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Is it possible to reproduce Maya/ Houdini target/ point weld operators inside of Blender?
Both Maya and Houdini have an operator called target weld (point weld in Houdini) that essentially is the same as Blender's Merge at last operator, but they are done in one step and are continuous until the operator is exited.
Here is a gif from each program to demonstrate the operator.
Maya:
:
Houdini:

My goal is to reproduce this behavior inside of Blender, but as far as I am aware, there is only Merge at last, which at best requires 3 steps to complete one weld.
Is there an operator buried somewhere in blender I haven't found, or some scripting solution that could shorten the steps in merge at last to work this way?

3DSMax also has an equivalent Target Weld, but as far as I know Merge at Last is Blenders closest operator. Unfortunately workflow involves dealing with the menu as you mention, making it unsuited for repeated use.
One possible workaround is using Blender's Auto Merge feature. While in Mesh Edit Mode, from the 3D View Header > Options menu activate Auto Merge.
Just combine it with regular Move operator or the Tweak tool, overlapping vertex should automatically be removed.

Having vertex snapping turned on from the magnet icon on top makes it more reliable.
You can also toggle it on or off from the Tools Options from the 3D View Sidebar or Properties Window.

Coupled with vertex snapping this works as I need it to. Thanks for the tip!

Welcome. Good point, forgot to mention that since I often have snapping on by default


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Does Blender need Volume for SSS?
I am trying out the SSS shader in Blender and it seems that it cant be used on Planes is that right? I just can't get to let my plane have a sss effect.
Is there a workaround without using the solidify modifier?

SSS doesnt work well with planes. Some thickness will help. Or you can always use a translucency shader.

SSS is short for sub-surface scattering, and since a plane is an infinitely thin object, there is nothing beneath the surface to calculate.

To work properly, yes, it does require volume. The Subsurface Scattering emulates scattering within the surface and this includes light that has travelled into the surface and has been scattered within the volume and back out of the surface, as well as light that has passed into the volume from a different surface and scattered back to the surface. If the mesh is a flat surface without volume then there is no volume to emulate and so no light can scatter through from the 'back' surface. However, the light from the top surface can still scatter so the shader will operate, just will be darker - without any effect from light striking the "back" surface (or sides).
To demonstrate I created a scene with a Subsurface Scatter shader on a plane illuminated by spotlights (one tinged red, the other blue) above and below.
With a Solidify modifer :

Without solidify :

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Solid View better recognizable?
is there a way to change the Material for the Solid View?
Like in 3ds Max you can change to Clay Mode for Example.
I wouldn't mind with a normal grey object but somehow in Blender the Objects have such a weird lighting that its difficult to recognize edges in my objects.
I'm not talking about wireframe mode. I dont want to see every edge n my object. But when for example i extrude minimally into the surface then its hard to see without turning the camera until you have an angle on it that lights it with good difference.
Hope you can understand what I mean.
Thanks

Did you already tried Matcaps&Ambient acclusion for the viewport? What are the features that you expect?

When in solid view in viewport, open up the right toolbox by pressing N. Down there, under shading, activate Matcap and Ambient Occlusion. This improves the view remarkably. If there is another way to improve the viewport, especially with large grayscale models, I'd like to hear.

Wow. Thank you so much. That improves the view enough for me. :)

You're welcome. In this case, please accept my answer as the correct one, since this site is based on reputation.   :)

For Blender 2.8 and later, on top-right corner you will find a drop-down menu. In there you will find the Viewport Shading options.
Select MatCap, activate Shadow, Cavity, Color etc to your liking. Selecting "Single" in "Color" option will let you pick color of the objects in viewport.

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

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Select whole object parts after it has already seams?
I noticed when working on my objects which consist of multiple smaller parts, that when I already unwrapped them and now want to select some objects with L it will only select the UV island but not the whole object anymore. Is there another operation I have to use now or a button to press to let blender know that I do not want to select UV islands but the whole mesh?

Select Linked has options in the Last Operator panel (once it was executed).
Often by default Seams option is checked which means selected linked geometry will be limited with the seams added to the mesh:

This is useful for selecting only one UV island within the current mesh without picking seams manually.
To disable that uncheck Seams and all the linked geometry of the mesh will be selected.


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How to avoid flattening a shrinkwraped object?
I want to bend a scale mesh around a fish body, so that it fits perfectly but doesn't become flat as if I would use Shrinkwrap modifier.
So how can I shrink it to the body without making it flat so the scales are still 3D?
So here is an image of the body and the scales. The fish will not swim or be animated, just normal, so the scales has to follow the curves of the body without any edges or suchlike.

Regards

please, in order to understand, post some reference image or test you did and didn't worked

So here are some images, I think I found what I was searching for...https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?406295-Addon-Projection-Ops
After installing I dont see any options to use and behind the addon in Blender there is a warning sign, but I dont know for what.

I would add the scales to the fish mesh using a particle system. You can create a couple of separate scale objects, and then use the particle system to instantiate those on the fish skin.

You can render an orthographic image of your texture tile.
On your fish body, you can add a camera that projects strait on to your fish body.
On the fish mesh, add a UV project modifier.
Select your rendered texture as the image source.
Be sure to check override image.
Now use Alt+Z to get into texture mode.
Move your camera closer or further away from the fish body to get a general overall scale.
Once you are happy with the overall rotate the head of your camera about 'Z' toward the head of the fish.
You will notice that the more you rotate, the smaller the scales will become at the tail, and the larger they will become at the head.
Once you have the perspective that you like:
Apply the Modifier.
Now add a displace modifier, using the same texture image, and making sure that the mapping is set to UV coordinates, adjust your strength way low. Probably like 0.02.
Then you should see that your texture is mapped to your fish body.
If this still looks to blocky - you will have to subdivide a lot to give the mesh the amount of detail that it needs to be displaced correctly (subdivide as necessary - This can get really memory intensive so be careful and save every step of the way).
Here's the result of all of this.

And here is the image I used from pixabay (I just desaturated it).


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how do I make a realistic moon on a day sky in cycles?
I had a node setup as shown in the picture. although I still have to plug in the bump and diffuse maps, I wanted to see the effect that the darker side of the moon is not black but the color of the sky. what changes should I make in my node setup?


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Shader with golden logo, normal map and or displacement map
Hi all you shader experts out there!
I would like to set up a shader/material with the following ingredients:

A base wood texture with a normal map and preferably a displacement map to add some realistic wood structure.
A logo/graphic that is reflective gold, and that is affected by the normal map/displacement map at the same time.

So far, I've been able to produce a shader with the wood texture, normal map and a logo on it. No displacement map, though:

I've also managed to set a gold logo material with transparency:

I guess there's a really easy setup to achieve this, but...please help me out here!

Assuming the logo is an image with a transparent background, you could use it as the factor for mixing two shaders, one with the bare wood material and the other for the gold writing. You can then use the same bump map on both shaders pre- or post-mixing.

you need to use one material only, mix your first nodes with the second ones into a Mix Shader, if you have a transparent background behind your text, plug the alpha output of the Image Texture node into the Factor of the Mix Shader

@Morpheu5 :  Thank you! I'll try it out!

@moonboots : Oh, I think I follow you. But can you please make a quick node setup for it?

You need to make one and unique material with this kind of node organisation (very simplified). You need to use the logo alpha output into the factor of the Mix Shader in order to make a mask and see the background. Of course the left part can be as complicated as you want, with Bump or Normal nodes plugged into the normal socket of the Diffuse etc:

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Addon object using PropertyGroup object attribute
I'm working on adaptation some addon from 2.79 to 2.8x.
It uses property groups to fill other objects with recurring attributes.
TestProps:
my_float_prop: bpy.props.FloatProperty(default=3.1415926)

MyCustomNode:
my_float_prop: TestProps.my_float_prop

With 2.79 using = assignment addon works fine.
But 2.8x with pep-0526 I'm getting
AttributeError: type object 'TestProps' has no attribute 'my_float_prop'

I had created github repo demonstrates my problem with same project structure.

Hi. Any relevant code (like a basic working example that still demonstrates the issue) should be in the question body itself. Thanks.

It is now defined as an annotation.  Try something like TestProp.__annotations__["my_float_prop"]   Consider too using math.pi.

Thanks, batFINGER. That wotks!

Using annotations rather than class properties
It is now defined as an annotation. They are added to a key value dictionary __annotations__ on the class on which they are defined. Try something like
TestProp.__annotations__["my_float_prop"]

There is a generic Namespace class where can
from argparse import Namespace
props = Namespace(**TestProp.__annotations__)

and then access them via
props.test_float_prop

Consider too using math.pi.

Another thanks for Namespace solution


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Cloth simualtion (pinning) multiple times on the same model
I'm working up a concept for an interior scene, and not wanting to miss any details, I want to model the window coverings as well. For what I have in mind, I'm pretty sure will need to use cloth sim with pinning, but the pinning application is the problem. With as many places as the object will need to be pinned during the sim, I don't know how to go about setting it up. I've attached a basic reference for an idea of what I'm going for. This will be rendered in cycles when all is said and done also.

Are you after a still image or an animation? Do you want to covering to be lifted or stationary during the animation?

For such a model it should be sufficient to model it by hand using the cloth simulation would be a task too complicated for a model such as this. Using box modeling strategy and maybe subdividing the faces would suffice.
This is Unless you will be animating the model too, then cloth sim is the way to go.

Define the basic form of your model.

You will want to apply Edge Crease at the top and bottom of the model.
Apply a subdivision modifier.

I gave that a go, and it looks like I was trying to make things too complicated. It's not going to be animated, I just don't want to miss any of the details, and want to keep it all true to life as much as I can. Thanks!

Welcome, we all tend to make such mistakes starting out.


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Animating metaballs
I've tried to find an answer here on this subject, but no luck. So, bare with me:
How do I animate metaballs? I know it must be a really basic question, and from what I gather you have to use some node based animation for this

You can keyframe metaballs, what sort of animation are you trying and what difficulty have you met?

