text:
No audio in rendered video if audio is in sequencer while video stuff is in Compositor
I noticed that if I use the compositor, I cannot get anything in the Sequencer included in the output even if Sequencer is ticked in the lower right corner. But that's okay for the Video and Image Sequence stuff because I just add them as a nodes in the Compositor and mix their Image sockets together. But I don't understand how the audio comes into play. The only place I can place the Audio is in the Sequencer. But even if Audio Codec is set from No Audio to MP3 or AAC, there is still no Audio in the final output. It seems like Blender is ignoring whatever is in the Sequencer if I use the Compositor. How do I integrate the sound into the final video output?

Does the audio play in the editor? I created a similar setup to yours, but when I render an animation it has audio. Can you open the sidebar in the sequencer by pressing N and look if there under Sound the Volume setting is at 0 (although the waveform does not look like it)? Because the Volume value in the Output_ properties is not the only one where you could have muted the sound.

Hi @GordonBrinkmann thank you for your time testing. I was surprised because now suddenly my video has audio.. I duno what I did, it just suddenly worked. oops. Well at least I have got confirmation that this should definitely work.

Maybe there was just some problem when it rendered the video file.

When rendering plain videos with image sequences, does it matter if I use Eevee or Cycles and does the sample rate matter? What is the recommended samples for plain images?

Don't know, I never use Eevee for rendering. Also what do you mean with recommended samples for plain images? As much samples as you want, depending on how long you would accept an image to render and how much noise is acceptable for you or how many samples you need so that denoising does not look too bad... and this can vary a lot from scene to scene.

but there is no real rendering with lights involved in rendering an image sequence since these frames have already been rendered for me. what i did was render the image sequence out and open a new file and import as image sequence. then render it again on top of a video. so i'm not sure if using eevee or cycles makes any difference in that case since no lighting is involved.

Oh, you are talking about a pre-rendered image sequence. As far as I've experienced it, the samples do not really matter in that case. As I said, I usually do not render in Eevee. Just set the samples to something low like 1 or 5 or whatever and use the render engine which renders this setup the quickest by testing with single frames.


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How do I seamlessly blend in one rendered image with a background video?
I have this render of an animation of a hanging head which I composite on top of a video using Alpha Over node. It looks like the face has just been slapped onto the video, and I am unsure what exactly is missing to blend the image together with the video. Is there some compositing trick or technique I need to employ to seamlessly blend them in? It probably is the edges of the image that makes it look very fake.

maybe blur the background image? (or the foreground)

Lighting. If the illumination and shadows of the head don't match the background it won't integrate well

To add to what Duarte has said, you may want to put the background on top of the head, using Fresnel for alpha. It won't be physically accurate, but be more realistic then no blend at all of the edge.

Make sure all sizes are realistic, match the source camera's focal length, f-stop, and depth of field focus distance

thank you guys for your inputs. btw @MarkusvonBroady this fresnel thing sounds interesting, can you show me exactly how? i'll accept it as answer if ever you can post it. currently i'm doing it as moonboots recommended blurring the background since i have already rendered it out.

@HarryMcKenzie I'm not sure about the best possible technique, but the general idea is very basic: if you e.g. render the face alone, with the shader just displaying the fresnel, then you have just a white border, based on the geometry of the head, and you can use it as a mask in the compositor to overlay the background image on top of the head. You probably still need to adjust the opacity to reduce the effect (and reduce it a lot, you're not supposed to see the image on top, just tint the skin near silhouette very slightly) and that's it.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How can I preserve face corner colors when doing a limited dissolve?
I have imported a model with vertex colors and plugged the Color Attribute to BSDF. Thanks to this thread I am able to merge vertices while preserving vertex colors and face corner colors by converting the Color Attribute to Face Corner domain before the merge.

But when I try to do a Limited Dissolve it dissolves more than I want it to dissolve. I would like to take into account the Face Corner colors. Is that possible? How can I do a dissolve by taking into account Face Corner colors? So it does not dissolve edges where face corner colors on boundaries have sudden color change.

Here is the OBJ file. You can import this obj and then in Shader Editor, add a Color Attribute and plug to BSDF, then the colors will automatically show. Maybe it's something simple I haven't thought about like a python script?

I've achieved this with a series of hacks, if it's what you want.. I wouldn't say it was a tidy procedure for repetition, though....

@RobinBetts wow yeah that's exactly what i was looking for

Hmm, not sure it is, yet, intersecting edges are not all connected, here's the WIP: https://blend-exchange.com/b/sblskzz4

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


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How do i unwrap a cylinder to be able to use tiling textures?
I want to make modular tunnel pieces with cylinders. but I don't know how to unwrap the cylinder in a way that allows the use of tileable textures.
an example is the substance designer rounded cylinder

why not the Cylinder Projection option?


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Does Blender Have Attributes like maya?
Does Blender have anything similar to the extra attributes feature of Maya? my colleagues are using Maya and have the ability to add these attributes to tell a different piece of software what to do. but I can't seem to find if blender has anything comparable.

Most of the properties tabs on the right hand side have a  Custom Properties section at the bottom where you can add a new properties profile, whether it be for a scene, an object, a material, etc... depending on the properties tab chosen. Is this what you're looking for?

As @ChristopherBennett said, in the Properties Editor you can add Custom Properties to the Scene, World, Object, Object Data, Bone, Particle System, Material and Texture Properties. The question is what you mean by "to tell a different piece of software what to do". You can access these for example in the Shader Editor through the Attribute node, and via Python in various ways. I guess it also depends on what you want them for.


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Keep only new faces from Blender Solidify modifier
I am using the Solidify modifier from Blender. I just want to have the new surface that the modifier gave me. I dont see an option that its possible.
Is there a way how to do this?
Thank you
Simon

HI there :).Please add some images to visualize your problem.Thank u

you can disable the Fill Rim option, but of course you'll still have the original surface

Via a script
Select the object with the solidify modifier (and only a solidify modifier) and run script. Creates a new object with only the faces created by the solidify modifier.
import bpy
import bmesh

context = bpy.context

dg = context.evaluated_depsgraph_get()

ob = context.object
bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_object(ob, dg)
bmesh.ops.delete(
        bm,
        geom=bm.faces[0:len(ob.data.polygons)],
        context='FACES'
        )
me = bpy.data.meshes.new("Solidify")

bm.to_mesh(me)
ob2 = bpy.data.objects.new("Solidify", me)
context.collection.objects.link(ob2)

ob2.matrix_world = ob.matrix_world

From what you said i have a feeling that you didn't apply the modifier

NOTE that you can't apply the modifier if you are in edit mode or the object is linked with another object


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Python Scale UV islands by individual origins
I need to scale UV islands by their individual origins using Python. I've tried for a long time but I can't get it to work in a non-interactive environment. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much in advance!
import bpy
bpy.context.area.ui_type = 'UV'
bpy.context.space_data.pivot_point = 'INDIVIDUAL_ORIGINS'
bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(scale_length, scale_width, 1)

I've also tried using 'World Scale UV' from the MagicUV addon. The problem with this is that it only allows for uniform scaling. So different scale on different axis won't work.
Background info: This will be used for custom size and shapes of nameplates for a three.js configurator. There are about 10k objects of different sizes and shapes that need a 'World scaled' UV to make it look more realistic.

you must select all uv island before scale it:
import bpy
scale_length= 0.5
scale_width = 0.7

original_type = bpy.context.area.ui_type
bpy.context.area.ui_type = 'UV'
bpy.ops.uv.select_all(action='SELECT')
bpy.context.space_data.pivot_point = 'INDIVIDUAL_ORIGINS'
bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(scale_length, scale_width, 1))

bpy.context.area.ui_type = original_type


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Grey spots on skin (Render of a person)
I was just rendering a person and it's got these weird spots.

This is what I see in Blender:

My render settings:

enter image description here

Is it possible that you have a second mesh with similar geometry but coarser resolution a the same location as your person mesh?

Rather than showing us the render settings, show us the material. Also the denoiser can cause similar artefacts.


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Undo bisect tool?
First time using blender and experimenting with ref to manual and YouTube. Haven’t been able to find out if it is possible to clear/delete a bisect. I’ve been able to alt click to highlight the bisect vertices introduced but then dissolving them also creates gaps in my model. I suspect I’m making a simple error. Any help appreciated.

Hi :). Could you please add some screenshots to illustrate the problem?

Hi. I'll be able to see tomorrow if I still have that file. I am learning in test files and may have deleted it. Will post if I have the relevant example, if not I'll probably close this request and read the manual more closely. Thanks


text:
Metallic effects not being exported with gITF 2.0 format
I'm trying to export my model to Sketchfab using the gITF 2.0/.glb file format. Basically, I created and painted my model in Nomad Sculpt, and exported the .glb from there into Blender. Then to get my painted roughness and metallic effects to appear in Blender, I attached a new Vertex Color node to a Converter (Separate XYZ), which I attached to Roughness and Metallic in the Principal BSDF window. (I found these instructions in the Nomad Sculpt online manual.) This is what my map looks like, as well as my materials tab. I can now see the metallic effects in Blender. However when I export this .glb to Sketchfab, there are still no metallic effects on my model. Actually, I noticed when I re-imported this file in Blender after changing my map, I checked it again and the map looks different (also in my link above). My metallic effect is now also not appearing in Blender anymore. I therefore assume this has to do with some Export setting? Or is there something I'm doing wrong?

glTF does not support vertex-painted metallic/roughness. You'll have to unwrap, bake the metallic/roughness into textures, and change your materials to use the textures (see the manual for the node setup the exporter recognizes).

