printing and searched for a guide on how to change the units to metric units first of course, but the guides I found were totally outdated, because there seems to have been massive changes to the UI.
I don't even know where to start in the Manual and got kinda lost in the pages there without finding an answer.
What I want to do:
1) Change the "blender" units to metric units.
2) Display the volume of objects in Blender.
Thank you guys so much in advance for any help!

PS: I am new to using the program, so please excuse me if my question is dumb. I read on a guide on how to do a 3D printing object in Blender from 2 years ago and the author said that you have to change the units from "Blender units" to "metric units" and describes a "properties" submenu, but I am unable to find the menu, because the UI has totally changed and the description of which icon has this function doesn't fit anymore.

Hello and welcome. Please keep only one question per post, ask as many as you need. Also do a search before posting, these are very frequent questions and have already been answered before. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/63113/is-it-possible-to-display-volume-of-a-mesh-object https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/17966/blender-units-vs-metric/17974#17974 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/153681/blender-2-8-units-of-scale-grid-and-default-size-of-objects

Just to make it easier for other 2.8x users.
Change your units to metric.
Properties panel > Scene Tab > Units

To check the volume of objects, enable the 3D-Print Toolbox addon.
Preferences > Addons and click the checkmark.

After it's enabled, you can see the volume here.
Sidebar > 3D Print tab

This answer is great, but I don't see that sidebar for the add-on on the right side...
It kinda looks like this to me:
https://ibb.co/gvwRbh5
... how did you add the pictures to the post?

Hey there :). View > Sidebar. Or just click the little arow on top . Or press N.

Also, you can now mark the answer as accepted ✓. ;)

Man I hate it when they disappear before hitting the damn accept button. :P

@BLayer Yeah, it used to bug me too :D.

Used to? Lucky devil. :)


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Class Room Demo Scene Black Windows?
I just wonder if anyone know how to fix this issue? When I render the Class Room Scene, the windows often shown up as black (or checker boxes)? Apparently the ray tracing part is not hitting anything at those regions?
However, when I look at the demo image from the website they have corrected those? Any ideas?

Ok, I figured it out. The black is actually Alpha. So the quickest way to fix it is to patch it up with white.
Also, I notice the final result used the composite feature! It was not enabled by default. And that's why it looked different.

I have the same problem but I don't understand your solution. What do you mean by "patch it up with white"? How do you do that? I have tried to change the material but it is still the same. Also I don't understand what you mean by "enable the composite feature". Where can I do that? If you could elaborate on that I would be grateful.


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How to do texture painting on a character?
I am currently trying to add some color to my human model. It's Nothing fancy with depth and textures, I just want to add some color over the smooth shading. However, this task seems impossible since I don't know how to work the texture painting properly.
I have separated the body parts of my mesh into separate pieces (head, torso, arm, hand ect.) in hopes this would make painting easier. However I find it odd that when I paint on one piece of the mesh the paint will also appear on a piece of the mesh I did not select. Also some areas of the selected mesh are not even being effected by the paint. I have looked at several youtube tutorials but most are dealing with painting on a single mesh and aren't working for me. Does anyone know why this is happening?

It sounds to me like you don't have your UV maps set up properly. Did you unwrap the model after shaping it? What you're describing is something I've had happen when Blender is still trying to use the UV map for the object I started with, when extensive modifications have made that useless. For example, paint appearing on two parts of the mesh at once suggests that you have portions of your UV map overlapping each other.
You have two options, I think: first, you could UV unwrap. To do that, go to the "UV Editing" tab with one of the pieces of your model selected, select the whole thing, press "U" and then click "Unwrap". It may result in a pretty bad map, so you may need to look up some tutorials on UV unwrapping. You'll also need to unwrap each piece separately, and it'll probably be easiest to use a separate image texture for each one.
The second option is easier but not as good for detail -- you could just vertex paint. For that, just switch from "Object Mode" to "Vertex Paint Mode"; I'd also recommend looking up a detailed tutorial on using Vertex Paint, though it's not terribly complicated.
Oh, and one more option: if all you want is a single color, all of this is overkill -- it would make much more sense to just change the material to one that uses the right base color.

Thanks Reese! Your advice is a big help. Been stuck on this issue for a couple of days now.


text:
file browser by python in blender
I am having some problem in 'opening a file browser with python' in blender. Can you provide me with a sample code where I can access the file location after running from the script.
.
Please, if you have full code it will help me better. I am very new to python.

You need to provide more context, is this part of an import operator, which invokes the file browser? Or a StringProperty(subtype='FILE_PATH') sitting in a panel?

I found this code sample (originally from the Blender wiki) to be very helpful in understanding file browser usage. Specifically, look at the "execute" method of the ScanFileOperator class, which passes self.filepath (the chosen file) to another function (scanFile):
#
#   Opens a file select dialog and starts scanning the selected file.
#
class ScanFileOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "error.scan_file"
    bl_label = "Scan file for return"
    filepath = bpy.props.StringProperty(subtype="FILE_PATH")

    def execute(self, context):
        scanFile(self.filepath)
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        context.window_manager.fileselect_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

The link now doesn't exist.

@Hammerh5 Thanks for catching that, I updated the link.


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Waveform not showing while checking audio scrubbing
When I add an .mp3 sound file to the VSE and go to Playback and check Audio Scrubbing, I don't get the waveform. Why?

you probably don't wait long enough for the preview being loaded up? It might take some time...

Turning on the waveform display is a separate setting in the 'View' menu:

If you have a long MP3, you may have to wait for the previews to generate (after turning 'Waveforms On'):

When you have one or multiple Sound strips you can check Draw Waveform in the Strip Properties' Sound Panel (on the right, open VSE's Properties Panel pressing the N key).
When you want to set the behaviour for all Strips you can do so since the work on the gooseberry branch. They introduced this Feature there directly in the VSE's Menu Bar, but later implemented it in the Master Branch into the View menu with an own submenu Waveform Drawing where you can switch between two global options for turning Waveforms On or Off for all strips or let each strip determine on it's on property as described above whether or not to display its Waveform via Use Strip Option.
(You can script this if needed)

Just as a note, while some people do like to highlight with backticks (``) that is generally reserved for highlighting code.


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How To Make a Radial Gradient Sky in Blender Internal?
I am using Blender Internal. I am trying to achieve a sky like link in the  following picture, but I could only make a Linear Gradient.

Here is related answer, that may be helpful for you if you want to create the same gradient type texture in Cycles: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/22929/how-to-create-a-gradient-texture

You may do it using Blend texture with the Quadratic Sphere (or Spherical) progression type.

In World header set its type to Real Sky.

Then go to Texture header and set the texture type to World. Add a new texture and set it as Blend.

In Colors panel check the Ramp checkbox and set the colors transition using sliders. Set the colors interpolation type to Ease also. In Blend panel set the progression type to Quadratic Sphere (or Spherical). In Mapping panel set the coordinates type to AngMap. Experiment with settings below. Check the Horizon box in Influence panel also.

You may also try to set the colors interpolation type to B-Spline and add some sliders with slighty different hue to have a better control over colors transition.


