text:
Emulate Numpad prevents Selection Modes from working
I'm working in Blender 2.8 on a laptop, so I enabled "emulate numpad" option in settings.
But in this case, the shortcuts for toggling between selection modes (polygon/edge/vert) don't work anymore (because 1,2,3 keys now work as num1, num2, num3).
Is there a way to overcome this problem?
Or how would you suggest to remap the selection modes?

You can search by key-binding in the preferences. So you can find what assigned to "1" and modify it to an other key.

@FFeller Thank you, that's what I did, after all. I use "emulate Numpad" and I reassigned selection mode keys to num1, num2, num3. I was thinking maybe there are some alternative solutions or recommendations, otherwise, the question can be closed, and if you will add this as an answer I'll accept it. Thanks ones again!


text:
Why is my video playing limited to a couple seconds when i add it to VSE?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCsPmzrwXG0
AS you can see it is limited to the black line. Im sure theres a way to make it view the WHOLE of your video, but i dont know how and i cant find a tutorial to do it. thanks, Bye

In Matt's screenshot there is a preview button at #1. Is it checked?

Here is the fix which I have found in YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h56EyYeaF24

I'd be willing to bet that you need to set the frame range. The length of your video is pretty close to 250 frames, which is the default.
Check out #2.

The length of the video is also controlled by frame RATE. Make sure this is set to the same frame rate as the original video.
Check out "Frame Rate" set to 24fps below.

Actually, I tried that. Didnt work.

I think it has something to do with the settings

At the bottom left of the 3D window, click on the view icon and choose "Timeline".  At it's low edge can be found the frame range settings. it usually starts at 1, the next to the right being it's max.  It's probably set at the default 250 frames.
Change this to whatever the loaded video is in length.  If you're not sure, put in 1,000 and see what happens.  Re-select the 3D window (Bottom left icon) and choose "3D Window again), then ALT-A to make it play.
I struck this problem myself when first using Blender.  Hope this helps
PS: You can drag the 3D window down from it's top right (triangular hatch pattern) so you have 2 windows.  Set the bottom one to the Timeline view.  Leave the cursor in that and press the "HOME" key to adjust it to cover the current frame range.

Add your video as a Background or Reference (In Object Mode, press Shift+A, select Image, and in the open popup, turn off the filter to see videos). When video is added, click on the video in the Outliner (it might be collapsed under an Empty), and go to the Image submenu and change the value under Frames to something greater than the default value of 100.

Once you stretch out the content, you’ll need to input that number that’s on the project AFTER you stretch it if you need to. In frame range in the end box

Even I was facing the same issue and as suggested I did check the frame rate, which unfortunately didn't work out.
But then I closed the current window and reopened Blender and this time instead of drag and drop (which I did before) I used the dropdown add, above the sequencer, and imported my movie from the options... You won't believe, somehow this solved the issue.
This does seem to be a bug coz I tried this so many times, if you drag and drop then the video sometimes plays and sometimes not. I have tried opening videos by using this 'add' dropdown and it works everytime.
(However if it doesn't play after drag and drop then just change the (AV) Sync option, from the playback menu at the bottom left of the sequencer, to any of two except 'sync to audio'. This somehow fixed the issue for me, I was only able to play the video in reverse when this option was selected, but after changing it there were no issues)
I am quite new at all this and I had installed Blender using snap on my Ubuntu 20.04. For some reason I am not facing the issue right now (I tested the drag and drop again and for 10/10 times it worked without any problem), but I was facing it 2 weeks ago.

this option does not work for me on blender 3.1.2, it still sticks with the original 250 frames even with Add > Movie

source: Stack Exchange

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

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text:
Location coordinates/grid in blender - how are coordinates/locations set?
I've been using blender for research purposes, i.e. matching eye movements to objects in a scene. To be sure about what I'm actually doing, I'm trying to understand as much as possible about blender.
Here's my question: I have been working with Camera View and the Location coordinates of my sphere are (X:-6.205m, Y:-8.3m, Z:37.479cm). I've been given to understand that these Location coordinates are relative to some arbitrary origin in blender, but can anyone tell me more about this grid? where is the origin? how are locations of objects set - how does blender decide on coordinates? Is the Location of an object proportional to some other measures?
I realize these are very basic questions, but it would really help me to have them answered. Thanks!

Here is a basic summary, Hope that can help:

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


text:
Why are my tool menus tiny? (pic)

I am using windows 10 on an ASUS laptop and the sidebars are miniscule. Thanks for the help.

Each view/panel is zoomable in Blender. So you can zoom in/out in the tools panel just like in the 3D view.

and easy to do with a control +/- and mouse over panel

It seems you have high-dpi screen. If this is the case, see here: Make Blender usable on high resolution screen.
In a nutshell, go to Preferences -> System -> DPI. Play around with the value until you are comfortable. If that isn't enough, see the link.
To actually answer your question: they are tiny, because they are fixed to a pixel size and your pixels are tiny.


text:
Time-sequential option in Stereo Mode is missing
I'm trying to render an active-shutter or time-sequential 3D video with Blender 2.77a.
I enabled Stereo 3D mode on the 'render layers' tab under Views, but under the Render tab under the Output section, the option for time-sequential rendering is not visible. It is visible however under the "Set Stereo 3D" option for the window display.

I have a MSI R9390 GPU. I don't have a 3D monitor, but I'm assuming this isn't necessary for rendering.
Any idea why this option is missing?
Thanks


text:
How do you make a shortcut for the Unwrap popup menu?

e.g. select a cube, edit mode, Mesh menu --> UV Unwrap.. the popup that appears. I want to make a keyboard shortcut that brings up that popup menu.

right-clicking 'UV Unwrap..' there is no "Change Shortcut" option.
searching the User Preferences --> Input list for 'UV' or 'UV Unwrap' does not bring up the appropriate target

I suspect I can add a new shortcut under 3D View --> Mesh, but what would I type in for the keyword?

Any ideas?

Why was this downvoted? In most cases, one could use the built-in shortcut, but in this case, the OP disabled that. This question is certainly applicable to other circumstances, and could certainly help other users who also want to make custom shortcut keys, but who may not know what to do.

There already is a shortcut for that, pressing the U key in mesh edit mode.
You can find it using the Key-Binding search mode instead for "U". It will be under 3D View > Mesh
Anyway that is not an operator, that is a menu so you need to use the call menu operator which is wm.call_menuand the menu name to use is VIEW3D_MT_uv_map

I had disabled the shortcut a while ago, thanks.
Do you know if there is a list of all such keywords that are possible to create shortcuts with?

No, not directly at least, as far as I know. There is the Python API reference manual though which contains an extensive list of all operators, properties and data structures of Blender, some are mappable some are not, but all operators are there, though I'm not sure menus are listed.

Thanks, I also found this: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Advanced_Tutorials/Python_Scripting/Object,_Action,_Settings

authors: Виталий Фомченко


text:
Why do I see edges partially see-through on back face (in viewport)?
Maybe you can help me with a weird viewport issue.
I want to show only visible edges in edit mode. i.e. I don't want to see those on the back side of the model. For some reason I always see partial edges in Solid Mode.
See the first image. There appears to be an 'inner cube' within my model. It occludes backface edges partially.

When I search on this topic people suggest toggling 'Limit Selection to Visible' in edit mode, and when I turn it on I can see all backface edges as expected, but the inner cube is still there.
It shows up in other models as well, like these steps:

Any suggestions?

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/34245/edit-mode-transparent-objects. Change clipping values for viewport in the Toolshelf panel.

Do you have a Solidify Modifier on that object? That would create an "inner cube". What are your Viewport Clipping settings? Does this still appear when using the default theme? These are questions I could already have the answer to if you had posted your .blend along with the question. ;-)

no modifiers. Blender file:

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/49183/2843

I don't really know the correct answer to this one, I think this is a limitation of the current opengl viewport rendering engine. Would like to hear from one of the devs about it, if it is actually fixable or a bug, or if anyone else knows any other way to fix it.
Only way to remedy the situation I found is to adjust viewport clipping. It's a workaround with its own side effects but can minimize the issue.
In the 3d view properties shelf N key, under the View panel there is a setting for viewpor clipping, star and end. Try bringing the two values closer together like increasing clip start and/or increasing clip end but keeping them in a usable state for your scene.
Edit: Worked well on my end

Ok, missed one detail, if you are in camera view mode, then you need to adjust the clipping settings in the camera's Object Data Settings in the Properties window, not viewport clipping as it has no effect while in camera view mode.

Thanks for the info. Changing the clipping seems to have no effect. http://s25.postimg.org/kui76ymct/Clipping.png

Worked well on my viewport, may be something related to your graphics card or drivers, check the original answer

hmm strange. Are you viewing through Camera or Perspective? I can reproduce this in perspective, but camera remains the same: http://s25.postimg.org/9jfjilfhr/Cube_Camera_v_Perspective_final.png

Of right didn't remember that, if you are in camera view mode you need to adjust the clipping settings in the camera's Object Data Settings in the Properties window, viewport clipping has no effect while in camera view mode.


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Can't see textures in render mode only
I downloaded a free 3D model, it is a Blender file.
https://free3d.com/3d-model/house-10c2-71388.html
There is a strange problem - the model is pink, which usually means that the texture is missing, but in material mode I can see the textures. And also in the node editor a see a big list of textures.

Why is it happening and how can it be fixed?
Thank you!

Can you confirm they are in the file by checking them in the UV/Image Editor? I usually see a thumbnail beside their name when looking at them in the list, and then can see the full image in the editor.

" [...] but in material mode I can see the textures." Are you sure? For you're in solid mode, not in texture mode. The colors you're able to see on the house are only the viewport colors set in the materials tab, not the textures itself.