Of course, alternatively you could re-hook up the vertex color in Sketchfab just like you did after importing into Blender.

@scurest "glTF does not support vertex-painted metallic/roughness" how does this make sense if I am able to export my vertex painting with this information in .glb from Nomad Sculpt, and get it to appear properly in Blender? Also, I cannot find  anything related to nodes in the 3D settings for my model on Sketchfab... Maybe there's something I'm missing. (Sorry for the super newbie questions, I'm totally new to the 3D modeling world.)

Well you aren't able to do that, are you? That's why you have to manually change the matierial nodes in Blender to make it work. You would have to do the equivalent thing in Sketchfab. I have no idea if/how you can do that though since I don't know anything about Sketchfab. If you can't do that, glTF itself only supports constants or texture maps for metallic/roughness.

@scurest I see. I will try to go the route of baking into textures. Thanks for the response, I really appreciate it!


text:
Use material assigned to curve in geometry nodes
I have a curves object made up of multiple disconnected curves.
I have two material slots and assigned one of the two materials to each of these curves.
I generate a mesh from the curves via geometry nodes.
It's hair. I want to give different color to some strands.
The generated mesh doesn't have any material. It comes out as white. How could I fix that? How could I use the material assigned to each curve for the material of the generated mesh?
The geometry nodes:

I feel like the solution is something like "Capture attribute" for the curve but capture the material somehow, then "Set Material" that on the generated mesh?

Short answer: You cannot read the material currently assigned to a curve in Geometry Nodes. The only way is to explicitly specify a material that you can apply to the mesh.

If you generate each curve in its own object, you can just use Set Material or Set Material Index on the Curve to Mesh result directly.
If you are generating multiple meshes based on 1 curve in the same geometry node, I've gotten the following to work with Blender 3.4.1
TL;DR: assign a dummy Capture Attribute boolean node ticked to true and use it as the selection input to Set Material on the Curve to Mesh result
Nodes:

Result:


text:
How do I rig a model with no arms and floating hands?
I'm currently making a low poly character model and I'm not quite done with it yet, but when I do finish it I'm planning on rigging it. This character, however, has no arms and has floating hands. (Think Rayman.) I'm wondering if it would be possible to rig a character like this, and how I could go about doing this? This is my first time 3D modeling, by the way.

These disconnected arms don't impact the rigging much, it actually make it simpler. You could just use Rigify the usual way. It's just that the arms par of the rig will have no mesh to deform, and that's OK.
It is actually interesting to keep the arms in the rigging: when you want the hands to have a natural movement, you will animate with invisible arms thanks to the FK, you won't see the arms but you will "feel" them through the hands movement. And when you need nothing realistic or want to go stylized in your animation, just switch to IK and have fun.


text:
Cant Switch Face Orientation
I've created a 3D cup from a simple mesh cylinder and have added the solidify and subdivision modifier. I then applied the solidify modifier to the mesh to select the inside faces and create a liquid from these inside faces. I've applied a material (while also following a tutorial) and it said that by default, when creating this new mesh from the inside faces, the orientation of the normals would be inverted. The tutorial then specifies to select all vertices of the liquid mesh and do shift+n to switch the faces. It works for almost all faces except for one of the face loops that cannot be inverted so their orientation is correct.
I've inserted an image of the mesh

Are there any duplicate or "interior" faces (faces between the "inside" and "outside" faces of the glass)? Also, are you supposed to separate (P) the liquid after duplicating the faces to make it? Have you done this?

@ChristopherBennett I have separated the inside faces and it is now its own mesh separate from the glass, so right now its just the 2D faces that make up the liquid mesh. I don't think there overlapping faces at the red part because I have alt+left click deleted it to make sure there is nothing underneath/overlapping

hello, I don't know what happened but if Recalculate Normals doesn't work and you want to flip these faces, select them and Alt N > Flip, or please share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

@moonboots here is my file https://pasteall.org/blend/c75cacf385be498f92df044e627b0f8c

As you can see if you put your mouse cursor over these faces and press L, this part is separate, it explains why, when you tried to recalculate the normals, they didn't flip the same way as the rest:

Now if this part is supposed to be connected to the rest, you can M > Merge by Distance (increase the Merge Distance up to 0.01 in the Operator box), then recalculate everything with ShiftN.
If this part is not supposed to be connected to the rest but you want to invert the normals, press AltN > Flip.


text:
rendering result comes out blurry
I've checked the rendering and camera setting, but I can't fix the problem.
The rendering image comes out blurry.
Is this because of the hair particle?
File is below.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dkvqa5kmibsjurh/nekoonly.20230526.blend?dl=0

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

Yes it looks like this is the hair, but the Denoise also tends to blur the silhouette, so maybe try without denoise

Yes the hair tends to make it more blurred. But also you've enabled the Render > Sampling > Denoise option, it will tend to blur the parts of the image that seem messy, like the ones with the hair, so in that case maybe you should disable it (or at leat test the parameters). On the left, Denoise deactivated, on the right, activated:


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Weird squares show up with alpha blend
I'm creating a transparent material but if I have alpha blend as blend mode, these weird squares show up.
I'm using Eevee but using Cycles the problem is fixed, but I need this for a Gltf model so it's not a problem with the rendering of the scene.
This is what I've understood until now:
The mesh doesn't matter since the error occurs with any mesh, even with a simple cube.
The squares have the same size as a face.
Switching to Alpha Harshed would fix the issue but I must keep Alpha Blend.
It's not a viewport bug because I see the same problem once I export the mesh in Substance Painter.
It's fixed by turning on backface culling but it wouldn't show the back faces anymore, so it's not a solution.
Does anybody know what's happening? I've been struggling with this for weeks but maybe there's an easy solution that I can't find.
Thank you so much in advance!

Hello and welcome. Can you share your blend file https://blend-exchange.com

This is a typical problem with and a known limitation of Alpha Blend. In your case it can be fixed by selecting one face pointing to +Y, pressing ⬆ ShiftG, N to select all faces pointing in that direction, then F3 "Sort Elements… Selected". Repeat for all sides of the cube:

(I did only 3 sides because of GIF size limitation but you get the idea; though if you intend the cube to be visible from other angles, it may be tricky to make it work consistently using alpha blend… Maybe you could use geometry nodes to resort the faces dynamically…)
Here's the best explanation I've seen on BSE, not sure if it's a duplicate of that question:
Alpha blend issue (EEVEE)


text:
Is there a way to subdivide only largest triangles?
I have a STL mesh from the internet, which has curved surfaces (higher resolution) and flat surfaces (lower resolution/large faces). This causes issues when sculpting at interfaces of those two areas. Is there a way to break down larger triangles into smaller ones automatically, without affecting the shape of the whole object and without breaking down those already small triangles?
I also do not want to select those triangles manually, because I think such an operation should be automatic.

Is this a problem dyntopo would solve?

How about a Geonode setup like this:

Can  be applied recursively…

Well, this is slightly more complicated than I was expecting. But in case there is no simpler method, it would have been great to turn it into a plugin or add-on.

I doubt anyone would use such an addon, because I think the topology produced is bad.

Yet, it is far better than the state before. e.g. for sculpting. Instead of exponentially increasing the number of meshes, this approach is far better.

@SarenTasciyan is it? Imagine that you want to sculpt a small hole in the middle of the cube's side. Before subdivision you effect either of the big triangles. After such subdivision you hit a much smaller triangle(s), but they still go across the entire cube, so you can sculpt a valley going across the entire cube, but not a small hole.

I see the point, it is ok on some edges but not on others. An improvement could be to divide each triangle always by half by drawing an altitude from the corner with the largest angle?


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What is bpy.context.active_object and how is it used by the rest of Blender's API?
I wrote a simple script to make some spheres and combine them into a single mesh using boolean operators, but I don't understand how it works:
import bpy
import math

# Can't run this in edit mode
if bpy.context.active_object is not None:
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

# Make sure nothing is selected
for object in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    object.select_set(False)

# Remove old object. Old meshes remain in memory, but won't be saved
if 'Sad Scorpion Attempt' in bpy.data.objects:
    bpy.data.objects['Sad Scorpion Attempt'].select_set(True)
    bpy.ops.object.delete()

# Actual mesh building goes here
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(radius=1, location=(0, 30, 0), scale=(1.5, 2,
1))
base = bpy.context.active_object
base.name = 'Sad Scorpion Attempt' # Object name
base.data.name = 'Sad Scorpion Attempt' # Mesh name
for i in range(6):
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(radius=1, location=(-4*math.sin(math.pi*i/6), 30, 4 + 4*math.cos(math.pi*i/6)), scale=(1.5, 1.4 + 0.1*i, 1))
    new_object = bpy.context.active_object

    # Sets bpy.context.active_object
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = base

    booly = base.modifiers.new(name='booly', type='BOOLEAN')
    booly.object = new_object
    booly.operation = 'UNION'
    bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier='booly')

    # .delete() doesn't use the current value of bpy.context.active_object, so
    # it deletes new_object instead of base
    bpy.ops.object.delete()

In particular:

Why is bpy.context.active_object set by assigning to bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active, instead of just assigning to bpy.context.active_object normally?
Why does bpy.ops.object.delete() use the previous value of bpy.context.active_object, while bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply() uses the current one?

I've tried to find an explanation of how it works in the Blender docs, but the only documentation for bpy.context I found is https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.context.html, which doesn't even list `bpy.context.active_object at all!