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transform (distort) image in the VSE
Is there a way to free-transform (distort) an image in the VSE. But not in a perspective way but by moving the corner pins?

Do it in the 3D view by assigning it to a plane as texture and deforming said plane object.

Is this what you are trying to do?


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Why does my .7 solve error result in bad track?

I started with my iPhone 4 footage and managed to get a solid 0.7159 solve error (using the phone preset w/k1+k2+focal length) with just 21 markers (including my new Favorite Thing, perspective markers). Huzzah!
Except when I Setup Tracking Scene - the presented solution shows the camera and the markers in an almost completely straight line, or has the camera stretched out to a ridiculous distance, covering the markers (which are in an almost completely straight line).
I've set the floor, the origin, the x axis, the scale - all to only minor adjustments.
How can I convince Blender that it's looking at a fairly broad street, not a tiny, thin path?

After poking about and resetting my iPhone preset multiple times, the problem seems to have fixed itself. It seems unlikely it's just the iPhone preset that solved the issue (though you can see I was having problems with the camera focal length), but after trying the same actions multiple times and hoping for a different outcome, it appears to have solved itself. If anybody has an idea what happened, post away - otherwise I'll delete this question soon. --Rev

The problem is displayed in your screenshot.

First off the iPhone 4 has a 3.85mm focal length (part of the iPhone 4 preset), no were near 457.
Because you had a focal length that was way off, it messed up blender big time. No doubt you had Refine in the Solve settings set to adjust the K1 and K2 values. -1237926.25 is a HUGE number, way bigger then anything you will ever really need; for that matter the K1 value is way too high. The focal length and Lens Distortion values are the cause of your problem.

It's a fair observation, but I've no idea how the focal length got set to that as I've only ever selected the iPhone 4 preset. On subsequent tries, using the preset & deleting the constraint & resetting the Blender camera focal length, I've BOTH had the same result (markers laid out in a very thin line) and a very reasonable scene setup. Baffling. Trying again, but barring immediate success will mark your answer correct and delete this question.

@ReverendSpeed no need to delete your question. Future blender users may find help here when they have a similar problem.


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What is the easiest way to smooth the intersection of two planes?
What is the easiest way to smooth the intersection of two planes as shown in the picture below?

I would like to achieve something like:

For example, a method I would like to do is to fit a parabola to three lines of two planes and use this parabola to make round corner?
I know this is probably a trivial question, but I am a beginner.

One way to do it is to separate the each of two planes into two at the line of intersection, and recombine them, so that the part of the horizontal plane to the left of the line of intersection and the part of the other plane above the line of intersection are part of the same plane, and the parts remaining from the original plane are part of the other. Now you can smooth the two planes, and use loop cuts to control the size of the rounded corners.


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Baking a normal map, Cycles or Blender render?
I need to bake a normal map from a high-poly model to a low poly, and I wanted to know, what should I use, Cycles or the standard Blender render?
I guess it should be the same, more or less? If I bake a normal map from Blender render, it will work in Cycles too, right?
Also, I can't find a tutorial or an explanation on how to bake a normal map in Cycles, does anyone know one? I did find one on Blender render.

You'll end up a better artist if you can learn both.  And yes, there is a Normal Map node in Cycles that accepts Blender Object space maps and also the Tangent maps are consistent for both renderers.

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/13508/599

blenderguru just released a tutorial for cycles baking


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Why Does My Object Not Show in Rendered Shading Mode?
I have had this happen to me a few times prior but instead of just deleting the object and starting over I would like to know why it is that my objects appear in Solid Shade Mode and only a shadow appears in the Rendered Shade Mode?
I'm trying to UV Wrap the object and the wrapping never appears in the 3D viewport. I selected Textured Solid in the Shading Tab but image still does not show.

I presume you have some render layers set up. The option to to preview the active render layer in the 3D view header has been enabled:

This will mean that if an object isn't assigned to this render layer the object will not appear in the rendered view. Disable this button to view all objects in the rendered view regardless of their render layer.

Thank you that was it! Do you know why my UV is not showing on the cube?

@Kay If that part of your question isn't already answered somewhere here http://blender.stackexchange.com/search?q=Textured+view+cycles then I suggest asking a separate question with your .blend file attached.

When this happened to me, it turned out that my material was not defined. Creating a new material was the solution.


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How do I disable sync selection?
I just started using blender and I'm trying to make an animation.
It's got it's armatures linked to the body via armature deform but whenever I try to move them in pose mode I get and error saying "cannot select linked when sync selection is enabled".
When I don't and I actually manage to move the armatures, the body doesn't move with them even though they're linked and every video I watched says that's all I need to do. Can anyone explain how to solve my problems here please?

Probably duplicate of this one. FYI.


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Model won't follow its armature in pose mode
I've set up a rig and built it around my model, and I've linked it to my model but when I rotate the bones in pose mode, the character doesn't move with them.
My rig is the human meta rig that comes with rigify. I've seen tons of videos of it working. Why isn't it working on mine?
My character was made by creating different body parts and joining them together into the same object, then a texture was added by unwrapping them in texture mode.

Could you describe what steps you have taken. Did you parent the rig to your model, pressed the generate button. It would probably best when you add the .blend

Sounds like you haven't weight painted.

try following these steps
after joining all the separate parts and the body mesh together, you should parent the body mesh to the armature by ( in object mode )

selecting the mesh then the armature and pressing Ctrl P
select Armature Deform >> With Automatic Weights
select only the mesh and go to Modifiers
deselect Bone Envelopes in the Armature Modifier

press Tab to enter Edit Mode and navigate to Vertex Groups
ensure only necessary vertices belong to each Vertex Group

press Tab to enter Object Mode
select the armature and press Ctrl Tab to enter Pose Mode
select a bone and move by pressing G or rotate by pressing R

hope this helps!

I had this same problem, and the apparent solution is wasn't obvious to me.  You see, I had done the weight painting setup against the base human meta-rig.  However, it is only used for getting the base setup of the rigify armature.  When you reparent the model to the generated rigify armature, it doesn't work because it is not using the same bones as the human meta-rig.  What you must do is parent against the rigify armature with Automatic Weights (or empty groups), and then do the weight painting process.

Haha. I've made the same mistake some time ago and was really angry (because spent a lot of time weight painting the model). Wish I had found your answer earlier... :).


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Nearby objects won't move independently?
I created a thick glass bottle and duplicated the interior faces to make a new object to create the liquid inside.
I went in the edit mode, selected the faces I wanted to copy and duplicated them with ShiftD. Then I pressed P to  separate the duplicated faces.
Now I try to make a duplicate of that liquid to make it flow out of the bottle, and I simply need the duplicate of one face of it. So I go to edit mode and do as I did to make the liquid from the bottle faces... but as soon as I'm back to the object mode and I want to move the duplicated faces, every thing moves with it...
I played around and tried things, and while doing so I realized that if I dupe the liquid object in object mode using ShiftD and press 0 to place it where the original is, they move together if I duplicate it and place it somewhere else so that they are separated.
Also if I pick one of the two separated objects and make it intersect with the other one, release my left mouse button to place it there, and then try to move it again, they both move together, but not at the same speed.
I really don't understand what is going on and I'm sure it's really badly explained, so what I'll do is make a screen capture of my Outliner and record the behavior of the objects and upload those to help you understand.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/27394/why-cant-i-transform-faces-edges-or-vertices-without-transforming-the-whole-o

This is a guess, but it sounds like you might have Proportional editing (O) enabled.
See if it is enabled in 3D view > Header:

Blender 2.7x:

You can disable it by pressing O or clicking the icon in 3D view > Header:
Blender 2.7x:

Amazingly precise guess..