I can't animate them, as they all end up in the same "object" (I can only move them around in Edit mode). I'd like them to animate like splitting from and connecting to each other like some classic alien blobs. :)

Metaballs can be animated at Object level.. they will interact so long as they belong to the same family, which is defined by naming-convention.

Ah, sorry. Silly me, I must've copied the metaballs in Edit mode (embarrassing).

If you want to seperate metaballs as "2 objects", just rename the second metaball to another name. Then it works.


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Keyboard Sensor - how to put NULL (NO KEYS PRESSED)
Keyboard Sensor - how to put NULL (NO KEYS PRESSED), i am unsure of how to change it to NULL or something so i can add idle animation

maybe you can use an "always" sensor?

You need to setup your Logic Bricks like this:


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How Can I make the Camera follow an object but with a delay?
I can get the camera to follow the object when it moves, but I would like the camera to be delayed so it moves slightly after the object moves, instead of that ridged movement where it all moves at the same time.

Use slow parent, related question http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/26947/camera-shake-in-3d-video-games/26949#26949

Possible duplicate of http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/75099/29586

@Strapicarus I didn't know about that Slow Parent and always achieved this kind of effect with Drivers. It's worth pointing out that any animation based on Slow Parent should be baked with Bake Action (as for Drivers)and the Slow Parent then disabled so that each frame has a consistent state - otherwise running the animation in reverse or jumping to specific frames produces different results. Pretty neat feature though!


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How to make 15 textured billiard balls roll?
I have a rigid body physic simulation of 15 billiard balls breaking from the hit of a white ball, and they all work well hitting and bouncing from each other, except they don´t rotate like real ones will do rolling over the pool table.
How to make them roll without having to animate them one by one?
I´m using Blender 2.78c latest version in with windows 10 Intel(R)Core(TM)i7-4900MQ CPU@2.80GHz, RAM 16.0 GB and 64-bit operating sys, x64 based processor. I´m new to blender and wonder if there could be a python script to do the rolling, and/or if I have to use the game engine instead of the cycles one I´m using right now. Thanks in advance.

Do you have collision bounds set to sphere?

You need just basic rigid body options, imho, there's the standard collision and rotation damp. Just set the collision shape to mesh, always behave better for collisions. Also you can lower collision margins (not zero, at least .01).
it should work like this:

here is the test .blend:


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My blender animation is wrong in unity3d
I'm trying to make a paper plane animation controlled by bones.Everything is OK when I play the animation in blender's timeline.But when I export it to unity3d, animations are going wrong.
I don't know how to revise.
You can download the source file to have a look. Or i can send it to your emails.
ps.my english is real bad...just don't mind it,thx!!
enter link description here


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How to delete objects stacked on top of each other?
I made a textured coin using this tutorial and when I tried to duplicate it, it made an infinite amount of coins stacked on top of each other somehow.
I've already tried to delete them individually. It's not working, there's just so many I don't know how I did this.
So how do I delete all the coins which have stacked on each other?

Pictures, Blend file....

It's hard to tell exactly what you've done with seeing some images or the blend file.
However if you press "A" twice to unselect everything, then select the coin you want to keep and press "Ctrl + I", Blender will select everything else and unselect the coin you want to keep. Then you can press "X" to delete everything else in the scene.


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Visibility ON/OFF in the BGE via Python
I'm trying to make a simple Asteroid game with the BGE, using Python when necessary. I want to make 'visible' the ship trails when I press 'W' to increase the speed and make them 'invisible' if 'W' is not pressed. Where is the error? I'm very new with Python scripts.

You should have own.setVisible not setVisibility.
import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner
wKey = cont.sensors['wKey']

if wKey.positive:
    own.setVisible(True)
else:
    own.setVisible(False)

That way you don't need the visibility actuator.

You can do:
own['trails'] = trailsObject
own['trails'].visible = True
own['trails'].visible = False

or as i can see in the image:
cont.activate(trails) # to activate the actuator
cont.deactivate(trails) # to deactivate the actuator

Also visit the BGE Documentation.
Next time please take a moment to copy your code as text and format it.


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Opening files from version 2.8 in 2.79
This is probably a silly question but I need some help. I opened a file that I've been working on for about a month in the new 2.8 version of Blender. However when I tried to reopen the file in version 2.79, the scene is completely empty. Here is where the problem lies for me, I accidentally saved over the original file save while in version 2.8 . Please help. Thanks!

this is quite normal, working with two unreleased versions (2.8 in particular is quite far from being released, and it will change a lot). Even opening 2.79 with 2.78 may result in incompatibilities, see https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.79

You can copy the polygons from 2.8 to 2.79. You will lose your node setup but at least you will get back your scene. This happened to me just now - I couldn't find any answers anywhere, so i figured it out myself. I thought of this because you can do the same in Maya too, so I thought: "must work with blender too".

copy paste works, although it'll lose some animations. But you can append animations.

It does not work for me, I get "no buffer to paste from" in b2.79. I am on macOS.

Not a way to open a file, but the ability to transfer objects:
Just try Ctrl+C Copy to bufer operator on selected objects and then Paste by Ctrl+V in another instance of Blender.
Works both sides with nodes and other prorerties.

Youtube video tutorial

I first exported my model from blender 2.80 in .fbx format then imported it in blender2.79 and it worked.

No need to export to some 3rd party format. Just append the object(s) from the 2.8 file into your 2.7 scene.

i had issues with materials with fbx, and wavefront. i had best results with Collade (dae) but YMMV.

notable pain point with collada, materials that used multiple textures, only the last-most texture is exported, be sure to unpack-all and rebuild all all your materials by hand :\ yeah thats painful.

Blender 2.8 is very much under development. The download page states "Do not use in production nor save important files with it" for a reason. You'll probably need to recover your file from a backup like the xxx.blend1 file Blender creates before overwriting.

hey you can always append things from 2.8 to 2.79.
the best way is to export your meshes as fbx then import in 2.79. then append all the materials from the 2.8 file. reassigning is a little work but not too much.

Exporting to FBX (or any other format) is not really recommended, you will lose more data that way, like modifiers and object properties.

Actually, exporting the files or projects as .fbx and re-importing in blender 2.79 or earlier works...Haven't tried the copy buffer stuff tho' but will....

Exporting is not a workaround for opening native files, you will lose lots of data like scene settings, modifiers, materials among others

Since the Blender 2.8 is still in its beta phase... No one can categorically open .blend files made in 2.8 in 2.79 or earlier....

Maybe another workaround would be to copy to buffer I think.. Select all objects or the models in the scene then Ctrl+C , open 2.79 or earlier and paste....Maybe that should work for you...But for now, .blend files in 2.8 cant be opened in earlier versions....

While every layer is selected press Alt+H...let me know if it helped!


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Q: Cycles motion blur is resulting in particles that are overshooting the emitters - how can I adjust the scene or blur settings to prevent this?
I'm trying to render out some particles that are being emitted from three fast-moving objects and viewed by a following camera. The particles positions are correct, but when motion blur is turned on the particles get blurred backward and forward from the current frame instead of from the current frame and backward, resulting in renders of particles overshooting their emitters once put into their comp.
Here's a sample render of what the render currently looks like. The streaks forward of the upward swoops shouldn't be there.

Blender Internal's sampled motion blur is better about the forward/backward issue, but the particles are moving so fast that the 32 sample max is insufficient for getting a smooth blur; the samples are far enough apart to be dotted.

So, is it possible for Cycles to sample backward-only motion blur like BI's sampled motion blur does, or is there something else that can be done to achieve the desired effect?
For those interested, here's a link to the Blend file.

Note that this is how motion blur actually works. During the time the shutter is exposing (in this case, 1/24 of a second, or one frame at 24 fps) the particles will be some distance behind their exact location on that frame at the beginning of the exposure, and some distance ahead of their location at the end of the exposure. So unless you are going for a more stylized effect, then you may not want to change this.

True, and were the entire shot isolated and coming out of Blender this wouldn’t be a problem, but I’m trying to match the particles with another shot that has been rendered. Comping the two together results in motion blurred particles that are streaked out far ahead of the ship and looks totally wrong. Physically accurate, but visually no good.


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Blender 2D Platformer Realistic Jump
The jump I want I find extremely hard to get to work. It is like every 2D platformer jump. However I can NOT use the "Character" physics type in the physics tab because I NEED rigid body for my character. So, I need a jump as follows:
Press W to jump,
If you hold W you do the full entire jump (Lets say 2 units up?)
If you let go at any time the jump will fall and cancel, and you should not be able to spam W and start jumping in mid-air as the Z LOC in simple motion does.
You can only jump when you are touching ground, aka collision sensor.
PLEASE I have been going crazy trying to use properties and timers to make sure nothing glitches and its just a normal freakin jump! :(

So you want to "charge" the jump? Means you start charging when pressing  and perform the jump when releasing ? The duration between press and release determines the charge?

No, when you press W you jump. If you hold it the entire time, it will perform the entire jump full length highest point till it falls. However if you let go lets say when you are halfway through the entire jump, it will then cancel the jump and you will fall. But like I said I dont want to be able to double jump in mid air or anything.

So it is like a rocket? The object get constant up-force while holding . When you release it the up force stops letting the gravity push the object down. The next  will only be considered  while touching the ground?

Almost, except it wont be a rocket, its just like a jump... meaning it has a force going up and then it eventually falls. Like just a regular jump, nothing too weird, but its surprisingly hard to do this.

A regular jump gets an initial force and that's it. Typically you do not flap your hands to go higher and higher. What you described is that you want more forces after the jump already started.