Hello. From a quick glance I think you need to understand two linked but independant concepts : Selected and active objects. An object can be selected without being active. You can have 0 or more selected objects, but you can only have zero or one active object. You can have a bunch of selected objects but no active object. Selecting an object with the API doesn't make it active. In fact if you click drag over objects in the viewport, they will get selected (orange outline) but no object will be set as active (yellow outline)

Thank you, that explains the behavior of bpy.ops.object.delete(). However, I'm still mystified by bpy.context.active_object (and its absence from the documentation).

In the context of the 3D viewport, the active object is the current view layer's active object (view_layer.objects.active)


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Texture won't apply to my model - what am I doing wrong?
So - I've created a 3D hexagonal prism, and I want to apply a sand texture I found online. When I add the nodes in the shading tool, I only get a color change, but no texture. I've tested the file on a plane and on the base cube, and both work fine, so I'm figuring it must have something to do with how I created the model:
I started by drawing a circle with 6 vertices and then selected all 6 vertices and pressed 'f' in order to fill out the 2D object. I then extruded the 6 vertices up in the Z direction in order to create a 3D object from the 2D hexagon.
When I apply the normal and height through a bump, nothing happens, and when I apply the color, it only changes the "base" color and not the texture. My nodes setup works fine on the base cube, as seen below:

Did you make sure to UV Unwrap the mesh? Planes and default cubes usually have the mesh unwrapped by default, however your custom model would not.

Ahh - thanks - that solved the problem. I mistakenly thought it would be applied instantly. This is my first attempt at a model, so still pretty new at this.


text:
Can I constrain a vertex to never move beyond specific coordinates?
So, when editing I would love to be able to move my vertices around but make sure they never go below a certain plane - for instance, make sure I can't move them below a Z-value of 0. Is there any way to do this, while still having the freedom to move the vertex in all 3 directions?

Unfortunately, you can not limit vertex transformation in Edit mode.


text:
Using Blender for Radio Frequencies
I'm a researcher interested into radio channel modeling and I'm currently working with a custom-built ray-tracer for such purpose.
I would like, though, to have better performance, e.g., using GPU accelerated ray-tracing, which is not trivial to program from scratch.
I was wondering whether I could do this with pre-existing open source (optical) ray-tracing software such as Blender.
For this to work, I would need to

Define transmitters (TXs) and receivers (RXs) nodes. I guess TXs are equivalent to light sources and RXs to cameras, but I would need 360° cameras. Also, TXs and RXs should be points with no size
Obtain output files containing information about every single received ray, such as traveled distance/delay, received power, angles of departure and arrival
Possibly, access to the render engine programmatically based on a pre-built Blender CAD scene
Ideally, create an interface (an add-on?) specifically for RF ray-tracing and make it available to the community which allows the complete workflow to stay on Blender, i.e., (i) scene creation, (ii) material settings, (iii) RX/TX positioning (possibly moving), (iv) ray-tracing computation, (v) ray visualization.

I have no idea whether this is even possible, I'm asking the Blender community for a feedback on whether these few points could be more or less easily obtained.
If not directly from Blender's render engine, maybe some other open engine one such as Lux Core Render, POV-Ray, etc.
Your opinion will be greatly appreciated

I'm not familiar with your area of research, but I think there's misunderstanding between what physicists call ray tracing and what the computer graphics community calls ray tracing. The ray tracing and path tracing engines for computer graphics (most likely) don't simulate the physical properties you would be after. Many render engines don't simulate light as electromagnetic waves.

Those that do are called spectral render engines. However, they are usually limited to the visible spectrum of light. Most of them will not simulate all physical properties either, if they don't impact the visual output.

Hi, thank you for posting your opinions.
It is true that physics and graphics RT are different, but I am working in high frequency RF, where propagation is not that much different from the optical frequencies. This is why I thought of using a graphics RT, given their much widespread use and support, and their extreme optimizations.
If I can get the exact path of the ray (and thus distance traveled and surfaces hit at which angle) I can adjust the output with well known equations.
I'm here because I'm only interested in getting those rays quickly and in fairly complex scenarios.

I would've assumed that diffraction and interference are very important to get accurate results for your use case. Even if the calculations performed by the render engine are good enough approximations, I think you would have to modify the render engine because such low level information are not accessible from the API.

Diffraction becomes less prominent the higher the frequency.
Interference, on the other hand, is extremely important but could be computed considering running multiple times the same simulation considering nodes as either cameras or light sources, that's my plan at least.
Thank you for your opinions!

Some time has passed since your original post. Did you end up using Blender for this? How did it work out? Just curious.

Hi @Mentalist, i ended up dropping this project. This was a preliminary exploration, as i needed to understand what was and what wasn't out there, whether my experience and skills were enough to work on this, etc. Since it was a personal side project and it looked to me like it would have been extremely time consuming for maybe not even obtaining what i was looking for, i just dropped it. Maybe in the past couple of years new things came out, I hope you can find something out there! If you find, maybe let me know about it :)

@Mattia Radio is not my field, so I doubt I'll be one to encounter any findings. I'm just interested when people come up with unconventional uses for Blender. Thanks for the reply. Cheers!

The POV-ray newsgroups are quite responsive to such scientific visualization demands. and Blender is cleaner to script. You could use both except for the most accurate results, where LuxCoreRender might end up slightly better since spectral based. :-)


text:
How to model a letter K (or any other object made out of transformed copies of itself)?
I've elongated a cube and copied it twice. I've then manipulated those two copies to look like the two non-vertical parts of the K, partially intersecting the vertical part. I then tried using booleans to merge the geometries into a single object.
However, when I try unioning two objects, one disappears. I've looked and it seems to be because of the duplicated geometry (the fact that I copy and pasted it?), but I can't really help it here, and remove duplicates removes 0 vertices.
How do I properly merge three objects that are transformed copies of one another?

Add a cube and Z upscale it;
Copy it with Shift+D;
Move the copy +1 grid step along X axis and shear it;
Combine the two cubes;
Use mirror modifier.


text:
Solidify conundrum?
I stumbled across a solidify issue, I cannot wrap my head around.
I have a simple mesh, consisting of three faces.

When adding a solidify modifier, I expect to get an object with three walls, where every angle is square. However, whatever I try, tweaking the various solidify parameters, what I get is something like the following, with a skewed rim.

Did I hit a bug, or is it a limitation of the solidify modifier?
Is there a workaround?
blend file

To my eyes this is how solidify will behave on these faces.  It's connecting that front edge to the new vertex created on the inner corner on the backside.
You can try Extrude Manifold with Alt + E which should be able to create the shape you want, and will automatically remove inside faces.

A manual extrude is too much work for the actual design, which is a lot more complicated. I prefer a non-destructive solution. Looks like blender is too limited here.

First of all ... one face is flipped - it creates a twist of newly generated faces. Check your Face Orientation

But ... corrected orientation doesn't solve your issue since blender doesn't knowhow to interpret corner. There is a several ways ...

You can select edge and use Edge Split operator, but this what you would expect as result.

You can fake it ... use your mesh with flipped face and Edge Split (as previously). Visually you get what you want, but geometry is overlapping now and will cause issues with other modifiers.

So ... there isn't a proper solution for you. I don't know if other apps can solve it better.

Face orientation is not the problem here, what I'm looking for is an object which sits flats on a surface...

I know, that's what I tried to write. Edit: You can fake it - to let sit on a surface, but it will cause other issues. There is not a solution for you from what I know. Sorry


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Using blender as image processor?
Imported image as plane, added a simple frame, now I would like to lighten it so that the colors and values of the render exactly match the original. That is, apart from the frame, the image looks like the original. I can tweak the lighting setup until it looks right, but is there a simpler method?

did you try plugging the image/movie directly in the material output instead of using shader?

Transparency does't seem to work without shader. Any workaround available?

It's possible you could bring the image into the compositor and do the overlay there.

You can  plug the image/movie directly and still have transparency - just use a Mix Shader - Connect a Transparent BSDF to one of the inputs, and the (unshaded) image into the other - use image alpha as a mix factor, then connect the Mix Shader to the Material Output.

It's possible, but why? There are plenty of easier ways to edit images. Why would you want to do that in Blender? Could you also describe what kind processing you are after?

Christopher Bennet's solution works for me! As I am generating the frame in Blender, this goes a little further than just image processing, and as I need to do this for more than one image, using the compositor is cumbersome.

It is possible to use Blender as an image processor, but it's frankly not an efficient tool for it.
Color management
Color Management — Blender Manual
By default, Blender uses the Filmic color management. Unless the picture you want to process was made using Blender with that color management and saved in a format that conserved it, you should change Blender's color management.
If you work on a random jpeg/png from the web, most likely you are dealing with a 8 bits per channel picture, which means you should use Blender's "standard" color management.
Head over the Properties Editor > Render tab >  Color Management panel > View Transform setting.
Importing the picture
You can do this two ways:

Use the addon Import Images as Planes, butt while browsing for an image: set up the importer to make a shadeless picture, and orient it to the camera:

You will still need to fit it to the camera manually. But then, you can do anything you want to the color data going into your shader:

Using shaders is IMHO more convoluted, but that's the only way if you need elements from the 3D scene, like 3D perspective, shades from the scene lights, volumetric effects and whatnot.

Use the Compositor instead. It's made for color grading and picture manipulation. You have more color manipulation nodes, easy to access channel isolation, and a split viewer to compare results at a glance.

In both cases, you will have to change the output resolution to your picture's resolution.

Anything that involves a shader is influences by lighting, which is exactly what I do not want here. So, this is not an answer.

My answer provides multiple solutions, not just shaders, and lights' influence on shaders depends on the shader itself, hence my answer mentions using the Shadeless setting of the Import Images as Plane addon which produces a "shadeless" shader that doesn't react to surroundings (including lights)  and doesn't transform the image's colors.