The fact that you can browse through the image textures listed in the dropdown of the Image Texture node doesn't necessarily mean there are any images found, those are image texture datablocks used by Blender to store settings for that texture and a link to the file (also as there aren't any textures thumbnails in that dropdown looks like files aren't found). So check if Blender can actually find those files as stated above.


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How to apply Curve modifier to the text
How can I apply Curve modifier to the text in order to get a simple mesh object?
I can't apply the Curve modifier to the Text object:

If I will convert the text to mesh (Alt+C - Mesh from the curve) and then apply the Curve modifier - I see some weird triangles on the letters:

Related  How to add curve modifier to text?

Before conversion modifier can't be applied to the text object. After the conversion you get bad topology (common for text objects) which is visible due to curved angles of the letters. The only way is to retopo the text, preferably prior to applying modifier

@MrZak That's really sad - is there no other way besides manual retopology?

After converting to mesh. Select all and delete limited dissolve. Add Mean crease to all edge. Add sub surface modifier

Why do you want the curved text to be a mesh anyway? I'm not clear on the purpose of this especially since the curved text works perfectly fine as long as you don't convert it to a mesh, if I understood you correctly.

@TeeTrinker For 3D printing

Likely there isn't - text object and curves will always have that topology after conversion. Retopo though might be done more or less quickly depending on the case. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/66212/when-is-retopology-required for some examples, there are some addons like BSurfaces and InstantMeshes as free, RetopoFlow and more as paid.


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One face on the UV map is upside down
I have a simple Chimney model, but when I bake AO it looks like one of the faces is upside down:

Shy is it happening and how can it be fixed?
Thank you in advance!

Recalculating normal for that face?

I would try highlighting it in the UV image editor, (if you cant isolate it in the UV window highlight it in the 3d view port and it will show in the UV window next to it,) then rotate that particular part of the UV map. If this doesn't work try a new UV unwrap with smart UV project.

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


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Used mirror modifier to create an object but don't want the texture to be mirrored
So I want to texture clothing for example that I created using the mirror modifier. But I want the 2 sides of the clothing piece to have individual designs for instance but it is not possible since the original and the mirrored surfaces use the same UV-coordinates. How can I change that?

AFAIK this is not possible without applying the mirror modifier, however I can look and see if I can find a solution.

Oh, thanks. I guess applying it will work just fine.

Here I have an image with a red squiggle on one side and blue on the other. I have a plane that is mirrored and I have enabled 'U' texture mirroring on the modifier to allow the other half of the texture to appear on the mirrored side.

Depending on your mirror axis you may want to enable 'V' mapping instead.

Beat me too it :D Nice feature! How new is it?

@NoviceInDisguise It was present in 2.49 according to the wiki: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Manual/Modifiers/Generate/Mirror

How could one miss something so good o.O

Hehe, I missed it too :O.


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Setting bouncing curve in graph editor
Is it possible to modify the bouncing and elatic curves in the graph editor ?

For example, modifying the number of bounces, the amplitude, ... ?

The amplitude can be changed with an envelope modifier, or by moving the second keyframe.

@batFINGER can you point to any examples of using an envelope modifier  to change the amplitude of a "bounce" or how to create a custom bounce using envelope modifiers?

Would this help?  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/109883/object-wont-drop-after-keyframing-animate-physics/112869#112869

Short answer: Not much.
The amplitude is simply whatever time you let between the two keyframes. But you can't edit anything else.
I'd recommend making your own bounces anyway. Unless you just need a quick and dirty solution and don't have much expectations, doing it manually is simpler, and it's not hard to do.
I like to make a first arc, set the apex key to Autoclamped interpolation if it isn't already (use the V shortcut), and the low keys to Vector.
Then I duplicate this arc as many times I want, and I adjust the height of the curve. Scale the apex keys to adjust the timing, and use Free vectors if you really need fine-tuning frame by frame.


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Keep all Animations Nodes instances in one layer
I'm making a simple animation with AN but for compositing reasons I need to keep all instances of an object in the layer 1 and the rest of my objects in layer 2.

The answer is pretty simple, create a loop and add a Object list for Iterator and connect your object list from the Object Transform Output or whatever list you are using to the iteration, and use the Add > Object > Layer Visibility Output node and connect your Object output to it. and use the Type of "Single" and the number of your layer in the Layer Index, and if you want to keep it on several layers use the Multiple Type and select your desired layers.
Remember that layers have the index equal to the layer number minus one, so, they go from 0 to 19.
Illustrative image:

This is a fantastic solution, Gresthol! I was wondering why all object instances from other node trees were jumping to the active layer when adding an icosphere and increasing its subdivision levels. Your solution keeps everything where it should be. Thanks!


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How to bake a curve animation
I'm trying to animate a curve with hooks.

And I want to upload the curve to Sketchfab but it doesn't supports curves it gives errors on the model, so I want to bake the animation to a mesh madded by the curve with Bevel.


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How to open .blend files with the Steam version of Blender on Windows?
I actually know that blender is "hidden" in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Blender and I can tell Windows to open with the Blender.exe file in there but that will not count as opening Blender through Steam (I'm beat obsessed with the time that the application runs) the other option is to actually open the file within Blender, but if I want to open directly the file with a simple double click isn't the thing that I want, so if any body knows how to make to Steam relate the blend file extension to the application would help me.

If all you care about is timing how long you used Blender, there is an addon for that.

I know this is not exactly what you want, but I can't see any reason why download Blender from Steam and make trouble by myself, when I can download it from blender.org without any trouble and without running unnecessary steam client on background.

On a second read ... I realise the formal post may not be the answer you are looking for. You may be referring to opening ".blend" files from the steam console where the steam application acts like a file browser? If that's what you are asking for then I am afraid it's impossible or at least I know the steam app is not design to be a file browser.
Formal Answer
1. Open Up Steam
2. Go to "Library" tab
3. Go to "Games" List
4. At bottom left-hand corner click on "Add A Game"
5. Browser for the blender.exe linking to the steam application
6. Move your link to "Add to Favorite"

Done! Now you can run blender from the bottom right-hand steam taskbar button!

Enjoy!

...\Steam\steamapps\common\Blender\blender-launcher.exe
If you want to "open with" .blend, then you need to open blender-launcher.exe, not blender.exe


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"stitched" style panorama in Blender? (NOT equirectangular)
I'm looking for a quick solution to creating curvilinear perspective renderings in Blender. Specifically, I want the kind of panorama you'd get if you shot a panorama on a camera or were drawing a wide-angle drawing of what's around you, turning your head.

Rob Adams has good examples of the goal here:
http://www.treeshark.com/treeblog/?p=301
Equirectangular is close but it seems to be designed to keep vertical lines straight. I'm looking for curvature on both vertical and horizontal lines.
Has anyone done this? I'd prefer to avoid doing this the hard way, stitching together renders into a panorama. A script could do that, I'm sure, but even that would be somewhat clunky in terms of interactivity.

If you want a spherical perspective as your link suggests, then fisheye equisolid is the type of camera you want to use. You can find it by activating the Cycles render engine, then selecting Panoramic in the Camera type and then Fisheye Equisolid in the panorama type.
You can also do it the "post-prod" way by first rendering using a rectilinear camera (called "Perspective" in Blender) because it renders faster and has a 1 on 1 correspondence with your viewport, and then use the "Lens distortion" node in the compositor. However, this one gives an elliptical distortion if your image is a rectangle (just like a Fisheye Equidistant camera). You'd have to set up a node tree to get the real spherical distortion. It could be done using a displacement node; some gradient textures and some math nodes, but you may get some subtle sub-pixel artifacts due to discontinuities in the gradient texture node.
My web search didn't give me any result for someone who already set up a node tree for that particular projection but maybe I missed it.

The easiest solution is to render your movie with "normal" lens to a video file, then get its output you can project like a texture on other object and have any kind of deformation / lens you like.

For those down voting please provide information on why.


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How to iterate through mesh vertices and add hooks using script
do you know how I can iterate through all the vertices of a mesh, and add a new Empty object as a hook to them via using a script? Like you would do by clicking on them in Edit Mode and then pressing Ctrl+H.
I'm trying to achieve this by the following code unsuccessfully so far:
# I import the bpy and do various things here which work, but the below one doesn't

current_obj = bpy.context.object

for vert in current_obj.data.vertices:
    vert.hook_add_newob()

Thank you for the support in advance!

bpy.ops.object.hook_add_newob()

Yes I tried this already and it also doesn't work. I can't even read the error message just that "Phython script fail, look in the console" - but there is nothing in the console...

Try this:
import bpy, bmesh

# Create a persistent reference to current object
current_obj = bpy.data.objects[ bpy.context.object.name ]

bpy.ops.object.mode_set( mode = 'EDIT' ) # Go to edit mode

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh( current_obj.data )

for i in range( len( bm.verts ) ):
    bpy.context.scene.objects.active = current_obj
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all( action = 'DESELECT' ) # Deselect all vertices
    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh( current_obj.data )
    bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()
    v  = bm.verts[i]
    v.select = True
    bm.select_flush( True )
    bpy.ops.object.hook_add_newob()

bpy.ops.object.mode_set( mode = 'OBJECT' )     # Back to object mode

It is now possible without edit mode nor operators.
Can add a modifier assign it vertices and an object without requiring to be in edit mode, or running any operators.
Have lazily added the empty with add empty operator below, but could be replaced with existing objects or bpy.data.objects.new(name, None) and linking to a collection linked to scene.  (Adding an object without operators  has been well covered on BSE)
import bpy

context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
tri = context.object
if tri and tri.type == 'MESH':
    me = tri.data
    for v in me.vertices:
        name = f"Vert_{v.index}"
        bpy.ops.object.empty_add(
                location=tri.matrix_world @ v.co
                )
        mt = context.object
        mt.name = name
        hm = tri.modifiers.new(
                name=name,
                type='HOOK',
                )
        hm.object = mt
        hm.vertex_indices_set([v.index])

Used in answer here https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/197166/15543


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Rigid Bodies copied from one file to another don't work
I'm having some issue with Rigid Bodies now. I created Rigid Body objects in a *.blend file, and when I select it and copy it with Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V into another *.blend file, it gets copied, but it doesn't quite become a Rigid Body there. I mean in the Physics panel it shows up as a Rigid Body, however, when you select it, it's not highlighted with green - as all Rigid Bodies should be - but with orange. Also, when I play the animation, it doesn't fall etc. like normal Rigid Bodies should behave.
Do you know how this can be fixed?

