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Geometry nodes: How to compare two object's faces position and select the faces with equal positon
I have two Susanne objects

A normal looking Susanne and
One that at some part has distorted faces (see pic)

How can I compare the position of the faces of the two Susanne's and then select the faces with equal positon. My guess would be to use the Position field, Capture Attributes and then a Comparison node. But I can't really get it done. Maybe a different field? Any ideas/suggestions?
Thanks!

...just an idea.
I would have liked to test this with your blend file, but on the fly, this might be a solution:
Try using the node Raycast along the normals to see what differences there are. If the length of the vector of the Hit Position is equal $0$ (adjust Epsilon?), it should actually work.

Awesome, thanks! It worked :D


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Both side of my mesh are not moving independently after fixing bone naming conventions
Somewhere along my animation process, I realized that my bones were not named properly when I "mirrored" them. (Instead of Upper Arm.L and Upper Arm.R, I had somehow copied it as Upper Arm.L and Upper Arm.R.001). When I was animating my model, I realized this and went to go fix the names of the bones (Now Upper Arm.L and Upper Arm.R, etc.) so I could flip my poses for making a walking animation. Success! I was able to flip the pose. Then, when I went into pose mode to create the next pose of my animation, the left and right legs were not moving independently anymore, and they are now both moving when I try to pose the model, no matter which IK bone I select. See this inserted GIF below:

Is there an easy fix for this? Or am I missing something on a larger scale when I tried to fix my previous error?

It appears your mirror is still enabled, try disabling that. As you can see in the upper righthand corner of the 3D viewport.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to Convert a Mesh's A-Pose to T-Pose
I have a mesh that was delivered to me in A-pose, and I would like to be able to retarget mixamo and other animations over the course of the project. The problem is I can't figure out how to get the mesh to adopt the new pose structure.
Mixamo animations rest pose is a T-pose. I can skin the model by deleting the animation setting it into an A-pose. Applying the animation again without resetting the armature to an T-pose results in the arms being crossed (the result of adjusting the upper arm rotation). Trying to skin then reset the armatures rest pose to a T-pose results in the mesh not retaining its position on the armature...it reverts to an A-pose.
This SURELY must be something people come across all the time.

You could duplicate the Armature modifier, disable the copy:

Raise the arms in Pose mode so that it gives a T pose to the object:

Apply the active Armature modifier to make the object's T pose definitive:

Bring back your armature to its default T pose (AltR), re-enable the remaining Armature modifier:

APPLY the armature! I would never have thought of that. I will try this tomorrow and get back to you here and if it works mark it as answered. Thank you very very much for this fantastic and thoughtful answer.

Just want to say thank you this worked. It's key to return the armature back to pose mode. The model will still require editing of the imported animation but the starting point is much less out of whack.

OK great, you're welcome  ;)

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


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Particles Not Emitting Smoke
I am using 2.83a and I am trying to create smoke from a chimney stack of a steam locomotive.
The plan is/was to animate the domain along with the ground surroundings - long story.
I have been tearing my hair out trying to find the right settings for the smoke emitter and domain - I would have ideally liked a small amount of fire and a generous amount of smoke, but I cannot seem to prevent the emitter from spewing it in all directions, any setting less than 1.0 from the surface of the emitter results in no smoke.
A more satisfactory way to animate the smoke is to use the emitter to emit particles. I've successfully managed that in the past but I am not sure what I am doing wrong now.
The Emitter is set to emit particles and die out shortly afterwards - it isn't affected by the domain so I have a wind force field. If the particles emit smoke, it will look spot on.

The domain is set up correctly so far as I can see, buoyancy density is set to -1 so the smoke sinks, heat to 1.5 and vorticity 0.
I've turned off noise for now, turning it on and off made no difference.
What am I missing?

There's something with the new version of Blender that requires you to Bake Data in the Smoke domain to start producing smoke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN6ClIdL8yw&feature=youtu.be
Playing with the fuel value, might help to choose how much fire you want.

Thanks for the quick reply. Believe me, I have been playing with the fuel value and every other value - but that is for smoke only. The particle emitter can only do smoke or fire, it can't do "smoke + fire". The problem is the particles are not emitting smoke. I quickly made up this test file and it's not working here either. I did manage to make it work at some stage, but I am blowed if I can figure out what the special case needs to be. When I was going it I was using cycles....and I am currently in Eevee. does that make a difference?

There's a "smoke+fire" option, when selecting the Flow Type. The quick smoke tool is a handy way to create smoke. In the Physics section of the Smoke Domain there are ways to control the Smoke, Fire and the dissolve rate for the smoke. https://i.imgur.com/6MxaSIt.png

Also check these out, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RKAL5zST84, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUS8LvST86k,

Hi thanks Manu - these are great tutorials but they don't really help - I have watched nearly every smoke tutorial there is.
The issue is I wanted constrain my smoke via particles, having re-consulted the manual, I think my issue is the size of my model and how much smoke I want to produce. I wanted to get a lower res idea of what I wanted to do before committing to a long bake. But the problem is I needed a much much higher resolution in order for the smoke simulation to work properly.

That still leaves the issue of the particle system not emitting smoke, and it may well be the problem there as well. Does anyone know of a resource that shows the effect of smoke physics settings? The manual is a good start, but it does not have scale to judge how these settings work via volume....ie how it should look on a scale of 1m versus how it should on a scale of 10s of meters.

Blender Tutorial - A Smoking Steam Engine Running Around a Track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJhtc8te1pw

Faking Smoke with Particles in Blender Cycles - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL0G5oOjdtk , This seems to be what you're talking about.

Yep seen and been through both of these!
I still have had no luck. Even starting from scratch particles will not emit, and I cannot seem to find a way to get the right amount of smoke to be emitted, or to get it affected by force fields. It's incredible...every other aspect about this project is coming together nicely.

@DrIgnatiusCole Any updates

Hi Manu, Yes!
The issue was that after setting the Flow source to be the particle emitter, you also have to set the "Particle Settings" which is a non-obvious field that opens below it. Another issue is that I believe "motion blur" needs to be off unless outputting animation.
I'm planning to write up a complete list of settings and post it for others. Please contribute to it if you can when it goes up.


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Parenting is Breaking Animation
I am animating a locomotive which is an a 3rd party model with wheels and brackets that were animated - which I'd like to keep. However, it was done strangely, and the parenting relationship is hard to follow.
I've already fixed it partly, and the train animation runs fine, but any kind of additional parenting to animate the train in motion breaks the local animation of the wheels turning and brackets pumping.
I have tried parenting the whole lot to an empty to animate that, but as soon as it is animated the local animation breaks.

Parenting the wheels and brackets to the chassis is causing parenting loops
Joining also breaks the animation - but not all the time. I joined the locomotive to the carriages and it did preserve the animation but I lost my UVs (which have been carefully modified).
Doing it the "wrong way round" also doesn't work. Setting the trains as the Parent and making the empty the child is not working. Something about the parent child relationships int he mechanisms is being thrown off.

I can't be alone in this boat...

So I think I have figured it out...I managed to track down the empty that was the parent of "some" of the brackets and wheels. It was just an orange point, but once THAT was parented to the empty in front of the train and the train body (the parent of everything else) was hooked up - it all worked. Gee what a head scratcher.


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Invisible Plane that catches light from emissive surfaces
i am trying to make a lighsaber in blender 2.81 to add to some footage. i am trying to make a light emission from the lightsaber onto a plane directly behind it, but i dont know how to make the plane invisible so i can still use a transparent render background. any help would be greatly appreciaated. thanks in advance.

I recently discovered that if you switch into Eevee that the bloom function will actually do this for me


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Render a scene twice but once it renders with an extra object
Hi i have a scene with a kitchen and i am using the sky texture and a large volume to create godrays, except to make the scene less noisy i am rendering it twice with two identical scenes but one has this volumetric effect and i am using the compositer to blend the two renders, but i am trying to reduce file size and want to find a way to get rid of the duplicate scene and simply render twice but once have this volume, i believe it is possible as the vfx setup can do this but i have no idea how this works, any help would be perfect

Ok i figured it out, in blender 2.79 they had something called render layers, in 2.8, and 2.9 they use view layers, to do this you will see ticks in the outliner, and unticking them will make them not be rendered, and in the top right there is a section called view layers, if you duplicate them with the same settings you can tick or untick each one and then composite them together


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How do you make flat shading for games?

Just wanted advice on how to make flat shaders/renders like this for game characters. Especially transparent ones like the frog's raincoat and the glass cover of the terrarium.  Any help would be appreciated! :)  first image is from https://izachudy.com/post/165380040065/this-summer-i-participated-in-a-game-jam-with and the second is from https://aveadore.tumblr.com/post/163060936668/tiny-garden-for-this-month-low-poly-challenge

Shaders are managed by the render engines. If you want to make assets for a video game, then the render engine is the game engine, and so the way to make shaders in it depends on him, not on Blender. The shaders will be made in your game engine and might not have an equivalent in Blender.
The only thing you can do in Blender is to prepare the textures you will use in your shaders, as well as assign materials slots on your mesh if you need several materials on a single mesh.

i see! thank you so much :) would you know how to go about making a semi-transparent texture like the frog's coat?

That would be in the shaders settings, in your game engine. Not in Blender. Usually it's a simple value between 0 and 1, and some engines might allow you to alternatively use a black and white map if you want variations of transparency inside the material.

hmm ok :) but how about making it in blender to achieve toon water or toon glass?

@misosoups Hello :). Please mark the answer as accepted ✓, if it helped. If you have other questions, please post them as new, separate questions.