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How to confine geometry nodes output to a space?
I have used geometry nodes to grow trees, bushes and plants, which generally works like a charm. However, sometimes I would like to have a little more control over the output, like when growing an hedge, or a neatly clipped buxus tree, preferably through a cage-like construct. Does anyone have a general idea on how this could be achieved?

Hmm.. you could clip(limit), cut, or prevent growth. I'm sure there are other ways, too... it depends on what the look/existing method will take. Can you give an  example of what workflow you want to extend?

It boils down to instancing curves on curves on curves etc, to create a tree-like structure, with leaves/flowers/berries on the highest level. In theory, you can stop instantiating when you are too close to the sides of a cage, but this will also prune branches that are about to grow back into the cage.


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Array modifier to achieve a partial object (ie. non-integer objects)?
I often need a long string of objects followed by a variable size partial object at the end.  For example, a long line of brick objects.  There are times that I want an array 15.45 (for example) items long.  Any thoughts on how to do this without a second object that I just slice and append to the end?
Thanks for your help!
Erik

Boolean modifier with a hidden cube as the target?

you can achieve this with a little overhead:

you created your array of e.g. a cube

you double that cube (before you add the array modifier)

you shorten the cube in edit mode as you need

you add that edited cube as cap end in the array modifier like here:

Thank you!  I really like that this keeps everything together in a single array.  What I'm hoping to avoid is the overhead ;). And the ability to have varying dimensions of that end cap.


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How to bevel inside edge?
I'm making a recreation of a Marshall Plexi SLP1959. I've got the main outer shell done, but I have absolutely no idea how to do the bevel on the hole in the faceplate.
Here is a picture of my basic faceplate:

And here are a couple of images of the bevel I hope to achieve:

If anyone has any idea how to get this bevel I would love to know.
Thanks

Hello and welcome :). A rather similar thread here, using Bevel Weights https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/172585/


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How to Change Color of Certain part of a Texture
I downloaded a generic model of a shoe that had a base texture, normal map, and roughness associated with it. On the base texture the shoe is either black and white. I was wondering if I could section each part of the base texture to change the color. I wouldn't be to do it in Photoshop because the texture is mostly just black and white and it would change all blacks or whites instead of sectioning off each part. Here's a picture of an example of how I would like to change the color:

How would I go about just changing the selected mesh to a different color such as red while still keeping the base texture?

In this example the Voronoi Texture node is standing in for your image texture -- note that the Texture Coordinate is Suzanne's UV map.

In the pics above I've added a Material Slot (Properties Editor > Material Properties tab > Add Material Slot), then added Suzanne.Material.001 to the slot and duplicated it (Properties Editor > Material Properties tab > New Material), creating Suzanne.Material.002.

In the pic above, in Edit mode I've selected the faces I want to be redder and Assigned them to the second Material Slot (Properties Editor > Material Properties tab > Asign button [while the second Material Slot is selected]).

In the pic above a Mix RGB Node has been added after the texture node.  You see this blends the colors of the texture (Color 1) with red (Color 2), using one of several Blending Modes (in this example, Linear Light).  How much of Color 1 is blended with Color 2 depends on the Factor.  You should experiment with the settings to see what comes closest to the effect you're trying to achieve.
Blend file link here.


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Red/Blue Tint in Supposedly All White Scene
I was trying to create a cup with milk in it but for some reason there seems to be a red tint at the top of the cup and even a blue tint at the bottom of the cup. I want the material/lighting to be all white. Attached are images from both the render viewport and rendered image

Are you using Subsurface Scattering? In that case, in the Principled BSDF (or SSS node), you need to check the Subsurface Radius settings (it's in RGB, lower down the first value if the color is too redish)

Hello :). This sometimes happens when using Subsurface Scattering with too high values. But hard to tell, you didn't share your milk material ;)

I'll second on the subsurface radius - default values allow more red to pass deeper (because SSS was originally built with skin in mind). For milk, make them all 0.8 or so - for skim milk, maybe even give blue (third value) a slightly higher value than red or green.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/179561/110840


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Merging rooms in Archimesh
I'm pretty new in Blender, using it (version 3.0) with Archimesh (version 1.2.2) to model a house.
Archimesh is very helpful when building single rooms. But if more than one room is needed I  can't find out how to merge rooms together without manually align them in a pixel hell and overlapping walls.

Not to mention that, if I need to create door/passways, I would need to create them in every wall that overlaps. In image below I would like to create a door that connects the smaller room with the larger room, but seems I need to create in both walls at exact same location.

Probably I´m doing in wrong way. Because of that I came here to ask for advice, since the Archimesh documentation is poor and the official tutorial videos do not explain how to handle multiple rooms, just single ones.

This short video may help ( at 5'34) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZD8sSX7NtU And this one shows other interesting things but he goes so quick i cant follow : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0k9kZwUhpo


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Two overlaping materials on the same X axis
Hu guys. I have two overlapping materials. The roof is entering the house wall so I don't have to tinker around to snap it directly to the wall. Since they are on the same level I want the housing red material to take over as the dominant color. Is that possible if they are on the same level?

Why not move the roof a little bit inside? It's easier and even more realistic.

This appears to be Z-fighting -- your faces are overlapping each other so the renderer can't figure out which one to show.  I'd recommend either moving the face of the porch roof inward a bit so the wall hides it, or shortening the porch roof so it's up against the wall instead of inside it.


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Any Grease Pencil Edit Mode setting to only select points inside selection rectangle, ignoring fills?
After following these steps...

Create a grease pencil object
Draw a stroke with a fill
Enter edit mode
Activate the 'Select Box' tool
Set the Select mode to 'Select only points' (keyboard '1')
Draw a selection box that contains the filled area but doesn't include any of the points of the stroke

...I expected:

No points would be selected

...but actually:

All points are selected

I'm finding this makes it difficult in situations where one stroke is inside of another, for example selecting some points of the inner stroke in the attached GIF. Is there any setting that lets the simple rectangle selection ignore fills?
The ctrl-alt-rightmouse lasso selection seems to ignore fills in the way that I want but rectangles are easier for me most of the time.
Thank you

Go to the material tab and lock the fill material, so to make its points unselectable.

If the two strokes share the same material, activate the strokes selection mode, so that clicking on one point will select the whole stroke.

In case of need, select the background fill strokes, move them into a new layer and lock the layer.

Thanks for this. I was hoping to find a way to select points without having to lock/unlock/move other strokes.

Re-reading this, I guess the solution you suggest works specifically when you have one material for fills and another material for strokes, rather than one material with both a fill and a stroke.


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Why is extruding a bezier curve making these loops?
After extruding one time or subdividing the curve, if I try to extrude again, I get a figure 8 loop. I've used bezier curves before, but this is the first time in 2.9. Anyone know how to work around this?

This type of extrusion actually splits this control point and adds a new one in the middle.

It's not obvious that it happens since they are in the same location.

Wooowwww I didn't know what you meant at first, but after clicking around I see it. WTH? Maybe I'm just a noob, but I don't think that's not very intuitive.

if you want a branch I think you can duplicate a control point and right click to send it back to original position, then you can extrude it basically starting a new curve


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UV Unwrapping makes a mess and misses faces
I have a relatively simple mesh, that looks like this (a couple of tight faces and loop cuts due to subdivision smoothing):

However when I try to UV unwrap it, it's a whole mess and even misses most of the faces:

When I select a face I can see where it is located on the texture map:

But other faces aren't located on it at all:

What could have went wrong here?
I made sure to select all vertices of the mesh before unwrapping, so I don't think that's the problem.

Could you upload the blend file? There is something strange in the images like if the selected plane was not the rendered one. You can use this link to upload: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

@lemon https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/p22VD8zE
I am still a beginner so expect the worst xD

Additionnaly to Martynas answer, there are two problems, I think. doubled vertices in your mesh and ngons. That causes the subdivision modifier to give a weird result and so textures are distorded.

@lemon Yeah, I'm still trying to get better at mesh topology. The version I uploaded here is the 3rd actually, the previous ones were much worse xD
I just found it weird some faces didn't have texture at all.

I'll most likely make another attempt and try to avoid ngons as best as I can

You simply need to mark all the seems correctly and it will umwrap nicely. Make sure you mark all the small edges that could interfere with the unwrapping and try again.
Use ctrl+e while in edit mode to call the Edge menu where you can find Mark Seam.

It is also a good idea to apply scale of the object to get expected results when unwrapping. You can do that with ctrl+a with the object selected in object mode:

After adding some seams and unwrapping, all other faces were mapped! It's still a mess though, most likely because I have bad topology, but at least all faces have textures now! Thanks!

You can also try different methods of unwrapping in the F9 Adjust Last Operation panel. In some cases Conformal and in some Angle Based.

Excuse me but can you tell me where I can find that panel?

Hit F9 while hovering the mouse over 3d view. It's on by default and will float at the bottom left corner of the 3d view as well.

Thank you very much! The smart unwrapping method actually did a really nice job!


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What is causing the change in refraction with this glass?
I'm working on a render of a wine glass. I'm feeling pretty good about everything so far, but I can't seem to figure out how to adjust the geometry or material settings to solve the hard change in refraction that starts halfway up the glass.
I looked into some common issues with glass — adjusting maximum light paths, edge split instead of subsurf modifiers. And they helped quite a bit with the wine itself, but the glass remains befuddling.
Glass settings are simply: Glass BSDF, Beckmann, 0 Roughness, 1.45 IOR.
Here are a few photos. The render. The object. And an edit mode screenshot with the edge selected.