Yes, I think I have an answer for you, despite the "highlighted" issue. I've just checked to copy and paste a Rigid Body between files and the cube is green (meaning that it is into the RigidBodyWorld. Can you test it again with all new files?

There are a couple of topics in this question actually, so I'm going to cover them separately.
Copying Rigid Bodies objects between files
As you did, copying is simple as Ctrl C and Ctrl V.
In my case (running 2.77 RC1) when you paste the objects they keep the highlighted green.
What this green means is that the object is assigned to a Group. When working with Rigid Bodies, Blender add them to a group named RigidBodyWorld automatically. This is the way Blender knows what objects are into the simulation.
If you don't have your objects in the group, add them manually.
In case that you don't have Rigid Bodies working simulations into your scene:

Select all the objects you pasted
Press Ctrl G
Go to the operator panel (at the bottom of the Tool Shelf) or press F6 and change the name to RigidBodyWorld.

If you have other working Rigid Bodies into your scene, add them to the existing RigidBodyWorld group:

Select all the objects you pasted
Also select one of the existing Rigid Bodies in your scene, having this last object as the Active Object.
Press Shift Ctrl G
Select RigidBodyWorld on the pop-up menu.

Making your Rigid Body World work
Now, you have all the objects into the RigidBodyWorld group and they have all they Rigid Body properties as they had in the file where you copied them. But, if you are into a scene with no simulations, they'll don't work.
When you add a Rigid Body, Blender creates a Rigid Body World automatically, but if you are copy/pasting objects between scenes, you have to active the Rigid Body World manually.

Into the Properties window, go to the Scene tab and look for the Rigid Body World panel. Activate it.

Click the Group Field and select RigidBodyWorld

Now, if you play animation, you'll see that your Rigids Bodies are working just like in their original file.
Simulation VS Animation
Just a clarification: when you paste Rigid Bodies, you are not copying their animation because there's no animation linked to them.
Animation stores within an object as keyframes, and simulation does by caching. The simulation cache is a group of files that stores the transformation of the objects in every frame. Contrary, the keyframes just store this information in some frames and Blender interpolates the movement between them.
So there's no way to copy the simulation itself into a new file by pasting the Rigid Body objects until you convert the simulation into keyframes by Baking the simulation. Here there's a question which covers that: Baking rigid body transformations


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Hooking selected object to control point of Bezier curve via scripting
I'm trying to hook an object - namely a cube, which is a Mesh - to a specified control point of a Bezier curve - which is a Curve - by scripting.
So I do the following and it doesn't work:
bpy.data.objects['Cube'].select = True # it has to be selected
bpy.data.objects['BezierCircle'].select = True # it has to be selected too
# and it has to be the active one as well
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = bpy.data.objects['BezierCircle'].splines[0].bezier_points[0]

It says that it doesn't find the 'splines' attribute. OK, so if I change it to a curve, like this:
bpy.data.objects['Cube'].select = True
bpy.data.objects['BezierCircle'].select = True
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = bpy.data.curves['BezierCircle'].splines[0].bezier_points[0]

then it says that it is expecting an Object, and not a BezierSplinePoint.
If it would be accepted, the following command should do the hooking:
bpy.ops.object.hook_add_selob(use_bone = False)

So that the Cube would be hooked to the control point I'm indexing.
Now what do you suggest I should do?

Is using Python a requirement or are you trying only to achieve some visual effect?

As a simplification do not think of a curve vertex as an object for the Python above.  Think of items such as Mesh, Curve, Text and the Empty as objects.  Armature can get a special treatment.  Something that would appear in the outliner window.  Do not consider the internal vertex as on object.

Yes, Python is requirement in my case because I want to do batch scripting with it.

http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/47471/how-to-iterate-through-mesh-vertices-and-add-hooks-using-script   Is this the same question?

Is your question really something like this?  I have some Python from a previous question and I need it to do something differently.  Here is the different task [X].  How do I do this? Do you need to select a control point?  How is that determined?

Yes, I know I asked that question, and you found it :) But actually I rushed and asked that question too early. What I really need is this: how to select individual control points of Bezier curves - or Nurbs, it doesn't really matter - using scripting.

You should change the title of your question to something like.....  Python to select individual control points of Bezier curves?  That way people can use your answer efficiently.  You now know you can have a better title and question contents.

OK guys, I think I found the solution! Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImWd1-FxhE4
In case the video becomes deleted in the future for some reason, here is the key to selecting the desired control point: (just an example)
bpy.data.curves['BezierCurve'].splines[0].bezier_points[0].select_control_point = True

So basically there is this boolean data member of the control points called select_control_point and you just have to set it to true.

You question needs to be changed to match the answer.

I believe you can delete the troublesome statement.
The vertices selected are associated the object being edited.  Then the other mesh, or empty is the controller.  The operator will find the selected vertices.  You do not need to set the active object again. Delete the statement.
Footnote.
The original question has changed in comments by the OP but the original question text remains.

Yes, thank you I know how to do it like this, but I need to be able to script it because I don't want to click things a hundred times... I only asked the question for 1 specific thing, because then if I know how to do it, I can do it for 100 as well.

The main problem is how to select a specific control point on the curve so that it becomes the active object, like when you right-click it.

@MatX You should change your question and remove the above comments.


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is there a way to create kanji or other symbol based text fonts using blenders text object?
i'm doing a project where i want to add japanese style text to a mesh but i don't want to make the symbols individually as it will take a while and will most likely not turn out right. preferably a way to convert the english text into japanese kanji or another language much like google translate does.

You just need to find an OpenType or Truetype Kanji font, then you can load it into Blender's text object, and paste in your Kanji messaging in Edit Mode. You'll have to do the translation part somewhere else though.
If you having issues getting it to work, it might be easier to set the text in another program like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape and then importing the text as SVG file into blender.

i tested this several times every time i tried to use a truetype or opentype kanji font it was completely invisible except a couple letters which weren't even kanji but instead more like commas. if i was skilled enough at blender i could probably make what i need but it would take an unnecessarily long time

What font are you using? Is it a font I can download and test?

cpfont_tt is one of them antique-maru is the other i got them fron a website "www.freejapanesefont.com" at the moment i dont recall which of the two fonts is which one is more of a advertisement style and the other is handwriting style thats the one i was trying to use primarily i believe it is CPfont_tt one though.


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is there a better way to smooth/flatten specific areas of a mesh than the tools or modifiers?
i have a model that im working on which has very detailed boots on the issue ive run into is i need the treads in the center of the boots to be completely flat without flattening out the arch between the heel and front of the foot or without flattening the outer treads however none of the smoothing tools or modifiers seem to work for the purpose or at all in general, if i use the default settings the smoothing has no effect if i go even slightly higher the entire area is warped or imploded upon itself.
I have actually gone and removed the treads by hand and added faces where they were but even that still needs some refinement but again smooth still doesn't work and i don't know of another way to quickly and accurately flatten/smooth the area i need but the modifiers and tools have little to no effect in general and with specific areas it messes them up as stated above.

You might try selecting the faces you want perfectly flat and scale them to zero in the z direction (assuming you want the flat aligned with the x-y plane). You can use proportional editing mode to get surrounding faces to transition toward the flat area.

i have tried scaling, i have used smoothing tools and smoothing modifiers,  but the smoothing options freak the mesh out for some reason but it seems the best and only viable option is to select faces and vertices and simply remove them by hand and re create faces to flatten out what is needed, this is what i had to do to flatten it while i still have a spare version of the file for smoothing and scale testing but the problem is fixed in the way i stated previously but its a pretty annoying way to work with meshes.

Two fun things that helped me flatten:
S+Z,0 using the Pivot Point of Active Element for an element that should not move. Transform Orientations can add a face to become like a temporary global Z.
Using some bit of planar mesh to cut a new flat plane though a pesky mesh with the Boolean Modifier. Separate the simplest cut to outside the build for this then add it back. This modifier does work.


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how can i easily and quickly fix this glitch in my faces of my mesh?
I dont know why this is happening but as this is the fourth time i have tried creating the same style object with worse results on the previous i don't intend to start over again, however the only thing i can figure out is that a part of the mesh in a smaller section is angled but the major area is no longer angled but still has the glitch, if there is a way to easily flatten the smaller section to be on the exact level of the larger section indicated that could help with the smaller glitch as scaling doesnt work easily it seems (i scaled the area where the big glitch is happening to try to fix the glitch by making it flat but it didnt fix it).

The "Angled slightly" arrow: The face is non-planar. Either use  - "flatten" or split it into triangles. The other parts are ngons. Don't use them when you can avoid it. Better don't use them at all.

i tried making the same meshes previously by using mirror modifier with clipping, and having perfectly flat planes for the faces except on the curved parts but one resulted in multiple copies of the mesh glitching into each other for some reason, the other ended up just not even working at all because the shaping kept messing up, would using the planar effect make it possible to essentially scale the slaller section which is what the angled face goes into to make it perfectly flat and even with the larger section? its pretty much the only plan i havent yet tried.

i tested trying to break the faces up a bit on the big glitch and it did nothing to effect it, i'm not well versed at blender but having searched online for other options to fix that glitch and using what i do know of blender i didnt get any real results from that either.