@misosoups use the alpha input on a principled node. I recommend you also watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvu5XYrZT6Q


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Blender is Crashing Finding Missing FIles
I am trying to relink some Kitbash3D models to their textures. Using "External Data/Find Missing Files" is reliably crashing Blender release (2.82a) and the beta (2.83) every time. The models are large-ish - all the textures together are 1.2 Gb and the blend file is 220 Mb. But I have deleted half of them, and I have a decent system - 16Gb of RAM Ryzen processor, RTX2060 Super. I'm using Linux....I do have a PC (128 Gb RAM) and a Mac...I'll give that go.
Can anyone suggest a work around or point to what the problem could be?

I have the same issue, possibly with the exact same models - I downloaded a couple of the free minikits they had and it crashes whenever I try to find the missing files.
Overall, to fix it I am deleting all the groups except one of them, then saving that group to a separate file and doing the find textures fix. It manages one group at a time with no issue.
I also ran the "report missing textures" then opened the console and saw that KitBash defaulted their texture directory to K:\KB3D\KB3DTextures, so another workaround would be to map a network drive as K: then recreate that directory structure and copy the textures there (this would be the quickest fix but also means you have to map the drive to use them). I am new to Blender, so I am not sure, but there may then be a way to move the textures to the correct directory after doing this. If there is, please let me know :)

Had this problem today with a file size that was no larger than 200 mb, and my RAM wouldn't even come close to maxing out. What worked for me for "Find Missing Files" was turning off all my layers, and turning on one layer from the missing file. It helped that all my layers came from the same kit. Once that one smaller layer loaded the missing file, save, and everything else was good to go.

I am pretty sure that the problem was simply too little memory. Low memory is a very reliable way to crash any program, and I was having this issue with a number of other very big environments. The solution is to increase Virtual RAM if you cannot any more RAM for the computer, or don't want to. Some of my projects are close to 50 Gbs in size including virtual RAM.


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Parenting Object to Bone not Working
I am attempting to add a hat to an animated character. The correct procedure outlined in the answer here:
Parenting an object to a bone not working
"The correct procedure to parent the empty to the bone is:
Select the empty
Shift select the armature
Go to pose mode
Select the bone you need as parent
Press Ctrl P and choose "bone" option."
This does not work. Note attached video.
I have tried to parent via "bone relative", I tried the hip (master) bone. I tried to parent to the head (which is not the correct process). Nothing is working - I'm stumped.
You can see from the video that in rest mode the hat is correctly parented. Could it be that I was attempting to attach it rest mode rather than pose mode? That's a bit harder....what is the correct process?
Parenting to Bone not Working

...an additional issue is that I cannot clear the parent of the hat. I wanted to try parenting in pose mode...but it will not let me clear the parent....crazy difficult...sigh.

That INDEED was the problem - I had tried to parent in REST mode not POSE mode.

Rest mode is when you do Alt + S, G, or R.
It's the pose that the rig goes to when you reset it.

The answer to the problem is that I was trying to parent the object in REST mode. In order for this to work it has to be POSE mode.
If anyone wants to contribute an understanding of what REST mode is even for, that would be helpful for anyone getting to grips with this problem.


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Eevee has Suddenly Stopped Rendering
I was just setting up my project for a final render, and checking the render image but Eevee has suddenly stopped rendering altogether. The viewport is fine, but it just says "Sequence Render" and the render result is completely blank. Nothing at all. It isn't still trying to render - th4ere is no CPU or GPU activity other than the minimal amount used for the viewport.
I completely baffled. I've checked that "Render Region" is not on. I've tried different settings, but Eevee resolutely will not render. I've tried turning Blender on and off again. Anyone seen this?

Do you have any stripes in your sequencer?

Carlo means strips. The question is, do you have any video strips in the VSE at the moment? If you do, your render will default to it, instead of showing you the results of your current render. I don't think this is the issue, though, but it's hard to know what it is without more information. Consider sharing your file. https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Hi....yes I think I may have put a strip to check something. I'll see if that is the issue. The timing would be about right...although it WAS rendering some of my frames earlier. I WILL post if I can't get it back, but the file is 1.4 Gb....I think I could squeeze it down to below 1 Gb for wetransfer. Thanks for the heads up guys. Let's hope that does it.

Bingo. You guys are absolute legends. I breathe again.


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Blender Hold Out Node Not Working
I am trying to render a layer of Rain with alpha to composite with a train animation. I have done this before successfully with volumetrics, but it isn't working now and I cannot figure out why.
Here is the montage of screen grabs. Sorry the rain is not clearer, it is affected by the depth of field of the camera but it helps to demonstrate that the train carriages are not blocking out the rain in the distance. I have used the "hold out" option in collections, which didn't work, so I also went through every single material for the mesh and switched out to a hold out node. Which also didn't work.
I thought it might be because I had some translucency with rain droplets affecting alpha compositing (though I don't know why it should) but that made no difference. What I should see is a field of rain blocked out by the train save for a few close up rain drops. But the train is not blocking or masking out the rain as it should. Does anyone have any ideas what the problem might be?

I'm not sure if I can see that correctly in the screenshot. The rain drops look quite large to me... as if they are only in the foreground, i.e. the rest is blocked by the train. If you make the train invisible, I mean disable render visibilty, does the rain look the same?

No - I have enabled transparency....sorry I should have pointed out that I have taken the image sequences into Hitfilm and composited. The train is definitely NOT blocking out the rain. I am having the same issue in another set of renders in different projects, just with rain. Transparency is definitely turned on (otherwise there would be no alpha at all) and the train is definitely not blocking. But I CANNOT work out why. The render engine atm is Eevee, but I am having the same problem in Cycles.


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Animating Violin and Bow - Constrain Rigid Body Between 2 Moving Points
Here is a challenge for animation gurus...I am attempting to add a violin and bow to a model with a mocap violin performance. The Mocap has worked quite well, and I have been able to rotate the and pose the hands of the bow (RH) and the violin (LH). I have added bones to the bow and violin, and constrained the bow to the RH of the model armature, and so it is moving quite well with the bow arm, and the violin to the LH of the model. It works - after a fashion.
What I'd like to do is be able to constrain the bow's rotation so that it matches the violin. Mocamp doesn't capture the intricate movements of the bow hand (understandably), but if I could find a way to parent or constrain the bow to an empty attached to the violin, the RH bow arm could drive the local Z axis of the bow, and the violin RH arm could control its world position via the empty, thus keeping the bow positioned on the strings whilst being "bowed".
I've gotten close, but no cigar as yet. I feel sure this is doable, and I'm not miles off. What about a nurb path? I just can't quite figure out how. Anyone have ideas?

Consider a track to constraint

That's a little cryptic....so would I track the bone of the bow to be constrained by the empty on the violin? So how would blender know what location information to interpolate in order to move with one constraint (the bow hand animation) and the other (the violin hand animation)? I'll give it a go but any other information would be most welcome.


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UDIM tiles not importing properly image texture shader
I have commissioned a model that was textured using UDIM tiles, which Blender supports. However adding the image texture node and setting it UDIM tile, or dragging the image in where Blender automatically sets it to be a UDIM tile, is not importing the UDIM tiles properly. The UDIM's look to be exported correctly, with the Base Colour folder with the name and 1001, 1002, 1003, and 1004...according to the tutorials, I need only bring the first image in and Blender knows to look for the others.
This isn't happening however...only the first image seems to be affecting the material for the mesh, the other tile are not being imported. We've checked triple checked and checked again, the file protocol is right.

There must be something that we are missing...everything looks right, but except the textures...
Can anyone help?

The issue was partly from the creators side, and partly how Blender manages UDIM tiles, which is clearly still in its early days. It was required to go to these steps:

Make sure Blender project is saved
Go to UV Editor
Hit N for side panel
Where it says Image>Source, change "single image" to UDIM tile.
Click the "plus" sign for create new image for as many UDIM tiles as you have  - in my case it was 4. You should have in your list 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004 etc.
The UDIMs will now appear correctly.

HOWEVER:
You ALSO need to do this for all the other textures. So if you have only 1 UDIM tile (which is much more likely) but the normals, roughness, metallic textures are all not importing, you need may need to do this. And of course if you ahve more than one tile, then you need to add to the UV editor as many tiles as you have.
After that, it all works perfectly, and you only need the one Material for all of your meshes for that model. I hope this helps someone.


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Blender Emission Shaders do not work over Alpha Channel

The above picture is a composite of two layers for a scene I am working on. You can see clearly that emission shaders for the sparks work only if there is RGB behind but not if they are in front of an alpha channel. The back wall sparks do not show across the floor because the rest of the room is front most layer, so that is understandable, but the blue sparks from the side walls lose their emissivity when they cross into the space that was held out. The reason I am layering this way is because there is footage to sandwich in between them.
I checked this with cycles and the problem is there too, but I do not know how to resolve it. Ideally I would render only the sparks and have the room as separate composite layer, but I need the reflections caused by the sparks as part of the effect.
There must surely be a solution? I am sure I have used emission shaders with alpha channels successfully before, but I think it may have something to do with the hold out function.

How are you holding out the particles?

Are you compositinig in blender? Have you tried using EXR? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57816/how-do-i-get-the-glare-node-to-output-transparent-instead-of-black-background/57824#57824

Hi there, I am not holding out the particles, I am rendering different layers. So I have the backpanel with its sparks on one layer, and the rest of the room on another layer. It seems to be a problem with holdout nodes, because the area behind the circular window is also alpha, and the particles ARE showing over that...well at least a bit. Now I haven't used EXR, but I'll study that thread, thankyou for that.