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How to export animation to Unity
Hi I've animated a simple mesh using the AnimAll addons, now I would like to export the animation (packed into fbx or not, it's not important) to Unity 5. How can I do that ? I've already tried to export the animation doing File->Export-> Fbx then import the fbx into unity but the animation is missing.
From the other hand I got 2 different meshes:
1) Is the mesh of the model at frame 1.
2) Is the mesh of the model at frame 80. ( the frame where I've put the animation).

just drag and drop the blend file into unity assets folder, and open the file, then drag the armature to controller. thats all...


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How do I get sIBL GUI to work on Mac OS X?
I downloaded the sIBL GUI, and it works as a standalone perfectly. I watched a tutorial on how to use it in Blender at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o198WjOBtIE -- but in User Prefs when I attempt to specify ("accept") the path to the sIBL GUI, the line remains BLANK. Now even though the python script is loaded, I cannot load sIBL GUI, probably because Blender still doesn't know where it is. What's the secret to getting this to work on Mac?

I think Blender is looking for ".exe" but on Mac, this is ".app" instead, so Blender can't see it (??)

Even copying the complete path in text and pasting it into this field doesn't work.  :-(

When you say complete path, have you tried appname.app/Contents/MacOS/appname?

What sambler says, should work. I also have a mac and sIBL GUI works flawlessly with Blender.

I have the same issue - doesn't matter what I wrote to "sIBL GUI executable" path, enter = empty field, blender 2.76, 2.78 on OS X 10.11.6 Reported as an issue https://bitbucket.org/jedfrechette/sibl_gui_for_blender/issues


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Must I UN-parent the child object to keyframe it?
I've tried keyframing child objects, and always get wonky results. Keyframes earlier on the timeline become wildly different and unusable. It seems necessary to UN-parent the child in order to make useful keyframes. Is there a way to properly keyframe child objects without un-parenting them first?

Can you give us an example blend file? It is normally possible to still keyframe it while it is a child, and it will perform both its keyframe movements and its parent movements - hence why most child objects only ever have rotation/scale keyframes.

It's rendering now, so I'll upload a blend in a few hours.

The response is an absolutely no, you must not unparent for keyframing. Actually, most bones are children in rigs. Something in your workflow may be mistaken. Maybe are you adding keyframes in visual Loc/Rot/Scale?

Hmmm ... I just created a simple test scene, and keyframing a child object does seem to work as expected. This makes me wonder if something else in my more complex scenes is making this not work as it should. ... Jury still out.  :+)

@ Antonio Buch - I agree it's bad to need to unparent before keyframing, which could destroy other things in a scene. I think you must be correct about my workflow, because this works in simple scenes, but not in my more complex scenes. -- Another mystery to be solved ...


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Is there a render DEPTH limit?
I have a tall object, casting a (sun lamp) shadow onto a plane scaled at 10,000 (dimensions 20K x 20K). But the shadow is being cut off not far behind my object (I can also see this visible limit in OGL). No matter how large I scale the ground object, the shadow is always cut off at the same place. If I view from top, the entire shadow is there!  Changing Camera > View > Clipping Start and End has NO effect. So why is the depth being cut off in my OGL and renders?

Yes there is!
Select your camera and in camera tab, you can see clipping section.
Set the End to whatever you need, but not more (more number makes it harder for you computer to render)

I already tried that, and it does nothing. According to what I read in the manual, it "should" solve the problem. So I must be missing something.

@DrStrik9 note there are two limits; one for the render and camera view, and one for the general 3D view. If neither one solves it, is it possible you could upload your .blend?

The only clip settings (start & end) I know of are in the "N" screen when the camera is selected. Where is the other one?

@Gandalf3 I found the Display and View Panels in the Manual, but it doesn't say WHERE they are located, or how to access them in Blender.

@DrStrik9 Does this answer help?

@Gandalf3 That was IT! Thank you so much.


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Making keyframes ACTIVE?
In the graph editor, I want to be able to quickly change F-curves from bezier to linear, etc., but it won't let me because the keyframe(s) are not "active." Simply selecting keyframes is insufficient to accomplish this. HOW do I make keyframes "active" so I can change their interpolation?

Why do you think they should be "active" ? Were all the keyframes which should be edited selected before changing interpolation ?

It was impossible to change interpolation because the selected keyframes were not "active."

Can you show screenshot of that instead of repeating what already is in the question ? Is that the text of error ? Show the screenshots of what have you done to change interpolation and what's gone wrong.


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How to keep physics fast-moving objects from going through the ground plane? (not python or game)
In physics, I am experiencing some faster-moving objects falling right through the floor. Most other objects land/bounce/etc. appropriately, but the fast-moving ones just fly right through the ground. How can I prevent this?

I solved my rigid body physics “falling through the floor plane” problem by raising: Scene > Rigid Body World > “Steps Per Second” and “Solver Iterations” above their default levels of 60 and 10. This scene has 10,000+ fast-moving cube objects. At default levels, over 100 objects fell through the floor plane. At 5 times the defaults, (300 and 50 respectively), only 3 objects fell through the floor. At 10 times the defaults (600 and 100), NOTHING fell through the floor. The calculation took longer, but was probably generally more accurate than with default Steps and Iterations levels.

Assuming you are using rigid body physics:

Make sure the ground plane's physics is set to passive.
If it is still glitching, add a solidify modifier to the ground plane.
If it is STILL glitching, then set then set the rigid body collision shape to box on the ground plane.
Still glitching? enable the collision margin on the ground plane and mess with the margin size.
If the problem persists, change the collision shape of the faster-moving object to box as well.

Hope this helps!


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How do I texture a Seperated Mesh as its own texture?
I selected part of an existing object, duplicated it, and pressed P to separate this new mesh, by selection. But now I am not able to texture this new object separately -- whichever of the two gets textured, the other one changes to that same texture. Obviously, these are not SEPARATE objects. What do I need to do to ACTUALLY separate this new object, so it can be also TEXTURED separately?

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23386/how-to-put-a-unique-material-on-duplicated-objects-separately

Apparently, there were TWO of the second object. Removing doubles didn't correct this, so I was stuck. I simply deleted one in Object Mode. Now both objects have separate materials. Weird!

To work with blender you have to understand data blocks. They are explain really well in this video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJAs7QjalTg
Basically when you duplicate an object it's material is not duplicated from the initial object. Rather it's an instance. Meaning the Second duplicated object is using the same material from the first. You will need to make a new material or make a duplicate of the first material by hitting the "+" sign in the material properties panel list.
Shown here.

What the button does is create a new material by copying the first material. You will also notice that a new name is given to the material ... eg. material would now be renamed "material.001"


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Is there a way to make a quick animation PREVIEW, to evaluate motion, etc.?
I want to evaluate motion, camera moves, etc., preferably in OGL -- I can't seem to find this in the Manual, and it seems no one has covered it on YouTube (at least I haven't found it if it's there) ... There must be a way to make a quick PREVIEW of the animation that can be viewed in real time, without waiting for the entire render ... If so, HOW?

You can OpenGL render a movie with the 'Render OpenGL' movie button, found in the lower right header of the viewport.
It'll use your regular render settings for frame ranges/formats.  Personally, I like to render a sequence of pngs/jpgs into a temp directory, and then load the sequence in the Sequence editor.  But some people prefer a separate movie player application.


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How to make Cycles default?
Is there a way to make Cycles Render the default in Blender instead of Blender Render? (I hope this hasn't been asked before.)

When you open blender, change to cycles and CTRL+U to save startup file

Here are the steps to do that.

Open Blender.
Change the Render Engine to Cycles in the pull down menu (top center)
Then go to File - Save Startup File.

Thats it. Next time you start with a new file, it is gonna be Cycles Engine by default.

File - Save startup file does not exist in Blender 4.2.


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Boolean Operation fails when using a joined cutting object
I am trying to cut a slot into a flatten cubed. The slot was made with two cylinders and a cube which I joined. When I try to use the object as a cut piece it only seems to be using one of the cylinders and ignores the rest of the compound object.
On a side note my image clips when I zoom in.
Any ideas?
Screen shot

Booleans are a lazy way of modeling, learn proper modelling techniques. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/34451/how-to-cut-holes-in-an-object-using-another-object/34460#34460 , you can't use "compound objects" with self intersections in Booleans. Also decrease you viewport Near Clipping in the Properties Toolshelf N Key

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos what proper technique should i use? Can you forward a tutorial? I am new to blender.

This may help, specifically the part about opening holes in a mesh . In your particular case modeling that piece with a Bezier Curve Object may also be easier see https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/76722/how-can-i-make-a-hole-in-this-mesh-and-not-mess-it-up/76725#76725 or try searching for Bezier curve tutorials here on this site or over on Youtube.


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How to draw a ribboned helix that is not perfect
I am new to blender and I am trying to draw an alpha helix for a nice model of a protein. I have attached an example  Eventually I wish to make the shapes in the blue and yellow. I am starting with the blue ribbon like structure. I saw blender has a screw tool but it is a perfect spiral. I need something a bit more loose and disordered. Also I want it to bend a bit in a arc.
Does anyone have any tips how to do this?

@cegaton Those are definitely helpful but the problem is they are pretty ordered. If you look closely at the blue ribbon it is bent and irregular. I have tried the screw function but it is two uniform.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/65633/how-can-i-create-twisted-geometry


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Why isn't the rendered image a readable file?
When I try to render this animation the file is a file I am not familiar with and it's not an image file as I was expecting. I attached some images.

You specified a file format but didn't match the file name extension. Your files should be fine, just batch rename them using some external program and add the .jpeg extension to the end.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos Comments aren't for answering the question.

Not entirely sure this solves the problem, nor that my comment classifies as a full featured answer.

Thank you Durante Farrajota Ramos and cegaton that helped a lot and solved my problem.

Check the file extension box or type in the file extension manually (.jpg .png etc.)

Please give a more detailed description as to what exactly they should do and where in the interface they should do it.


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How to make a chrome texture in eevee?
I'm somewhat new to blender, and brand new to eevee so if I say anything wrong I apologize.
How would I go about making a chrome material in eevee? I've tried to reduce the roughness and play around with every setting but I can't get anything to look good.
Thanks in advance.