Anyway, my comment above contains all the answers I have right now. If you need more help, consider uploading your file to http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ and posting the link in your question by using the "edit" link below it.

as usual is my luck it seems restarting and adjusting the mesh from the beginning is the only way to actually fix the issues without having other people fix my issues for me, which is disappointing and annoying but at least i finally seem to be able to get it not glitched. if anyone is anting to do so i could ask another question which is how can i prevent text, or other boolean objects used to engrave from cutting my mesh in wierd ways and adding extra unneeded faces.


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how to make a realistic sugar cube material?
I have been struggling with this for a while, and can't figure out help. I would like to make a realistic sugar cube material procedural, but so far I couldn't manage to get a satisfactory result, can you please help me improve it?
My render i know it looks like solid object not translucency or sss but I do applied both with an add noder can be seen in the file

I m seeking a solution to make shiny sprinkle looking small parts and translucency of main shader. I can't figure out how though.
thanks
EDIT- second render after @PGmath suggested note set up which helped a lot to get a much more better result, however I wish there was some way to reduce the noise , even with 300 samples there are plenty noise, is it normal?

You have to add subsurface scattering

Hi @IgorTatarnikov thanks for suggestion but it already has sss and translucency with add shader node, but surely something wrong which doesn't make it look like sss applied

@ideorium Could you please post your material nodes set up?

For starters I would use a voronoi texture set to cells as a normal map.

Ok, I have added the blend file @Gonzou alternatively you can download it here too

Here's what i have come up with after a few minutes of playing around.

The entire shader is based on cell voronoi textures.  Voronoi works well for this kind of thing because it gives nice pixel-like results.  The actual geometry is just a massively subdivided cube with a displace modifier using a small voronoi texture.

Here are the shader nodes:

Click to enlarge
It's basically a huge mix of diffuse, gloss, SSS, glass, and translucency; with a small amount of volume scattering (to simulate the light bouncing around on the sugar grains inside the cube).  Everything uses a single voronoi texture as a normal map, each shader uses a different level of bump though.  It could definitely use some tweaking, but it's a pretty good start.
A note on speed/noise:

First of all you have to realize that things like rough gloss, SSS and translucency will all generate a good deal of noise, meaning you need more samples.  I would suggest at least 500 samples for rendering many of these.  That said, there are a couple things that you can do to cut render times, and less render time means you can afford more samples.
First of all you can probably get away with nixing the volumetrics.  Though accurate it isn't essential to use the volume scatter, this alone cut my render time almost in half.
Second you can add these nodes at the end:

What this is doing is only making it compute all those complicated shaders for glossy and camera rays (the add node works like a logical OR), for all other rays it just computes diffuse.  I use this trick all the time in indoor scenes especially.

Very nice result! Increasing the Scale of the Subsurface Scatering node may make it even better.

wow thanks a lot for your answer, I will study the node setup asap which looks very interesting and informative @PGmath thanks

@PGmath , I have applied the shader node set up with some little changes and object geometry with displacement, here is the result it had so much noise even with 300 render samples, I am wondering how can I make it less noisy with less render samples.. thanks

@ideorium check out this guide: http://www.blenderguru.com/articles/7-ways-get-rid-fireflies/ May be very helpful.

@ideorium You could try nixing the volume scatter, it adds something but it's not much.  In my render I also disabled caustics, if you have other things in your scene which need caustics this might not be an option, but trying to render caustics on this thing is really a nightmare.  I have one other idea I will try, I'll add it to the answer if it works.  But honestly, for a shader like this you're going to need more than 300 samples, things like SSS, translucency, and rough gloss need a lot of sampling.

@PGmath , first of all shall I upload my new renders here or in the original body text of question? this is 500 samples with and with volumetrics, it does reduces slightly the noises when not using volumetric as shown here , and I also applied the new node group you mentioned to add at the end as here  it did help with the noise and speed indeed, but kinda makes cubes go darker and look like dirtier.  About the scene: I will be using these sugar cubes in a scene where couple of glass and other transparent and reflective surfaces will be

@PGmath , i'd also would like to know where as your extra node group can be use, you mentioned in door scenes, can you give an example more specific of its used material? thanks

@ideorium The nodes highlighted in red are what I was talking about, just stick that at the end of any shader tree and change the color of the diffuse shader to fit the material.


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How can I change a set of objects colour transition location in Z Axis?
I want the colour of stairs change according to their position, I tried obj info node with Mix RGB and got the result below, however I want to change the transition position in Z axis, colour ramp didn't help, it only changes the transition power.
Stairs are not one objects, they are separete objects using same material in Cycles. thanks

You can use 'object' from the texture coordinate node :

The object output (from texture coordinates) is decomposed into X, Y, Z. Here only Z interests us.
The math node is here to tune the overall scale (real Z variation) to fit into the ramp (0 to 1).
I used divide and 12 as value because the stairs here are 12 meters tall.
On right : the stairs made with an array modifier
On left : separated objects
Edit : note that the colorramp is not mandatory here. You can short circuit it.

for some reason I'm not getting what you're getting, here is how it looks when I try it as you described. each step have a gradient effect unlike in your screenshot they don't make a unified effect. I  don't know
http://i.hizliresim.com/aX5p3O.png

@ideorium. That can be a scale or rotation effect (check your objects). If not, can you upload your file ?

here is the file http://www.pasteall.org/blend/43252
one other thing bothering me is, when I apply ARRAY modifier , I get each stairs have identical noise pattern as bump, hence I made them all separate objects, is it possible to have different noise for each step when array applied ?

@ideorium, I ignore why, but it works with your file if you set the first step cube as 'object' in the texture coordinate node. I have compared with my file and it is not necessary here. For the noise pattern, same principle. Here is your file back

Sorry, I don't understand what you changed on the file you sent back, even though it looks same to my original file. When I try -even though everything seems same, I don't get it , and yes all objects are already connected with Object in text.coordinate. Can you please explain a bit more explicit, thanks

@ideorium, An image is better : https://i.gyazo.com/78e8ac8675c2f7b2d4262592e88cbd7f.jpg

thanks yes now it works when the very bottom object is selected.


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How can I make this cinnamon stick material more rough and dusty looking?
I would like to make a realistic cinnamon stick texture / shader as shown below.
Reference image:

my attempt

and a close-up render -

I could come this far, but i can't figure out how to make mine bit more rough and dusty looking surface. Help please
you can download my blend file here
thanks

please crop your images closer to the subject (in future!)

you're right @zeffii, i've updated the question with better images thanks

possible duplicate of How can I add banded lines to the end of cinnamon sticks(or sheets of wood)?

No it is not @David in fact I was suggesting to divide my original question in two parts one for the lines at the end edges, and the other one for the main material, so it's not a duplicate.

@ideorium I don't see anything wrong with you asking this.  You tried to do it yourself and are not yet satisfied with what you achieved so you asked for help.  I was going to show you how to do this using a tree bark texture that is box-mapped.  Here is a setup that shows how you can do this http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/31517/how-to-offset-the-texture-coordinates-of-an-object-with-an-array-modifier-for-ma
The following page shows how to use bump mapping http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/27964/how-to-add-wear-tear-effect-in-a-texture

also realize there's very different lighting on the reference image, it may help if you attempt to crank up the lights a little to let the colour come out more, and realize the reference image has post production saturation applied

thanks @MarcClintDion, I will study those links, just had a quick look the first one which box maps is on an image texture whereas mines are procedural textures, would this still apply?

ah, just noticed it's not on hold anymore. :)

Use sclupting. Your object needs some randomness.....

You had a solid foundation already with how you set up the procedural textures.  You were mostly there, the main issue with your material is  the cracks are a lighter color and the main surface is the darker color; that's backwards. ;)
All of that color multiplying for the material's foundation is trouble.
Multiplying black and white is very predictable:  lighter colors become lighter and the darker color become darker.
When multiplying color gradients against color gradients, it's difficult to predict what will happen across the entire range of colors.
When the main 'crevices' node group that you made is converted to grayscale, and the tones are inverted, it looks more like the desired result.

Here is a tip on getting the color tones closer to the reference image.  When hovering over color fields in Blender, you can press e to access the eye dropper tool.  Now you should be able to click just about anywhere else to sample that color.

In several places, a small Noise texture node group was added and is being used to exaggerate and washout the the various procedural textures.
In one instance, the cracks are darkened and deepened where the noise is darkest.  Towards the end of the material, a similar group is being used to color the surface with darker blobs that show in the reference image.

Separating the bump mapping(Material Output Displacement socket) into distinct operations allows you to control the cracks separately from the overall small scale bumpiness.

One thing that you should always add is a proper sky material, even if it's just a flat color.  The .blend you posted has a sky output node with nothing connected to it.  Even though Cycles is designed to use default settings in conditions like this, it's still a potential error state and it's best to avoid since the environment lighting is a big part of how Cycles colors a scene.
The attached .blend uses a pure white sky(1.0, 1.0, 1.0).
Here's how things are looking now.

Here's the .blend.
If you have the Node Wrangler Addon enabled(included with Blender) then you can ctrl-shift-click on the various nodes to isolate them and see what they look like flat shaded using the Viewport renderer.

amazing! thank you very much @MarcClintDion, i'm happy your showing extra things along the way too..  i'm gonna study it carefully asap, and show my result. just wanted to say a quick thank-you first :)


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Emission light in shader node - Blender 2.8B
In render preview, the item seems to work. But when hitting F12 to render, the particles are black and no emission is on picture for the particles.

on rendering output


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physical weight on rigid complex object
I am not new in Blender but in rigid physics.
How to get a pendelum swinging down / rotating around the axis in case of model weight?