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Cannot Transform (Scale Rotate etc) Keyframes in Graph Editor
I am using NLA and graph editor to edit an armasture (bvh). I AM able to edit individual keyframes, and yesterday I was happily editing and transforming the keyframes on another limb, but today, the keyframes won't budge when trying to use scale along either axis. It's as if the keyframe channels were locked - but they aren't...I have carefully checked.
The NLA strip is green (open stash for tweaks). SOMETHING must be preventing me from editing the keyframes in this way (I want to do a simple scale along Y-axis to tone down some movements), but I am missing what it could be. If it is not channel locks, and the NLA is open for editing, what else could there be?
NB...the armature has bone constraints on them but they are turned off. And the transforms were working on another part of the armature yesterday. I'm stumped. Anything I might have missed?

could you please share the armature? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

It's jut a mixamo armature....or do you mean from the file? Actually - I'm not sure I could...but it was just a Mixamo armature that I used as a rig for a bespoke model in order to use mixamo bvh for various actions. Everything is working, and I yesterday I was able to use transforms such as scale and rotate on the keyframes in the graph editor without issue. I can only think I have locked something without realising it. It's very confusing...

yes only share the armature only so that we can test


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Glare node not working with a gradient emission material, how can I fix this?
I've been working on a project using the glare node in the compositing tab and so far experimenting with the emission material by itself has been fine, but as soon as I added a gradient node to the material I got problems with my render with the bloom effect from the glare node not fully working on certain areas of the shapes.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this problem with the final render? or if not does anyone know another way to get a similar neon bloom effect in cycles? my node setup for the materials and compositing is bellow:

Some of those colors are a bit darker than others. Reducing the glare threshold should work, or alternatively you could increase the emission strength on the materials.


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Array Modifier not correctly rotating on my "Empty" plain axes
The goal I am trying to achieve is simply have my cylinder rotate in a circular manner around  the empty plain axes. As I was following some tutorials online specific this one "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcB31AlYLAQ&ab_channel=digitalmonkeyschool", I can not understand why my array count is going towards the empty plain axes as seen below from the first picture. Instead what I am aiming to accomplished is the circular spread as seen in the second picture below. This may be a easy fix, but with my lack of experience I am having a hard time figure out the cause of the issue.
If you have any tips or solutions I would appreciate it thank you!

Just figured out what was causing this dilemma. The reason I was facing this issue is that when I was scaling my cylinder I was doing so in object mode instead of edit mode. Thus blender was using the original size of the cylinder object to create the first copy of the cylinder, resulting the second copy to be scaled a lot smaller and on.


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GN output render eevee different than viewport

I put some flowers on a bean stock using Geometry Notes.
But the flowers in the render are in different places then in the viewport.
How can I fix this?
Second question:
Is there a way to use weight paint to prevent the flowers to be in certain spots?
Screen shot:

Render:

Please don't ask more than one question for each question you post. For your second one, try the answer here https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/282854/how-do-i-make-distribute-points-on-faces-geometry-use-weight-pain-vertex-group. There are also several YT videos detailing the same method.

Weight paint doesn't seem to work because the trunks of the bean stock are curves, not a mesh.

Do you have subdivision modifier on the object? Subdivision modifier has a separate setting for rendering and viewport, which will make the geometry different and cause the random distribution of flowers to be different in viewport and render. There are other modifiers that have similar settings for viewport and rendering, so check if that's the case.

Yes! It was the subdivison.


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Hexagon shell tool
I'm looking for a tool that can turn a 3D object into a shell with hexagon holes. It should be parametric, so the option to change the size, distance between, rotation of the hexagon shape.
I made this drawing to show what I'm looking for:

I did try to make it myself with GeometryNodes, but it's not good.

I don't think you can cover such capsule by even hexagonal pattern ... even Sphere contains a few pentagons https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/282714/2214

I don't think you can cover any shape just by hexagonal pattern. You will always deal with other n-gons. Like here for sphere you end up with some pentagons. (Here you can find deeper explanation.)

If you are OK with that ... so for the simplification - you can generate something if your mesh will be triangulated (even as possible) and you use Dual Mesh node ... like here if I start with IcoSphere, split at half, bridge the gap with 3 cuts, later rotate one ring at left and right side from centre about 18°, search for triangulate mesh, and add GeoNodes with Dual Mesh node.

Apply GN modifier, select all vertices, search for Inset (I) Individual (I), add Solidify modifier ...

thank you, it does look like what I'm looking for. But I do not understand how you did it. Could you elaborate?

I added only blend file, because this solution is not parametric and doesn't work for a cube ... so I don't think this is what are you looking for. The only one shape that it will work for is a Tube (Cylinder).


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How to merge verticies by distance in particular area without full selection?
I want to merge verticies in particular area. For example, I have 2 subdivided cubes in one mesh, which I want to merge:

But I want to merge only this verticies (left part shifted for better visualization):

I can only select one row with alt+RMB, but in that case when I'm trying to merge verticies by distance I'm getting nothing, because merge working only in selected area. Usually, we can use unselected checkbox, but it's not an option, when you don't want to affect other parts of mesh. So, how can I merge this verticies if I can only select a part of it?
P.S. Sorry, I don't know how to formulate this question better.

you need to select the bottom vertices of the top mesh and the top vertices of the bottom mesh, then merge by distance, then you can increase the threshold in the Operator Box

@moonboots yes, I know, but as I mentioned, I can't do that. It's easy in this example, but I can't do this in more complex meshes.

could you please tell a bit more about the real case?

@moonboots, of course. High poly characters, created from parts - like torso, legs, arms, breast, head, etc... For examle, when I'm trying to connect arm it's not hard to select outer side, but armpit area is a hell for me. Even wireframe mode can't help, because of another mesh you see through it.

Maybe Select > Select Loops > Select Boundary Loop? then Merge by Distance

@moonboots unfortunately, not working at all.

I think you might be wanting to do Mesh > Delete > Limited Dissolve rather than merge by vertices, run that first to get rid of the redundant verts between the corners, then run merge by distance to join the corner verts.

You can make yourself a Geometry Nodes tool:

Then search for its name in F3 menu and F9 adjust the threshold:

Thank you very much! It works for me.

I think that this is a question more about selction techniques (which can be very sophisticated) than merging vertices.
For istance, after selecting some vertices, you can press Ctrl G to assign them to a new vertex group, then add and/or remove vertices from that group.
If in wireframe mode you get seleting an unwanted part of the mesh, you can hide it before selecting (H, Ctrl H, Alt H).
You can use Ctrl click and Shift Ctrl click to select Shortest Path and Shortest Path Areas of the mesh, Ctrl Plus and Minus to expand and contract the selection, ......
I suggest you to have a deep dive into the Select Menu in edit mode, you'll probably find one or more solutions to your needs.

Thank you. I used your solution with hiding verticies, but solution of Markus von Broady was published earlier and seems more elegant in my opinion. But I'm still appreciate your time.

No problem, I hope they were both useful.


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Why I'm getting artifacts with normals of exported mesh?
I've created mesh and exported it in unreal engine 5, where I'm getting strange artifacts like this:

when in Blender it looks okay:

I thought the problem could be in normals, but looks like there is no problem with it:

Can you help me to find out the reason of that artifacts?
I'm using Blender 3.6.10 and can't use the latest version, because "send to unreal" addon doesn't work with it.
My .blend file:

Re-opened awaiting self-acceptance, of a 'stub' answer... future readers will see this is not a Blender problem.

Oh, seems like it's problem with nanite option in unreal engine. So, I suppose question is not related to Blender forum.

Hello, Sergey.. Glad you've found the problem ...  you seem confident that this is not a Blender issue, which has the side-effect of making your question off-topic on Blender SE. Nothing personal, but your post doesn't belong here. If you find otherwise, don't hesitate to edit for a re-open. (Thanks for a well-constructed question)

Hello, @RobinBetts. No offense taken. I just want to say, this question is still related to Blender -> UE5 pipeline, so if somebody will face the same problem, he will know where is problem exactly. But I'll prefer to leave decision to you. Should I delete this question?

It's a problem at the Unreal end, in a pretty specialized treatment of geometry for rendering, with no Blender fix. If you have  a fix, I guess that should be published to the Unreal community. On the other hand, if you accept your own 'not a Blender problem' answer, then it will do the archive no significant  harm, slight clutter, but ... future searchers will move on quickly  So, OK, give yourself a tick, and we're done.

@RobinBetts if you think the question is well formed, why not upvote it? :) Cheers

Hi. @MarkusvonBroady .. I thought that was moot, because the post would be closed.. but yes, thanks. This is a funny one. On balance for the archive, paradoxically, Sergei has made a fair point: it is useful for folks to know that the Q is 'off-topic', and usefulness is the aim.


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What does the factor in HSV node do?
What does the factor in HSV node do mathematically? Does it just multiply final value of node's calculations with values connected to factor pin? Or it uses something like linear interpolation?

Factor is "The amount of influence the node exerts on the image.". So it's supposed to be the same as mixing the original image with the corrected one with a Color Mix node in Mix mode. It's not just multiplication for sure. For anything more specific, I think you would have to look at the source code.

@MartynasŽiemys thank you. Unfortunately, I can't work with the source code. Hope, somebody will provide more details.

It seems blending is done by multiplying background image by inverted factor/alpha and then adding the foreground image multiplied by factor/alpha.
Testing seems identical:

So my guess would be that this is what happens with all color adjustment nodes that have factor - the result is blended with the original. And it seems to look identical even with out of range factor values:

Yes, suppose it's right. Thank you very much!

Seems like it. I am pretty sure that's the math. Like 99.9% :D I am not a developer though like I said, so... I haven't looked at the actual code.

"So my guess would be that this is what happens with all color nodes that have factor - the result is blended with the original. " - it was my guess too in the past, but I think at least one blending mode doesn't work like that.

I somehow intuitively did not mean to include Mix node into "color nodes that have factor", but I guess I did by mistake. I think blending modes are pure math algorithms so yea, it would make sense some might not behave the same as mixing. Thanks for pointing this out. Not really sure how to edit. I was not thinking about Mix node itself at all to be honest.

@MarkusvonBroady Well, the question wasn't about Mix, but the HSV node Factor. There it works like that. But you are correct there are even more than one mode in the Mix Color not working like that. I have a table where I have all the different mix mode calculations, but I won't get to my PC this weekend where I have them, so I cannot provide them yet.