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In Pose mode, my bones are stuck in rotate, and wont transform
When in pose mode, the bones on my model wont transform, they are stuck in rotate mode, though I can scale them. This problem now occurs whenever I try starting a new project. Some bones that I made earlier still work, but whenever I try to make new ones, they are stuck in rotate.
It seems like I changed something in the settings, but I don't even know how to access the settings. Please help, thanks.

Have you reset your factory settings? File > Load factory settings. Then Ctrl+U to save it as the default file.

Yes, I have tried that, but it didn't help. Thanks anyways.

Even When I change transform in the settings it doesn't work.

I found the solution!
You have to click on the button shown in the photo below.
sorry for my bad English I'm only 14 years old

Welcome to B.SE! This is actually the button for the "Manipulate center points" tool that Oliver mentions in his answer, but he only gives the hotkey. Additionally, you'll notice that the OP says they CAN rotate, which doesn't describe what happens when this is turned on. Good effort! Keep contributing!

Matt's right, it didn't work, but thanks for helping.

Try to check if the Rotation axes are locked occasionally.

Or, it's Location lock. Because in his case, the bones can rotate or scale, but not translate.

@Adhi It would be better to see what's happening there. A demo file is needed. I don't think rotate works there, since OP said "Stuck in rotate".

"Won't transform, stuck in rotate mode" as in, the bone can only be rotated, maybe? True, it could be read another way. Troubleshooting-questions without illustration are often the most tiring to answer.

How do you fix location lock if it is that, and the rotate works but the transform will not.

@Joshua Would you like to share a demo file with us? It will be quite nice to look into it by this way.

Sure, but how do I share a demo file? When I try to copy paste it or drag it into the text it doesn't work. Sorry, I haven't used forums much. Thank-you

@Joshua Try pasteall.org. Then paste the link here.

Here it is http://www.pasteall.org/blend/25799

@Joshua I've checked your file. I didn't see anything odd so far. And I bet you were talking about "translate' or "move" when you were saying "transform", right? If so, it actually confused me a lot, since The word Transform in blender means Translate and/or Rotate and/or Scale. The bone that cannot be moved are those "yellow" bones, since they have IK constraints, and that's exactly what IK works. :) Btw, you are using so many independant bones for crab legs, which is not commonly suggested, since it will make it complicated and unneccessary. You can certainly use a single armature instead.

Thanks, didn't know that that would work with one bone. I did mean translate when I said transform. The yellow bones work fine, I meant to add those constraints, but the claws don't translate,  and any new bones that I add don't translate either. If it works on your computer then it must be something in the settings, do you know of any settings that would lock bones into rotate?

@Joshua That's because you haven't rig them yet. You need to to parent the crab body to the armature, or add Armature modifier to the crab.

I tried rigging the bones, but the claws still won't translate.

HERE is what happened in your file. No Armature modifier on the crab, which means it's not actually rigged.

Sorry that I took so long to get back. I tried adding the armature modifier, and that allowed the bones to change the crab mesh, but the bones still only rotate, they will not translate. When I lock the rotation they will not move at all, I tried to rig a different project on a different computer and the same thing happened. I didn't understand your picture, thank-you for your patience.

I recently had a similar problem which turned out to be caused by accidentally activating the option to "Manipulate center points" (shortcut Alt+,). This will (as a side-effect) disable rotation and scaling in pose and object modes. It's the symbol right next to the pivot mode with the three dots above a two-sided arrow.

I tried activating that option, and it disabled all movement unless it was from the starting/parent bone. Also, the rotation is working, but the transform doesn't. Thank-you.

This sounds like bones in the hierarchy are parented with connected head/tip. There are two ways to parent a bone: 'connected' and 'with offset'. 'Connected' means the head of the child bone will snap to the tip of the parent and the two bones are joined at the junction. If you try to move one, the other will be adjusted as well. 'Offset' means the two bones are still in a hierarchy, but they are not joined at the head/tip junction. The child is free to move in its parent's space in all three transforms. This is signified by a dotted line between the head of the child and tip of the parent in edit mode.
If your bones are connected, you can break this connection without breaking the parent/child hierarchy with Alt+P and choosing 'disconnect bone'. To make a parent without the snapping, simply choose 'with offset' when you parent.

Hello, can someone tell me where the option is in the version 2.8 and above?

I'm not sure if this will help at all, but I stumbled onto this question looking to solve the same (if not seemingly the same) problem in my own project.
Of course the answer to my problem turned out to be quite simple. While yours may not be so, I figure it's worth checking.
Have you cleared the parent from the bone you're trying to move?

The first part of your answer does not appear to help solve the question. Consider revising to make it more concise, and in future try posting suggestions like this as a comment first in future.

@NoviceInDisguise Note that users with less than 50 rep cannot comment on other posts.

Good point . . .

It's possible that you've changed a setting somewhere, but (especially if you don't know how to get to those settings anyway) I think it's more likely that you need a little more information about how rigging normally works.
There are a number of reasons that your bones might not be moving the way you expect them to. The most likely is that you have a constraint that is limiting the way your bones can move.
One way this normally happens is if you're setting up an IK chain, then the bone at the end is the only one that will move. The bones in the middle have all been told to maintain the IK solution, which means you can't move them. This is normal.
Something similar can happen if you have other kinds of constraints set up. If you've used a constraint to tell a bone "Always point at this other object over here," then it will always point at that other object over there, even when you try to move it.
Also keep in mind that when you're creating a rig, the idea is that they are BONES like in your body, which means that they are always attached to each other (this is not always true, but is usually how characters are done). So if your forearm can't move (because you don't have it selected) and your shoulder can't move (because you don't have it selected) then if you try to move your upper arm, it's not going to go anywhere; it's locked in place because it's not allowed to influence the two other bones it's attached to. Of course, this isn't how your body works, but keep in mind that the computer is dumb. It can only make assumptions that it's been TOLD to make, and it's usually safer not to make any assumptions, so it doesn't make a bone move until you tell it exactly how to move it, either by selecting it, or by giving it rules like with a constraint.
Although I'm using anatomical illustrations, the principles apply to any other kind of rig in which your bones are attached to each other in a hierarchy.
Good luck!

You are right, I am still very inexperienced with rigging, but I have not been able to find this on video tutorials. I haven't set up any constraints yet, and I don't think that I am setting up an IK chain. Thank-you

Today I found out that the "Auto-IK" option on Armatures can interact catastrophically with existing IK constraint chains.  If the tip of your IK is locked to a position and the transforms aren't locked and there are no other constraints at play, try turning off Auto-IK.