Use a Rigid Body Constraint to fix the pendulum to the pivot as a hinge instead of relying on the geometry (select the pendulum and thr pivot, in the physics toolbox panel select ‘Connect’ and set as ‘hinge’ - you might then need to re-orient the hinge so it swings on the correct axis (it will rotate around the Z-axis of the constraint)).
Finally, you need to move the origin of the pendulum to its centre of mass (currently it appears to be at the pivot) - select the pendulum, click Set Origin and select ‘Center of Mass’.
See also https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/109136/29586 - it doesn’t include a pendulum but does explain the Rigid Body Constraints. Also https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/101880/29586 for an explanation as to why to use constraints for pivots and axles rather than mesh surface interactions.


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"Cannot Execute Boolean Operation" Error
So I'm trying to prepare a helmet that I am going to 3D print. What I am doing is taking the pieces and joining certain ones with cylinders to act as dowel pins to help align the helmet when putting it together, but for some reason one of the pieces in my first group isn't accepting the boolean modifier. My main piece (MChelmet1) was joined together with the cylinders to act as the main piece, and I would then use a boolean difference modifier to make it so the other pieces would have holes that the cylinders would fit into. Two of my pieces did it just fine, but the third piece (MChelmet 8)won't accept the boolean operation. I've tried shortening the cylinders so they weren't as long, but that's not helping.

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5140/cannot-execute-boolean-operation-when-subtracting-several-spheres-and-cylinder ? One of the most often fails of Boolean is non-manifold geometry or geometry with double vertices. Checking that there are none of them may be hard if you have other modifiers in stack which may add non-manifold in real-time too, effectivily preventing Boolean from succeeding.

OP should come back to elaborate else there's no reason to keep this open.

I can't check your file and the picture does not give enough information, but every time I encountered the problem it was due to an "opened" mesh. You should check if there's no 'hole' in your mesh. If there is a hole Blender is not able to calculate the volume and therefore it does not know where the inside or the outside of the object is.


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Why are proxies distorted using proxy fitting with MbLab 1.7.8 in Blender 2.93
I am giving this a new try with the hopes of someone knowing how to resolve this problem. This question is a refined version of the one I recently asked: How can I fit a proxy to a model using MB-Lab?
I have created a character using MB-Lab 1.7.8 in Blender 2.93 (yes I've upgraded since the last question). I am trying to fit proxies to the human object but it doesn't work as the picture below shows. First I applied any rotations/locations/scales to each and every object in the scene. I then set the origin to world origin just in case. However, whenever I try to fit the proxy on the characters body it gets distorted upwards and I fail to understand from where this distortion originates.
The image below shows the unfitted proxies as I've matched them to the shape of the character the way it should look when the proxies are fitted on the left - on the right you'll see what actually happens when I fit the proxies. I have tried all tricks in the book (that I'm aware of) and I've followed whatever Youtube tutorials that could be found out there, yet I can't get the proxies to fit as they should.
I'd be greatful if anybody could guide me as I'm eager to animate this character.

This is how I solved this.
I learned from this movie that clothes can be derived from the body base mesh by duplicating certain areas of it and modifying it to resemble clothes. Inspired by this I began exploring how to transfer data from the base mesh to existing objects.
First I made two duplicates of the feet from the body mesh--one for each shoe. I then removed all but one vertice from both duplicates and joined each shoe to each remaining vertice. This transferred all shape keys and modifers from each remaining vertice to each shoe. I then removed the remaining vertices as these were not needed anymore.
I then transferred weights from the body mesh to each shoe and--voila--the shoes were finally stuck to the body in the right place without distortion.
When it comes to the rest of the clothing I've decided to derive them from duplicates of the body mesh as described in the above mentioned video. At last everything seems to work as it was originally intended.


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how can i best bend/curve a mesh or fix this glitchy looking bend?
i have an imported model of a tank/mech with a tank barrel on it, im planning to use this model for posing purposes, in the program it exports from i can rotate the turret and pose it in many ways however in blender i need to bent the turret backward on itself like seen in superhero movies or in movies where a gun barrel is bent.
i have tried using, bevel tool (doesnt work), the deform tool (doesnt work), and the curve modifier (partly works but glitches) wherever the vertex group mesh section connects to a non curved part of the mesh there is a straight then sudden 90 degree glitchy looking turn  i dont know how to fix this issue as any selecting just moves the next part of the mesh as the glitched turn.

Simply add some loop cuts into the "too straight" part. Ctrl+R, then move your mouse near this part, and to add several parts, use mouse wheel or page up/page down... for the other aspects, all depends on Hulk...

it seems using the warp tool works the best if you can fiddle with it to make sure it perfect, because you will get shortened or enlongated meshes for no real reason but it seems to work better than curves

Curve modifier is rather useful and workable; it's just the matter of handling with origin points. See How to curve mesh and How to bend large model.

Using a curve modifier and starting from this position (curve modifier on the canon) :

Go to edit mode
ctrl+R, the move to the straight cylinder part and mouse wheel or use page up to increase the number of cuts
Validate using LMB, eventually move the cuts, then LMB again (or escape to stay at the initial position)

i actually have attempted to add more loop cuts to it, it doesnt help as it just moves the flattened spot further back, i had the problem before and tried making it work with vertex groups to which it mostly did but that flat part is from an unselected section that isnt part of the bend intentionally, on the inmae of the tank i put on it shows the flat part originating from the end of a thicker piece of the barrel which is my stopping point. more loop cuts just effects the already bent part not the flat part as thats apparently just the connecting faces between the stopping point.

i have managed to curve the barrel by moving the selection along the edge loops and rotating them that way, not the best method but apparently the only working method. i still dont get how to make the curve modifier work porperly as they all warp and distort meshes far too much


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using Mixamo/adobe fuse, Makehuman, and blender together
This question is fairly simple, i recently found Fuse and decided to try it to see if i could animate and create characters easier than i can with blender (because i'm not great at blender) or Makehuman.
The question is, how can i get models with the textures, correct orientation, correct scale, and animations to import/export properly (mainly from fuse or Make human to blender for adjustments then back again.)?
  All information i can find is simply mixamo to blender but those result in models being giant, facing incorrectly (on back) and not having rigging in properly. i need to be able to use animations and textures primarily.

In 2.77a importing fbx seems to work.

it seems obj works but it takes some work to make sure that everything actually works properly, but going from blender back to makehuman or fuse is mostly not possible

Use the mhx2 importer for blender: its an addon you need for make human...works great. For Fuse, they don't import well, but do import into UE4 fine so probably just a blender thing, I do my Mixamo/Fuse touchups in Unreal and Makehuman in Blender.


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can blender auto remove materials and textures if not used over time
is it possible for blender to remove files/textures/materials if they havent been used for awhile?
i ask as i got back to looking at models i worked on in blender, but i discovered that one file in particular which was saved, and exported seems to be completely gone, there is a version which has none of the progress done to it but im almost sure i had the file saved as both a .blend and exported as an obj.
i do have the model in another blend file, along with several other models all originally with materials/textures yet even that file seems to have lost them, the names still exist but the colors are gone.
i would check to see if perhaps my files got messed up but as i dont move anything around in the files i use for blender and havent changed anything that could do that i doubt that is the issue. its not a big deal to reassign materials to some things (such as the swords of which i mentioned before, but many of the items are imports from other programs, and have been edited in some way or other (and were textured fine at the time either by default or by me) and those items are far harder to re texture/material as im not particularly skilled with blender even though ive had it for a few years now.

Did you select ~ File > External Data > Automatically pack into .blend file

possibly, i likely forgot that part knowing myself.
its odd though as most of the things in the main file are imported from other 3d programs i use and they kept the textures and stuff for a long time and every time i would go back to it everything would be as it should be, then for some reason yesterday i got back on blender after a break and most everything is missing the proper textures.
a couple other things is that on my swords which were missing textures, the materials were made from working addons mainly, so they really shouldnt have been missing.

Maybe you had it selected long ago, then used a newer version of Blender that didn't have it checked.  I wish it were checked by default.

perhaps but as far as i recall it was already updated to the version (what it i have now) when i started so shouldnt be an update that did it, but it is possible


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Can I use Blender on Intel HD 530 dedicating an Nvidia GPU to Cycles?
I'm trying to specify the build for a new PC, my current one is 5 years old and starting to show its age. It's going to be a multi-use machine for Gaming, Virtualisation, Coding, Blender and possibly even VR (Rift). Because of the shift to the cycles renderer I was thinking of going SLI (for the first time) so that I could dedicate one GPU to Cycles and leave the other for X. This would still give me an excellent gaming rig if I used, for example, 2x Geforce GTX 960 (4GB).
Now that I've started to look into the build, I see that the Intel Skylake CPU's also include an OpenGL capable GPU, e.g. the Intel HD 530, in the Core i5-6600, which is OpenGL 4.4, HLSL 5.1 and DX12 compatible.
My question is whether I could run Blender (on Linux) using just the Intel HD graphics for the X session (with OpenGL for Blender) and then dedicate a single Nvidia GPU for Cuda (for Cycles rendering). The Blender system requirements only state a need for OpenGL 3.2 [OK], but the Intel specs don't specify how much VRAM is available - Blender requires between 512M and 4G. The Intel spec sheets are very vague about Video Memory, a couple of sources quote 64MB or 128MB eDRAM so I assume the actual VRAM is borrowed from system memory but I can't find a solid figure for how much is available.
Does anyone have an Intel Skylake Core i5-6600 processor running Blender without a dedicated GPU? Or better with a GPU that is dedicated to Cuda/Cycles?