Are you using any modifiers currently on it?

Just a blind guess - make sure normals are correct https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/165080/78972

@Nate_Sycro27 nope - no modifiers!

@JachymMichal normals look correct. always a good blind guess though. :)

Did you remember to downscale the liquid a tiny bit to not having it intersect with the glass mesh?

@sorenfroststaal yup! the issue i'm working on is the slight change in refraction that happens on the glass itself. it's most visible where the white reflections on the left and right of the glass get cut off over the wine.


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2.8 Set up auto texture saving with saving of file
Is there any add-on or any plan in the works to autosave texture maps that are being painted with texture paint to a temp folder when the project itself is saved? This seems like a huge oversight when it comes to workflow as exporting the texture after each change is a bit cumbersome. It's also a bit disheartening after a crash to see that the preview for the texture is saved somewhere with all changes, but the texture itself is not.
Edit: This also applies to textures/masks that are created for the texture paint brush. After a close and reopen, they are gone.

Since 2.8, when you save your file but haven't saved your images, Blender asks you if you want to save them, and it looks like in this case it automatically packs them, so I'm not sure about your question

I haven't seen that prompt.Although I just had an instance where textures were not exported, blender crashed, on re-open the texture recovered part of my work. So maybe autosave is doing it but save with ctrl+s isn't?

maybe you enabled File > External Data > Automatically Pack Into Blend, in that case I guess the texture is saved with the blend.1


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Baking normal then plugging into the normal channel of a shader results in flat shading
I'm not trying to transfer high-res normals to a low-res model, so I might just be doing it wrong, but what I'm trying to do is just output the normals of the sphere onto a texture that I can paint on to manually try creating some cel-shaded looking normal maps.
When selecting the sphere, the texture I want to bake onto, with the bake type set to normal, all I get is a flat blue color, and this is how it looks when I plug it into the normal channel for the shader:

What am I doing wrong here?

The blue color you're getting should be $RGB(0.5, 0.5, 1.0)$ which corresponds to a normal value of $<0,0,1>$. The normal vector has a range of $<[-1, 1], [-1, 1], [0, 1]>$ In Tangent space, as I understand it, the vector $<0, 0, 1>$ is perpendicular to the the surface. As the first value is changed, the vector tilts left and right. As the second vector is changed, the vector tilts up and down. The third value is adjusted so the length of the vector stays equal to 1. e.g. $z = \sqrt{1 - (x^2 + y^2)}$. Of course we should limit $ x^2 + y^2 \le 1 $.

This is illustrated by the "Check Normal + Y" matcap, which is based on the rendering of the normals of a sphere in Object Space. You can find an EXR version of this image in your Blender install folder under datafiles/studiolights/matcap. You'll see ... not what I expected ... I'm going to submit this now while I play with generating my own exr...
To be continued...

One thing I've learned today is it is VITAL to set the image mode to non-color data, linear or raw. sRGB and friends destroy the normal map!

I figured this out myself, I just wasn't familiar with how tangent space normals worked, and how I needed to have a normal map node to get a correct result. I made another question about working with object space normals: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/190126/how-to-convert-object-space-normals-to-tangent-space

I've been reading Simulation of Wrinkled Surfaces Revisited by Mikkelsen in my spare time.

Ok, it's because I plugged it directly into normal -- I have to use a normal map node. That wasn't immediately clear


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Please help me apply my logo to this tennis ball! (I am so close, I know its something small and basic i'm missing)
I unwrapped the ball, and placed the .png file in position in the uv editor.
Then, I added a material, and applied the uv map to the image texture as shown below:

it shows up in the material panel, but not on the ball!

Thanks,


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Is it possible to export animation cache data from Maya and apply it to a look dev mesh in Blender?
I'm currently setting up a pipeline at my company where our animators are animating our characters in Maya, and we want to use the powerful Toon Shader for Eevee in Blender to texture the look dev models of our characters. So ideally, the animation for a character would be cached out of Maya, and that cache data would then be applied to a look dev version of that same character in Blender. Then final renders would be done with Eevee and sent to compositing.
I'm use to keeping this whole process within Maya, usually using a geocache to transfer animation from a character's animation scene to their final look dev render scene. But going from Maya to Blender has been difficult.
It doesn't look like there are any native cache data sets that can be exported from an animated mesh in Maya to an identical mesh in Blender. Alembic seems to bring in the character's geo with the animation, but the scale is off and I have no way of applying the toon shaders to this model. And it looks like there's an 'add modifier' option for my look dev character, but it only takes 'MDD' or 'PC2' point caches. I can't get either of these cache data codes out of Maya, but I'm not sure if there are plugins that could help with that?
We would really love to integrate Blender into our pipeline, so any advice would be greatly appreciated from the community!
Also if it helps, our current setup is getting a 3D model of our character from artists that made said model in blender, then bringing the FBX into Maya to rig and animate. That same model from the artist in blender is what is being used for the look dev file and getting the shaders/lighting applied.

I am not sure if it helps, but you can try this https://3dyuriki.com/2013/12/19/kak-importirovat-point-kesh-pc2-iz-3ds-max-ili-mc-iz-maya-v-blender/

Professional programs usually use the MDD format. To use this format, select "MDD" as format in the dropdown of the Mesh Cache modifier.

MEL example
Convert a maya cache into pc2 format. The maya cache is named pSphereShape1.xml and located in c:/test/  directory.
cacheFile -pc2 0 -pcf "c:/test/mypc2.pc2" -f "pSphereShape1" -dir "C:/test/";

Furher reading:
https://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2010help/Commands/cacheFile.html
"/" slash direction is important! Also you need to use "keep vert order" function when you import your .obj file in Blender. Otherwise you mesh will crash blender (but it will still have the animation). Then turn on the modifier:


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Smooth shading not working
As shown in the image below, I have a simple object that I want to shade smooth, so my final model won't be too heavy since I'm gonna repeat it thousands of times.
It appears that some faces are correctly shaded smooth, but others are not at all. When I saw this I immediately went to check if auto smooth was on and the angle setting here caused it, but this is not the case.
Everything looks normal in the lookdev and the solid shaded mode, also my topology shouldn't cause any of these problems.
Am I overlooking something very obvious here? I've been working with blender for hundreds of hours, but have no idea what is causing this. Any ideas?

It does look like the same effect, but I still get the same effect when I subdivide 2 or 3 times. This would mean that the proposed cause in that post, 'too little geometry' is not in fact the cause in my situation. Thank you for your quick reply btw


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Learning how to model a person
What is the best platform/website/youtube channel to learn how to animate a pixar style 3d animated human character (useing mesh not sch

Please go through this video for the types of modeling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CvkAm9CYA
To start straight away with character Darenlile video is a good source
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QT1GNMevfc


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How to convert object space normals to tangent space?
I'm trying to experiment a workflow where I can manually paint normals to create stylized shading for a model.
Painting on the model, I want to use object-space normal, as it's easier to work with, but it's a problem that I end up with tangent space normals. Ideally I would want to just convert it back to tangent space in the shader.
At the very least I have to know whether or not it's possible to do what I'm trying to do?

I found a pretty good tutorial here: Tutorial 13 : Normal Mapping
, it explains the mathematics behind it, and gives code snippets, hope it's useful~ PS: Appendix A: Tangent and binormal vectors

The simplest way to do such a conversion is to calculate the dot products between the Object_Space_Normal and the Tangent plane, and then 'normalize' the result to RGB.
$\vec{Tg}_N = 0.5 +
\begin{bmatrix} \vec{Tg} \cdot \vec{N}_{obj} \\
(\vec{N} \times \vec{Tg}) \cdot N_{obj} \\
\vec{N} \cdot \vec{N}_{obj} \end{bmatrix}
/ 2 $
And with nodes:

This is the main process when working with vectors in World space.
In the case where your Normals are Object normals encoded into RGB, then you need to convert them first to world as in the following example:

Hi, yoür formula was really hard to read. I tried to convert it with proper formatting, but did I possibly mess up? Could you correct it, please?

@Leander, it looks ok... I'll post the equivalent in nodes, for people less comfortable with math notation.

I'm especially confused because it says 0.5 * [...] / 2 which cancels each other out and results in [...].

@Leander, it's supposed to be a sum.. my fail, but corrected. :)

This look like it! I was missing the offset. I guess we'll have to reverse-engineer the math ;). But seriously, thanks.

@RobinBetts, I forgot a small detail.. the posted equation is for Normals in World space, not in Object space. For Object space,we need to transform the Tangent and the Normal vector from World to Object before use them in the rest of the nodes (with VectorTransform Node).

@Secrop cheers! That's where I was, anyway, assuming a bake from WSpace. I may take the liberty of putting that correction  in, if you haven't,  when I've had time to reproduce it

I tried this, but it did not work as expected. Setting the nodes up like in the image. After baking object normals to an image, and putting it through this, I would expect to see no difference, since I just baked the normals that were already there, and converted them back into tangent space? Here's what I'm getting link

@meatandmahjong, I see now what you're trying to do... I'll update my answer later today, but you need to use the NormalMap node with your Texture, before plugging it into this node setup. (or 2*Tex-1)

@Secrop  Thanks for fleshing this out..I would have got it wrong. You need the Normal Map node set to 'Object' and the Vector Transform?  .. I'm finding the vector-spaces hard to visualize

@RobinBetts, actually the VectorTransforms aren't needed, as the three vectors (N, Tg and the NormalMap) are in the same space (world). But you need the NormalMap set to 'Object', because the painted texture isn't really a vector.