@MartynasŽiemys When working with factors which are floats I would rather use the Vector Math node set to Scale then Multiply and to subtract the factor from 1 you can also use a simple Math node. Of course it is easier to add just one Vector Math node and then duplicate it... yeah, I just realized how stupid I am to always use the matching types and nobody really cares if the results are the same


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How to get two independent overview layouts in Blender?
I want to work with two models in one .blend file at the same time. For example, I have 2 cubes with different materials and I want to see both of materials at the same time:

I've tried to create a new window and select different cubes, but without any results - I see the same shader in both windows. What can I do (except of opening the new blender application - my pc won't be able to handle it and I'm not even sure windows will let me open the same file twice)?

One way around this is to have two instances of Blender open simultaneously with each of the two shaders active in one of the program instance's Shading Workspaces, and then either Alt-Tab between them, or, unmaximize each window and position it to occupy one half of the screen so that both materials can be seen at once. For smaller projects, this won't likely lead to a lot of performance overhead.

@R-800 that looks like a complete answer, and I think it’s the only way to do this. I recommend you post it as such.

You can pin active material using pin icon:

Select one object, press on pin icon:

Then select other one and press pin icon in second widow.

Yes, it works! Thank you!


text:
Can I manipulate channels of color attribute?
I want to create color attribute using this two:

to get attribute with R-Subsurface G-Pale B-Tan channels.
I suppose, I can do similar operation using texture baking (not sure if it'll work):

but I need to write it to color attribute. Can I do this somehow?

I can't understand your question.... where are these colors coming from? What is "it" that you need to write to color attribute?

Hello, @DanielMöller. I'm talking about vertex paint. The result of vertex paint is stored in color attributes (in object data, under uv maps tab).

So... you want to generate a third color attribute from two others?

@DanielMöller, yes.

You can do this in "Geometry Nodes" and later read it in a shader.


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Append Not Working - Copy and Paste between files not reliable
I have used append many times, but recently it refuses to work. I suspect I know why - it's a bug related to animation and/or armature.
I would love to know if anyone has any secret workarounds. The problem is 100% reproducible here - I cannot append any collections with armature and models in them. They all return "nothing indicated" as the error message.
It may also have to do with collections...I can sometimes get the project to open in append (in order to choose items) but selecting the relevant collections returns with the error.
Also, very often simply choosing any other item from the append list - cameras, or mesh say, there is no error message and nothing is brought in.
Copy and pasting of collections never works as expected. If I select the collection, and paste it in to the scene collection on my view layer, the collections are not pasted, but parts of their contents (not all), and never organised into their collection. The only work around I have atm is to go into the source file and delete everything else before copying.
We might suspect a corrupt file, but this is in multiple files including brand new ones. It also occurs both on Linux and Mac systems (I am running 3 systems), and the problem occurs there as well. I'd love to know what the problem is and if there are any work arounds. It's a really big problem.

Exporting as FBX is a reliable solution ONLY when you need just the very basic data (raw meshes, deform bones with no controllers nor mechanics, raw animations & hierarchy). If you need anything else, then it's only one of the last solutions if anything otherwise fails. Have you ttied with different Blender versions? Different files? Different assets? If there's always an issue no matter what, report it as a bug
Otherwise, I'd suggest to share your .blend file so we can see what might cause the issue.

Thanks for the response. So far it is occurring in most blend files of which there is very very many. The problem for sharing is that most of the files are very big - between 1 and 2 Gb sometimes bigger. I actually have not tried with earlier versions - that's a good idea. You are also correct exporting via FBX is not feasible.
To reproduce, add some Mixamo animations to your blend file and organise them into collections. Can you append those collections to a blend file?

I tried to import a mixamo model & animation on v2.83.0 and 2.83.2 and I have no issue. Maybe try to upload your blend file on google drive or something, so we can see if it's your assets causing issues.

Hi there - here a link to a blend file from which I cannot append to other files. Open a new blend file then go to "append" and try to append the collections "Cogsworth" and "Dirigible". https://we.tl/t-8xq9KrT7ze

I'm afraid I still can't reproduce the issue.

I discovered what the problem was - it's very simple and is just a result of a slightly confusing UI.
On choosing the file to append, the blue append entry field remains blue while it loads up the file...but to me it looks like nothing is happening. That's because it takes a while to load up the file - sometimes 15 to 20 seconds. I am hitting the append sign because I am not being given any feedback that Blender is working, and it is trying to append when I have not made a selection.
It was bound to be something simple.

Here is a quick fix (for Blender 3.5):

Append the collection containing the character and rig to a scene.
It looks like a mess, but just save the result and close the Blender scene as a new file.
Close and reopen Blender and reload said file.
The character and rig will be there, fully working, plus an unnecessary copy of the rig, which you can delete.

Answer - I found that it's the naming of the action that's the problem. For the action you want to copy (source file/action editor) look at the name it has in edit mode. It will probably be different than the name it has as a strip. When you're in the destination file & choosing the action for the destination track, look for the name the source action had in edited mode.

I think opening files in two different Blender windows might be useful.
You can just copy and paste between the two windows. It work for the most time

Thanks for your reply, but I am having problems with copy and paste as well. The collections will not copy and paste between blender files. What does work is to copy and paste from the viewport and then re-organise them back into Collections afterwards.


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Smoke Simulation Breaks Apart
I have been having a problem with a smoke simulation that falls apart after about 60 frames, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. For the first part of the simulation the smoke looks as I would expect but then it falls apart. The smoke is being produced from a particle emitter set to produce 1500 particles for 15 frames. It is for a train smoke simulation, and the domain is parented to an empty that the train is also parented to and begins to move at the time the simulation starts.
There are wind force fields - turbulence and wind. But removing the turbulence made no difference. I've done everything I can think of - including using a single emitter which actually was worse. It looks like there is an animated force field - something I definitely didn't do deliberately and cannot find anywhere anyway.
I just can't understand why it breaks apart the way it does. Note the screen grabs...the first picture shows what the simulation looks like just a few frames after the one on the right.
Has anyone seen this before? Can illuminate?

Select the emitter object and in the smoke physics tab turn up the Sample Sub-steps. That may help.
What I did when I was experiencing this issue is select the domain and in the domain physics tab under 'Field Weights' I turned off every field except for the one in my scene (which was only a turbulence field that was parented to the emitter object)
Hope this helps. :-)

Hey thanks for the comment and the tips. In the end the problem was that the domain border was too close to the emitter. It was as simple as that. I was trying to maximise resolution for the area that the smoke was modelling and the border was close to the chimney stack.


text:
How to correctly bake Color Attributes to texture with multiple UVs?
I'm trying to combine two color attribute in texture:

and at this point character looks as it should:

but when I'm trying to bake it to texture with this settings:

I'm getting strange baked texture:

and difference in character's viewport:

As I found out the reason is selected UV, which will be used for baking. But I don't understand what to do when I have multiple UVs? Every UV will give me different result when in original shader I'm getting combination of all UVs (I suppose). How can I properly bake this attributes to texture

Select the UV map that should be used for baking in the Object Data Properties > UV Maps list or connect a UV Map node to the Image Texture node

@Blunder as I said "Every UV will give me different result when in original shader I'm getting combination of all UVs (I suppose)". So I can't get the proper result using just one UV.

You need to make sure:

The UV layout does not have overlaps.
When visualizing the texture — the UV layout it was baked for is plugged.


text:
How to remesh model without losing details?
I have a character and I want to increase it's resolution using remesh option, to get more control in sculp mode:

When I using remesh, I'm getting this:

All details are breaking and when I'm trying to smooth them in sculpt mode my verticies are disappearing. What can I do with it? I've tried dyntopo, but that's all I'm getting even with big resolution (ear is example):

Dyntopo should work, but if you want to prepare your mesh for sculpting, you can simply use the Subdivsion Surface modifier: Duplicate your object to keep the original version somewhere, give the copy a Subdivision Surface modifier, apply it, sculpt

another solution is the Multiresolution modifier, but Subdivision Surface should work

If you want to sculpt; you need to use Multiresolution modifier, it is non-destructive and it doesn't work like the subdivision surface modifier. You should always choose it if you want to add resolution for sculpting.

@moonboots Thank you, multires is perfect. I don't know why is dyntopo doesn't work.

If you want us to check why Dyntopo doesn't work please share your file

@moonboots sure, but I don't know how. Does stackexchange support file uploading, or I should upload it somewhere else and use hyperlink?

you can use https://pasteall.org/blend/ upload and copy paste the URL it will generate, only share a small part of your file

@moonboots Done!
link

Ok I've tested and given an answer, there's no problem with your file from what I see

The Remesh Modifier is not supposed to be used for increasing the resolution of a mesh but, as the name suggests, it is used for generating a new topology for the mesh. You should not (never) use that if your objective is sculpting but I think you know that now and you learned it the hard way.
There is a modifier that is made specifically for sculpting and it's called the Multiresolution Modifier :

You can add more resolution to your mesh by clicking on Subdivide.
Level Viewport allows you to chose the level of subdiv that will be visible on the viewport.
Sculpt is the level that will be affected by your sculpt mode and
Render is the level of subdiv that will be rendered.
As I said in my comment, it does not work the same way as the Subdivision Surface Modifier.
Subdivision Modifier is just used to subdivide your mesh and if you go to sculpt mode without applying it you will sculpt on the original unsubdivided mesh's vertices unless you choose to apply it but then your original mesh will be lost.
Multires in the other hand allows you to work on you mesh non-destructively wich means you don't need to apply the modifier to sculpt on the subdivided version and you can increase or decrease the level of subdiv as you work.