I have heard many horror stories about SLI , the double card GPU whether Nvidia or AMD is not really well supported, most often you will want to stick with a powerful single card it should suffice. You are paying for a technology that is bleeding edge ... so at the edge that causes you too bleed too.... lol

You can definitely do this. My son has an Ubuntu Desktop:
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=20.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=focal
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS"

And this graphics card specifically:
$ lshw -c video
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: HD Graphics 530
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 06
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:134 memory:f6000000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:f000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

He's able to render cars for NR2003 using this setup.

NOTE: The render times can be long he constantly lets me know that they can take 1-2hrs but it is doable.
CPU Info
Here's his CPU info too just in case.
$ lscpu
Architecture:                    x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):                  32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order:                      Little Endian
Address sizes:                   39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
CPU(s):                          4
On-line CPU(s) list:             0-3
Thread(s) per core:              2
Core(s) per socket:              2
Socket(s):                       1
NUMA node(s):                    1
Vendor ID:                       GenuineIntel
CPU family:                      6
Model:                           94
Model name:                      Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-6100 CPU @ 3.70GHz
Stepping:                        3
CPU MHz:                         800.052
CPU max MHz:                     3700.0000
CPU min MHz:                     800.0000
BogoMIPS:                        7399.70
Virtualization:                  VT-x
L1d cache:                       64 KiB
L1i cache:                       64 KiB
L2 cache:                        512 KiB
L3 cache:                        3 MiB
NUMA node0 CPU(s):               0-3


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How to calculate the cross-section area of an object?
I have a 3D model that is sized according to actual dimensions in the real world. I'd like to use Blender to calculate the cross-sectional area of the object, because the cross-section/cutaway shape is too complex to calculate by hand.

One method is:

Enable the "3D Print Toolbox" (follow instructions here).
It can make it easier to move the object to be measured to the origin such that the axis for which you want the cross-section is aligned with a coordinate axis.
Create a cube.
Move the cube using the text entry feature to align with the axis of the object for which you want the cross-section.
For the axis perpendicular to the cross-section, scale this side of the cube to almost nothing (e.g. 0.000001 should be enough).
Scale the other two sides of the cube such that they are larger than the object cross-section to be measured.
Add a Boolean modifier to the cube with an Intersect Operation on the object. Apply the modifier.
Select the object and press H to hide it, so the cross-section profile can be selected.
Select the cross-section profile. Select 3D view > Tool shelf > 3D Printing tab, and select the Area button.
Divide the displayed area result by two (the area measured is the whole surface area of the intersecting object. Ignoring the insignificant side area, that leaves the front and back areas contributing to the total cross-section area).

This illustrates the process visually (unfortunately some recorded key presses were accidental):

Useful resource: Create Cross Sections and 2D planes in Blender


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How do I make the model/bones in this scene work correctly on this curve so I can export the model and animation as FBX?
I have been trying to make a model of a roller chain meant to animate along a curve so it goes from 0 degrees X-axis horizontally over the 90-degree curve to 0 degrees vertically on the z-axis.
I have been using the array and curve modifiers to make the individual links follow the curve correctly and can animate it to do what I want in Blender, however, I can't make the animation export to FBX, the model becomes a solid mesh and moves horizontally on the x-axis instead of along the curve. I'm trying to export the model as FBX to import it into Pixelartor
I have added bones to the scene in an attempt to link the chain to the rig and then export it but I can't get the bones to function correctly using spline IK or follow path constraints as it will not follow the curve, the best I can get is the bones being completely straight but aligned with the end of the curve, I also can't get the bones to move, rotate, trying to parent/child them in a chain to arrange them manually doesn't work because the bones stay stationary and wot budge, but I have barely ever used or done anything with bones in Blender so I'm probably missing something.
The attached images shows the chain model with the array and curve modifiers, and the bones are not lining up with the curve, Image one shows the bones without a constraint, image 2 shows the bones with the spline IK constraint.


text:
Is it possible to add text to a model in the UV image editor without external texture file?
Is there a method or addon that allows me to add text to a model's UV without needing to go into an image editing program to make the text an image texture?
I want to create some 2D holographic signs, I've seen a video showing a pretty good method for making 2d holographic signs but it involves making text into an image texture and then going through the node process to make it which i can do if its the best way.
I also could use such an ability to add text to weapons or other surfaces if it were possible.

the only thing i know is make a 2nd scene, add a text object + cam and render it as your own image, so you don't have to use an external program

thats kind of what i expected, oh well its not a huge deal to make textures to use for that purpose


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Cycles Random material with alpha texture
I would like to set a random color matérial to many particules and apply 5 differents alpha textures also.
I achieve to apply a random color using the random object info node, what i want now is th apply randomly one of the 5 alpha textures on those objects.
I can't manage to apply more than 2 of them.

Welcome to Blender.SE Leeva!  Could you please add some explanation of what you are already doing, maybe a screenshot of your nodes?  Thanks!

There is a new product over at Blender market that allows you to make materials with random textures found here https://cgcookiemarkets.com/all-products/cycles-random-texture-node/

For random colors just plug the Object Info node's random output to a Color Ramp with the desired random colors as shown bellow:

Use a constant color ramp if you want only solid colors, or any interpolated version if you want a range of variations.
For random alpha textures inside a particle system it is probably easier to just create five separate objects (they can share mesh objectdata) with five different materials applied "By object" with your different alpha maps.
Group these objects into a single group with Ctrl+G and the use that group as dupli in the particle system.

Turn on the "Pick Random" option and the particle system will take care of choosing each object arbitrarily.


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Is it possible to make mirrored side of the mesh to appear in the uv image editor?

Is it possible to make mirrored side of the mesh to appear in the uv image editor?

By default both faces will have overlapping UV coordinates. U option in Mirror modifier settings will make mirroring along U axis (aka X) but only once modifier is applied (because otherwise that geometry doesn't exist yet).


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Combining 2 UV maps into one

Is it possible to combine both head and body UV maps into one without losing UV mapping coordinates for both of the UV maps? The 3d model is one combined object...

This is the simplest way I know of merging UV maps in Blender:

Separate all the polygons of the head to a new object.
Delete the 'body' UV map from the head object.
Rename the 'head' UV map of the head object to 'body'.
Delete the 'head' UV map of the body object as you don't need it.
Merge the head object back onto the body and all the UVs will now be in the 'body' UV map.


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blender subsurface scattering scale control with non-color data texture

Is it possible to control the scale for the subsurface scattering shader using a black and white texture.......and what color should i use on my texture to make some parts have larger subsurface scattering scale and smaller scale...?

Yes it's possible. There are two simple ways to do that(and countless more complicated). First is to use the texture to influence scale of subsurface scattering shader (Full white has value of 1 and full black 0,if you would use other colours only Value would be taken into account, Hue and saturation are irrelevant)
Second way (better in my opinion, cause it gives more control) is to use texture to influence shaders mixing:


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Stencil image appearing extremely low resolution

Stencil image appearing extremely low resolution. The original image is 16000 px... why is the resolution so low when painting a stencil image ?

What is the resolution of the canvas you are painting into? The stencil image is 16000 pixels, but if the target is low then there aren't enough pixels to interpret the stencil image.

It is not the problem with the canvas...the canvas size is 8000 px...the stencil even in the viewport looks like its size is around a 200px image...

Can you try to use the Clone tool option in the 2d editor, and see if you get the same pixelation there?

Stencil has to be a power of 2 image, with dimensions of
8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024px, etc in width or height (512x512, 1024x1024,
2048x2048 or 1024x512, 2048x1024 or 512x1024, 1024x2048, 1024x128, 128x4096 - and so on, as long as it can be doubled or halved by 2) that way Blender will display it correctly. It's a general rule for any 3D texture, actually.
I know it's an old question, but a lot of people asked me about this lately and they found no direct answers online. So I figured you can never be too late with an answer. :)

what about size like 2436 x 3352  it can be doubled or halved by 2 but it pixelated for me (my old question with the same issue https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/278628/texture-becomes-very-pixelated-in-the-viewport  - it have different resolution but the same problem)


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How to make 3d text values larger in 3d view?

How do i make these values larger ?

Unfortunately, I don't think this is possible, even with an addon.. You can scale whole UI though in UserPreferences > Interface

Use another mesuring tool if you want more control over that, e.g. MeasureIt addon

The font size for the dimensions is the same size as the text in panels throughout Blender (ie, the fields in the right-hand properties panel in your screenshot. You can adjust the overall font size by adjusting the DPI setting in the System section of the User Preferences :

Note that adjusting the DPI will affect the whole Blender user interface, not just the labels in the 3d View.

While it may not be as simple to use, you can enable the MeasureIt addon which can add measurements at any font size you want. The MeasureIt addon was added to blender 2.78, it should be possible to manually install it in earlier versions.

By setting the text size in the MeasureIt Configuration, all items selected when segment is clicked will be given the same font size. Individual measurement display options can be adjusted in the properties region. Be sure to enable the display by clicking the Show/Hide button at the top.
You can find a video tutorial on using the MeasureIt addon here.


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Cannot move vertices
Cannot move vertices up or down in z axis?

could you please share your file?

Check that your object isn't Z scaled to 0 in its transform matrix.. (Ctrl-A, apply scale)

It was scaled in Z ..it works


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Problem changing cameras between scenes
Just trying to make a simple intro animation, pretty much text only. I've never used Blender as anything but a video editor so I'm learning as I go.
My goal is to change cameras in different scenes. So the first scene has it's text and animation, and then the next scene with its own stuff.
But I can't get the cameras to change during the animation. I've read about using Markers and binding each camera to a Marker. But it still won't change.
I feel I may have misunderstood what the scenes are for after reading the "Data System" section of the manual, as well as the "Linked Libraries".
If I did misunderstand something I'm not sure what the next step is to finish this small project.
Thanks!