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Read image metadata produced by Blender?
After reading the comments under this answer, I was wondering how to view this data in rendered images?
I tried looking in the comment and such places with GIMP, and file but found nothing.
It seems this metadata is printed regardless of whether or not Stamp is enabled.

Update:
As of 2.75 this data is saved for all renders.

This info is written to the header of the file and only for auto saved renders (animations and command-line renders). For info on how to read the headers see the documentation for the relevant format. I don't believe GIMP has a way to view this data. As ideasman42 said, for EXR files you can use exrheader which is included in the OpenEXR package, for PNG and JPEG files you can use identify -verbose command from the ImageMagick package.

I only tested this for png files, so it might be different for other formats.
The metadata is written to the file as plain text, so you can view it using any text viewer, even notepad.
By simply opening one of my renders in notepad, I got this:

It may look like a complete mess, but you can easily find the information if you take a closer look.

Ah... So it writes it as additional tEXt chunks in the PNG stream? That should mean any program that can parse PNG chunks should be able to read this... interesting...

The data is printed onto the image as text. You can view the data by looking at the image.
If you want to parse it, you could try OCR of some sort. It may help to set the stamp background to full opacity so that there's no image interference. OCR should then be very accurate.

This is incorrect, the info is written into metadata as well (for image formats which blender can write metadata into (PNG, EXR, JPEG))

Using OCR still seems like huge overkill and likerly error prone, when you can read the image as text from the file using existing tools to extract meta-data from the header.

@WChargin I meant how to read the stamp data that is to be written to the image metadata, not into the pixels themselves. sorry the original question wasn't very clear


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How do I avoid artifacts when using bevel objects with complex curves?
Prompted by my previous question, I am wondering if it is possible to bevel complex curves with bevel objects.
How can I bevel complex curve objects (such as a text object from this question)?
I have tried using a bevel object as suggested by haunt_house to bevel without fattening, but this creates many artifacts:

How can I fix these? (or failing that, is there another technique I could use?)

  The only way I have found is not a fast solution, but so far the only one I can imagine without writing a completely new bevel routine. If you have two beziers at a sharp angle, they don't normally have the same length, so the concept of resolution and even spacing would be in the way of a clean bevel where both sides shave off material.
  Okay, here's the way:

This curve consists of sharp angles. The ones that cause trouble.
Give the curve a bevel of, for example, 0.2 and an offset of -0.2 and adjust resolution of bevel and curve to match your desired end result.
Duplicate the curves.
Change the shapes like shown. Every curve segment you want to retain should continue straight. The newly created bulges will be cut away. I adjusted adjacent handles to be 180° and made them longer. If you want more precision, extrude the curve, so you can be sure to have a straight continuation (or a slightly curved one if the dynamics of the curve demand that). I put opposite curve segments into the same object because I have an even count of segments. The blue object is contributing the horizontal part of the finished mesh while the green object adds the vertical one.
Convert both into meshes. Perform Remove Doubles and maybe Recalculate Normals Outside.
Connect them with a Boolean Modifier set to Intersect because you are only interested in the space both objects occupy. Apply it.

Interesting idea, though it would be quite complex and time consuming to attempt this on a large curves such as the ones at the bottom of this answer

If you have a lot of small parts, it gets a bit labor intensive, but basically it's just tweaking the curves. If you don't have to preserve the object origins, the boolean operation can be done in one go, IF it doesn't crash. The best solution is the possible one. So far I don't know of any Addon that handles irregular curve resolutions or boolean type bevelling. Maybe it takes 30 Minutes for a dozen objects, maybe less. Unless you start programming or pay a coder, it's my best bet.

"If you have a lot of small parts, it gets a bit labor intensive" That's just it ;) While this doesn't solve my particular problem, it suppose is the answer to my question, so I'll accept. About my particular problem, I found that If I convert to a mesh with the old bevel and offset active, pure remesh does an okay (if hi-poly) job on it and it is pre-beveled. (though I'm still waiting for the decimate modifier to finish..) Incidentally, would this work on curves with a mix of normal corners as well as sharp ones?

You can leave the normal corners alone in this approach. As long as the bevel looks okay, it doesn't require a boolean surgery. So, if you have 20 corners that look already decent and two that are sharp, it's not more work than my example. It just requires some thinking how the two work meshes should look like.

If they are ok not being curve objects anymore, you could convert them to a mesh, and try varying degrees of remove doubles or remesh, then when you have a nice simplified version, bevel or add a bevel modifier.
Converting a Text Object, Remeshing and Beveling

Several hundred thousand polys and three remesh modifiers later, I am still no closer to getting a clean, beveled mesh. :\ Could you add more detail how you might do this? (my attempt was basically Remove doubles > P separate by loose parts > remesh > bevel > remesh > decimate > smooth > remesh.)

I updated my answer. Not sure if the video helps or just messes you up more.

Thanks, though I get artifacts like this when attempting to bevel. (even after decimate)


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Is it possible to generate an image based on edges and corners?
Prompted by my previous question,
is it possible to generate a black and white map based on the sharpness of edges and corners of a mesh?
E.g. to use as a map to make procedural texture displacements more intense on edges and corners.
How can I achieve this?

I also came across this addon which does this.

Vertex Colors
Yes, you can use vertex colors.

UV map the mesh.
Enter vertex color paint
Paint Menu -> Dirty Vertex Colors(adjust angle to suit preference)

Setup for baking:
* Make the material to use vertex colors (so they render in the viewport).
* bake the vertex colors into an image.

Note 2.70 - when its released, (or any recent build) has the ability to bake vertex colors directly so you don't have to worry about setting up the material.
Ambient Occlusion
You can configure AO to shadow sharp edges (with inverted normals) and bake that into an image too.

Fantastic! I used to invert normals, set the ray length low and bake AO. Can't wait to test it. (when will we be able to bake to vertex weight?)

Added the inverted-normal AO method to the answer.

Could you add how to bake vertex colors to an image? (I don't see any option for Vertex colors in the Bake mode menu.) This is with 2.68

@gandalf3 - thats because its only in recent SVN builds.

As Ideasman42 hinted, it is possible to invert the normals and bake AO to get what you want. However, this doesn't work at all times.
It works like this. Normally when baking AO you want holes and dents in your mesh to be darker. Not the same amount of light reaches those areas. This can also be used for dirt. If we instead want to mark the protruding edges we can invert the normals. A protruding edge is converted into a dent (sort of). It will render darker when baking AO.
One tweak must be done. If you bake a cube 2 units wide it will be baked totally black. Rays for the inside of the cube (because the normals are inverted) will hit the opposite side of the cube. The Ray length must be set very short. Here are the settings for this:

A downside of this method is that it works porly with self intersecting geometry. Rays from the inside will hit the self intersecting pieces and render dark where you don't want them.
Vertex colours strike me as the superior method in most cases.
Comparison
Made a simple test to compare them both:
For the vertex paint method I hade to subdivide some to get the desired effect.