Making good looking materials is dependent on a number of things like
Shape: Chrome is usually applied to an organic looking metal object like a fender.
Environment: A nice environment that make reflections in the surface. Make sure to use a reflection probe in EEVEE.
Material
Color: Chrome R=0.550,G=0.556,B=0.554 (https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Rendering/Materials/PhysicallyBased)
Metallic: A metal material is always 1.0 in metallic.
Roughness: It's usually a matter of taste but since it is Chrome it should be fairly shiny. Is really good to have a noise texture here so you will get variation and imperfections.

Thanks! So what does the Principled BSDF node look like?

I updated my answer with a screenshot of the material setup.


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Black dot rendering a 360 Video
I recently started rendering a 360 scene and when it is finished rendering it shows a black dot in the scene. There is no mesh making that black dot and it has never happened before. I attached a picture to further explain.

What is your camera clipping set at?

Your camera clipping plane is cutting through your geometry. Under Camera settings > Lens > Clipping, set the Start value to a smaller value.


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multi-line text box with popup menu
How can I make a multi-line text box using the popup_menu function in my add-on?
The idea is that I could use it as a function that I could call anywhere and put any text in it.

I just found this way of doing it.
Put this at the top of your add-on (you can also test it alone in the text editor):
import bpy

def ShowMessageBox(title = "Message Box", icon = 'INFO', lines=""):
    myLines=lines
    def draw(self, context):
        for n in myLines:
            self.layout.label(text=n)
    bpy.context.window_manager.popup_menu(draw, title = title, icon = icon)

You can then put the following anywhere in your code:
myLines=("line 1","line 2","line 3")
ShowMessageBox(lines=myLines)

Reminder: you can use a custom title and icon each time you call this function:
ShowMessageBox(title="Uh-oh.", icon='ERROR', lines=myLines)


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VSE crop video without stretching
I am cropping a video sequence by checking the "crop" box and taking off, say, 200 pixels on both sides. Unfortunately, the resulting video is stretched to accommodate the initial aspect ratio.
How do I avoid this stretching? I just need to crop the video and then "Drop-over" another image or video.

Did you use Image Offset as well? It might change your Images size, so that you'd have to scale it again, but prevent the stretching.

@Samoth I am using the X/Y offset change for the video to move it to the corner, but want the background image fullscreen.

I use the VSE transform addon when you have added your strip press T and it'll be scaled with the correct aspect ratio, then G, R, S grab rotate scale the strip. see the docs for more options

How to install the addon? The readme file does not seem to specify.

like any other... download the py, in user pref/addon tab click install from file and select that file (VSE_Transform_Tool.py) then click on the checkbox to activate. Save user pref to make it permanent

Add a Transform Effect strip
Set the Blend Mode to Alpha Over
Use the Position slider to control the right hand cropping
Tick Image Offset under Strip Input
Use X to control the left hand cropping

Similarly for the Y axis


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How to Select ALL objects in a scene Since Face parts are not selected?
See this is why i actually despise using Blender.Not only is it not noobie friendly but you can't undo mistakes and in my case one mistake and it's over. I have to literally start all over. What i'm doing: I'm importing a scene,Yes,a whole scene from a video game for the PSP.Yes i have and use a device that can do this to any game of my choosing.The problem: I am trying to select only the characters however they're apparently a bit too detailed for blender. When i move them (Position them for export after i'm done selecting manually) bits and pieces get left behind. Very vital pieces(Mainly eyeballs,tongues and on some occasions,eyebrows.) are not getting moved.Why? I couldn't select it. I'm sick of it. This is the 8th time. I'm getting very pissed with it. I want these girls extracted but blender just one select the face parts.
Additional info thats needed just in case
Game:Photo Kano
System:PSP
Emulator:Jap-Emulator

Could you post a screenshot of the scene's outliner?

It looks like you have Limit Selection To Visible enabled, see http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15431/how-to-select-all-the-vertexes-with-border-select. Also you can switch to Wireframe shading mode (Z) to select with selection tools or press Ctrl+L once any vertex of mesh selected to select all connected vertices of mesh.

A selects all objects on the stage.
Shift+Right mouse button to select multiple object one after the other.
Try not to be in render mode when selecting objects.
Ctrl+Z to undo. You can undo as many times as your preferences allow.


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Video Editing (NLE): Time results of rendering in non-native resolution
I understand (I believe) that when I select a resolution smaller than my native, pixels are dropped from each frame. I'm wondering how much of a burden this is on my CPU.
I have a 1440p monitor, options to downscale resolution in Dxtory (recording gameplay), and options to downscale resolution in Blender when rendering. Would it be best for me to downscale when writing to file from Dxtory? Or perhaps, to downscale when rendering in Blender? Or (doubtful), would it simply be less hassle to write to file and render in 1440p?
Essentially, if I'm only going to do one (which I assume is the best method), when should I do it?
Thank you.

Blender's VSE always scales the image, unless the source is the same size as project.
The project's render properties determine the speed of the scale process.
In the properties panel look for Anti-Aliasing.

For best speed of scale turn this off. However the image will have jagged edges.

To improve quality of the VSE scaling or other transform effects, you must turn on the Anti-aliasing. There are many levels and algorithms to choose from. The render-speed change may not seem to great, but you must multiply the difference out over the total number of frames rendered. And this example was based on a very simple image.

There are multiple overlapping concerns.
My philosophy is to conserve things at their "original resolution" for as long as is reasonable in the work flow.  If I'm playing a video game at 2650x1440 then I would want the recording to be at 2560x1440  (also, where did hypothetical me get such a sweet monitor?  Real me is derping along with a 1080p) .  I would then include that video into my blender VSE and let blender do the downscale while it is compositing in overlays and doing cuts and wipes.  Compositing video is probably the EASIEST thing I ever ask my computer to do (compared to rendering videos where a single frame is a 5-minute task, or computing an OpenCL mandelbrot that takes 17 minutes per frame).
A conflicting concern is: can your computer handle capturing the action at 1440 scan lines?  If it can not keep up, it's probably computationally easier to downscale before video compression, even if you do lose resolution.  I once tried to record an Overwatch session on a 5-year-old PC and it had multi-second gaps that ruined the recording.
So: record at native resolution and downsample at the latest stage in the workflow that makes sense, unless real-time concerns force you to downsample earlier.

Thank you for your input! I'll see how well I can record at 1440p. I know it's not that relevant, but could you explain what "composting video" is?

I use the term "compositing video" to refer to layering multiple VSE strips.  Some common reasons to do this are 1) adding titles or other text/graphical overlays 2) scene transitions (wipes/fades) 3) compositing in CGI effects (explosions, Jar Jar, visible "laser" beams) 4) concatenating various scenes into a longer video.


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How to fix animation distortion?
I'm completely new to 3D modeling and animation, so please cut me some slack. I've downloaded and imported a free 3D model. Added a bone structure (armature) to it and now I'm trying to create a basic animation.
All is working perfectly fine so far, except that I seem to get some kind of distortion (not sure if this is correct naming for it) when animating the model. Here are 2 screenshots to show what I mean:
Original position:

Animated position:

How do I either prevent or fix this? Has it something to do with the bone affect range and is it a simple matter of adding more bones or is it not that easy?

Looks like a weight-painting issue.  Keep one of those selected bones in the screenshot selected, select the mesh and get into Weight Painting Mode.  You'll probably see a ring of green, yellow around the mouth/gums.

You're right. But as I said in my question, I'm completely new to all of this. So do you mind explaining in more detail as to how to proceed from there? If it's to much to explain, I don't mind if you just comment some kind of tutorial and I can help myself from there :)

Never mind. I've searched a couple of tutorials about weight painting and I'm getting the hang of it. Thanks a lot for pointing me into the right direction!


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"No camera found in Scene" error
I just started blender and one of the main things you have to do is to render to make an animation, but I can't seem to do that. Whenever I click Render and then render image or render animation, at the top of the screen it says 'No camera found in Scene "Scene". I don't know why this is happening.

What is happening is exactly what Blender is telling you that is happening, No camera found in Scene Scene that means there is no camera object in your scene, so go about creating one as described in Shubol3D answer.

I don't know any other reason, except you have no camera in your scene.
You can add a camera by: Shift + A  > Camera.
Or maybe you have a camera in you scene, but it is switched off for render. Check the little camera icon on right side in Outliner.
There are Eye for visible in viewport, arrow to prevent selection, and a Camera to toggle visibility in render.

Please consider making the answer as correct if it solved your problem, or at least up voting it if it helped you.

I found another place to check that sorted my 'no camera' error. Check the camera setting in 'Scene' tab in the 'Properties' panel. Mine had nothing in it! Even though I had a camera in my scene

That is not unusual. You can have a camera, or many cameras that are in the scene, but not set as the scene camera. (An object can be set as the scene camera.)

I have the same problem, but there IS a camera, and it IS set to render, and it IS set as the scene camera.
Still can't render my image, and still get the "No camera in scene" message.

It turns out that if you have multiple scenes in a blend file, each scene has to have a camera.

@PhilRogers Thank you! Same thing happened to me. The error message really should be reworded to something like: "All scenes require an active camera."

All you have to do is press add at the bottom left corner of the blender screen. when you have finished clicking add, press camera at the second top of the options menu.

Thank you for listening to my simple tutorial!
It is that easy.
:)
no camera found in scene "Scene"

is the problem to your question.

If adding a camera to your scene and setting it as the scene camera, the next thing to check is whether you have multiple scenes in your blend file.
if you do, you have to have a camera in every scene.

i found couse of error. In actually when we save startup file then unnecessary scean which appended or link by us is become problem for new project or file so go to outliner> blender file> search unwanted scean and delet it.