When you say different scenes, are you talking about blender scenes in the list at the top? Markers switch cameras in the same scene, you use the VSE to merge different scenes into one animation.

So I did misunderstand what scenes were used for.
Basically all I need to do is render out each animation and put them together in post? Or is there a way to do it pre-render?


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Radeon RX 480 or CPU for rendering animation?
I'm currently 4 and a half hours into rendering a quite simple animation (was supposed to be just a test), realized I left it on GPU Compute after tinkering with those options. Really hoping that that has slowed down the render.
I'm new to making this kind of thing with Blender so I've quickly gotten in over my head and need a few pointers.
I have a Radeon RX480 4GB GPU, and an AMD FX-8350 2.3GHz CPU, 8GB System RAM.
I was reading in the manual about NVIDIA's advantage with CUDA, so my main question is if it's even worth messing with seeing as I have an AMD card which doesn't seem to have an advantage.
I was also wondering if the tile size affects animation speed. The things I was reading were only about complex still images. But larger tile size is better for GPUs.
It would make sense that it might work for animations too, but there's a lot I don't know about this.
Finally I'm curious about the render samples. I have mine set to 256, which I was reading needs to be higher for scenes with depth of field (of course mine has that). So I may need to re-render. But I don't want to wait another 5+ hours for a 3 second intro video.
Any pointers for settings would be really awesome. Even if the final render will take this long, I'd like to have less of a wait for test renders.

Make a quick render test, you already know how long it takes for GPU, if your CPU beats your cards on the same job then use CPU instead. Tile sizes affect rendering speed (both for stills or animations, CPU, CUDA or OpenCL) not "animation speed".

If you are using an RX480 you should get a fairly significant speed boost over your aging FX-8350.  The AMD videa cards cards have a few less supported features than Cycles than Nvidia cards on CUDA but nothing that can't be worked around.
I'd suggest lowering the number of samples in your sampling settings and turn on the seed value being different per frame.  Video doesn't need as much refinement per frame as people think.  For the tile sizes, through experimentation I have found that larger sizes work better with GPU rendering but it is a fairly minor speed gain.
Good luck rendering your project!


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How to put one material where the light is hitting and one where the light isn't?
So I want to create an object using cycles render that has two different materials applied to it. One of the materials can only be seen on the object where the light is hitting and the other material can only be seen where the light isn't hitting. And of course these two materials should blend between the shadow and light.  Let's just say I want the shadow part to be glossy and the light part to be diffuse.How would the nodes look like?

Possible duplicate of Make light paths only pass through non-emitted areas?

Well that post doesn't have anything helpful.

Are you sure, have you read my answer? Cycles materials can't depend on the render solution, that creates an endless dependency cycle

If your input is a single point lamp, we could implement it using some simple math. Other than this, Duarte gave you the answer.

You can do it in Blender Internal .. you can do it in Cycles in 2 passes, (baking the first) ... you  will be able to do it in Eevee.


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After extruding the face where i extruded from is missing
this is probably something simple so i'll explain in short :
after extruding , if a delete this face(pic 1)

you can clearly see that the face where i extruded from disappeared(pic 2)
but i want that both faces stay there , undeleted

basically i want to have both picture 1 face and picture 3 face when extruding
but instead i get 1 and 2 .
Thanks in advance .
Note : i used to do this 2 years ago (i can tell because i've loaded some of my models from 2014) but i can't remember how i did .

in edge select mode, alt+E, then edges only

You have to hit SPACE and type "extrude only edges".
Or in edge select mode hit ALT+E and choose "only Edges"
This way it keeps the original face in place and extrudes the edges only.
If you want to select multiple faces, you have to switch to edge select mode and only select the outer rim of the faces.

Hit only E and extrude the edges:

i guess that's one way but what if i extrude more than one face ? It would be a pain in the *** to create new faces to all those new edges .

updated the answer, does it now solve your problem?

i mean if you have a curvy mesh (eg a cylinder) and try to create new faces with the F key the fresh edges after edge extrude they won't fill correctly

Why do you want to fuse faces, using the F key? actually im not hundred percent sure if i have understand your initial question, maybe you want to update your main question post. Eg what are you even trying to achieve in the long run? Also maybe you should try the Loop Tools addon, maybe it provides you with a better solution for your problem. https://vimeo.com/21459725

an other solution would be this https://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-121984.html and just remove doubles after i'm done however it's still not the way i used to extrude but anyway i'll use both this method and yours depending on the situation

i'm trying to have both faces in pic 1 and pic 3 when i extrude , your solution shows how to achieve pic 3 and by creating new faces pic 1 will be achieved as well but this won't work on multiple faces

ah now i understand. The loop tool's function called "bridge" can merge multiple faces. you should give it a try.

Helpful add-on , thanks a lot for the recommendation .


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Second object won't animate with first one
Hi i'm having this problem when i try to change bone position with rigify (there's similar problem even with normal bones) :

As you can see the cloak doesn't move like the rest of the body . The cloak and the hood (the hood has this problem as well but it's not visible here) used to be different objects but i joined them with Ctrl + J .
What i've tried and didn't work : "playing" in weight paint , merge cloak points and body points with Alt + M .
Notes : Don't mind the eyes(didn't parent them yet) . Sorry for the bad quality and the speed of this gif but i think we can't upload a video here so i had to convert it to gif . I still have the backup .blend file where i haven't joined the objects yet .
Thanks in advance :)

Okay first of all, a common rule for character rigging is that you don't need to have any skin that is covered by character clothing, therefore go ahead and delete those skin. But of course you can choose to keep those skin if you feel like you need them, in this case you want to perform a function called "transfer weight", it allows you to copy nearest weight info from body to clothes. It is done in weight painting mode and relatively easy, justt go to youtube and search for weight transfer tutorials.

Thanks a lot you're right but weight transfer still doesn't do 100 % the job so i guess i'll try to dissolve the "hidden" points from the body(shirt) , put the cloak in their places and merge the cloak with the arms , head , shirt and waist ... can you transform your comment to an answer so i can accept it as a solution ?


text:
Multiple Overlaping Submeshes
and thank you for taking a moment to help me out.
Over the last few days I have been trying hard to bind an armature to a character model, but in vain, as no matter what options I have googled has not managed to help me get past this issue:

"Could not generate weights for all vertices."
"Your Mesh probably contains multiple overlaping sub meshes."
I have also tried taking on the 'Alternatives' that appears with the message but not been able to figure it all out. And out of options, I wonder if anyone is familiar with this issue and if so, have any solutions or tips. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

This is an Avastar (addon) message... is it the last (Bento) version ? If yes, a shorter way could be to contact Gaia IW (Gaia Clary has developped Avastar)... or the Avastar group... (as here few know all this)

So Overlaping submeshes does not say you anything, dupliates making it hard on weight painting ect?

First thing, surely : remove doubles and be sure the model is symmetrical


text:
Some kind of Sharp issue?
and thank you for taking the time.
I have been struggling with my object for some time now in an attempt to solve this issue by myself, but now I feel that relying on help from others is something that I must. I appreciate any feedback that leads to a solution.
After a long time I decided to pursue one of my old works to make something of this object, a pity leaving it behind really. I encountered an issue I recall having managed to deal with before, but no matter what thread or video I have looked up has not managed to bring a solution to this matter:

The middle line is a big pain to me.
This object is a single and merged object. It has already been smoothed out, even from what looks to be a Sharp Edge? The surface is a single one and my texture covers it as one surface, but lightning is distributed differently on either side.

Blue lines are running along this supposed edge, but even after smoothing/removing these, the line remains. No matter what feature I have tried to dwell into the line remains. I can't remember what I did in the past, but with a command I was able to remove the middle line and make lightning as one unified surface.
Help appreciated :) thank you.

It could be a modifiers fault, a fault in split geometry (not properly merged edges). Could you post the geometry for further analysis? Possible solution @ https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/15519/53220

Why not use Autosmooth and sharp marking instead of edgesplit ? It's way better and hassle free.

Thank you for the responses. Sadly, I have tried all those options already but that dividing edge remains. I am uploading for analysis, .obj format I hope that is alright :)
https://github.com/Vemone/Projectss

Further assistance is appreciated :)


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How to rotate object and render with a script
I am creating a rotating knob in Blender for my GUI-project.
The knob has to be rendered in 64 different angles. Is there a way I can automate this extremely tedious process with a python script?

Render the knob at 0° Z,
Save the file
Rotate knob 3°
Render
Save the file
Repeat 64 times

I want to use the Cycles Render and a high-number of samples (1500-2000).

Why not animate the rotation and render an image sequence?

After some trial and error I found that this python script works for me:
import bpy, math

knob = bpy.data.objects["MyBlenderKnob"]
knob.rotation_mode = 'XYZ'

rotate_by = 4.21875   #How many degrees to rotate the knob for every step
start_angle = 45      #What angle to start from

for x in range(1,65):
    angle = (start_angle * (math.pi/180)) + (x*-1) * (rotate_by * (math.pi/180))
    knob.rotation_euler = ( 0, 0, angle )

    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = "/Users/myfolder/KnobFrame%d.png" % (x)
    bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True, use_viewport=True)

It grabs my blender object called "MyBlenderKnob" and rotates it 4.21875° on the Z-axis, then it renders it according to the current render-settings in the project. Then it saves the files in "myfolder".
Beautiful! A real timesaver.

re:  2.356 + (x*-1) * 0.0736 - why use magic numbers here? math.radians can convert degrees for you.

Ok, thank you! Will try to implement it and update this post.

Went to the time and trouble to recover my password to upvote you!

Thank you @SingleStepper ! I removed the magic numbers now: converting between degrees and radials in the script instead. :)

Or  start_angle = math.radians(45)

You don't need to use a script to get 64 individual images. When rendering an animation while the output filetype is set to an image format each frame will be saved to an individual file.