With baking AO I hade to save the image and edit it externaly (inversion and contrast).

In Blender 2.8:

Make object shade smooth
Use Auto Smooth or Custom Normal to define hard edge normal
Now switch to cycle
Create a Bevel node, Geometry Node, Vector math (Dot Product), Invert node
Connect Bevel>normal and Geometry>normal to Dot Product
Connect invert node with Dot product output
Use Viewer node (ctrl+Shift+LMB (Node Wrangler)) to see the mask
If there are any normal map, then plug normal map node with the normal image (Non Color Data). Then connect normal map node output to the bevel normal input socket.

For clarity Video Tutorial: https://youtu.be/9ojVYZVqiU8
Image below:

Here is my adaptation of a technique I found in the b°wide node pack's fake AO node group.  It works by subtracting the normal and true normal vectors, which on a smooth shaded mesh are the smoothed and original (non-smoothed) normals respectively.  So closer to the corners of the mesh there will be a greater difference between the two and thus the subtraction will give a higher value.
The only downsides to this method are that it requires the mesh be smooth shaded and the mesh must be subdivided.  You can get around the first one by plugging the true normal into the normal socket of the shader as I have done in the example.
Here is the render with the output of the subtraction plugged into a diffuse shader.

Here is the node setup:

And the mesh (as you can see it is smooth shaded):

This can then be baked using cycles baking to create the map you are looking for.  I use this technique fairly regularly on materials for mainly old metal and rocks.  As an aside, two slightly different gray diffuse shaders mixed based on this make an amazingly realistic material on a high poly, hand-sculpted, rock.


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Is it possible to simulate an optical fiber with cycles?
Is it possible to simulate an Optical Fiber in cycles?
E.g. like these:

I tried to simulate this with a glass shader with an IOR of 1.62, (a value gotten from wikipedia) however not much light seems to come out the end of the "fiber". After 260 samples:

Is this possible?

Image from Wikipedia

if you just want to have the looks of fiber optics, faking it is a much easier approach.
But this is definitely an interesting experiment for Cycles. It was surprisingly easy to achieve the result:

A few things I learned:

the fiber needs to be a volume. Make sure the two ends are closed.
Just like a real FO, too much kink in the fiber will kill the internal reflection.
I tried to model the core(high IOR) and the cladding(low IOR) as separate geometry, that didn't seem to work too well. I just ended up using only the core (and basically using air to model the cladding material)
Render with lots of bounces. High sample value helps make the image smoother, but if the bounce value is too low, no light will come out of the fiber.

Blend File

Beautiful! I had forgotten the bounces, thanks :)

I had fun making this. Thanks for the inspiration.

I got using both the core and the cladding to work using this technique. Here is a render with just the core, and a render with both cladding and core.

Your blend file is not existed. Can you share it again?

I would fake it instead of trying to simulate what actually happens.
So to match the reference image you posted, I would use a mix of a translucent/transparent shader and a rough glossy shader (mix with fresnel maybe) and make the ends of the fibres emissive. And you would need to do some post work in the compositor to make the ends glow like in the reference image.

Thanks for your answer :) Doubtless this is the proper way to go about it, but I want to try and actually simulate it, as a test.

Brave, brave, man :P Cycles should be able to do it. I've seen some renders splitting white light into the rainbow colors before, so I guess cycles is physically accurate 'enough'. No idea how you would do it though :P


text:
How can I create vertical posts that follow a landscape?
I'm trying to create railings that follow a landscape, something like this (side view.)

So far I've:

created a plane.
parented the "post" object to the plane.
added an array modifier to the plane.
added a curve that follows the landscape.
added a curve modifier to the plane, using that curve.
enabled duplication on faces to the plane.

That gets me a row of posts that follow the landscape, and the post meshes themselves aren't distorted by the curve, but it leaves a problem: the posts point along the normal of the curve/landscape, I need them to be vertical, so that I can add the railing passing through the top of each post.
any ideas to solve this?

When you just delete one side of your plane leaving two single Vertices behind and setting the Duplication to Verts, you'll get what you want!?

@BillHails please mark the answer as correct if it gave you the answer you needed ;)


text:
How do you affect the translate node by the location of object?
I have this group input that generates a "lens flare":

I would like to know if it is possible to 'parent' the location of the flare to the sphere at the bottom of the image. I do not want to use any scripts [yet]. Any help would be appreciated. :)
[EDIT]
My menu options:

Blender Render vs. Cycles [Help!]

While you don't want to use scripts, I think you will have to use a driver to achieve what you want. Drivers can be a lot simpler than python scripts.
I'm thinking you want to alter the X value of the translate node. With your cursor over the X value, either press D or right click and select Add Driver, the value will then be highlighted in purple. The driver details are available in the graph editor, change F-Curve to Drivers in the graph editor header and select the value on the left, press N to show the properties panel on the right.

In this example the variable is named getVal and it will be equal to the X location of the object called Sphere. The scripted expression is set to getVal * 10, which means the X value of the translate node will be set to the Sphere's X location times 10.

Not sure if its what your looking for but the [Input > Object Info] node allows access to the vector location of the object in the current context...
from there basic maths should magic you up some results
best of luck =)
screenie =P

Here are some links to some decent youtube channels that have helped me learn cycles
https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewPPrice
https://www.youtube.com/user/blendercookie
https://www.youtube.com/user/tutor4u
and of coarse blender.stackexchange is here for specific quesions

Didn't see the Object Info node...

what version of blender are you using?

2.70 (Added this text to post the comment)

I am using the regular Blender Render, by the way

oh... my bad... i have no idea then... im sorry o.O

honestly i recommend moving to cycles in general... alot of good youtube vids focus of cycles, and global illumination is more expensive in the internal renderer

Actually, I do not see Object Info even when I am using Cycles Render.

Also… when I render with Cycles, I see a bunch of dots that make up a shape. Not sure what's going on here.

o.O thats strange... check the screenshot i added... its there for me... unless it was removed in the move from 2.69 > 2,7 (i haven't gotten the new one yet)

lighting works differently in cycles, all texturing is done with materials in the node editor, i think BI uses compositing, which i dont fully understand yet... also make sure your not in orthographic, sorry i cant be of more help. i never even tried to learn the internal renderer

and i think the dots have to do with the fact that cycles render incrementally... if your getting grainy images, you need to go to properties > render and increase the number of samples being used... also you may need to increase the power of your lights

Check the edit of the original post for screenshots. One image is split (photoshop).

looks like to need to texture your objects... this can be done in the [Properties > Materials] window or the [Node Editor] window... i would instruct youy on how to do so but that deserves is own full blown tutorial... i can however recommend a few youtube channels for learning the basics of cycles (wait for edit to post)

OK, I will check those links out. (I actually have watched some of those peoples' videos, but I'm sure they have something on the matter)

indeed... again im sorry i couldnt be of more help =(

I don't know if the Object Info node will help you, but I am using the 2.70 and the Object Info node does not appear to be available in Blender Render, but in Cycles, it is there, for me at least. Sometimes, though, the order the nodes are listed in the menus seems to invert, so maybe look again. Hope this helps.