There is an error in the screenshots. The dot product inputs are in the wrong order. Swapping the inputs produces the correct dot product

@MysteryPancake Do you mean the inputs for the DotProduct nodes? Dot Product is a commutative operation! That means Dot(A, B)==Dot(B, A). What might be cause a wrong result is if the ObjectSpace Texture was produced by a software where Y and Z are switched...

@Secrop I don't know how but it produces a different result in the other order. I found this solution on a different stack overflow question so I thought I should post it on the original question

@Secrop see this post https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/293663/how-do-i-convert-object-to-tangent-space-normal-maps-for-triplanar-projection

@MysteryPancake, Ohh I see.. It's not the dot product, it's the cross product... (cross product is not a commutative operation). This is only in the screenshots.. the equation above is still correct (the correct value for the CoTg is (N x Tg)!) I'll correct them as soon as possible. Thanks.

You can simply bake the normals, just make sure you save the image and set it to non-color in the shader editor.
This isn't contained within the shader editor, but if you're hand painting it shouldn't matter.


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How to get all Properties of an Operator
I want to show all properties of an operator in a panel or dialog and use them to execute the operator.
For Example the transform.resize (TRANSFORM_OT_resize) Operator.
This Operator has 22 Properties without the 'rna_type' property in the first item.
You can check this with this command: bpy.ops.transform.resize.get_rna_type().properties
It is possible to get all the Properties with this method. The only Problem is that the items of the Enumproperties are empty.
Another possibility was to draw the operator and then draw the properties of the operator. The problem with this method is, that I can't access the values and also the operator is shown.
Does anyone have an idea how to implement this?


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redraw dialog operator with check() doesn't work
I want to redraw the dialog operator while is it open, but the check() function didn't work.
Am I using it wrong ?
   import bpy

   class Test(bpy.types.Operator):
       bl_idname = 't.test'
       bl_label = 'MyTest'
       bl_options = {'REGISTER'}

       text : bpy.props.StringProperty(options= {'TEXTEDIT_UPDATE'})

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

       def draw(self, context):
           print('draw')
           layout = self.layout
           layout.prop(self, 'text')
           layout.label(text= self.text)

       def invoke(self, context, event):
           self.text = ''
           return context.window_manager.invoke_props_dialog(self, width=1000)

       def check(self, context):
           print('check')
           return True

The  check function get called every time I add/remove a letter from the text string, but the dialog isn't redrawn, like the documentation says.
So 1 solution is to simulate the key 'Enter' and a 'left click', but I don't know how to do this either within an add-on.


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Unable to change animation interpolation or extrapolation
I'm new to Blender and I have a simple animation consisting of an empty object changing orientation around its Y axis about 30°. The steps to animate this:

Opened up timeline and set position to 0 (pos of keyframe 1)
Hovered over object's Transform > Location values box and hit I key (so that it highlights yellow), thus placing keyframe and pos 0
Moved to pos 60 on timeline (position of keyframe 2)
Changed orientation of object as desired
Hovered again over Transform > Location and hit I, placing keyframe 2.

When I hit play the object rotates with a bezier ease in and out. I want a linear interpolation, so I go to the dope sheet, highlight all keyframes, and hit T then select linear interpolation, but the animation remains with an ease in and out. I also go to Channel > Extrapolation Mode and choose Linear with no visible change.
My graph editor is completely flat and shows only 2 points (presumably the keyframes).
Screenshots for clarity: 1, 2, 3

Any ideas what I'm missing? Thanks in advance.

You are not supposed to be changing Extrapolation mode, that is used for "extending" or repeating an animation after the last keyframe, as far as I know.
You are supposed to change the handle types, instead.
Select all your keyframes with A and then press V Set Keyframe Handle Type > Vector

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


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Uv Maps Faces Objects Materials And Image Texutres.png
In a nut shell I just don't get it when I start unwraping multiple faces on one object. I don't see how the UV/Image Editor the UV Maps, the Nodes and the materials are logically connected.
If the UV images editor said "You are editing the material named such and such" then I would see what was going on. I don't understand what I am affecting when I click on the UV Maps under data object.
Are the UVMaps connected to the unwrap via osmosis?
(repeated in comment)

In a nut shell I just dont get it when I start unwraping multiple faces on one object.  I dont see how the UV images editor the UVMAPS  and the nodes and the materials are logically connected.  If the UV images editor said " YOu are editing the material named such and such then I would see what was going on.   I dont undestand what I am affecting when I click on the UV Maps under data object.  Are the UVMAPS connected to the unwrap via osmosis ?

Please keep question short and straight to the point. What you wrote in the comment was enough

You don't edit materials in the UV Editor, you only edit coordinates for applying textures.
These sets of coordinates called a UV Map are created through the process of Unwrapping can be used in any number of textures for any materials, modifiers, for texture painting, or any other use you desire.
They are not tied to any particular material or texture for that matter, and each object can have any number of different sets of coordinates for different purposes.
Each object can have any number of materials applied to it's faces called Material Slots. Each slot can hold exactly one material, and each face can be assinged to exactly one Slot at any given moment.
Each material can make use of any number of textures, and each different texture must use at least on set of coordinates. These coordinates can be automatic like Generated or Object, or manually created through UV Unwrapping like UVMaps
Now go watch some tutorials about Blender unwrapping

" each different texture must use at least on set of coordinates."  how do I reveal the set of cordinates for a texture ?

Depends, which render engine do you use? For Cycles there is a Texture Coordinates node which can output several types of coordinates and a UV Node for specific UV Maps. You can specify and name different UV Maps for each mesh under the Properties Window > Object Data > UV Maps

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


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Blender cycles baking, all black!
So I'm having a bit of trouble with multiple material baking with Blender Cycles in my "Sale of the Century" game show set. I have this one piece (see below) that is made of six different materials. I have created my own texture map and unwrapped as needed. Fine. However, on the final bake, all the unwrapped areas keep coming out black.
I have recalculated my the normals. My image to where everything is going to be baked is called "contwalluv" and in the node editor, it is selected and not hooked up, for every material.
I baked this last night perfectly, but I also did it in the wee hours and forgot what I did, but I am obviously missing something.
I've tried using the UV input to no avail.
Note: the only thing that is being baked for now, until I perfect this, is that set piece in edit mode.

Minus the podiums for now, this is how I want the texture to be baked for the final render:

Here's a link to the blend file and material, Go nuts :)
Any suggestions?

Could you show baking options, in particular what pass type did you bake? And what resulting texture would you like to get, only diffuse color or something else?

I want to do a combined. Everything baked, lighting, gloss etc., where all the lighting, shadowing, appears on the texture. The pieces would never move in an animation, only the camera.

I added the render result to show how the baking needs to be done. But unfortunately, all I get is black.

As it's combined it will take light and shading into acocunt. Are the emitting materials / lamps still lighting it up?

Yes. I had it done last night, but, stupid me, didn't write down what I did. So I'm back to square one with this.

Generally if you get black bake it's either because it's shaded bad (lighting/normals which you told you checked) or no information to bake (like when connecting diffuse shader but baking Emit pass). Try checking if UV map correspond to one baking is done with as well.

I added a link to the file for what it's worth. Totally lost at this point.


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FBX Export changes position of one object
When I export my armature with its mesh to FBX, then one of the meshes moves slightly, seemingly without reason. All transforms have been applied, and I even tried Apply Transform during export, which only makes things worse.
In the attached blend file, I reduced my project to the bare minimum: the rig with one bone, and the icosphere parented to said bone, not via weight painting.

The above image is how it looks before exporting.

The above image is how it looks after importing the exported FBX.

I'm unsure as to why, but what fixed this problem was unparenting the mesh from the bone, apply transforms of both objects (even though everything was applied already), then parenting the mesh back to the bone.


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Insert Face equally from all sides
I've been seaching for the past few hours and cant find an aswer that still works in blender (all the answers I can find on SE seems to be weofully outdated?)
How do I insert a new face with equal distance to all outlying edges?
No matter what I do, it always scale relative the scale of the cube (wether I scale the cube in edit or object mode, using scale or dimessions, doesn't matter, I can not for the life of me get it to simply insert the new face x units from all 4 edges.)
Please help.
Also, bonus question, what's the point of dimessions? as far as I can tell, they do exactly the same as scaling? (Insert and Loop Cut behave exactly identically regardless? ie. you cant use the viewports measurements to anything, since all the numbers are relative the the axies they are scalled along?)
Please note in the picture below, the cube was scaled in edit mide before using Insert, and I get the same result if I scale it in Object mode

I think the main culprit behind the trouble you are having is because of non-uniform scale. What I mean by this, is that every time you scale an object in Object Mode, you should apply scale (Ctrl + A > Scale), or it can and will cause a huge raft of issues later, from problems with texturing, to insets, to issues with curves and arrays.
Take this example - All I did was make a scene with 2 default cubes. One of the cubes (the one on the left) I scaled by 2 on the Z-axis in edit mode, and the other (the one on the right),  I scaled by the same amount in Object Mode. I then entered Edit Mode, and inset the front face of each of them by the same amount. I also added a horizontal and vertical loop cut around each so the "Edge Width" overlay will give more useful measurements.

Notice the difference between the two - not just as to the shape of the inset, but also as to how "long" blender" thinks each of the edges are. (ie: the cube scaled in Object Mode "thinks" it's still the original 2M long on the Z-axis).

Yup! I'm just a massive dunce and a complete noob at blender evidently and did not know about the fact that you has to do ctrl-a Apply Scale, I can also see that Dimensions now appear to work correctly, thank you very much!

Hey, no problem. Don't worry - I think non-uniform scale is definitely on the top 10 list of all time noob mistakes. You're just like the rest of us.