This picture shows you what I mean, the cube on the left has Subdiv Modifier and the one on the right has Multires both have a subdivision at level 2. As you can see, you can only work on the 8 vertices of the original cube for the left one but on the right cube you have access to the subdivision even if the modifier is not applied.
Also, as Moonboots' comment states, you can also use DynTopo, it's an option in the tool settings when you are in sculpt mode and enabling it will make Blender to create automaticaly new hires geometry while you are working on sculpt mode :

I'd like to note that, Moonboots' comment can work just as good, you can backup your mesh and add a Subdiv and then apply it before working but the multires modifier is the standard workflow for sculpting and as I said before it will make your sculpting a lot easier.

Thank you very much, especially for explanation about creating new topology.

You're welcome.

Your Dyntopo works fine, when you choose Dyntopo it will automatically switch to Shade Flat, therefore the bad shading on the ear but you can enable the Smooth Shading in the Dyntopo panel.
Also, you have 2 main Detailing modes for the brush: Relative Detail and Constant Detail, 700 is ok for your object if you are in Constant Detail, if you switch to Relative Detail (meaning that the tris size will be relative to the view and not to the object size, which you may prefer), you'll need to choose a smaller value like 10.

Yes, it works! Thank you.


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Why I can't see my smoke in render?
I'm trying to add smoke to my scene, but it didn't work well. I can see smoke in viewport (in very bad quality and always black blinking, but still). When I'm trying to render it, I didn't see any smoke in scene, even if I made white smoke color.
Here's my file.
P.S. I checked material of domain, it's not empty.

I had the same problem fixed by changing the cache directory.

Two possible solutions.
You can change the Density factor on your "Smoke Domain Material" from 5.0 to higher (here 99.0):

Another solution: Change the "density" of the emitter. you have it set to default of 1.0. Try 2.0:

Thanks, it works!

@Сергей -- another solution: Change the "density" of the emitter.  you have it set to default of 1.0.  Try 2.0.


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How to change wave texture mathematically?
I want to achive this result for my column without using additional modeling (just shading and procedural textures, sorry for bad quality, I don't have better one):

For now I have this material (the top part for contour and the bottom part for spiral):

But I have a two problems:

for now it looks too flat even with the bump node connected to normals;
I can't find a math function to make the spiral to look more realistic: it should have not the straight angle, but something like this in every coil:

Can I solve that problems with math, or I should use something else? Does exist a best way to achive the final result with variations, because I think it's too much for me to use math for shapes like this (without additional geometry):

What's the end-purpose of your models? e.g. Lo-poly for games.. expensive for a scenic still,,,,

@RobinBetts do you mean math is expensive for scenic? I want to create scene in Blender and than recreate it in ue5.

If for a game, you will probably want to bake to textures anyhow? So whether you make this with shader displacement or geometry is up to you, whatever you find easiest.

@RobinBetts yes, you're right, but I didn't think so far ahead :)

Here's one route to barley-sugar moulding:

.. here, including the edge-piping, although, for generality, that's probably better stripped out as a separate group. This starts out assuming your panel is UV mapped, 0-1 in U.
The strategy is distance-to-0 (a circle), but in sheared UV cells. (Giving tilted ellipses.) The distances in that masked section and the outer piping are then mapped using color-ramps to give rounded height-profiles.
This is the sort of result when used as displacement:

The other patterns you refer to are also possible, but really a separate question? Different answers may come up with different approaches.

Sorry, but I can't recreate that material. My displacement node output looks the same as your but with principled bsdf connected to material output I can't see anything. I checked it 3 times and the only difference I can find is in the material displacement settings. There is a "reroute" option I can't find.

Maybe share a problematic sample on https://blend-exchange.com/ ? I'll have a look.. it could be so many things.. :)

here, I upload file (https://blend-exchange.com/b/m7E64lLG/). Strange thing, I tried to create test file and recreated material - everything works fine. But in my base file it doesn't work.

@Сергей The differences are numerous: Your material is set to Bump Only, Robin's is set to Displacement Only. Your plane has no geometry to be displaced, it's only the four corner vertices. But that wouldn't matter if you would use Adaptive Subdivision, but your model has no Subdivision Surface modifier. Even then it wouldn't work, because your settings use the Feature Set "Supported" while Robin uses "Experimental". To be fair, that's too much for a beginner to realize from the answer. I would recommend searching for tutorials on "microdisplacement" for the basic understanding.

@GordonBrinkmann thank you, I've tried to change "Bump Only" to "bump and Displacement" or "displacement only" without result anyway. I forgot about needed geometry for displacement. So, it's almost correct answer, but I asked about solution without additional geometry. But answer is still cool because we just need to replace displacement node with bump node and connect normals to principled bsdf. And change settings to "bump only". That's all. So that's still right answer with that note.

@Сергей Read my comment again. I said you wouldn't need additional geometry if you would use Adaptive Subdivision which is only available in the "Experimental" feature set, but that's not explained in the answer. That's why I suggested you watch tutorials on it to get a more in-depth understanding of what this is all about.

@GordonBrinkmann Oh, wow, thanks so much for covering my AFK! Maybe I should have included a how-to for displacement? But was focusing on the central issue.

@Сергей I hope you got it working this way, just so you know you can. But if your final objective is the artwork, for a game, then really I would be baking height-maps from assembled geometry. You get so much more flexibility. The topology doesn't have to be any good, you can jumble any old bits and pieces together, and shoot a depth-map from above, to use as an image texture.

Thank you all, guys! I think I'm not ready to use experimental feature set but I'm really grateful for such expanded answer and comments.

@Сергей If you are planning to use it in UE5 this wouldn't work there anyway.

@GordonBrinkmann do you mean bump node? Or math? Or everything?)

@Сергей Bump nodes, Math nodes, Color Ramps... (almost) everything

@GordonBrinkmann don't agree, in ue5 you have bump offset, you can emulate color ramp (there are many tutorials and examples), you have a lot of math nodes even with custom functions. Of course, I don't know something probably, but I'm sure there is nothing impossible

@Сергей I never said there are no ways to reproduce it - but you cannot export the material setup from Blender and import it in UE. I can reproduce Blender Math node setups in Excel, that doesn't mean I can import them.

@GordonBrinkmann oh, that's what you mean... I know that. I thought you mean I can't reproduce that effect in ue5)


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Is it possible to rig an STL file?
Is it possible to rig an armature to an STL file?
I have been trying and it's not seeming to have it. I'm a bit of an amateur, bit it's still not seeming to have it.
Thank you,
Harry

No, it is not possible to rig an STL file.
Firstly, Blender cannot open STL files. They can only be imported to Blender and once imported the information contained in such files is translated to a format native to Blender and, so to speak, become a .blend file.
Secondly, the term 'rigging' in CG context does not apply to files or file formats and saying to rig a file format makes no sense at all. Rigging is a process of making some kind of deformation or control system to make it easier to animate objects in animation software packages like Blender. So if you want to rig a 3d model that you imported from an  STL file to Blender, then it's exactly the same as to rig any other model in Blender. Rigging however is a very complex and wide subject and cannot be described in full in one answer. You will need to ask a more specific question and provide the full context of your situation to get any meaningful help.

Yes, yes. So once I have opened an STL file, imported it into Blender and it has been converted, is it possible to then go about rigging this? I do understand what I meant did come across a bit stupid, but essentially you got the gist of it.    So I'm trying to add a armature to the object, is it possible to attach this armature, or because it has been converted from an STL files does it mean it won't allow me? Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply, Harry

I understand what you want to learn. I am sure pretty much everyone reading the question here does. It's just that I don't think it is possible to answer that with a single answer. The subject just seems to be too broad to explain in a single answer in full. You either need to narrow down the question or learn a lot more information than can be provided in an answer. Maybe watch a few tutorials about rigging and then ask more specific questions about what you struggle with while learning rigging.

Also please try to communicate what you mean clearly. Your question text does not convey any information at all. It's often better to tell it in simple language instead of using terminology incorrectly. For example: "I have a model of [the thing you have] in STL format. I want to animate it so it could [do whatever you want it to do in the animation], because [your purpose of the animation]. I think I need to rig it so it I could easily animate [the movements you need in your animation]. How could I go about it? " I think that would get answers or at least point you in the right direction.

Thank you for replying Martynas, I really appreciate it. I do apologise about my question being very vague, I agree that this won't help myself or other members of this community.  However, I was just looking to see if members of the community have had success with rigging imported STL files, rather than how to achieve this. Because I'm new to blender I wanted to know if I was wasting my time or not, rather than expecting someone to write an A-to-B process of achieving this.

Would you be able to help finalise an answer for me, about, "Is it possible to successfully parent an armature to an imported STL file?" Once again, thanks for responding and slapping me up to scratch with my good practice with asking questions here.

It is possible to store 3d models that can be rigged in STL format and rigging is possible in Blender because it has a lot of functionality suitable for that. It is also possible to store poor quality 3d models with very bad topology in STL format that will give you terrible results if you attempt to rig them in certain ways.


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How to draw conical spiral column
How can i draw this kind of column but with different radius on top and bottom, so the column is slightly conical.

Not sure I understand your question when you say draw, but you can use a simple deform to taper it into a cone shape.

Thank you! I'm still new to the Blender, this worked as i intended.

This obviously wouldn't be so good if you want to start bending this screw. Then you'd want to look at either a lattice or mesh deform or just using proportional editing. Good luck!