You guys are mixing nodes, the question is in the compositor and object info is in materials. There isn't an equivalent to cycles object info in BI materials or compositor.

@sambler i didn't realize when i answered this that he was not using cycles, and like i said i haven't jumped into compositing yet, and i don't know anything about internal... it sucks but its the truth ='(


text:
BGE: Basic Door & Key Logic
I’m trying to create a door & key system in the BGE, but I’m struggling with the game logic.
I followed a video tutorial to understand the basics, but I found that method doesn’t scale very well since it doesn’t take into account (1)different keys being required for different doors, (2)some doors not requiring keys, or (3)the ability of non-player characters to open doors (planning to add this later).
The approach I’ve come up with is as follows.
Each door sensor listens for 3 conditions:

a player collision
an attempt by the player to open (interact) with the door.
a specific key (if required).

The door sensor is basically working. If its conditions are met it will cause the door to open.
The key is able to be picked up, and send some message (“got_key_a”).
What isn’t working is that the door sensor collision can’t seem to be set to evaluate whether property “has_key_a” is True. Instead it simply sees that the property exists on the colliding object (Player), and lets them open the door regardless of whether they’ve acquired Key A.
Another approach I tried was sending a Message rather than using a property. The problem there seemed to be the timing of when the message was sent. I guess that the message being sent once doesn’t satisfy the condition… rather the message must be sent at the same time the other conditions are checked for. Since it is never the case that a a key is acquired at the same moment the corresponding door is tried, this approach does not work.
Screenshot just in case it helps:

I am open to Python-based solutions too, as long as the code is thoroughly commented so that it can be easily understood.
Any help appreciated.

Update
I think my problem lies here. Instead of sending a signal only when has_key_a is True, it sends a signal if the property has_key_a exists.

I want has_key_a to be evaluated, but inserting expressions in the Collision Sensor is not allowed. What can I do instead?

If I use an Expression here I am unable to get it into the And controller. I must choose one or the other, but what I need is to combine them.

The door must be able to detect a collision with player who has_key_a==True and tries to interact at the same time.

I have a video tutorial here, it's not in english, but you may reproduce the door mechanics I made in it (using a rigid body door, locking the transforms in some axis and using logic bricks and a property to set it to locked and opened): https://youtu.be/6GAqpdIsfW0

@JoelGomesdaSilva  Okay, thank you for sharing. I look forward to watching it after I get home.

@JoelGomesdaSilva Hey, great tutorial! I didn't know it was possible to make such a naturally swinging door in the BGE! Even though I didn't understand the words, I definitely learned some new techniques.

@JoelGomesdaSilva A couple of questions... 1. What did you do with Collisions Groups in the beginning? 2. What did you do with State changes and your door lock Property Toggle? In mine I tried using the expression to check if the property is True, but for some reason it's registering as True before I even pick up the key.

I've solved this and plan to post my solution soon.

@BlenderBlackened Thank you for the reminder! Knowing I'm not the only one who cares about this really motivated me to finally document everything and post it. I appreciate that. Hope you and others will find it helpful. Happy blending.

A door key question deserves a dorky answer, so here goes...
I set up a Player and a Non-Player Character (NPC) which could just as easily serve as Player 2 in a 2-player game. Here I used it just for testing, although in a game it could serve as a scripted enemy or ally, or whatever. The point is that it can acquire keys just like the Player can.
Character Properties

These Boolean values go from 0 to 1 (False to True) when a key is acquired by the character.
(NPC has the same Properties as Player, except that it has the Property npc instead of player.)
Each character has its movement controls and an interaction control which can be used to (among other things) open doors when it is near them, and has the required key. Interaction from each character sends a unique message (either player_interact or npc_interact).
In order to add multi-key support, each character has a Sensor for each key, which all get fed into a Python Script Controller (keys.py).
keys.py
import bge
cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner

key_alpha_status = cont.sensors["GetKeyAlpha"]
if key_alpha_status.positive:
    own['has_key_alpha'] = True
    print("Alpha Key acquired!")

key_beta_status = cont.sensors["GetKeyBeta"]
if key_beta_status.positive:
    own['has_key_beta'] = True
    print("Beta Key acquired!")

key_gamma_status = cont.sensors["GetKeyGamma"]
if key_gamma_status.positive:
    own['has_key_gamma'] = True
    print("Gamma Key acquired!")

key_delta_status = cont.sensors["GetKeyDelta"]
if key_delta_status.positive:
    own['has_key_delta'] = True
    print("Delta Key acquired!")

key_epsilon_status = cont.sensors["GetKeyEpsilon"]
if key_epsilon_status.positive:
    own['has_key_epsilon'] = True
    print("Epsilon Key acquired!")

key_zeta_status = cont.sensors["GetKeyZeta"]
if key_zeta_status.positive:
    own['has_key_zeta'] = True
    print("Zeta Key acquired!")

Character Logic

The key objects themselves don't play a very active role in the logic. If touched by something having the property player or the property npc the given key will disappear.
Key Logic

Each door object animates through various States, the important thing being that animation is initiated upon receiving a Message unique to that door (open_door01, open_door02, and so on).
Each door has a corresponding sensor object that is an Invisible physics Ghost. It's just an area within which collision can be detected, as one condition that needs to be met for a door to be opened.
Door Sensor Object - Physics Settings

We don't want it to be possible for a player to open a door from across the room - unless that door is intended to be opened by a remote switch, in which case the sensor can be moved to the location of the switch instead of surrounding the door.
Each door sensor object's game logic does two things:
(1) Checks if a character is colliding with the sensor object (using two Collision Sensors that listen for player and npc Game Properties respectively), and (2) Checks if the character is attempting interaction (by listening for either a player_interact or npc_interact Message). This input gets routed to a Python Script Controller for that specific door type (door_alpha.py, door_beta.py, and so on).
Door Sensor Object Logic

Someone with better programming skills than myself could surely find a way to eliminate the need for individual scripts for each door/key type, but at least this works. It just requires preparing one .py script of each door/key type by doing a Find/Replace in a text editor to change require_key_beta and has_key_beta to require_key_gamma and has_key_gamma... if you follow what I mean. I've only prepared Alpha and Beta types for this demo, since there are only two keys. How many key types do you realistically need? (6 should be plenty?)
door_alpha.py
import bge
cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner

p_collision = cont.sensors["PlayerColl"]
p_interaction = cont.sensors["PlayerInteract"]

npc_collision = cont.sensors["NPCColl"]
npc_interaction = cont.sensors["NPCInteract"]

open_door = cont.actuators["OpenDoor"]

### PLAYER ###

#If this door requires a key, and player is colliding with it, and colliding player has the key, and a player interaction message is received:
if own['require_key_alpha'] == True and p_collision.positive and p_collision.hitObject['has_key_alpha'] == True and p_interaction.positive:
    print("Door unlocked")
    cont.activate(open_door)