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How to get exact speed vectors (motion vectors)?
I have a simple cube, moving only in the x-direction, camera looking at it from top.

Having Vector pass enabled in the View Layer Properties, I am getting the speed vectors as exr files. Then loading them in my python code at looking at the speed (motion) vectors. Everything is fine except for the object boundaries. All the pixels of the object are moving with the same speed, but speed vectors are different for all boundary pixels. When the object is round or it has texture, things get worse. I need to make sure that these speed vectors are exact, could anyone help me with this?
PS: This is a simplified example. I am working with several complex objects with different textures, so I am sure that the general structure of my code and project is right, but there must be something about blender settings that I am missing. I am a newbie in the Blender and only using its scripting to generate some data.

I think the Vector Pass does not provide subpixel motion vector info. It may be doing some average of which object is encountered on that pixel... which may explain the weird results. You may be able to do your own subsampling by rendering a higher res but less samples version  of your scene to get finer motion vector info.

Thanks, Bruno, it doesn't seem to be a subpixel problem. For example, the vector component in the x-direction is 23.6 for all interior pixels and say 18.6 for boundary pixels and 10.2 for one pixel outside the object. I don't know how a render engine works, but if using CYCLES we are able to animate complex phenomena like water and smoke, shouldn't it be able to measure exact speed vectors?

At object boundaries, one pixel no matter how small can receive rays from multiple object. That means you can never get a single local accurate value. The algorithm responsible to give you the vector has to pick one object (based on depth for example)  or give you an average of all the objects covering that pixel.


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Grease Pencil has pixelated strokes. Anti-aliasing issue?
New Blender user. Using for 2D animation.
Grease Pencil strokes have pixelated edges both in program and when rendered.
Previous searches indicate that anti-aliasing for grease pencil has been removed to be updated at present.
Can anyone confirm, report similar or solve?
Thanks.

The Grease pencil will be refactored in V2.83 (currently in alpha). More information :  https://code.blender.org/2020/02/grease-pencil-refactor/

Brush Settings>Advanced>Hardness . reducing this to about 0.9 makes it look a lot better for me


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How can I export a .obj single object's vertices relative to Object origin instead of World Origin?
When I move the default cube -10m on the X-axis and export the object as .obj, I get values for the cube's mesh relative to the World Origin.

Here are the mesh values relative to World Origin instead of relative to object origin.
# Blender 4.0.1
# www.blender.org
mtllib left-cube.mtl
o Cube.001
v -11.000000 -1.000000 1.000000
v -11.000000 1.000000 1.000000
v -11.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000
v -11.000000 1.000000 -1.000000
v -9.000000 -1.000000 1.000000
v -9.000000 1.000000 1.000000
v -9.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000
v -9.000000 1.000000 -1.000000

Which causes the origin of the cube to be misplaced when I import the object back into Blender. Is this expected behavior? Do other 3D programs behave the same? Is there a way how to tell Blender to ignore the object's location and keep the original origin of the object so that it imports in the center? Or do I have to program that myself or use another format? A workaround would be to use a wrapper function that would save the current location and reset the object's location temporarily to the World Origin, then do the export, and then move the object back to its previous location coordinates.


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Using NumPy in Blender Add-ons Without Requiring External Installation
When developing Blender add-ons, I often find myself in need of the numpy package due to its optimized algorithms for array manipulation. However, a significant hurdle arises from the requirement to install numpy using pip. This additional installation step can be daunting for the average user and may hinder the accessibility of my add-on.
Given this constraint, I'm hesitant to rely on external libraries like NumPy. Is it advisable to avoid using such libraries altogether in Blender add-on development, or are there alternative approaches to consider?
One potential solution I'm considering is extracting and including only the necessary parts of NumPy (np.array, np.ndarray, etc.) within my add-on. However, I'm unsure about the feasibility and potential challenges associated with this approach.
Can anyone provide insights into best practices for incorporating external libraries like NumPy in Blender add-ons while ensuring ease of use for end-users? Additionally, is there a standard technique or process that can be employed to safely include specific parts of NumPy within an add-on, without relying on the user to install it separately?
Any advice or guidance on this matter would be greatly appreciated

Blender ships with numpy, you do not need to do anything special to use it beyond import numpy.

woot i think you already installed it via pip. because i remember i had to install it via pip.

You don't. Many of the addons that ship with Blender use numpy.

There might be discrepancies between the numpy version used by Blender and the latest available numpy version through pip though, you may have had an error stating a function does not exist because it was part of a more recent release of numpy. or similarly an addon using shipping an older numpy version override blender's default one. But numpy does come with vanilla Blender

very nice ok thank you for the clarification! so on another note, generally if  a module is not part of blender, it's best to avoid using them in your addon?


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Scaling loop cuts gets distorted both in local and global z axis in my mesh
I am adding three loop cuts in a shape and I want them to scale them on the Z axis to get them closer.
When I press S + Z + Z to scale them on the local Z axis, instead of moving locally, the entire mesh starts distorting from multiple sides. Like this:

How do I bring the three loop cuts closer in Z direction without distorting the mesh?

It seems you have some hidden geometry (maybe some duplicated extrusions). Try selecting all vertices and merge by distance to get rid of that.

A couple of things:
It seems like you're trying to scale it down with the bounding box as the pivot. Which means scale around basically this enter mass and it's center.

Instead of thinking about scaling these edge loops down, try thinking of it as scaling down the edge rings that bind them together.

You can set the pivot to "Individual Origins" to scale each separate element in it's own bounding box

which ALMOST works except for these angled parts right here:

So last thing, change the transform orientation to "Normal" which basically means "Scale an element around which way it's facing".

Usually we think of normals in regards to faces, where Z is pointing directly away from the faces, and the XY axes are running parallel to the plane of the face.

But edges and vertices have normals too.
Once we do that, piece of cake.

In a scenario like this too you could also just ask if it's even worth it to fiddle with something like this, and consider just dissolving the messed up part and re-insetting it to your desired size. Sometimes just redoing something is quicker than trying to manually correct a mistake.

I think in this situation both are fairly easy, just figured I'd present a range of options.


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Not unflipped normal but some faces are unusually brighter?
Why are these faces brighter than the rest? These are not flipped normal. After creating the window with edge loops, I deleted some edges and joined distant vertices to make face, thinking that doing so will reduce tris count. I shall use it in Unity.

Could it be that some faces that are shaded smooth and others shaded flat?

I figured it out. I had left some faces detached from the same-object mesh. How could I do that!
All I had do to was to merge vertices of the loose faces with the vertices in respected positions. The edges of the  loose faces were positioned just beside other edges of the larger mesh. So visually, there were two edges side by side. Merging vertices solved the problem.


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Add edges with plane blender
Im trying to figure out a way to quickly make x and y loop cuts. I want to use planes to add edges where the planes surface touches the object's surfaces.

I know I could use the knife tool but Im trying to use this for a lot of objects so I suspect I could instance a bunch of planes at the center of these objects pretty easily if the planes would do the cutting.

If the cutting planes are in the configuration shown in your picture, you can use "knife project" to cut several objects at once.

Select all the objects you want to cut and enter edit mode.
Select the cutting object.
Place the view above them all in top orthographic.
And use "knife project" (make sure the "cutting through" option is activated in the operator panel).


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Rotate along a single axis of an empty

As you can see I'm rotating these points around the empty. Currently, I'm using manual entry in a Combine xyz node to rotate it along the global Z axis.
What I want to achieve is the same rotation but in the local Z axis of the empty. It feels like a very easy solution but I seem to have blacked out on it. help me, please

I'm sorry but I don't seem to understand what you are actually trying to do... or if I understand it, I don't see what your problem is. The Object Info node has a Rotation output, why not use that? And if you want to make sure only the Z rotation is used no matter how the empty is rotated on other axes, plug the Rotation first into a Separate XYZ node and only connect the Z output with a Combine XYZ node.

You need to align a single vector with the Empty's rotation first and then use the former as a rotation axis. The simple setup is shown on the figure bellow:

Note: If you need the center of the Empty to be the center of rotation - connect the Control Object's Location property to the Center property of the second Vector Rotate node

I'm not sure if this is what he wants... to me it reads as if instead of manually entering a value like he does in the Combine XYZ node he wants to use the Z rotation of the empty to control it, while in your solution he still has to manually change the Angle in the second Vector Rotate node.

So either he wants something very simple - like what I suggest in my comment under the question - or probably you could plug the Rotation output of the Object Info node into a Separate XYZ node and use the Z output for the Angle on the Vector Rotate node.

You can start with his set up to see how the set position node behaves. Then rotate the empty so its local Z axis is not aligned with world Z axis and try to rotate the mesh(points) around the new local Z axis. If you have a better solution you should definitely post it s an answer.

Nothing against your answer, as I said if you just connect the empty's Z to the angle... because it does not seem as if he wants to manually enter a value. Apart from all that - I'm not quite sure what he actually wants exactly, so I'm not going to ask my crystal ball for that just to come up with a different answer when yours is already working fine...

Yes, the question is not very well stated. From my understanding he still wants to manually rotate the points but around the Empty's Local Z axis (ex. points orbiting  the Empty's Z axis but slightly tilted, like a galaxy). Let's wait for Anurag's response and improve upon it.


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3d printing from an object created in blender
I am trying to 3d print an object i have created using facebuilder (using this tutorial specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WH7s-IPIeM).
I have successfully built the facial object in blender but my problem is that it just won't print after i've sliced it in cura, perhaps because it doesn't seem to be watertight. I have tried mesh repairs and other things in blender but nothing seems to work.
I have also tried to do repairs and make the object watertight in cura and freecad but to no avail.
If possible I can attach the file(s) I'm trying to print.
How can I make the object I've created in facebuilder 3d printable?
Thanks for any help.