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/143274/how-to-model-a-twisted-cylinder-like-this/143278#143278 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2297/how-would-i-go-about-creating-a-spiralled-dome https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/108806/how-do-i-make-spiraling-loop-cuts-around-a-cylinder https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/56396/logarithmic-curve-with-spiralling-cross-section/56398#56398 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/65633/how-can-i-create-twisted-geometry/65634#65634 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/114765/how-to-model-spiral/114771#114771


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cv2.VideoCapture(0) crashes blender
I'm trying to use this script but it appears that it doesn't work on my machine.
I'm running Blender Version 2.81a (2019-12-04), on MacOS 10.14.6 (Mojave).
I have started a blank project, with just a cube in the middle, and a script :
import bpy
import cv2
import numpy as np

class ModalTimerOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Operator which runs its self from a timer"""
    bl_idname = "wm.modal_timer_operator"
    bl_label = "Modal Timer Operator"

    _timer = None
    _cap = None
    _img = None
    _size = None

    def modal(self, context, event):
        if event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            self.cancel(context)
            return {'CANCELLED'}

#        if event.type == 'TIMER':
#            ret, frame = self._cap.read()
#            resized = cv2.resize(frame, self._size, interpolation = cv2.INTER_AREA)
#            rgb = np.flip(resized, axis=[0, 2])

#            rgba = np.ones((self._size[1], self._size[0], 4), dtype=np.float32)
#            rgba[:,:,:-1] = np.float32(rgb) / 255
#            self._img.pixels = rgba.flatten()

        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def execute(self, context):
        wm = context.window_manager
        self._timer = wm.event_timer_add(0.5, window=context.window)
#uncommenting next line crashes Blender
        #self._cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0)
#        self._img = bpy.data.images['image']
#        self._size = tuple(self._img.size)

        wm.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def cancel(self, context):
        wm = context.window_manager
        wm.event_timer_remove(self._timer)
        self._cap.release()

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ModalTimerOperator)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ModalTimerOperator)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    bpy.ops.wm.modal_timer_operator()

Specifically :
self._cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0) crashes blender.
It seems like it's a python <=> Blender issue where python is asking to use the camera without permissions, so the app quits - i think -.
I have successfully used other script without crashing blender, such as the Templates in the Scripting tab -> Templates -> Python.
Might be some noob issue too, as I'm not very versed in blender....
Any pointer would be appreciated.
Best,
P

running Blender from the terminal solves it, as the terminal has full permissions : Go to Applications -> Blender ( right click show package contents ) -> contents -> MacOS. Right click on Blender, and open it with Terminal or iTerm.

Could you write that as an answer?


text:
Duplicate mesh section and merge
Following up on a question I opened up earlier (Joining more objects breaks fill), I have a mesh produced by repeated application of boolean modifier 'difference'. (This represents a Type VII submarine deck with sea water cut-outs to be 3D printed in due course.)
In a few cases, however, I was not able to get the booleans to work despite moving the modifier objects slightly, re-editing them, applying various suggestions found on the internet, etc. Fortunately, the number of problems is small (4 items) in comparison with the whole project (several hundred), and in each case I have a similar slot nearby which I can theoretically reproduce if I can figure out how.
I am wondering about doing these last four manually by copying and pasting in existing sections of the wireframe (for example). I am able to select a section of wireframe, move it to the right place, and separate it as a separate object (if need be), but I'm not sure how to paste it in so that it creates the proper intersection points so that I can cut out top and bottom faces and end up with holes going all the way through (as well clean topology).
What I have now, with one of the extra required slots marked (by Bézier curve object of the type I extruded to make the original boolean difference modifiers):

Wireframe image of the same area, with duplicated and separated 'slot object in the required location:

There may of course be other, better, or less 'manual' ways to do this...

In my opinion your method is too tedious and your topology has too many vertices and ngons. What you should do in your case is:

Create a module like this one.

Enable the Snap tool (or press Ctrl) in vertices mode and enable the Auto-merge option.

Duplicate the module as much as you want, move on the X or Y axis (GX and GY), snap and auto-merge will help to make them stick each-other. Give it a Subdivision Surface modifier (and Shade Smooth) to make it look smoother.

Alright, so make a small rectangular surface, apply the Bézier curve and extrude down, for the first step? And then what, apply that to the piece I have? I don't particularly want to start over, it is as I want it except for four small areas. Sure, I can try that. As for tedious: yes, I agree; but it's worth knowing how to do that just the same.

I didn't use any bezier curve, just the Knife Project tool to make the hole, then extrude inwards, then extrude it down.

The whole point of the Bézier curve is for it to be a smooth cylinder. 2) How do I get the bottom face and sides? (Never mind, from the previous question I guess extrude the edges down, turn it over, and fill the face...?) But I get the impression you're suggesting I start over.... 3) Keep in mind this is a static object, not something I'm going to animate, so if I can just finish it and print it, I'm done, whether or not I could have done it with fewer vertices. I have other objects I can apply different methods to.

Update: First, I tried using knife project on a surface and it didn't do a very nice job at all. It misplaced some things, and even those placed in the right place are overly simplified and do not look nice, unfortunately. Then I decided to try the same thing on a square plane (simpler topography) and leave cutting the outline to the end. The results seem more promising, this time.

Once you've used the Knife Tool project you need to bring some corrections, us the Knife tool to create new edges (K to activate, C to cut orthogonally, Z to cut through), or join some vertices with J, etc...


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Displacement Modifier Stretching
I am trying to model a heightmap using a plane, but for some reason the texture I use keeps distorting? What am I doing wrong here? (I am using the smiley as an example to show the stretching)

I solved it with changing the texture mapping to UV


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Fixed Camera Resolution in Rendered Preview Mode
I was wondering if does anyone knows about some addon or script that would allow you to have a fixed camera resolution in a Rendered Preview Mode.
So basically same thing as an "Always use camera resolution" option in Blender with Octane or just same as in Corona or VRay with 3Ds Max.
To explain better - the resolution of the image you see in Viewport is always the same as it is set in output setting, regarding of the zoom level or windows size, so if you were to zoom in on some small object in the frame, you would see it pixelated because that's how it would look like if you would zoom in on a final rendered image.
I have tried to write some script with help of ChatGPT but with no success. In my head it sounds like a pretty simple thing to write but with my lack of coding skill it is impossible. Also I'm pretty surprised that I couldn't find no addon that does this, it is a pretty useful function that tbh should be there natively.
Thanks for any suggestions!

"It is a pretty useful function that tbh should be there natively" - tbh, this is a very subjective statement. I have never needed such thing in 25 years doing 3D.

@GordonBrinkmann Well, it's not something that is necessary, but definitely useful to preview how something will look like in the final render, things like bump on a fabric material can often seem like enough in render preview but then not enough on a final render, also same with scale of the texture.


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Compositing - Glare Effect/Node in Viewport different than Render
When I try to use the glare in the compositing editor, the live viewport as well as single frames will render showing these RGB reflections/glare that I want.
The problem is, when I save the photo, the RGB reflections/glares disappear. How do I save and keep this effect the same as what the viewport shows me?

I was able to get the effect to save when I save the renders as .EXR filetype. Weirdly, when importing the .EXR into premier pro, the effect is lost again. However when I import it into Da Vinci Resolve, it works.

yes it's a problem of alpha transparency, it removes the effect, there are some tricks to fix that though

How do you go about fixing that? The EXR thing I did will only work for animations - single frame renders still don't give me the same image as the viewport.

I haven't tried any of these solutions but maybe check this page: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/32900/how-to-properly-render-smoke-on-a-transparent-background or this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tmb5HRU1cUo


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Child Constraint Not Working
I applied the child constraint on the eye to follow the movement of the face but it doesn't work properly. As you can see the picture, when I played the video, the eye doesn't follow the face. Is there any way the eye can be parented properly without joining them?

You have chosen the character's head object as Target of your Child Of constraint but as your character's mesh is deformed by an armature, the constraint won't make the eye follow the deformed mesh, you need to parent to the armature's head bone instead.


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How do I select specific filled surface and extrude/blend/operate on it?
I have been using Blender for less than a week now. I am actually amazed by the software's capabilities!
Anyway, I have started using Blender for a project where I have automate some of the operations on STL files. With my limited experience of Blender and coding, here is what I have been able to accomplish -

Import the stl file
Get the dimensions of bounding box.
Bisect/cut at a specific distance wherever I want.

The image shows the manual work which I want to accomplish through coding.
Here's my code -
import bpy
import math

# Load STL file
file_path = "D:/Geometry files/STLs and OBJs/match1.2ASCII.stl"
bpy.ops.import_mesh.stl(filepath=file_path)

# Selecting the stl object you want to work with
bpy.data.objects['match1.2ASCII'].select_set(state=True)

# Selecting EDIT mode
bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()

# Selecting VERTICES type and selecting them all
bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(use_extend=False, use_expand=False, type='VERT')
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')

# Naming the active object as obj
obj = bpy.context.object

# Getting bounding box
min_x = min(v.co.x for v in obj.data.vertices)
max_x = max(v.co.x for v in obj.data.vertices)
min_y = min(v.co.y for v in obj.data.vertices)
max_y = max(v.co.y for v in obj.data.vertices)
min_z = min(v.co.z for v in obj.data.vertices)
max_z = max(v.co.z for v in obj.data.vertices)
obj_height = max_z - min_z
cut_height = min_z * 0.5
print(max_z)

# Selection mode - EDIT
bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(use_extend=False, use_expand=False, type='EDGE')
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')

# Bisect -
bpy.ops.mesh.bisect(plane_co=(23.6438, -40.9733, cut_height), plane_no=(0,0,1),
                    use_fill=True, clear_inner=True, xstart=0, xend=0, ystart=0, yend=0, flip=False)

I have to further do a set of operations on the filled surface. But I don't quite understand how do I select that surface?
As I was going through some other questions, I realised that every face/edge/vertex has an ID, if I get that ID, I can select it using the bMesh module (I guess?) and then extrude it. But how do I get that specific filled surface's ID?
I came across this question which mentions similar thing - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37808840/selecting-a-face-and-extruding-a-cube-in-blender-via-python-api , but here, you have to manually see the ID of the face which seems hardcoding. How do I make it work in my case?
Thank you!

Hello ! The polygons should be selected in edit mode after the bisect operation is executed

Hi Gorgious, yes, I realise that. But how do I do that using code?