Set end frame to 64
Set filetype to single image eg. png, jpeg, tiff...
Go to frame one and insert a keyframe for rotation
Go to last frame and rotate the knob 189 degrees
Insert keyframe for rotation
Go to graph editor or dopesheet and select all keyframes
Press T and select linear
Render animation

Step 6 and 7 ensures the rotation is the same amount each frame. By default the interpolation will be bezier which will give less rotation at each end and faster in the middle (ease-in and ease-out). You can get around this step if you set the default interpolation to linear in the editing preferences.

Its possible the object is animated already - so its not necessarily a solution to render an animation.

Copy and paste script for animated model (Still missing support for objects with animated actions), parameters go last in file..
"""
Dump rotated images of a single object in a scene with a single animation.
Support for animation actions missing ..

Rotate car in 45 degree offsets no animation to file in tmp named car*.png
rotate("car",45,output="/tmp/car{norder}.png")

Rotate car in 45 degree with animation frames
animate("car",output="/tmp/car{norder}-{frame}.png",startframe=1,endframe=8)

Error handling is huh suspicious ...

FreeBSD license on this code
"""
import bpy, math

def rotate(modelname,rotate_by=45,start_angle=0,output="/tmp/model{norder}.png",frame="1"):
    model = bpy.data.objects[modelname]
    model.rotation_mode = 'XYZ'

    rotation_euler = model.rotation_euler

    zang = (math.pi*start_angle) / 180.00
    norder = 0
    while zang < math.pi*2:
        model.rotation_euler = ( 0, 0, zang )

        bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = output.format(norder=norder,frame=frame)
        bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True, use_viewport=True)

        zang += (math.pi*rotate_by) / 180.0
        norder +=1

    model.rotation_euler = rotation_euler #don't clobber model rotation...

def animate(modelname,rotate_by=45,start_angle=0,output="/tmp/model{norder}-{frame}.png",startframe=1,endframe=1):
    scene = bpy.data.scenes["Scene"]
    current_frame = scene.frame_current
    scene.frame_current = startframe
    while scene.frame_current <= endframe:
        rotate(modelname,rotate_by=rotate_by,start_angle=start_angle,output=output,frame=scene.frame_current)
        scene.frame_current += 1

    #don't clobber scene frame
    scene.frame_current = current_frame

#rotate the car by 45
#rotate("car",45,output="/tmp/car{norder}.png")
#animate the car
animate("car",output="/tmp/car{norder}-{frame}.png",startframe=1,endframe=8)


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Final render is blank
I'm new to Blender and last night I was working on a simple animation of cubes falling onto a plane. I saved the blender file and today when I opened it up and tried to render it, it refused to work. If I start a new project and render it, it works fine.
I've made sure that I have lighting, and I've messed with the output settings, but I can't get it to render. I was able to render the entire animation earlier today, but I closed out of Blender and when I reopened it, it renders blank.
This is how it looks when I change to render view in the viewport.

Then this is what the final rendering looks like.

Here's the .blend

Can you post a .blend, I't is very hard to guess what is the cause or your issue?

yes, you're right, that fix worked for me. Thanks for the help


text:
Tips on making materials fewer in numbers?
and thank you for taking the time.
For a while I have been working on a character concept and it is reaching the late stages of creation by now. I am happy and positive with the outcome so far, but there is one obstacle for me left.
I have to run this model and export it through a specific addon in Blender, however this addon requires me to use a maximum of 8 materials on the whole work, that is the maximum limit of the addon. Please do not ask me why!
But my work has led me to a stop for now where I am trying to work out the UV map and my materials, I have managed to cut it all down to 10 materials, but this is two materials above the requirement. I cannot remove any more, as it will mess up the UV map? I tried it out, the textures goes crazy.
However, I do use several body parts with the same material.
I already tried to use Ctrl + L to link the materials together, but it did not really resolve the issue for me and now I am at a complete halt.
I guess my question is, does anyone have tips on making the materials fewer in numbers now? Is there a way for me to merge or say make two of them go together to reduce the material count? I can't for the love of me figure this out so far, been trying many features but in vain.
Support appreciated!
Thank you in advance.

Try to bake materials so you can use just one material map instead of all of it. google for 'bake materials in blender' and you will find some tutorials for sure.


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Can particle object color and alpha be controlled by Particle Age (Blender Internal Render)?
Can particle object color and alpha be changed in Blender Internal Render?
Edit for Clarity 6 months later.
Blender Cycles has this practical feature Particle Info Node.

Blender Internal appears not to have an equivalent feature.
Blender Internal.  Is it easy to change dynamically, based on strand/particle mapping, halo particle size and opacity. Thus halos of different ages will have different opacity and sizes.   Halo and Object are different choices for particles on the particles pane.
Is it possible to achieve a similar color and transparency control with object particles based on particle age?
Failed attempts to achieve goal follow.
I have changed the opacity of a particle halo with a second material with a texture on the emitter.
When I try to change the opacity of a regular particle object, the material selection is grayed in the emitter particle panel.
I added a material and texture using the strand/particle mapping to the particle object.
The particle object was rendered, but the material failed and did not achieve my desired results.

No.
From various web resources that is my general belief at this moment.
Of course that is ........ if one can ever believe a statement that something is not possible in blender.

I removed the bit about "not cycles" and "not halo particles" because it's pretty much implied by "can particle object color and alpha be changed in BI?". That said, if you feel it's absolutely necessary, then by all means leave it in. :)

My emphasis and clarity was intentional.  Most people have been asked more than once in their life ... Please be polite.

Regarding your question, I'm not sure I fully understand what you want. Here's a file with transparent particle objects.. Is that what you are looking for?

I have tried to clarify my question.  Please see above.

The way I solved this was to give the particle object (not the emitter) a blend texture, mapped to the coordinates of an empty.
This way, the colour of the particle depends on the distance to the empty.
Example here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/il0aiq8a7gteelw/chimney.blend?dl=0

@nik10110 Good Fortune.   I happened to do a web search today and blender stack appeared.  Good Reminder.   I saw you response just today.  Thank You.  My original question did mention particle age and now the edit emphasizes particle age.  I will keep you technique in my Blender arsenal when next the need arises. I will test you color by distance technique.  Particle Age Color and Transparency is one of the main reasons I use Blender Cycles for simple non photo realistic rendering.

This link
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.76/More_Features
This statement
Particle Info node supported in node trees for blender internal and in the viewport thanks to a patch by the Blend4Web team
version 2.76 (sub 0), branch b'master', commit date b'2015-09-23' b'14:02', hash b'e24ea81', b''
build date: b'Thu 09/24/2015', b'09:51 AM'
platform: b'Windows'


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PNG file saved by Blender was black and then became dithered off black. Not desired

GIMP images to compare settings . Apologies to WHO.  Original problem and actions based on comments.  Comment becomes official answer ‼

Original Problem. Posterized Image emphasizes small variations in near black RGB(0,0,0) and RGB(1,1,1) Max 255 .

RAW format and No Dither. Good Results and minimal testing so far. See Comment.

No Dither. See Comment.

A Blender scene with a mesh was rendered with the goal of being a black and white image.  Mesh white emissive. No lights.
A black pixel will be RGB(0,0,0).  No regard for alpha channel.
Let solid black denote black pixels with all black neighbors. The goal is to have solid black pixels on screen should remain solid black pixels in the saved file.  White pixels with all white neighbors are not the concern. High frequency areas are not the concern.
If any part of the description is too difficult to follow please do not burden yourself.  You can always ↕ and save everyone time.
Image saved from Blender Render Window. A file created by Blender had black pixels in the sense the click info on the Blender window shows
RGB as (0.0000,0.0000,0.0000) max 1.0
Blender image save with no compression or voodoo and the solid black pixels became
RGB as (1,1,1) and RGB(0,0,0) max 255 Mixed ... Dithered
according to GIMP.    A small difference for humans but a giant leap for computerkind.
Is this a known property of Blender Image Save?  How can it be avoided?
The RGB value is being processed by a computer program and not by human visual inspection.

interesting. is this simply an empty scene with no lights?

Could be a color management issue. Try if turning off Filmic helps. That's in the properties editor > Render Properties tab > Color Management panel > View Transform.

Your description is a little hard to follow. What are (0.0, 0.0, 0.0) and (1.0, 1.0, 1.0) getting mapped to in the saved file? Make sure that you disable Dithering in Output Properties > Post Processing and either use OpenEXR as output format or set View Transform to Raw if it's non-color data you're trying to save and the value range in Blender is known to be [0.0, 1.0].

maybe adding some illustration could help to understand clearly what you wrote?

could be antialiasing? render properies > film > filter size to 0.

@Tiles  View Transform Changed to Raw. Thanks.

@RobertGützkow View Transform changed to Raw.  Dither changed to 0.0.  Thanks.  Comments can become answers.

Based on your description it seems that you want to store the scene linear values without dithering in your image.
Dithering can be disabled in Output Properties > Post Processing by setting the Dither to 0.0.

In order to store the exact scene linear values it would be recommended to use the OpenEXR or OpenEXR Multi-layer image format. It will store the exact scene linear values without applying the view or display transform.

Alternatively, if you know that the scene linear values are within the $\left[0.0, 1.0\right]$ range, you're working with non-color data and you don't want to use OpenEXR as image format, then you can explicitly disable color management by setting the View Transform in Render Properties > Color Management to Raw.

Unditheringly I do not want dithering.

Although I would like to see more ↕ for my original question. I hope that generates more ↕ for your answer.  Remember  thoroughly and often.  Do not

By now you should already have 3 upvotes not 1.  I am losing faith in the Blender BLs.