It might be helpful to people trying to help you if you uploaded an example blend file to the site https://blend-exchange.com and add that link in the question.

thanks rick, i'll try that.

i'll have to get a .blend file if i can because that's the only file allowed


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GitHub for Blender
Was exploring GitHub, has anyone used any premade python script from GitHub in Blender?
Also wanted some pointers on-

What blender resources are available on GitHub.
How can we best leverage GitHub for Blender especially animation and effects?
What are the free resources available?
How can I use python scripts available on GitHub for blender?

Hello, could you elaborate on what you mean with "Github for Blender" ? I don't remember this being a thing

Hello and welcome. Please don't ask more than one question per post. Use the [edit] below, to break this into multiple posts so that each focuses on a single issue. Make as many separate questions as necessary.

I am a newbie at Blender and today while exploring GitHub I found some blender files on it- some scripting files etc. Wanted to understand how to best use GitHub to enable my blender journey.
here is something I found- https://github.com/p2or/blender-vfxtoolbox#build-empty

I guess this is what you want then ? https://stackoverflow.com/a/11604587/7092409

let me explore this. Thank you


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Particle escaping Tube
I have a tube through which I am trying to pass particles, however, the particles are escaping the constrain. I am using Blender 3.5. This mesh was created in Maya and has been imported as an FBX file. I have also checked it for a manifold object and mesh isn't broken. Please help.
I am using emit from faces option.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wtAEVpGMzqRP8m6WvQZxna0BgXIOkHo9/view?usp=sharing

apply scale + rotation for all objects which are part of the particle sim (collision + emission) and increase subframes to 5.
then i got:

Erster ohne Streit ;)

also erstens ist hier englisch die Mastersprache :D und zweitens hast du nachträglich editiert...also bist du eigentlich letzter :D gggggg

Stimmt, aber das Editieren war ja nicht mehr wirklich Teil der Lösung... nur zusätzliche Informationen die bei diesem Problem aber nicht helfen  :D  Oops, English please!

also billige Ausreden....zählen nicht...! :D editiert ist editiert. Was ist eigentlich mit Marty Fouts passiert? Wurde er Zeit seines Lebens gesperrt oder hatte er einfach keine Lust mehr? Der war doch auch täglich hier unterwegs....

Gute Frage... ich glaube ich habe schon ein Jahr oder so nichts mehr von dem gelesen. Vielleicht keine Lust mehr... oder benutzt kein Blender mehr?

kann ich mir ehrlich gesagt nicht vorstellen...dazu war er zu engagiert bei der Sache... ;)

Go to the Particle Properties and under Physics > Integration set the Subframes value to something higher than 0, e.g. 5 or 10. This will calculate the simulation more accurate and the particles stay inside.

By the way, sometimes the direction of the normals can also influence the interaction with the particles, like it would work better if they would collide with the outside than the inside of the mesh, but flipping the normals does not help in this case, you have to increase the subframes. Another way would be to decrease the Timestep values which you find above the Subframes, but this is less effective and slows down the movement of the particles.

Wow thank you for the help!!!


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How to remove the interpolation between 2 frames for a specific object using the Python API?
I want to render the results of a molecular dynamics simulation in Blender using the Python API.
I have managed to load the data and animate the molecules. Sometimes a molecule moves from one side of the box to the other due to the presence of periodic boundary conditions; however, because of the interpolation between frames, the molecule goes through the whole system in the animation, which is not realistic: it should just pop up on the other side.

The code I'm using to build the animation is more or less like this:
# Iterate over the trajectory
for n in Trajectory:

    # Create a new frame in the animation
    bpy.context.scene.frame_set( n )

    # Iterate over all the Bezier curves
    for i in range( len( Mol_object ) ):

        # Iterate over the coordinates of the points of the curve in the n-th frame
        for k, coords in enumerate( Mol_coords[n][i] ):

            # Define the new coordinates of the point
            Mol_object[i].data.splines[0].bezier_points[k].co = coords

            # Add the point to the last frame
            Mol_object[i].data.splines[0].bezier_points[k].keyframe_insert(data_path="co", index=-1)

where Trajectory is a list of frames for the animation; Mol_object is a list containing the objects associated to each molecule (Bezier curves), and Mol_coords a dictionary with the frame as key and the values are the list of coordinates for each point of the curve at that time.
Is it possible to remove the interpolation between the frames where the molecule jumps, but just in these and for the specific molecule? Thanks in advance!


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quixel Bridge texture
I tried to export a plant model on bridge but it looks odd on blender, it looks like it has no texture

Make sure in the nodes in the shader window each image texture is in the right place. Specular -> Specular, Normal -> Normal, etc. Also, turn clearcoat off. The reason for this is that for 3.0 onward Blender versions, Bridge's plugin is slightly buggy. Until they fix it, you have to manually fix all imported object's materials.
More info here: https://help.quixel.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4413712611857-Textures-looking-glossy-when-importing-to-Blender-3-0-from-Bridge


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Blender 3.0 shadow catcher really slow
Since the new Blender 3.0 version came out, it seems that they use a new shadow catcher in cycles, which is much slower than in version 2.93, which makes it unusable for me as the render times increase extremely (even on good hardware (RTX 3070, Ryzen 3700X)). Is there any way to use the 2.93 shadow catcher in 3.0, because the new Cycles X is faster than in 2.93 but not with the new shadow catcher.

The new shadow catcher is not "just" a shadow catcher, it takes indirect lighting into account as well - therefore it's slower than the old one. It makes a difference however if you have the Shadow Catcher pass enabled in the Render Layers - when it is disabled, it only uses an approximation. When it's enabled, it captures all indirect light interactions.
See the note here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/cycles/object_settings/object_data.html


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.OBJ .FBX .MTL Files Won't import Textures
Total noob here. Blender 2.93.6. I downloaded an .obj, .fbx and an .mtl of a ship and when I import either .obj or the .fbx I can’t get the texture to show no matter what advice I’ve read. Find missing files and many other things I tried following to the best of my very limited ability. I’m only using this for still images that I can turn around. The model maker told me “I don't work in Blender, and I don't know how to work with materials and add textures there.I tried to add basic textures in 3ds Max and export them to files, like textures are displayed in blender (fbx file exactly ). “.
If you try to help please explain as if you’re talking to an 8 year old. I’m brand new to this. Thanks.

The .obj/.mtl will need to have come with image files, did you download any? Open the .mtl in a text editor and paste the first dozen or so lines here.

3ds Max Wavefront OBJ Exporter v0.97b - (c)2007 guruware
File Created: 26.08.2021 11:48:25
newmtl ship_BP_props
Ns 10.0000
Ni 1.5000
d 1.0000
Tr 0.0000
Tf 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
illum 2
Ka 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
Kd 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
Ks 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Ke 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000

Did you download image files? None of those lines reference an image file. There should be a line with a filename if it has textures.

Hi. Thanks so much for helping. There’s 3 folders of textures that came in a zip file. Base, props, Sail Cloth Metal. 18 jpg files. I’ve tried different combinations of importing them. And the mtl file. Just a grey ship. Jeff.

The .mtl file needs to have a line with the filename of a texture file. Look for something that ends in .jpg.

This is part of the mlt file. It’s all like this. No jpg.
3ds Max Wavefront OBJ Exporter v0.97b - (c)2007 guruware
File Created: 26.08.2021 11:48:25
newmtl ship_BP_props
Ns 10.0000
Ni 1.5000
d 1.0000
Tr 0.0000
Tf 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
illum 2
Ka 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
Kd 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
Ks 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Ke 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000

Then the .mtl file doesn't have textures so its not surprising they won't import. You could try setting them up manually after import instead.

Thanks for your help. (o:

Could you please point me in the direction of what I should research to set the textures up manually?
Like “ You need to go into this pane or window and attach this to that”. A general idea so I know where to look. Thanks. Jeff.

https://i.imgur.com/Uc47kxW.jpg

Thanks. Very nice of you to take the time. I really appreciate it. Jeff


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How do you embed one object into another object yet stay visible?
I have flat 2D eyes that I want to slightly embed into my rounded 3D character without sculpting into the character. I’m trying to stop the gap between the eyes and character. Visibility priority (?)  but only from certain angles. The head bends forward a bit and when the eyes are close to the head parts of the eyes disappear.  I want the eyes to always be visible but not when the character’s turned around. How you’d normally see eyes when a head rotates. I don’t know the proper terms. If you can help please explain in very simple terms. Go to this page, press this, disable that etc. Thanks if you can help.

Try to add a shrinkwrap with a little offset

"How you’d normally see eyes when a head rotates." Well, normally eyes are not totally flat, that's why you call them eyeballs. Your eyes are flat, so even if you get them closer to the head with e.g. a Shrinkwrap modifier like @DanielMöller suggests, they would still be quite flat (compared to the head's surface), even though they would follow the curve of the head - provided that your eyes have enough geometry to get bent, but you do not show any mesh information in your question.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/51973/19307

In movies i worked on, when there was a need to fake 2d in 3d, or even simply to make an appealing 2d shape from 3d (which is always what you do in fine with 3d rendered as a flat image), a common solution is to bend the 3d model to "look right in the camera". Here it's not just a matter of making your eyes show up on top of the mesh, they meed to be oriented in a certain way toward the camera. The head mesh needs yo adapt accordingly. Perhaps there aere ways to sort of get there with automated ways, but in terms of means, a simple deformation rig with bones would do the job too.