Polygons have a select attribute you can query for. https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.MeshPolygon.html#bpy.types.MeshPolygon.select You might have to go out of edit mode and then back in edit mode for the flag to update

Umm.. can you be more specific or perhaps give me an example? I am quite unsure how to use it.  I couldn't exactly understand how exactly or what selection criteria is being used while selecting any polygon? I am sorry, but I'm not quite experienced with coding. So stuff like - https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.ops.mesh.html#bpy.ops.mesh.bisect , I can understand with some efforts.

Sure, selected_polygons_indices = [] ; for polygon in obj.data.polygons: if polygon.select: selected_polygons_indices.append(polygon.index) or selected_polygons_indices = [p.index for p in obj.data.polygons if p.select]

If I understand it correctly, you first create an empty array. And now if any polygon/s are selected, it will add the index of that selected index into that array. However, I tried running it and selecting all the polygons in selected_polygons_indices but it doesn't show/highlight anything, which is a bit weird. Also, selecting the polygons is the challenge in the 1st place which is not being handled by the code :(

The polygons are already selected after you run the bisect operation

That's true and I can just plainly extrude it which I did! But I want to make another circular section underneath it and then bridge the loops. That's the problem! (To bridge  them you must join both the objects, and then its not possible to select any of those sections because I don't know the IDs.) Additionally, somewhere in another project I need to locate the meshID of the left-most and right-most cell in mesh so I could place an object over there. And so I am trying to understand indices and select specific polygons/cells.


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Two materials in one mesh
I don't want two materials in one mesh. But when joining two meshes with Ctrl+j, it happened.
How can I make the object just one material?

Select the one you don't want and click the minus button to the right to delete it. This has to be done in Object Mode, you cannot delete materials in Edit Mode.

See this answer https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/275798/73575 for an explanation on how materials work.

The object actually doesn’t have two different materials, it has two different material slots, and one of them is empty. This was probably the case for the original objects as well. The solution is simple: Delete the empty material slot (this can only be done in object mode); @Gordon Brinkmann is correct. See this page for more info. The faces that were assigned to that slot will be reassigned to the remaining one.

I actually intentionally didn't specify to select the empty slot, since beginners sometimes do not really understand that the displayed light grey color on an object is not a material - and since one part of the object is still the default grey and the question does not mention if yellow or grey should be kept, I just left it to the OP ;) But I guess your comment with the link to the materials explanation is quite valuable for the understanding.


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How to get rid of the background in Shading
I incidently did something while in the Shading window and now I have a background in "3D viewport". How do I go back and remove this world background?

You have chosen the Shading workspace:

By default it displays the default Material Preview HDRI, you can remove it in the Viewport Shading panel > World Opacity (and you can hide the 2 spheres in the Viewport Overlays > HDRI Preview), or simply go back into the Layout workspace:


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Offset Edge wrong Width
I wish to offset the edge by 5mm. I used Offset edge, but I don't understand the unit of the Width that you put in. I does not seem to be correctly working. Any advice?

Your scale is not 1:1:1. Apply it with Ctrl+A > Scale:


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"auto merge vertices" distance to small
I make small models in millimetre. The problem is that the vertices are close together and the auto merge vertices does not work proper.
How can I make auto merge work proper?
I know scaling up my model would work, but I like to work in millimetres.

You can tweak the merge distance threshold in the Options dropdown in the top right of the 3D viewport or in the tool settings in the properties editor.

If you like to work in millimeters, go to the Scene Properties and set Unit Scale to 0.001 and the unit for Length to Millimeters. This way you can work in a larger scale so that the tools work better, but have everything in millimeters.


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"copy rotation" bone starts already with a rotation
I wish to rotate the foot separate in global coordinates in Graph editor. To do this I added a controller bone that is geometricly straight.
Now I added "Copy rotation" to the foot bone. But the foot already rotates even tho the controller bone has not yet rotated.

How can I add a 'zero' position for the controller bone of the foot regarding the adding of the rotation to the foot bone?

You may instead want to use the Child Of constraint, which has options for setting inverse and copying position as well, but behaves as you would expect just adding the constraint and disabling the Location and Scale options.

But if you want to use Copy Rotation, setting the Target space to "Local Space (Owner Orientation)" and Owner space to "Local Space" seems to do the trick:


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Keeping Shaders in Memory
Is it possible to make Blender keep shaders in memory instead of reloading them each time I switch back to lookdev or render view?
I am losing a lot of time switching between the views simply because the shaders have to load...it can take up to 3 or 4 minutes. I work as much in the basic viewport as possible for speed, but I do need to switch to check textures, lights and things. Unless it is only a short time, Blender has to reload all the shaders again.
There MUST be a way to get Blender to hold the shaders in memory so it is possible to quickly switch between manipulating things in the viewport and checking the effect in shaded view.

I discovered an answer to this:
Preferences/System/Memory & Limits/Texture Time Out
I had this set as default to 120 (seconds I am presuming). It is possible to set it to 0 so that they are kept in memory.
What would be nice is if it were possible to load or unload textures manually. Often, we are working on lighting and textures for a while and then sometimes modelling and animation.

Thanks for that - I didn't know to do that.


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How to stop Cloth Simulation Sticking to Collision Object
I am animating my character pushing through theatre curtains, but no matter what I do I can't seem to stop the curtain sticking to the collision object.

What should happen is the impulse from the collision object surrounding the umbrella should give some impetus to the curtain fabric which then should fall naturally behind my character (with some tweaks).
What is happening is that the cloth tracks the position of the collision object exactly.
I have tried many settings:

Denim; Quality steps 12, Vertex Mass up to 20 kg, Air Viscosity up to 10, Tension/Comp/Shear up to 80, Bending up to 40.
Damping likewise increasing up to 50 and Bending to 5.
Self collisions on, distance 0.0015
On the collision object I have damping up to 0.7 and friction down to 0.

These more heavy duty settings improve it, but they all are sticking to the collision object after the inital impetus. Is there a way to maybe turn off the collision object at some point perhaps?

there are several ways to do that. But since you didn't show us your settings now (and a lot of settings depend on each other) and it is a complex calculation which Blender does, we can only "make proposals" which might or might not help you. So if you want precise help, you should provide your blend file. One way e.g. is to make a simple "proxy" object of your rigged body so that the curtain calculation is easier for Blender and might not stick to it. And of course turn off or lower the friction as much as possible.

Sorry if I did not make it plain enough, but there is only a simple collision object. You can see it in the image - it is a simple cylinder enclosing the umbrella. The cloth is sticking to that. I listed my settings above - starting with the default denim and trying multiple settings up to those I have listed. Any not mentioned are left at default.

Currently, my solution is to parent the cylinder via the object constraint and animate its influence to 0 at the right moment and then animate the cylinder going to roughly the right position for the curtain. It's not very pretty. There must be a way for the collision influence to be turned off, or some setting that prevents the cloth from "sticking" to the collision object.

Ok - well with further experimentation, using a cube (as collision object) instead of a cylinder yields much better results.


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NLA Editor - Adding Animations Over Existing Animations

The NLA editor is not working as I expect it to.

I am animating a robot bowing, removing his hat, and then throwing it into a crowd.
I animated the right arm to the point of the release of the hat, with 3 positions; the starting position, a slight wind up of around 24 frames, and then the throw which i animated over around 5 frames.
I decided that the throw might be too quick, so i split the strip between the wind up position (position 2) and the finish of the throw (position 3). I then moved the split clip - "Throw Hat.001" and added a transition to interpolate between the 2 positions giving me control over how fast the throw action would be.

The first problem is that the 3rd position still existed in the strip, and blender did not honour the end of the strip. The strip ended before any further animation, but the transition did not work. Once I deleted the animation, the transition worked.

Is this a bug?

Then I wanted to add some movements to the left arm. Instead of creating a new action I added it to the end of "Throw Hat". I split that clip made a new track and tried to use the "add" setting to add those movements to existing animation. The only animation data was for that arm, and what I think SHOULD happen is the actions should be added to the position of the left arm only. But that is not what happens - the WHOLE model just gets completely messed up.

I tried all the different extrapolation methods, but nothing works. I tried moving the "add" strip below, but as expected it is overriden by the tracks above so it didn't work either. I must say the NLA editor is fairly confusing. What I am trying to do is to get some flexibility in constructing an animation.
So to make this work:

I had to delete the animation
Create a new action strip
Add some dummy animation
Push it down
Change it's blend mode to "add"
go into tweak mode and make the animations I wanted to.

This worked but it seems pretty fussy. Have I missed something?

It's a bit complicated to understand but why don't you simply edit the original action? NLA is useful when you want to repeat and combine reccurent actions, but it's not particularly convenient to edit an action with the NLA strips

Well that's exactly what I do want to do. But also I want to be able to separate the actions so that I can change the timing and placement of them individually. This being a perfect case.


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How to use inverted hull method for anime outlines?
I am trying to create anime stylized components for the Unity game engine.
Almost every tutorial I find mentions the inverted hull method and describe it like this:

Make outline material with black coloured emission node
Turn on backface culling
Put a Solidify modifier on object
On solidify, flip normals, material index on 1 (or whatever the outline index position is), change thickness

And you are done, end of tutorial.
However, when I try this I get very ugly and crazy lines/artifecats.

I can't figure out for the life of me what to do with this, no tutorial I have found goes beyond just explaining the steps I just mentioned to fix these artifacts.
Could someone explain how to fix these artifacts or point me in the direction where I can find the solution?

The technique is appropriate for manifold, smooth-shaded meshes without self-intersection.  It is not appropriate for other kinds of meshes, like the one you are showing.

was just looking for the same thing. Basically you go into the material settings for the outline and change the shadow mode from opaque to none. Here is a link to the video that explains alot. Hope this fixes the problem :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp4V-9oFmnM
(4.50 he explains about this bug)


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How to apply animation to character?
I have download animation from mixamo and trying to apply it on my mesh. The problem is my character is in A-pose and I suppose I need to assign rig from mixamo to my mesh with auto weights. But I can't do that when my character and rig doesn't have same position:

How can I apply that animation to my mesh?

first thing make sure that the armature is in rest pose, then select your mesh, switch to sculpt mode, activate the symmetry on X option, use the Pose brush to change the arm pose?

@moonboots what is the rest pose?

the armature's default pose

@moonboots how can I know armature's default pose? Is it 1 frame of animation?

Go into the Object Data panel and under Skeleton, click on Rest Position

@moonboots found it, thank you! I'll try to use it tomorrow.

@moonboots yeah, it works! Thank you! But one more question: can I scale bones without losing animation because I have a problem with too long bones?

Sure, no problem, but you need to scale the bone in Edit mode, not Pose mode

@moonboots hmm, I'm trying to change bone scale with mirror option activated but it doesn't work.

The bones need to have the good suffix, .L or _L for example for a left arm, otherwise there will be no mirroring

@moonboots understood, thank you.

First thing make sure that the armature is in rest pose, then select your mesh, switch to Sculpt mode, activate the symmetry on X option, use the Pose brush to change the arm pose:


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Export stylized hair from blender to ue5 workflow
Good day. I can't find information about exporting stylized hair for anime character from blender to ue5. I want to know how to export it and how to animate it in unreal. I know that I can export particle hair as alembic file and simulate physics in ue5, but in case of stylized hairs we have separated nurbs and shouldn't fully simulate it (like in overwatch). So I'm looking for workflow or, at least, pipeline.

First you need to add bones and rig the hair nurbs in Blender. Here's a relatively popular video in Blender on how to achieve that. Because you're using Unreal physics, you don't have to do the wiggle / jiggle physics of the video past the 0:51 timemark
NSFW as it uses a nude model - Blender 2.82 : Hair Rigging, Physics, & Animation (In 2 Minutes!!!)
Make sure you parent the hair to the head bone so it follows the head. And be sure the weight painting is done right. I recommend do a few strands at first to test it out. You can always go back when you're comfortable with the workflow
Export as FBX. Make sure the hair bone look similar to this in Unreal.
Click on 'Character' drop down near the top left on the viewer window.  Then, you have to set up an AnimBP for the physics. There is AnimDynamics and KawaiiPhysics, both are free and there are some video tutorials. Both are used for clothes physics too. Here's a link to a tutorial for KawaiiPhysics. You may have to adjust the settings to get the physics you need. Kawaii Physics in Unreal Engine 5 | Easy Bone Physics in UE5

Cool! That's exactly what I needed. Thank you!


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How to create separated controls for character's armature?
Good evening. I want to animate my character and export animation to ue5. The problem is I already have character in ue5 with specific skeleton, so I can't use additional bones in blender. But I still need to find a way to make animations in blender easier and more accurate, like IK, constraints, or something else to prevent this type of situations:
So, I suppose, I need "separated" controls? But how to do it?

The general answer is, bake animations ("bake action" operation) with visual keying and clear constraints; this should be done by default on an fbx export.  It will write things like your IK constraints to transforms on the bones making up the IK chain.  While it's not generally an issue, you can, if you'd like, target bones in a different armature for these constraints, or for that matter, you can target objects, like empties.
In some cases, you'll find that you'll want to animate bones with a different hierarchy-- perhaps your character is being swung about by their head, and you want to animate with the head bone as the root bone.  In this case, you can use copy transforms constraints, in world space->world space, to give the transforms of the bones of one armature to the bones of another armature that doesn't necessarily share the same hierarchy.  If your head in your Blender animated armature is oriented differently, in its rest pose, than the head in your UE armature, then make a bone in the animated armature that isn't different and parent it to your Blender animated head bone.  Then you can bake these constraints into visual transforms, just as I mentioned above.

Sorry, I don't have so much experience with blender animation. Do you mean I can export to UE not only bones but controls too? And can you tell me where I can get more detailed information about it, because I didn't understand half of your sentences(

"Do you mean I can export to UE not only bones but controls too?"  No, I mean that you can write the effects of your controls into your bones.  "And can you tell me where I can get more detailed information about it"  Try https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/nla/editing.html#bake-action .

Okay, thank you for answers.


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Easiest way to create gloves?
I'm trying to create gloves for my character and decided to use simple solution - high poly cylinder and shrinkwrap modifier and it looks ok, but I have a problem with fingers:
I suppose this is happening because of bad precision of modifier. How can I solve this problem? I've tried to apply subdiv modifier and got better result, but it still looks bad.

hello could you please share your file (only the arm and the cylinder)?

Judging by the image, you probably need more vertices. Try subdividing in edit mode.

@moonboots, sorry, I can't. The file is nsfw, and it's weight is ~500mb. I don't know why.  Seems like Alex's solution is pretty good, I'll try to use it today's evening.

the easiest way would be to duplicate the hand, inflate it and smooth it using  sculpting tools

Cool, it works, but what to do with nails?

Well, I just manually selected nails, deleted it's vertices, and then used gridd fill with further sculpting. Thank you for your advice.


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What can be a reason of dark areas on mesh?
I worked in edit and sculpt modes and clicked some key combination. After that I've got strange dark areas at mesh:

What could be a reason of this areas? I haven't changed anything in shader, so the problem should be related to topology, but I don't know any function which can do this.
File:

It looks like the split normals (normals that determine the shading) are messed up, go into the Data panel > Geometry Data and click on Clear Custom Split Normals Data:

Yes, it works. Thank you!


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How to delete armature layer?
How can I delete/clear only one armature layer?

I've tried to use "Remove from keying set" function, but it doesn't helped.

Select all its bones and delete them? Or move them to another layer with M if you don't want to delete them

@moonboots oh, yeah. Seems like it was too obvious for me. It's an answer. Thank you.

Select all its bones and delete them. Or move them to another layer with M if you don't want to delete them.


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How to use different textures in shader editor?
I know that my question is not understendable at all, but I don't know how to formulate it correctly, so I'll describe my situation. I download a model where there are 2 similar textures for body (nsfw, so I covered it):
1:

2:

So, as you can see the face is placed in different coordinates of uv, but when I'm trying to connect this textures directly in shader editor, I'm getting good result:
1:

2:

How could it work? When I'm exporting model to UE5 the 1 texture just doesn't work because of UV, so I thought the problem could be in UV layouts but no, there is only one main UV:

and the additional one for neck:

So the 1 texture just shouldn't work in Blender too, but it does. Why?

Hard to tell, you should go to File menu > External Data > Pack Resources, and upload the file.

@joshsanfelici well, I can't pack resources (this option is greyed out) and I can't upload the file because it's weight is 1.2GB

@vklidu why do you think I'm previewing the same texture? In 1 I'm using mercy_d texture, in 2 I'm using MercyShem_D texture, isn't it?

@vklidu sorry, I double checked it - I just don't have Viewer Node. I'm using node wrangler add-on, but when I'm clicking ctrl+shift+LMB, it's just connecting texture output to surface pin of material output node. I'm using blender 4.0.2.

@vklidu in 1 screenshot there is "Mercy_D.jpg" texture connected to material output. In 2 screenshot there is "MercyShem_D.png" texture connected to material output. It's different textures and I've posted it in the beginning of question, where the first one is called "Mercy_D.jpg" and second - "MercyShem_D.png". Another nodes are just color ramps, mix colors and other unrelated staff. I would like to share file, but after all cleanings where there is only head and materials left, it's weight is 756 Mb.

@vklidu There is only head and 1 material remain but size still 82Mb, so I can't upload it to blend-exchange. Here's google drive, if it's acceptable.

@vklidu done. Thank you for your time.

To avoid "chatting" in comments I wrote summary here ...
For texture 1 and texture 2 you need individual UV Map, you can't achieve texturing with just a one UVmap for such textures.
... you are not getting "good result" in both screens (of viewport head), you are previewing the same texture number 2 (texture number 1 is black haired lady). Why do you see the same texture is not clear from screens and since your shared file is different, so it is hard to say.
The file you shared in comment doesn't contain UV Map for texture 1.
So there is not a way to texture model with this texture (black haired lady). And this texture is not included in your blend either.
For corrupted eyelashes UV seen in this UV map just select edge and pres "V" to split vertices and in UV Editor select eyelashes by "L" (linked) and scale down and place somewhere (probably there is a part of texture to reserved for it).

Edit
(related to comment) ... yes those are two things ... image choose in Image Texture node is similar to material in meaning - it is just a data container, that can store image data. Advantage of such system is that you can name it independently. The name of this texture container takes image name automatically when image is imported. Under node properties you can select as source data another image, but automatically taken name of the first image is kept ...

Ok, I just have one additional question which can make it clear for me: When I'm trying to select image in "Image Texture" node - I see texture name "Mercy_SSS.png", but when I'm unpacking this texture I'm getting texture named "Bayo_SSS.png". How could it be and could it be the reason of our misunderstanding?

See edit for more info ...

Well, I think it's best I can get with my current knowledge of Blender. Thank you for your  help and spended time.


text:
Ends of Array behave weirdly on ends of a NURBS curve
I don't understand what is really happening so I don't know how to fix it or really how to describe it.
I checked the basic stuff like origin point, normals, offsets, directions and some other basic stuff I could think off.

The same thing happens on the other side but I "fixed it" with offsetting arrayed object by a random number. Didn't entirely fix the issue but made it bearable. Here it didn't work.

Thanks in advance.

I'm redoing these curves manually and so far it seems to have helped but if anyone has any idea what might have caused that I would be thankful

It is a bit hard to understand what we are looking at ... how should it look like. But since you use Nurbs type and array ends with last point there are probably two points.

Could you maybe share the blend file with the problem over blend exchange?  https://blend-exchange.com/

first comment was right. End verticies of a curve were doubled somehow.