I previously reproduced this error in Blender v3.2.0 because I had renamed my camera to 'ScoutCam'.  A correct way to label a camera in Blender Python v4.2.1 LTS is
bpy.ops.object.camera_add(loc = (x, y, z))
camera = bpy.context.object
camera.name = 'LabelCam1'
LabelCam1 = bpy.data.objects['LabelCam1']
LabelCam1.keyframe_insert(data_path = "loc", frame = FrameVariable)


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FBX export animation not smooth
I started learning Blender a week ago and now I'm having problems with animation when exporting my .blend file to FBX (two arms holding a weapon). The animation isn't "perfect" so to speak.
The first gif shows the correct animation in my blender file;
the second gif shows the incorrect animation when importing the FBX.

The hand isn't holding the weapon's grip as it should; it moves around it.
The hand has bone constraints so that it moves where the grip's bone moves to.
The grip's bone is parented to another bone, which moves the entire weapon.
The animations look equally bad when imported in Blender or other software such as Unity.
What could be the problem? Should I upload my blender file so someone can take a look at it?

Seems like animation compression is on.  I know Unity has animation compress that it can do when it imports a .blend file (so you don't need to export the .fbx yourself).  Try turning off animation compression in Unity.

Problem persists if I turn animation compression off. It also looks wrong if I import the FBX in blender, so it's not a Unity problem.

Now it works. I added a keyframe for every frame (bake action can do this), turned off compression like you said and now looks ok.
Thanks!

You could also probably solve this by setting 'Simplify' to a smaller value or even 0.0 (in Animation part of FBX export settings) - FBX addon actually does a whole sampling/baking of animations to (try to) take into account complex things like constraints and drivers, but then by default applies some simplification to avoid exporting too much keyframes.

mont29, setting 'Simplify' to zero has finally made it work. This and disabling compression in Unity makes the animation look perfect.
Thank you all for helping!

@mont29 Good eye.  I haven't used the .fbx exporter in Blender, only let Unity import .blends (which uses the .fbx exporter, but brings out settings in a different layout in Unity).  Now I know for future reference, thanks!


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Pattern for global interaction updates?
I'm using Python and the BGE to build a cellular automata "game".  I have a world that Automata wander through.  If they get within a certain distance of each other, I'd like them to decide to greet or ignore the other.  I'm looking for the right pattern for that.
Each automata has its logic controlled by Automata.py with a class within it.  The world has spawners in World.py.  What is the best way to iterate over all possible pairs within distance d of each other.  My initial model is to have a set automata = [] with everyone in it, then do a double loop.
for me in automata:
  for you in automata[me:]:
    if distance(me, you) < d:
       if me.decide_to_greet():
         me.greet()

Is it better to make this a routine in world or done per automata?  Are there accepted, efficient patterns?
thanks!

I think that if they are automata, then you should use a near sensor and loop per automata when the sensor is activated. Related :https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/88019/bge-object-list-within-a-specified-distance/88040#88040

Okay, the automata level then.  Thanks for the feedback I'll try it.

Also, this doesn't sound like cellular automata. As far as I know, cellular automata are like Conway's Game of Life – see Wikipedia. (:


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In game engine with python, add appendage to object
I'm doing scripting in the game engine.  I have two basic objects, a "SeaFloor" and "Kelp".  I have python classes for each and the game engine.
My goal is to add the Kelp object to the scene and root it to the SeaFloor, so in the physics of the game it won't be moved by fish or current.  Also, as the kelp grows, I only want it to grow "up".
I can get the kelp to appear using:
kelp = self.scene.addObject("Kelp", "SeaFloor")
kelp.worldPosition = pos

I think I have to do this with constraints, but I don't understand them very well.  I would appreciate some advice on how to lock those two together.

These are two different tasks. Lets deal with them separately.
Grow
I suggest you let the objects grow via an animation (e.g. shape-key, armature). With that you have full control how it grows.
When you use scaling ensure the object origin is at the button of the plant as scaling is always relative to the origin.
Positioning
A simple solution is to check the ground "under" the object. Typically "under" is along -Z.
Perform a ray check along -Z starting from current position. Check for ground (property filter). Then you can place the object at the found hitPosition.
Check the BGE API for rayCast()
Example:
lookAtPosition = kelp.worldPosition.copy()
lookAtPosition .z -= 1 # position below current position
distanceToCheck = 100.0

hitObject, hitPosition, hitNormal = rayCast(
    lookAtPosition,
    kelp.worldPosition,
    distanceToCheck,
    "ground")

kelp.worldPosition = hitPosition

I hope it helps

Thanks @Monster.  If I understand this correctly, the logic is (1) grab the kelp position (2) create a segment "down" from that position then (3) continue looking along that segment until I see an object named "ground". Will kelp.worldPosition then place it halfway up the stock?

I think you see it correctly. But I would not use the term "segment" but "position". RayCast() needs two positions - the position to look from (I assume you want the current position) and a position to look at. The max distance to check is defined by the distance parameter (this can exceed the distance to the look at position). The kelp will be placed exactly at the found intersection position (hit point).

Follow up, if you'll indulge me.  I used your function with "SeaFloor" and it did not work.  The docs say that argument is " property name that object must have; can be omitted or “” => detect any object"  but I can't figure out how to set that property.  I tried own['ground'] = 'ground' in the SeaFloor init function to no avail.  Leaving it as "" worked, but it finds everything beneath it.

Simply add the property via GUI. It must exist. The type and value does not matter.


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How to add a sensor to an object using the BGE Python scripting
I want to add a sensor to each of several "players" using the bge + python.  Each sensor will need to have its own distance function, because each player has a different range of perception. This is how I add the players to the scene:
for i in range(world_config.initial_population_size):
    pos = Vector((random.uniform(-10,10),
                 random.uniform(-10,10),
                 3))
    p = Player()
    t = own.scene.addObject("Player")
    t["Player"] = p
    t.worldPosition = pos

Now I would like to do something like.
t.addSensor(Distance=t["Player"].perception())

So that later I can compare which player sees the other in an interaction.

There is no function addSensor in the API search_1 API search_2.
So you can't add a sensor through python. The sensor requires to be added in logic editor for a single object, but you can add an object with a sensor and controller to the current scene.

Thanks. Do you have advice on how to alter the sensor's "Distance" per object?  E.g., so every Player can have their own distance?

With currentController.sensors['sensor_name'].distance = value, KX_NearSensor KX_RadarSensor


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Convert BIM model (building) with 1000+ parts from HiPoly to LowPoly
I have imported a gigantic model of a building, and it has 1000's of sub-meshes. I need to convert this monster to a fairly low-poly thing. I don't want to have to select each mesh and decimate it. I'd be here all year. Is there something off the shelf that will take a model and low-poly each of its submeshes or better yet, "figure the whole thing out" and merge submeshes with each other? Or even better yet, all I want is all the outward-facing polygons. I don't care what's "inside" the building.

Hello :). This sounds like a job for the Remesh Modifier.

Can you weed out the unnecessary parts in the BIM software before export? In my experience, taking some time preparing the model for export in CAD-like softwares usually saves a lot of effort afterwards...

can't weed out the unnecessary parts. I already have. What is left is just unnecessarily complex wall and door and window data w/ way too many vertexes.

Have you tried importing it in IFC format via BlenderBIM?


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Selecting a face - wonky in 2.83.2 with XRAY turned on
I think I'm running 2.83.2 with factory presets. I have a giant model in Blender (a building) and it's ghosted from being selected. I HAVE XRAY TURNED ON. Next, I make a plane, STRETCH IT (big!), and am looking straight down on it from above. I go into edit mode, then face select mode, and click near the center of the plane, where the little dot it. The face gets selected. Dandy. Now, I click near the edge of the plane/face, and it does NOT select! the selection goes away. Turn XRAY off - and it works fine.
Is this a known bug?


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How to delete relationship lines?

I imported this building, and there are all these relationship lines in it. How do I delete the relationship info? I know how to hide the lines, but assuming they're 'junk', how do I get rid of them?

Not sure if I would call parenting "junk".  What does the hierarchy look like, is there a common parent?

Select objects, press Alt+P. Select Clear Parents and Keep Transform, if you want to keep their current positions.


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How do I get out of a Blender 2.77a Windows 10 infinite loop after setting a .jar default app setting by mistake?
After some trubosquid downloads, I kept getting a "make default app" for .jar files notice. I clicked okay just to get it to go away. Now when I open Blender 2.77 on my Windows 10 machine the command prompt goes into an "invalid syntax" loop and opens blender window after blender window. It does not do that when I use 2.69 or older versions, but I tried uninstalling and reinstalling 2.77a and the problem persisted. Will changing the default app for .jar files work and how do I do that? What alternative solutions are there?

UPDATE: I tried the default program thing and I found it didn't work. It is an Import multiray thing and a numpy plugin thing. I deleted them and fount that it didn't work. So I installed 2.76 and installed the plugins I have and found the problem is with a plugin. How do I get to appdata to remove plugins in Windows 10? I can't seem to reach it.

I just found a tutorial on getting into hidden files on Windows 10, like Appdata. From there I just manually deleted all the plugins and reinstalled Blender. It works now.


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Blender editor scaling problem
I'm very new to Blender as this is the first time I am working with it. I'm following the following instructions to create a simple coffee cup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y__uzGKmxt8. However I got the problem when I wanted to scale the cup like the guy in the video did at 5:05. I got this:

How can I fix this?

Pivot Point
You set the 3D Cursor as transformation pivot point while the youtuber is using Median point (see the icon pointed by the mouse arrow in the orange box):

With the pivot point in the middle of selection he is able to scale the geometry from its center, not from side in your case. You can clearly see the pivot location by looking for the trasformation gizmo (colored arrows pointing towars axis)
You can change the pivot point in the button menu:

Would suggest cropping images slightly less or expanding on your description as it might not be immediately clear where the pivot point menu is located.

Suggestion accepted @RayMairlot! Thanks for pointing it out.


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Save facial expressions on rigged characters
I have a rigged character. I want to have a library of many facial expressions for it. However I don't know how to (if it is even possible) save only the facial pose data instead of data for the whole body. My wish is that I would then be able to apply a specific expression to the character without changing its head position and rotation. Is it possible and if yes, then how?

Yes this is very possible, Check out the docs for PoseLib. You can save the poses of selected bones on an armature and use them for other poses. Sorry I don't have anything with armature loaded, so I can't check to give you more detail.

Yes, it's possible to store parts of an armature. Did you try to store the pose with only the bones you want selected?


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How to bake fluid and render at once
I am working on some blender projects with fluid and so I wonder how can I make my computer bake fluid and render with only one click. For now I always baked fluid and then clicked again to render. Unfortunately I can't do that if I am sleeping or if I'm in school. What can I do?

Sounds like a bit of python is what you're after. See http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/17839/599 and http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/724/599


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Exported UV Layout is Blank
I'm having an issue with trying to export my UV layout in Blender 2.76b on Windows 10.
My model has seams and is unwrapped and the UV map is working properly. However, when I try to export the UV layout the resulting image has no lines, it's just a blank canvas.
I've been able to successfully export the layout of this project less than a week ago with no noticeable changes other than some adjusted UV coordinates.
Steps I've done to export the layout:

Switch to UV Editing screen layout
Change 3D View to Edit Mode
Select all vertices in 3D View and UV editor
Go to UVs > Export UV Layout
Export the layout as a .png with the "All UVs" flag checked

Any assistance in figuring out what's going wrong would be much appreciated.

Check that you have the "keep uv and edit mode mesh sync" disabled (in the bottom screen options). I had the same issue and that worked

Disable "keep uv and edit mode mesh sync", and make sure that the edit mode and UV editor are using the same selection method (vertex, edge, or face select).


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My objects are semi-transparent, and not one behind the other in the compositor
I have multiple scenes each with different objects. I want to combine all these scenes in the compositor but when they render, all the objects from each scene overlap each other and are all transparent, so I can see all the objects when some should be hidden behind others.
To join my scenes I'm using a mix node with add.

Possible duplicate of this: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/43539/compositor-problems-when-working-with-alpha-over-and-blur-nodes/43581#43581

To do this you should not use an add node.
Instead use an alpha over if you want to combine different render layers.

Hi Delagone :) Please notify the commenter first or add more to it, see: http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/436/what-to-do-with-questions-which-have-been-answered-in-comments/437#437

Hi, you're right. I'm kinda new to the community and still figuring some stuff out. will do that in the future.

authors: Владимир Атаманив


text:
How can X, Y, Z and W go above one in a quaternion animation on Blender?
I am trying to import a collada file generated by Maya on Blender and that file was exported using what I think is the correct representation of a quaternion (x, y, z and w elements are between 0 and 1) and that file is not imported correctly by blender.
I am not an expert in mathematics but as far as I know, the elements x, y, z and w on quaternions are normalized, so they should never go above 1, they always vary between 0 and 1. So, Maya is correct.
When I create a quaternion animation on Blender, I see that Blender allows these elements to go above 1 and apparently the sky is the limit.
How can that be? Is there a way to make Blender work with quaternions between 0 and 1 and import that file correctly?

The exact wording of the question (last sentence) is a little awkward and probably contains some incorrect embedded assumptions.  As has been pointed out in other answers: blender works with quaternions in the -1..1 range just fine.  Can you post a .blend file that has the problem, and explain which effects are problematic with the animation?  You might not have a REAL problem, instead just being disappointed with some hidden nuts&bolts.

But....Blender does work with quaternions between 0 and 1.
There's an interesting video put out by Nathan Vegdahl (that's part of his Humane Rigging series) that discusses quaternions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRD0PgsY3pU&index=14&list=PLE211C8C41F1AFBAB
If you go to about 10:31 in the video, it talks about quaternions only being valid between 0 and 1. By 11:09, he mentions what Blender does with values greater than 1.
Not sure what would prevent the file from being imported correctly.

If you just need an orientation, then having the values between 0 and 1 is fine. But can you define a rotation three times around the objects axis? Isn't it the same thing as with euler rotations where you wouldn't need to enter a value above 360º since at that point you've ended up at the base orientation, but if you want to define a rotation that goes on round and round time after time, then it makes sense to use bigger values.
Are you exporting/importing a quaternion rotation animation, or just orientations? What value does Maya show when you switch to euler? Maybe Maya displays quaternion values between 0 and 1 but internally keeps other records?

No, if you need something that goes through many rotations the quaternions will end up looking like a bunch of sine waves.  If you want to see some detailed math read http://web.purplefrog.com/~thoth/blender/python-cookbook/narratives/animate-random-spin.html

This link is semi-related, in that it uses similar logic as to the resetting of values in rotation.
For your case however:
You can parse your file to the following logic, to solve your particular problem.
I will use pseudo code to represent it, and if time allows, or somebody else can implement it, then feel free to modify the answer to suit, in my case I'm not all that familiar with Quanterions (hoping the value of 1 = 1 Revolution), or the Collada file format, so I don't know how these values live in terms of storage, however the logic should suffice.
#for every place this occurs replace the target with this logic
if axis.rotation >= 0.0000000000 && axis.rotation <= 1.0000000000:
    #then do nothing
else:
    return float("0." + str(axis.rotation).split('.')[1])

Like So

Surely something like x - int(x) is better than string splitting, string addition, then float conversion?

I agree if we are talking inside of Blender, but if you are parsing text inside of a file, I'm not certain if I took the wrong approach? I know that I set a float to begin with in my last example, but the actual place for where this needs to occur is from something like a file.readline() function. Which in my mind would likely return a string, so to be safe about it, I still maintain that you should probably use the conversion approach as posted, even though it looks a little counter-intuitive. Thanks for looking out though.


text:
Are there any key binds to scroll between brushes?
I'm currently setting up a a sculpting preset for my TourBox and Blender, and while I understand the brushes have individual hotkeys I'm moreso looking for a "Next/Previous Brush" button so I can implement it into one of the dials on my TourBox, would anyone know if such a hotkey exists or can be configured?

You can create an Operator that goes through a defined list of brushes of your choice. The operator can then be triggered via a hotkey of your choice or by button press.


text:
How can I move a UV Island to simulate the Movement of an Eye
SO I have a Plane instead of a Sphere for the Eye, I want to be able to move the UV Island instead of moving parts of the plane or using a Sphere.
The eyes are Oval Shaped so I have to use a plane for the eyes. So I would like to be able to Slide, Scale, and Rotate the UV Island (Not move any of the Geometry) instead of the traditional methods. I know AnimAll is a choice but AnimAll causes the Program to Freeze then Crash for me. So is there a way I can move the UV Island using a Bone that I move around kinda like in this image below.

Possible duplicate of How do I move a UV Island using a Bone

This is a duplicate of your previous question, http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/60552/how-do-i-move-a-uv-island-using-a-bone?rq=1, It would be preferrable to update the original with any clarifications rather than creating a new question.

I just removed the Old one because no one would have seen it anyways, the guy on that one didn't even show me exactly what I wanted.

One of the comments on the old one actually linked to similar question with an answer that would have solved your problem. See writup of the UVWarp modifier in http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/55295/creating-an-eye-eyelid-rig-for-dragon-without-shape-keys, also https://www.blender.org/manual/modeling/modifiers/modify/uv_warp.html

I'm doing all this on a single Texture Image, I'm not the best at blender even, but there isn't really much of an Explanation for me to understand on that answer he gave.

And even when I do figure out how to use the modifier I can't set the center, and I can't scale things without the whole Texture Stretching.

In this case you may find it easier to unwrap the eyes into a second UV map and use a separate image. I'm not super familiar with the UV Warp modifier so I'll leave it to someone else to provide a proper answer. That said, the UV Warp modifier is how I have always seen this effect achieved.

It would have been more constructive to indicate the problems you met rather than delete and repost the same question... About this new answer, if that still don't work for you, definitely you should use another texture (and eventually another UV map)

I wonder if it's necessary to have two eyes drawn inside the texture for both eyes of the 3D model? If they share the same texture, wouldn't it be more efficient to make UV islands overlap and use the same space of the UV with a single sprite drawn for them?

Ok... it seems it is needed to complete a previous answer (Creating an eye/eyelid rig for dragon without shape keys)...
You are more or less in this situation with a single UV map and a single texture. The eyes are here selected on the left.
On the right, you can see two vertex groups (named WarpLeftEye and WarpRightEye) : each of them is assigned the corresponding eye vertices.

Now, add two empties. Here I created a sphere and a cube one (in order to see who is who). Then setup the UV Warp modifier this way, using the two empties (or any objects or bones) and the vertex group for the left eye (do the same for the other eye) :

Here is the result :

Surely, you'll need to have enough space around the eyes in your texture. If not, add another one as suggested in the comments.
You can also use the UV map field of the modifier to use another UV map done for the eyes.
Note : scaling and rotating work too... more or less easy to do but simply scale and move and/or rotate the empty (scaling will shift too : so you'll need to scale a bit, realign, scale a bit, etc.)

And my Apologies for the first time.

@JamesAppleMan, thanks (that was not needed though). It is more for the principle of the site than for me.


text:
How can I "zero" an object's orientation in blender?
So I want to change the reference "zero" orientation [with respect to the global coordinate system] of a body in blender.  In other words, when a body's rotation is set to zero (0 deg, 0 deg, 0 deg), the body's axis is oriented in a certain direction.  I want to change this "zeroed" direction without changing the actual rotation.  For example, how could I rotate this body 90 deg about the x-axis [with respect to the global coordinate system] and have the rotation coordinates still say (0 deg, 0 deg, 0deg)?

Rotate it in Edit mode or apply the rotation

Congrats on the 10,000th question on our site!

The simplest ways to do this are to either rotate the mesh in Edit Mode or to rotate it in Object mode and then applying the rotation.
So you can either enter Edit mode, by pressing Tab, and then rotating the mesh with R; the reason this works is that, when transforms are applied in edit mode, the object's origin is not affected.
The other possible solution is to press Ctrl + A>Rotation, which will, essentially do the same as above, by rotating the mesh, but not the object, and thus not the origin, and then resseting the origin's roattion.

This seems to be a way to get some arbitrary rotation using mouse motions, not 0 rotation. It's a very different thing.

You want to apply the rotation. Select your object, then go to Object > Apply > Rotation.
This should do what you want to do


text:
Casting shadows of clouds from HDR?

I'm wondering if it's possible to cast shadows from clouds that are on the HDR?
Otherwise it looks kinda odd with big scenes, where everything is evenly lit.
Thanks for your time

Probably could use textures for lighting rather than explicitly cast from HDR

Yes, it is possible. An hdr environment texture is actually just like a sphere with a texture and emission shader assigned to it (kind of). And of course, you are standing in it. So if you have a solid black environment  texture (hdr or not), there will be no light in the rendered scene.
So to get shadows on the ground, you would have to have an environment texture with some darker areas that don't emmitt so much light. But I think that it would be easier to just put a plane that would cause a shadow where clouds are.
Something like this would do:

What about if I added a sort off image that can be used for transparent planes (the high contrast, images normally used for leaves) and dialled back the white?

That is actually the same thing. The shadow texture for the node setup above would have to be greyscale anyway.

If you are using an HDRI, you are already getting shadows at the point the still was taken. If you need another object in the distance to not be in shadow, you would need an HDRI from that position, in the harsher light.


text:
Custom Render Stamp, Principled BDSF values
I am trying to do a material study, and I would like to print the Principled BDSF values onto the render.
Previously I had found this:
How to show render-stamp for arbitrary values?
It had worked, but the data path I get when I right click the roughness parameter for the Principled BDSF is:
nodes["Principled BSDF"].inputs[7].default_value
That doesn't seem to work the same way.
here is the script:

import bpy

def stamp_set(scene):
    note  =   "Samples: "                     + str(scene.cycles.samples)
    note += ", Bounces, Max: "                + str(scene.cycles.max_bounces)
    note += ", roughness: "                + str(nodes["Principled BSDF"].inputs[7].default_value)
    note += ", Version: "                     + bpy.app.version_string
    scene.render.stamp_note_text = note

bpy.app.handlers.render_pre.append(stamp_set)

I also tried, cycles.nodes["Principled BSDF"].inputs[7].default_value
and
scene.nodes["Principled BSDF"].inputs[7].default_value
I get an error in the terminal that these are undefined (I think).
SO, how would I go about doing this?
thanks,
eh five

I can't really tell, does this help? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/101929/getting-the-actual-not-default-value-of-a-node-socket-that-is-linked-to-anothe

I can't tell either, although the links in those questions did seem in the right direction.

I found a solution with various references.  The big thing that helped was finding how to enter the value for a Principled BSDF parameter in the console;
bpy.data.materials['Material'].node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"].inputs[1].default_value = 3

Mostly from here:
Change value of material emission strength from Python console or script
The final script looks like this (input 7 is Roughness):
import bpy

def stamp_set(scene):
    note  =   "Samples: "                     + str(scene.cycles.samples)
    note += ", Bounces, Max: "                + str(scene.cycles.max_bounces)
    note += ", Roughness: "                + str(round(bpy.data.materials['Material'].node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"].inputs[7].default_value, 3))
    note += ", Version: "                     + bpy.app.version_string
    scene.render.stamp_note_text = note

bpy.app.handlers.render_pre.append(stamp_set)

ref:
Editing Lamp Strength with Python
Change value of sun light emission strength from Python console or script
decreasing excess precision:
How to show render-stamp for arbitrary values?
-snaok


text:
Custom Render Stamp, python newline
Was looking around for how to have properties from blender in the notes for the render stamp.  I found a solution although with many properties I would like to add a newline or carriage return to format the output so that I can have a block on the side of the frame rather than running the length of the frame.
Found this: How to show render-stamp for arbitrary values?
The sample script in the answers Works great! A little further on the answer refers to:

New Lines
As of 2.77 the note will be wrapped onto new lines, you can also add in
  explicit \n newline characters to format the text yourself.

I just can't understand where and how to put that /n.

Newline using \n
\n in Python is the newline character.
Execute the lines in python.
import bpy
bpy.context.scene.render.stamp_note_text = "Line 1.\nLine2."

You will see a nondisplayable character show up in the note field of the stamp. (It is a newline character, which can't display in a single line textbox.) Rendering it, properly display the newline.

Automatic wrapping

As of 2.77 the note will be wrapped onto new lines [...]

This refers to too long text snippes being automatically wrapped. A test seems to show a limit in characters though.

In the line  note  =   "Samples: "                     + str(scene.cycles.samples) I added a /n in the quotes after "Samples:/n" and I don't get a newline, just a /n.

Use a backslash! '\n' not '/n'.

works!  Thank You very much, sorry for my denseness.

@eh-five No problem, if this answer solved your problem, please mark it as accepted.


text:
Error in sculpting, maybe corrupt file
Recently I was attempting to sculpt from a tutorial on youtube and I encountered and error where the brush stopped working consistently and I got a line following the cursor instead.  I'm curious if there is anything I can do rather than starting a new file.  The problem does not seem to be attached to the object and it only occurs with the SculptDraw brush.

Na, it's fine... you just accidentally got your smooth stroke enabled. Disable it and you will be fine.


text:
How to use alt key to duplicate nodes?
I would like to use Alt instead of Shift+D to duplicate nodes in the shader editor, and really anywhere so that it is more consistent with my own workflow between programs that I use. Alt drag is used most frequently, and closer at hand.
This is easily done in the 3d viewport, simply replace Shift+D with Alt +LMB and objects will be duplicated this way. However, in the node editor, this doesn't seem to work at all. I end up aimlessly dragging nodes around doing nothing useful with them. Is there a a better way?
Here is how my prefs look for the settings that are of interest here:

This is what happens with the settings in action:

AltLeft Mouse is used by two other keymaps.
If you deselect them, it will work.


text:
Removing an object from specific lighting
I have got a problem with my lighting. The overall lighting for the scene is what I want it to be, however there is a specific object (my logo) that I would like to be light in a different fashion to make it look more metallic/shiny.
The way the lighting is set up for the rest of the scene, means that the logo is getting hit by the light almost directly from the front, this causes it to look less 3D and much less metallic.
I'm looking for a way to prevent the object from being hit by the main scene lighting, so that it can have it's own individual light.
The lone object with it's personal lighting:

The scene with the object no longer having personal lighting:

I'd like the logo to look like it does in the first picture.
Thank you

Method 1: The most simple or common way would be to use multiple files instead of one. 1 file with the background, one with the logo. Render out each animation as image sequence. Then perhaps in a third file load the two image sequences and render out the combined result.
Method 2: If you're using Blender Internal Render, another way would be to limit lighting for your materials to a specific lamp group:

Method 3: You could put your special object and its special lighting to a different layer as everything else. Then set the render layer not to render the layer for the special object. Create a new render layer and set it to only render the layer for the special object. Enable Compositing, and use nodes for compositing. Add another render layer node. Set it to the render layer for your special object. Combine the two render layer color outputs with a color mix node. Make sure you're rendering with transparency and that the color mix node is set to use the transparency of the second input. (This method is basically method one, but all-in-one)


text:
Texture Rendering Strangely
When I render an image, the texture that is on my road plane changes. It doesn't show anywhere near as much detail as the texture 3D view suggests. I must have forgotten to check a box somewhere but I can't work out what I did wrong. Any ideas?
screenshots to show the difference:

As you can see I've put very low res stones in the dirt and a very basic grass texture, hopefully the picture size is enough to see it.

The stones are gone and the grass is missing its other shade.
There is also a strange green blend in the distance which isn't meant to be there, but I think that is probably another question.
Thank you :)

It is probably a mapping problem,Check if you are using the same UVs or projection type in the texture panel.

Do you have a subdivision surface modifier on the ground parts ? If yes its parameters can be different in view and render... just an idea to be checked.

Ok I found the problem. I had forgotten to uncheck the 25 repeats.
I changed the base plane to be smaller and then use an array, but left it repeating the texture 25 times. Thank you for the answers :)
Also fixed the green in the background problem by selecting field in the texture panel.
Thank you for the suggestions Omar Ahmad and lemon.


text:
Trying to make text float, before a wrecking ball wrecks it
I'm trying to create a text that is in the centre of the screen. A wrecking ball comes behind it and flings the letters everywhere. I have made the wrecking ball. I have made the text and made the text so that the wrecking ball collides and destroys the text.
However, because the text is resting on a plane I can't get the wrecking ball to be the centre of the screen. It has also forced me to rigid body constraint the letters with one another, in order to prevent letters such as "P" falling over before even being hit.
Is it possible to allow each of the letters to "fly" so that firstly, they don't need a plane to balance on and secondly so the wrecking ball can be bigger and more central to the camera?
I could render the animation and post it so you can see exactly what I mean, if I haven't been clear enough already (as I'm not great with words :P)
I'm currently using render cycles (I think that's what I'm meant to be using).
Thanks in advance to any help.

I may have solved this problem, though this feels a really cheap way of doing this. I have simply changed the collision groups. So that the plane is different from the wrecking ball. But the text is in the same group as both of them.
It seems to work so far.

I would recommend the following workflow for achieving the desired results:

Choose enable deactivation then start deactivated for your text objects. Also, ensure they are set to dynamic in your rigid body settings.
For your "wrecking ball", it needs to be set to animated as well as dynamic. Also, increase the mass of this object sufficiently.

Now, at frame one, keyframe the starting point for your wrecking ball
object, then move along the timeline to your end point, and set a
location keyframe for your wrecking ball again.

Because start deactivated is enabled on your text objects, the rigid body collision does not take effect until an active object collides with it. After following these steps, you should be able to come up with something like this.

Also note that by changing the shape of your text objects collision you can find some interesting results. For my example, I ultimately chose to use box for my text instead of the default convex hull.

That is an amazingly detailed answer, thank you so much. I will try this immediately.
You even made a little gif to go with it.
Amazing, thank you.
Edit: Worked beautifully! Also allowed me to use your information to change a few things and make it all round more appealing. Thank you again :)


text:
blender 2.8 requires glibc 2.23, have 2.22
Forgive me if this is off topic, if it is a pointer in the right direction (appropriate location to ask) would be appreciated.  I'm trying to use blender 2.8 on an opensuse 42.3 machine.  Long story short I downloaded glibc 2.2.3 and tried configure and got
 configure: error: The x86_64 is not supported.

I downloaded blender 2.8 for linux unpacked and issued ./blender from the command line.
:~/Downloads/blender-2.80-3c3d80ea22af-linux-glibc224-x86_64> ./blender
./blender: /lib64/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.23' not found (required by ./blender)

I got the glibc version via ldd,
:~/Downloads/blender-2.80-3c3d80ea22af-linux-glibc224-x86_64> ldd --version
ldd (GNU libc) 2.22
Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Written by Roland McGrath and Ulrich Drepper.

found this to help.
Blender 2.8 cannot find libmvec.so.1
So, I downloaded glibc-2.2.3 from http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libc/, found the kernel version with uname -r (4.4.165-81-default).
Then I unpacked glibc-2.2.3 with tar -xzvf, entered directory, made _build directory, entered that and then issued:
:~/Downloads/glibc-2.2.3/_build> ../configure --enable-kernel=4.4.165-81-default --prefix=/usr

and got,
loading site script /usr/share/site/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
loading cache ./config.cache
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking sysdep dirs... configure: error: The x86_64 is not supported.

I am guessing that this is a problem with the name of the system "x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu".
Also I just noticed that in the build of blender that I downloaded, there is a
blender-2.80-3c3d80ea22af-linux-glibc224-x86_64 , in the name does this imply that I need glibc 2.2.4?
Any Help would be appreciated,
eh-five

Could try the 2.25 community version

Thanks, I looked and it appears as though the community version for 42.3 is not working.   https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home%3Acanislycan/glibc     Also I would prefer to not install it and just use the files, like here : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/847179/multiple-glibc-libraries-on-a-single-host

Just thought I'd add this.  I succeeded in building a git version of glibc 2.23 NOT 2.2.3 and I did get to run blender without installing glibc on the system, with a script that was packaged with glibc named, "testrun.sh".  Unfortunately, I had some other errors so blender failed.  It appears though after trying a live version, that opensuse tumbleweed will run blender 2.8 with no problems.     -eh five


text:
Rendering on gpu causes streaks in render
When rendering on gpu there are prominent streaks in the render preview and to a lesser extent the final image. This problem started recently but not after any particular update and the problem persists even after resetting blender preferences to defaults. The problem is also not isolated to a single project.
Any ideas?
I am using an amd r9 390.
GPU:

CPU:


text:
How fast can a gtx 1080 TI run out of memory?
I want to buy a new desktop for Blender and I would like to bet on the graphics card. However, I don’t understand how it renders animations. Is the memory used per frame or per animation as a whole? Also I understand denoising takes a lot of resources as well.
While I’m asking, I read that high frequency in a cpu is better then multiple cores when it comes to simulations. Is this true?
Note: I think I have time until the beginning of next week to decide

Rendering memory is used on a per frame basis. Having a long animation should not affect it much

Your GPU will run out of memory as soon as your scene is larger than the available memory. When you hit render, all your geometry and your textures will be loaded.
You can try some of your scenes and have a look at the top left corner of the window. There you'll see the required amount of memory.
Also, have a look at this: Blender Benchmarks
There you can see how different Hardware (including 1080Ti) performs in various scenes.

Very useful. I thought it was much faster then an 1800x. But judging by my heaviest scene, 11 gb is not totally safe.


text:
Mesh is in some sort of grid/wireframe, no idea what's happened
A while ago I suffered the consequences of hit-every-key-you-see syndrome and something happened to the mesh. Gave up a while later and now that I'm back I can't figure out how to get out of this grid mode or whatever it is.

Looks like you just changed the view option to wire-frame while in edit mode. Just look at the bottom menu bar and change it with the wire-mesh looking circle icon.

From What I can see: you are in editmode and you have the entire mesh selected --> you should see the "grid", your viewport shading is also on wireframe --> you should see the "grid". The mesh is yellow because it  is selected, deselect by pressing "a"

This is hugely subdivided mesh in Edit mode with nearly all vertices selected except for border loops in the laft and right. What do you want to get rid of ?

What do you want your cylinder to look like? as your question is written I dont know what your problem is. Please edit it to make it clearer.

There are different shading options for your 3d view. You can change them by pressing the button beside the edit mode/ object mode selector.
Documentation

yep i've tried that, doesn't change it.

you dont mean editmode? Press Tab?

im in edit mode, yes.


text:
Subtract Only Overlapping Portions of Meshes
Background
I am trying to model a very simple, two piece necklace. The "plate" is a simple mesh with roughly half of it cut away. The "text" is two letters in cursive. Ideally, the plate and the text are to be combined in a way such that the part of the plate that is filled in will have the first letter cut out of it, and the part of the plate with empty space will have the second letter floating in it.
Here are the plate and the text, side by side. .
I have been able to use Boolean Operations to extract the difference between these two meshes, satisfying the left hand hand side of the necklace (the cutout part).
However, to see the effects of the cutout, I have to either remove the text or move the text mesh away (thus revealing the cutout but moving the "l" away from its desired position).
Question
Is there a way to perform some kind of difference operation / combination of operations where the "m" would be cutout of the plate while the "l" is left in place?
Thankyou for your time and effort.

In theory, you could use your mesh you used to cut out the area on the right, to cutout the 'm' from the text. Then you cutout the 'l' with the mesh. With the letters separated you could add (join [Ctrl] + [J]) the 'l' to the mesh and cutout the 'm' from the mesh. The reason why I didn't put this into an answer is, that the boolean-operator with text sometimes has problems.

@DrRiisTab - I think that this is the correct line of thinking, as I agree anyway. The trick is to first convert your Text to a mesh object Alt+C. If for some reason the Boolean operation fails on the second half, you could always do a knife project and check the cut through option in the tool shelf. Then remove the unwanted area. I recommend keeping a copy of all of your geometry in a separate layer to use as a template though, that way you don't have to lose anything just in case some operations fail to work out, as you intended.

Is there a particular reason you want to preform both operations at once from a single object? This would be pretty straightforward to accomplish either in multiple steps or with two or three separate objects. Is that an option for you?

I'll let DrRiisTab answer the double boolean method, however I will demonstrate how to do this from the Knife Project method, as it will ultimately get you there, and you will be able to fall back to it, if for some reason the boolean operations don't quite work out for you. As time allows, I will circle back and edit this answer to give you the textual step by steps. Until then you should be able to follow the Screencast Keys with success.

Note: right at the transition, you will have a open mesh, that you may want to close up. I would recommend W >> E(Bridge Edge Loops), see related link if you need help with the nature of Bridge Edgeloops

@BrianTracy - I saw this post and thought it could be helpful to you as well


text:
Problem with displacement on edge
I have a problem with displacement on edge.
How can i solve this problem?

I use this setting for the cube.
Thanks

This is more or less a problem with the UV unwrapping of the object.
Go to edit mode and check out the UV layout with the subsurface modifier on.
If it looks messed up, then try to unwrap the object again, or use "Project from View". Only use project from view if you are not going to view the other side of the object. Play around with the UV layout until you get a nice result for the entire cube.

Beveling these edges can help a bit, but you could also look at the Midlevel setting on the Displacement node.


text:
UV box textures different dimension
I have a problem with 2 object,
I would like the same size of the texture, in the two objects, without uv mapping (given the complexity of the objects).
What can I do?
thank you

One fast way is to use Box projection.

Set Image projection to Box
Change coordinates from UV to Object
In Texture Coordinate > Object field, target any object (I used an empty)


text:
use python script as animation node, and give it inputs
I try to use a script with animation nodes, so i use the node "Script", this node has a button "New Input", but clicking it don't seem to do anything.
Is it any way i could use a script as an animation node, with some inputs like floating points, integers, strings, or even blender object?

To me, clicking on this button adds an input. But before it appears, you have to choose the data type in the little window that appears after click on the button

then how to use this input in the script?
(and for outputs)

Script node works the same way the other subprograms work in Animation Nodes:

Define a subprogram
Then invoke it from another part of the node tree

Let say we have:

a simple text block with some code in it. Here it calculates a string from a list of objects
a group of objects composed here by a cube, a plane, a circle (objects are grouped using CtrlG)

And we want to use the text value of the script to be the text displayed by the text object on the right:

Here in this script 'text' (a string or a text type in AN) will be the result and 'objects' (a list of objects) will be the input.
You can do the following:

Add an object group node. Set it to the objects group's name
Add a text object output node. Set it to the text object.

Add a subprogram as script.
Set its input and choose "object list" as type. Eventually rename the input variable value (here we need to rename it to 'objects').
Set its output and choose "text". Rename it if needed (here we want it to be named 'text').

Add the invoke subprogram node which corresponds to our subprogram's name ("my script" here but you can rename it) and connect input and output of this node.


text:
Store and keep the value of a number through loops in an animation node loop
I would like to know if there is a way i could store a number through animation node loops, to incrementially add some value to it, without it beeing reinitialized every loop.

There is.
The Reassign Loop Parameter node allows you to pass a value to the next iteration of the loop. You can create it in the advanced settings of the Loop Input node.

In this example I also made it so that the Sum socket is an output of the loop instead of an input.