#If this door requires a key, and player is colliding with it, and colliding player does NOT have the key, and a player interaction message is received:
if own['require_key_alpha'] == True and p_collision.positive and p_collision.hitObject['has_key_alpha'] == False and p_interaction.positive:
    print("Can't unlock this door without a key")

### NON-PLAYER CHARACTER ###

#If this door requires a key, and non-player is colliding with it, and colliding non-player has the key, and a non-player interaction message is received:
if own['require_key_alpha'] == True and npc_collision.positive and npc_collision.hitObject['has_key_alpha'] == True and npc_interaction.positive:
    print("Door unlocked")
    cont.activate(open_door)

#If this door requires a key, and non-player is colliding with it, and colliding non-player does NOT have the key, and a non-player interaction message is received:
if own['require_key_alpha'] == True and npc_collision.positive and npc_collision.hitObject['has_key_alpha'] == False and npc_interaction.positive:
    print("Can't unlock this door without a key")

The resulting output of the Python script (example:door_alpha.py) from the given door sensor object will activate a Message Actuator, which will send a Message with a subject such as open_door01, which I mentioned earlier.
Here are the parts of that code to pay attention to:
open_door = cont.actuators["OpenDoor"]

and within the IF statements:
cont.activate(open_door)

You know how the rest goes - corresponding door object receives the message, the animation of the door opening is triggered. Our player progresses and presumably has fun.
As for the animation of the doors, there are several ways to do it. Most will involve switching States. On my doors there are four States: Initial, Opening, Open, Closing. Closing loops back to Initial, in other words Initial is the same as Closed.
States can't be labeled directly, but labeling the State Actuator's destination makes it easier to keep track of what State should come next (In mine, the State Actuator of Initial is labeled "To Opening", for example).
Door Object Logic: Animating Through States

Door01 is basic, using Delay Sensors and Motion Actuators. For Door02 I wanted more control in animating individual parts of the door, so it makes use of Property Sensors (that evaluate if the Property frame is equal to a given frame, then change the State accordingly) and Action Actuators that play specific frame ranges of the animated Action and set the value of frame. Because Door02's animation is done using Actions, it is actually an Armature Object, with Mesh Objects parented to its animated Bones.
I think that covers everything. Enjoy playing with the .blend. If anyone has questions, comments, or ideas for improvement, I'm all ears.

(Made with Blender 2.79b)
Demo file screenshot:

@BlenderBlackened I'm glad you found it helpful. :-)


text:
Is it possible to limit the volume of fluid ejected from a mesh? 2.82
I am working with some fluid simulations in 2.82 which I am planning to add to my scene. My goal is to create a fluid sim which looks like rain water flowing off a roof.
So far I have a cylinder set up as my inflow object inside its domain. I have the inflow initial velocity z value set to -.01. I thought this would give me a slow dripping or runny effect but the fluid still looks like it's coming full blast out of a hose. Is there a property in the settings that allows you to control the volume of fluid particles being released?

Smaller flow object makes less fluid,have a try.

In the fluid simulation tab, the domain part, you should have Fluid Particles panel. Go there and set Generate to a more than zero value, like 0.5


text:
Can't see added cube on my scene collection
When I select add and then cylinder, cube or whatever, then I can't see the cube on my collection side menu on the right.

I want to do some booleans from the air intake seen in screenshot 2.
That's why I need to be able to select the cube and the object I'm modeling.
But if I can't select the cube, I can't do it that way.


text:
Solidify: Give different thickness to specific faces
My model is made to be 3D printed. I found a weak spot where my cars always break.
I would like to give extra thickness on that spot (the selected faces you can see), and not to the whole model.
What would be the best way to solve it?
Thank you!

This is very similar to this question, but the method is a tiny bit different.
Instead of setting only the weak part as your vertex group. Set every vertex of your model at 0.5 weight for instance and set the weak spot at 1. Then when you set the vertex group in the solidify modifier, the weak part will get 2 times more thick than the rest of the mesh. The weight is a direct multiplier to the solidify thickness.
Example in action :

Hello.
It works. Just a question about the solidify thickness.
If I set the Solidify thickness at 2mm, the whole model at a 0.5 vertex group weight and the weak spot at a 1 weight.
-Will I get 2mm thickness on the parts with 1 weight, and 1mm on the rest?
What I want is to have 2mm on the whole model and for example, let's say 4mm on the weak spot.
So, should I set the thickness at 4mm, in order to get 2mm on the whole model and 4 on the spot with weight of 1?
Thank you!

You will get 2 mm on the weak part and 1 mm on all the other parts if you do it that way, so to get your desird output you should set the solidify to 4mm. Keep in mind there will be an interpolation on the faces bordering the weak spot and the rest where the solidify jumps from 2 mm to 4mm. I think this is desirable in your case but if you want a straight jump from 2 to 4 consider adding an edge loop right next to the weak sport border and setting the weight to 0.5. Hope that was clear enough

Yes, it is clear now. Thanks so much for your help!
-In short, for anyone interested: Parts with weight 1 will get the thickness set in solidify. Parts with 0.5 weight will get half the thickness.

You can also use weight painting to customize the gradient if you wish


text:
How do I export clip as video?
I'm brand new to Blender. Had used KDenlive for video editing a couple times, but it wouldn't handle the large file (30 minutes) I'm working with now. I keep web-searching & keep finding adjacent things or old answers to different versions of Blender.
So I have the 30 minute video. I deleted the first minute. I cut out a 2-3 minute section, and I want to export that section as a .mp4 or... webm or whatever is recommended nowadays.

So I just keep poking around and getting overwhelmed. What/where do I click to export this first little section to video? (and I assume it would be similar for exporting the full thing as a video file?)
Thanks

Hi, welcome to Blender.se. Please spend more time on basic research.

Oh golly. I did. Looked at the same stuff like 10 different times. Took a break & came back & i think I found it now. There's just so many controls I can't make sense of what's even there.

For the future: output tab

I chose the 'ffmpeg' file format, webm container, FLAC audio, and set the output director to ~/Videos/blender. Also set the frame start=0 & frameend=4871. But I can't find the button to actually.. save it

This is called "rendering". Try to search for that term.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/output/animation.html  6.) Save your blend-file. - done
7) Press the big *Animation* button. - can't find the "big animation button"

Here are lots of screenshots for the whole process https://generallyplayful.com/hints/rendering-in-blender-2-8/

Just in case. Rendering Screenshot

@Leander, that looks like what I needed. thank you much.

I got it! :D Once I knew the right buttons to click, I was able to figure out (because of an error message at the bottom) that there were codec-related problems. Then I just... poked around at different codec options. Ended FFMPEG file format,  MPE4 container, H.264 Video codec, and Vorbis Audio Codec, and it all is working.


text:
large file size
Every time I try different BlenderKit textures, my Blender file size seems to become very large.  My file size is now 800MB after trying a number of floor and tile textures in BlenderKit.  Am I doing something wrong?  How do I reduce my file size?  Thank you.

You may have gathered some textures and data that is not needed and would only be cleared if you close Blender and reload, but there is a way, in the outliner change to "Orphan Data" view:

There you should find a list of all the data, textures and such that are not used and with a click on Purge.

You are able to clear unneeded data.

In addition, consider saving a compressed file via File → Save As → Compressed checkbox.


text:
graphics behind a PNG shows through
After importing a few PNG files to Blender files successfully, I ran into a problem recently.  The PNG file I imported appeared "see through".  Please see attachments.  As you can see in the rendering the back wall and fake shadows behind the PNG file of the bench all appear in front of the bench.  I Also attached the texture settings for the bench PNG.  I don't have this problem in my other Blender files.  Does anyone know what might have caused this undesirable see through effect?  Thank you!

This could be a sorting problem. Try to set the Blend Mode to Alpha Hashed.

Did you double check the actual transparency of the source PNG in photoshop or another image editing program?

Thank you for your reply.  Yes.  I have checked to make sure the PNG file had a transparent background in Photoshop before saving it as PNG.  After deleting a few elements from the file, such as environmental texture, some meshes in the same file, the problem appear to have been resolved.

If you do not wish for the wood to be transparent, I suggest removing the Transparent BSDF, and perhaps changing the blend mode to Opaque;

Thanks for your suggestion!  Blender automatically set PNG images to transparent BSDF when importing the image.  If setting it to principle BSDF, the rest of the PNG photo will show, which defeats the purpose of seamlessly mixing this PNG in the 3D setting.  I was told in a tutorial to set  "Alpha Blend" for blend mode, so the rest of the PNG image would be transparent.  If not it will be black.

I did experiment with turning the shader to principle BSDF, and setting blend mode to opaque.  The PNG image's background showed up, not my intended goal.  My other PNG files are not see through like this.  I wonder if I accidently clicked on some setting, or this is a bug.  If anyone has encountered this and fixed the problem, please keep me posted.  Thanks.

I could confirm these things with a copy of your .blend file. You can upload it here; https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Thank you.  It was a huge file.  I deleted many textured elements to bring down the file size.  I did a render right before I saved the file, and the "see-through" problem was mysterious resolved somehow.  Nonetheless, if there's a better way to stage a PNG in Blender than using transparent BSDF and Alpha Blend, I am open to new ideas.  Does this URL for the uploaded file help?  https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/m7rEyPS2   Thanks!

Why... would you ever use transparent? What is the goal? What do you mean by "stage"?

I want to show the bench furniture from a 2D photo in a room setting, so I imported the photo into this 3D room setting in Blender.  The end result is a room setting render of the furniture.  To make the 2d furniture photo to not show as a cut and paste job in the 3d setting, I had to drop its boarder etc., so the render looks realistic.  That's why I had to import the 2d photo as a PNG with a transparent background.


text:
Is it possible to keep particles orientation relative to the emitter when the emitter is rotated?
I have a plane with a particle system with display type Group. Is it possible to keep particles oriented along plane (1st pic) when I rotate the plane? I'm getting particles as in 2nd picture and that's not what I want.

And this is what I want to get after rotating

You have to check Rotation, to make the particle system uses the dupli object's rotation. Using this setting, particle orientation can be tweaked by rotating the dupli object itself:

Next, give one of the object's local axis as the particle system's initial rotation. This way, any new particle will be oriented to that axis:

Now any new emitted particle will always be correctly oriented:


text:
How to mirror a walk cycle?
How can we mirror a walk cycle, to make the bones do the same transformations but flipped, and offset in time?
Say I have keyframed the bones on the left side, and they're labeled as such (bone_L for example), and now I want to make the right side of the armature step in that same way on its side, half-way through the walk cycle. What's the most efficient way to do this?
I've been copy/pasting location and rotation values from the left bones over to the right bones and typing a minus sign in front of the values that need it, but it's a tedious process and easy to make mistakes.
Thanks

You may use the Paste mirrored keyframes from buffer button.

In 3D View window select all bones with A (or select only the ones you want to mirror). Do the same in the Dope Sheet Editor. Press the Copy selected keyframes to the buffer button (or Ctrl+C, while being in the Dope Sheet Editor), go to the frame where your half-side animation ends and press the Paste mirrored keyframes from buffer (or Shift+Ctrl+V).

Perfect! Thank you. The button was staring me in the face the whole time.


text:
Shortcut for Back View (Ctrl 1) doesn't work
This is really strange.
When I press Ctrl1 the view should switch to Back View, according to my preferences.

It's even listed correctly in the menu:

It doesn't do anything.
Ctrl3 for Left View is working, and Ctrl7 for Bottom View is also working.
I use Emulate Numpad as a standard always, even on machines where a numpad keyboard is available.
My OS is macOS Sierra. Blender version is 2.79.
The most bizarre thing is that it still doesn't work even after I Load Factory Settings (and re-enable Emulate Numpad). This makes me think it might not be my settings at all. (Possible bug?)
My Ctrl key and my 1 key are working just fine for all other uses, in Blender and in other apps.
It's really a hindrance when modeling. Any ideas?
Thanks.

Thanks @cegaton. It certainly could be a system thing, although when I check in macOS System Preferences the only item I see using Ctrl 1 is a disabled shortcut for Mission Control. I do have a “proper” numpad keyboard on this machine, but I also use machines that don't, and I want consistency therefor I use Emulate Numpad as standard practice. I will keep searching for possible causes for macOS interfering, in case that is what is happening.

Have you tried it on other blender versions? Also, what happens when you remove your blender config files?

@Allosteric I  have verified that on another machine I use (MacBook Pro) with the same Blender 2.79 and the same macOS Sierra 10.12.6 there is no problem whatsoever. I have also verified that the problem does not originate with the settings, because I tried removing the config files, and even swapped them with those from the working system. The iMac continues to have the problem regardless of the config folder status.

Try some show-what-key-you-are-pressing software within and outside blender. As for within, Screencast addon should be useful. As for outside, googling it gives you a dosen of choices. If you still have problems outsode blender, you should consult a macOS community.

The macOS Japanese text input implementation was interfering. By disabling it and using the Google IME instead I was able to regain normal functionality of my Ctrl key.
Anyone wanting to know more can read the question I posted on Ask Different that led to solving the mystery.

Just using the blender in full screen mode enable ctrl+1 to be active.


text:
How to save still renders straight to disk like animations?
Animation frames get saved to disk automatically.
Still images do not.
Is there a setting that can be changed so that single-frame renders also get saved to disk automatically upon completion?
To clarify, I mean changing the behavior of the render function, not simply changing the frame range to Start:1 End:1 (for example) and rendering as an animation.

You can use a file output node, see http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/6769/599

@gandalf3 I never even heard of that one before o.O

@gandalf3 Ah, right. What I'm looking for though is more like a way to change the behavior for all .blend files, as a setting. I don't mean changing the startup .blend. Either something that can be quickly enabled in the Render context, enabled in Preferences, or maybe added custom as a keyboard shortcut.

@Mentalist You might try this addon

Yes, this is supported.
"Write Image" - it's an optional parameter of the operator, and can be set in the key-map editor.
(Preferences > Input > search "render")
In my case I have the shortcut for Render set to CmdR so it looks like this:

Just make sure to specify a file name: