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Moving with "Right Mouse Button+WASD" while Editing
[I understand that you can move the view-port camera with Shift+` command and enter walk or flying mode].
What I want to do, is move the view-port while editing by holding down the "Right Mouse Button" then flying the camera with WASD. Similar to "walk mode" but only... while editing and using the Right Mouse Button like Middle Mouse Button so that other commands aren't pressed.
Essentially, what we have right now, is you hold "Middle Mouse" and then you do some weird shimmying with "Shift" and "Scroll wheel" until you arrive at the intended view. It is far less precise and I would like to change the existing implementation to mirror Unreal's set up.
Is this possible?
If so, please let me know! I love Blender and this would go a long way to making this feel like home for me.
Thanks!

As far as I'm aware, the closest thing Blender natively has for that style of navigation is the Shift+` thing that you mentioned.  It seems that walk/fly navigation is better for navigating through scenes like you would need to do a lot in a game engine whereas turntable navigation (like what Blender or Maya have) is more useful for modeling or animation, which is probably why Blender's walk/fly mode isn't as good as Unreal's.
There are a few other navigation options that might work for you, but ultimately, the best option is to just get used to Blender's navigation.  So, I'll first explain some options that can help make Blender's navigation more (or less) natural (depending on who you are), and then I'll gives some alternative options that you might want to explore.
Blender Navigation Options
You can change the Blender navigation settings by going into Edit -> Preferences and then clicking on the "Navigation" tab.

Orbit & Pan
Most likely, you'll want to keep the orbit method on "Turntable" rather than "Trackball," but you could try out both options.  Basically, Turntable keeps the objects from getting rotated sideways whereas Trackball lets you control each axis of rotation.  Beyond that, it's kind of hard to explain, and I don't know how to record GIFFs, so you can just try it out yourself.
Although it's disabled by default, I like the "Orbit Around Selection" option.  That way, if you have a large scene, you don't have to fumble around with Shift+ to what point you want to orbit around.  Instead, it will just rotate around the selected object.  The disadvantage with this setting is that if your selected object is a really large object such as the ground or a room, it rotates around the origin point of that object, so it might still be a bit confusing if you have that object selected.
The "Auto Perspective" option just automatically  switches the view to orthographic view when switching to left/right, top/bottom, and front/back views.
The "Auto Depth" option is also pretty useful.  There can be times when zooming just becomes painfully slow because the way zoom works is by zooming onto a particular point, and it gets slower as you get closer to that point.  If the zoom focus point is somewhere between the viewport camera and the object you're trying to zoom into, zooming will feel painfully slow.  The only way to fix it is by using Shift+` to get closer to the object you want to zoom in to and thus change the focus point of the zooming... or just check this box so that it finds out how far the object under your mouse point is and just uses that as the zoom point.
Zoom
Most of the zoom settings you'll probably want to keep the same.  Probably the potentially most useful option in this section will be the "Zoom to Mouse Position" option, but I personally don't like it.
Other Tips
Blender's navigation is best when you're not trying to navigate around a room or anything.  It can be helpful to hide large objects such as buildings when working on smaller objects such as furniture.  Then, to place the furniture in the buildings, you can use the walk/fly navigation to move your view and then place the furniture.
Other Navigation Options
3DConnexion Space Mouse
I was going through a faze where I was really into Blender, and my birthday was coming up, so I decided to get the 3DConnexion Space Mouse for $130.  In Blender 2.8, there are two modes you can use with the space mouse, a fly/walk (free) mode or an orbit mode which the mouse was originally designed for.  In the fly/walk mode, it feels like you're holding the joystick to a space ship or something and can push the vessel through the scene.  In the orbit mode, it feels like your holding the actual object itself instead of the joystick and are rotating it directly... at least it would if I ever took the time to use it enough to get more used to it.
The settings for the space mouse are found in the Preferences under the Input tab and the NDOF expandable section.

The space mouse works great, especially if you're doing something like painting or sculpting with a pen, but there are two major disadvantages to it.  First, it cost $130, and honestly, it's probably not worth that much unless you're really into 3D design... or if you're really really really really curious about it and can't get sleep at night thinking about what it would be like...
The second disadvantage is that it takes away one of your hands.  Blender is designed for one hand on the keyboard and another on the mouse.  The most practical way to use the space mouse is with your right hand on your regular mouse and your left hand on the space mouse.  However, you then have to let go of one of your mouses to hit the shortcuts.  Granted, there are programmable buttons on the mouse that can open radial menus that hit various shortcuts, also Blender 2.8 doesn't depend on shortcuts as much as Blender 2.7, but it still can be a bit impractical in my opinion.
Unreal Engine Navigation Mode Keymapping
I saved this for last because I'm not sure how or even if it will work in Blender 2.8, but I found this YouTube video that talks about how to set up Unreal Engine navigation using this page from developer.blender.org  Again, I haven't tested it out, but it might be just what you're looking for (or it might not work at all)


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Mixamo animation sharing between meshes
how to associate a mixamo animation to another mesh in blender 2.8? Both meshes have the same mixamo skeleton, thanks.

If the two armatures are in the same file, simply select your second skeleton, turn a dopesheet window into an action editor, and select your Mixamo animation in its dropdown menu.
If the animation is in another file, choose append in the file menu, select the origin file, go to its "action" folder and select the animation.
Then do the same procedure.

Hi Josh, thanks for your support, I am going to try it!

C'mon, I'm gonna reach 10.000 :).

Cool! working perfectly, thanks a lot!

If so, please mark the answer as accepted!

Done!, thanks again!

Hi Josh, also regarding animation I posted this question, https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/153058/image-material-animation-2-8-eevee, do you know how this works? Thanks in advance

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Speed up bpy object creation with "for loop"
so i'm fairly new to blender scripting and could need some advice with this:
To put it simply, I want to create a cube made up of smaller cubes (100x100x100) with this script:
N=100;
for i in range(0,N,3):
   for j in range(0,N,3):
      for k in range(0,N,3):
          bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(enter_editmode=True, location=(i,j,k))

which works well with smaller N. But takes horribly long with larger N. In the code above there are over 9000 objects to be created so I can assume there is a lot of memory to be allocated which slows things down.
However, I there a way to create such objects much faster? Is there a fundamental problem with my approach that I've not seen yet?
I also experience this "slow" behavior in other scripting modellers like OpensScad and hoped maybe blender does this a little better.
Tips and advice very much appreciated! Thanks!

You should usually try to make identical objects as instances. They share data and renders faster. You could do that with Duplicate Linked, Particles or instancing per verts or faces (object properties).

Using array modifier
Using array modifiers will speed up the processing because it will lower the overall io between Blender and Python and also lower bpy.ops usage:
Create a base cube object.
Create and apply three array modifiers on it.
The code is commented below, but if not clear enough, please ask in the comments.
import bpy
import bmesh

def apply_modifier( obj, count, vector ):
    # Add an array modifier with its wanted parameters
    m = obj.modifiers.new( name = "Array", type = 'ARRAY' )
    m.use_relative_offset = False
    m.use_constant_offset = True
    m.constant_offset_displace = vector
    m.count = count
    # Apply it
    bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply( modifier = m.name )

def create_base_cube( context, name, size ):
    # Create an object
    mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new( name )
    obj = bpy.data.objects.new( name, mesh )

    # Add a cube
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh( mesh )
    bmesh.ops.create_cube( bm, size = size, calc_uvs = False )
    bm.to_mesh( mesh )
    bm.free()

    # Link the object to the scene and set it active
    context.scene.collection.objects.link( obj )
    context.view_layer.objects.active = obj

    return obj

name = "CubeMap"
size = 2

obj = create_base_cube( bpy.context, name, size )

N=100;
interval = 3

apply_modifier( obj, N, (interval, 0, 0) )
apply_modifier( obj, N, (0, interval, 0) )
apply_modifier( obj, N, (0, 0, interval) )

Using dupliverts (proposed by Jackdaw in the comments)
An alternative is to use dupliverts, which seems to be faster and allows to define any patterns (not only cubic).
The principle is to create an object with vertices at the positions you want, then make it parent to a cube and use dupliverts as instancing method.
import bpy
import bmesh
from itertools import product

def create_base_cube( context, name, size ):
    # Create an object
    mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new( name )
    obj = bpy.data.objects.new( name, mesh )

    # Add a cube
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh( mesh )
    bmesh.ops.create_cube( bm, size = size, calc_uvs = False )
    bm.to_mesh( mesh )
    bm.free()

    # Link the object to the scene and set it active
    context.scene.collection.objects.link( obj )
    context.view_layer.objects.active = obj

    return obj

def make_result_object( context, name, cube, vertices ):
    mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new( name )
    obj = bpy.data.objects.new( name, mesh )

    # Associate the vertices
    obj.data.from_pydata( vertices, [], [] )

    # Link the object to the scene and set it active
    context.scene.collection.objects.link( obj )
    context.view_layer.objects.active = obj

    # Make the object parent of the cube
    cube.parent = obj
    # Make the object dupliverts
    obj.instance_type = 'VERTS'

    return obj

name = "CubeMap"
size = 2

cube = create_base_cube( bpy.context, name, size )

N=3*100
interval = 3

vertices = [(x, y, z) for x, y, z in product( range(0,N,interval), range(0,N,interval), range(0,N,interval) )]

result = make_result_object( bpy.context, "result", cube, vertices )

Thanks for the detailed answer. I haven't thought about modifiers, so that solution could actually work quite efficiently. However, how would you proceed if the actual object I want to create in my loops depends on a condition? E.g. I read external data and depending on them i create a sphere instead of a cube with 100x100x100 objects. Is there a way to make such conditional array modifiers?

Jackdaw's proposal with duplicate Linked might work here. I will have a look at both of your solutions. Thanks so much for the input

@Lilly2015, Python will have some limits here. 100x100x100 will create 8 millions vertices for cubes. But another method could be using dupliverts: make a mesh with only vertices (a big sphere for instance) then use dupliverts on it to fill it with cubes. That what I've used in the script here (second part of the answer): https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/143273/how-to-create-a-tetrix-sierpinski-tetrahedron-fractal-radiating-from-0-0-0-pyt/144493#144493 . Anyway, the less is done using Python, the faster it is

@Lilly2015, have added a duplivert version (faster it seems)

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


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Invisible meshes after update
Before the 2.8 I hid some meshes and now i cannot unhide them... Here is an image.

In the Outliner, click on the key icon to make some other options visible, like Globally Disable In Viewport, which may be deactivate for your objects.


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Straight strands of hair when I change up the display amount
I'm currently following a CGCookie tutorial series on how to create realistic hair and I encountered this problem:
The children will follow the parent strand of hair correctly if the display amount is set to 100 or less, but they will turn straight when I bump it up to 500, for example. Here are some screenshots:

Have you tried changing the Children to Interpolated mode instead of Simple?

Yes, it actually gets worse, the hair becomes straight from the root all the way down to the bottom


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Export traced bitmap SVG from Inkskape and extrude+bevel
This has been discussed many, many times. I am trying to understand/follow what's in:
Extrude and bevel an imported svg curve
I also took a look at Correct way to create an extruded mesh from a simple SVG shape? ie. Without creating insanely complex nonsense polygons? but I'm not sure that the whole curve-mesh conversion thing is what I want to do (based on other threads, too).
I don't really understand what's going on. I'm suffering the same problem, but I am not finding any "loose" vertices. If I hide everything except for one letter, select any vertex on that letter, and then select linked, I get the entire letter very clearly. Nothing seems "loose":

I am creating the SVG by tracing a bitmap in Inksape and then exporting. I don't think these are "loose" curves, but I don't really know what I'm doing.
If I set the bevel to some insanely tiny dimension (eg: .0000001), I then get a very stark "edge" in the center of the extrusion on the final object when a material is applied:

Here is the SVG in question
Since I have the original bitmap, is there something I should do differently to export it from Inkskape to prevent this? Is mesh conversion and back the only way?

common mistake is to scale your curves in object mode, then when you bevel the object it will look huge... in the svg your logo is 10cm wide but default cube in blender is 200cm..! so you may want to scale it, but do it in edit mode
or even better, scale curves in your svg editor before exporting... it helps working in a bigger svg document size, like 500cm side, top left corner in Inkscape will be world origin in Blender
other than that see if you can find the font, those are difficult to trace..!

This totally worked. I re-traced the bitmap and made the SVG 500cm x 500cm and now it imported well, extruded nicely, and beveled normally. Thank you so much!


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How to improve solve error in motion tracking with low-contrast footage?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z6sRF_rNefpGxr_3B1EoVM0mLPrdfLY3/view?usp=sharing
^^ image sequence in question. Blender file is almost not useful.
For my first motion tracking project, I probably couldn't have picked a worse piece of footage. It's cellphone footage - finding the right sensor width and focal length for the Pixel 7 has proven nearly impossible. There are very few contrasty bits; the perspective changes wildly; the few contrasty bits tend to leave the screen, and most of the usable contrasty bits are located all in the center. My solve error is really hard to get down.
I'm currently using an Affine tracker for everything. I really don't know what I can do to make this better. I am trying to use as many dirt bits on the table as possible. I'm not really sure what qualifies as a good "feature" to track. I've been at this for hours.
Any thoughts/tips? Not looking for anyone to make markers, but things like "for the blue caps, use perspective, because X"


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How to keep an object a fixed distance from a fixed camera while following a moving path? (lock Y/Z but follow X)
I am using a cycle modifier to animate things moving - imagine an infinite roadway scenario. The roadway is built on top of a Bezier curve (the path).
The road is attached to the Bezier, the Bezier is parented to an empty, and the empty moves via keyframe animation and then has the cycle modifier applied.
The object does OK following the path for a short bit, but then there is a problem with the evaluation time and the constraint in combination with the cycle.
When the cycle resets the path position, the object stays at the previous location on the path (that's good), but that position is now much further away from the camera (that's bad).
I guess what I'm trying to achieve is the following:
I'd like the Suzanne head to stay at the same/fixed Y position no matter what, but have its X position track the Bezier path, no matter what is going on.
Here's an example where I'm trying to get started:

After some fiddling, it looks like a combination of Clamp to and Locked track did the trick:

Use clamp to in order to keep the X position of the Suzanne along the path no matter what, but then you lose the Follow Path feature of staying rotated to face the path direction.

Use another empty axis in front of the Suzanne also with the Clamp to modifier. This axis follows the path at a fixed distance in front of the Suzanne.

Finally, use a Locked Track modifier on Suzanne to track the empty axis that is in front of it, but clamped to the path. Suzanne will turn to face the empty, which is ahead of it, making it look like Suzanne is "following" the path.


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Image to plane not working for me
This feature was working then i tried rendering it and planes were blank. I tried adding another different image as plane and it doesn't show at all just a black plane. The video i am trying to add is in documents>blender projects>folder>videos, no idea whats happening or what I've done.

It could be an issue with the codec of the specific video you're using. Try saving the video to a JPG or PNG image sequence and use that instead. You can use the free program Handbrake to save out the images or use a different codec.

Thanks, i tried  a jpeg and it works but all 3 videos mp4s and avi's all didn't work in cycles but works fine in blender render. My project is made in cycles though, weird problem as it's worked before.

Looking closer at the node setup, you have a noodle going from the alpha output of the image node to the fac on the mix node. mp4 and avi codecs do not support alpha. Try connecting the diffuse node directly to the material output and see if it renders.

Actually disregard that last comment, I tested that in 2.79 and even without an alpha channel in the video, it doesn't affect it. Although, I'm having no problems

thanks for trying, i'm trying it on an old laptop and it works fine but need it to work on my new laptop

Solution 1:
You want to be in Material Preview mode:

Not in Solid mode:

Solution 2:
If you want to stay in viewport shading > solid mode you can select the image in object mode, then you select Viewport shading > Color > Texture:

First change image source from Movie to Single Image or Image Sequence.

In Texture viewport shading mode, image texture for displaying must be active at Node Editor.
Just click on it and it should be appeared.

thanks, Not sure how to do this, i'm a bit lost again, still learning. I'm trying to add a video to a plane, i should have made it clear. I have plane selected and am in texture mode and i think plane is active, still same result.


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Can't pack blender file for rendering on a render farm
Still really new to blender, I'm trying to upload a blender project to a render farm as my computer too slow, i am having trouble packing my "images as planes", i click on external data>pack all into .blend. When i try rendering online there are no videos as textures that i have on the planes as shown.
Also tried making all paths relative and absolute. All video files are on my desktop. The video files are 323MB, 516MB and 476MB.
So everything else is rendering fine but not the video screens on the "neon buildings" any help is appreciated.

The result of the render with missing video files as textures for the planes.

Just out of curiosity, what are your system specs?

AMD A6 processor, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, WIN 10 Pro

Unfortunately, Blender does not quite pack all external files. According to the manual here:

Not all external files can be packed
Some typically heavy external files, like video ones from the Sequence
  Editor or Movie Clips, cannot be packed in a blend-file.

I would look into the render farm that you are using. Some of them may have a workaround for this issue. Looking at those video sizes though, even just uploading 1+ GB of video would take quite a while.

Thanks for reply, I didn't now this, maybe i can make the movie clip smaller

I think Blender simply does not pack video files. If you're unable to find a workaround, I could help render on my PC. I'm running a GTX 1070, not top-of-the-line or anything, but it'll still render still much faster. Send me a message on Discord if it comes to that: stphnl329#4575.

That's super cool of you, thanks! I'll be in touch if I can't do it, i'm attempting zipping everything instead and uploading to a different render farm.

Video textures or image sequences are not packed in the blend file. This is not related to the asset size, it's how Blender works.
I'm copying below the instructions for packing the files from RenderStreet. They explain how to upload projects both packed and unpacked, and also touch some other cases of assets that may need to be treated separately. I hope this helps get your project done.
https://support.render.st/portal/kb/articles/how-to-pack-your-blender-file-for-uploading
Also, I cannot speak about other farms, but in our case a project size of 1 GB is not an issue at all.
Disclaimer: I'm RenderStreet's CEO.


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Can't hide object which particles are based on, without losing particles
To clarify i'm not in this instance trying to hide emitter. The emitter oblong shape with arrow is supposed to be there. The particles are all based on a torus shape so all the little pink coins are based on that but i want to hide from render the large torus i have elsewhere on the screen. I un-clicked camera under ray visibility but then lost both the particles and the large torus. Thanks for any tips.

Select the large torus.
Blender 2.7x
Press the M key and change the layer it lives on.

Then in render layers Shift-Select the layer you chose to remove that layer from being render.

Blender 2.8x
Go to the Object Properties panel.
De-select Show in renders

To explain this, the properties you are changing ar only for the instance you selected, not any instances that are generated by the particle system.

@Gooniezmedia feel free to upvote all relevant answers and mark your accepted solution.

Moog: I would like to delete my answer, would you mind extend your "A" with some Outliner info to cover all options? So newcomers can get answer from one place, thank you.I would like to delete my answer, would you mind extend your "A" with some Outliner info to cover all options? So newcomers can get answer from one place, thank you.

Am I right that this stopped working in 3.0? In 3.0, when I deselect show in viewport/renders, not only the instance, but also the instances generated by the particle system are affected.

You can hide Torus from Outliner Editor (Blender 2.8x).

This may be too trivial a solution, but could you just move the torus off-screen?
Keep in mind, if you change the world position of the torus, it will affect the particle's position too if Object -> Global Coordinates is checked under the "Particles" context


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Colors/Lights drastically different in render (2.8 Eevee)
Trying to get back into Blender after a bit of a hiatus. I am not sure what is going wrong. When I am in my rendered viewport the colors look perfect and then as soon as I go to render the animation/image the colors get blown out like crazy.
I have messed with color management settings (filmic, standard, none, etc) and they all look like garbage. If anyone has a suggestion that would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Have you checked if any objects are hidden in the render? It would also help if you uploaded your blend to https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ Just edit the given code into your question.

Try disabling "Bloom" or adjust it's settings and see if you have the same issue.


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Blender Cell Fracture results in cube
I'm trying to create a broken sphere to import into Unity for a project. I am using Cell Fracture to do this, but when I create a new UV Sphere and run cell facture on it, it gives me this instead of a broken sphere

These are my settings (If it has anything to do with it)

I saw this question here which had the same issue as me, but the solution did not work. Here is the download link where I got it from which I got from this forum here. Am I doing something wrong?

I had the same problem, but it's now fixed with the Blender release candidate 2 ...

@Muad that is the version I am using, but I have able to fix the issue by getting an older version of blender.


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Cryptomatte outputs one or two colors only
This may be me just being a Blender noobie, but when I try to render a Cryptomatte pass I only get one or two colors, usually green or white, with full alpha transparency for some reason (I had to check in the Image Editor to show RGB only so I could at least see what the pass rendered). The other passes seem to render OK, though.
Is there a setting I need to check or is it a bug? I'm using Blender 2.81a. Thanks in advance.

Possibly related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/143706/cryptomatte-doesnt-output-nice-clean-edges/144220?r=SearchResults#144220

How are you viewing the image on the left side? The correct way of picking the objects would be in the compositor with a view node: image. Otherwise for storing the Cryptomatte you'd save them in a multi-layer OpenEXR.

@RobertGützkow Thanks, indeed it worked when I used it in the Compositor, but I couldn't get them to work when exporting an OpenEXR, the colors are all different when I open it in Affinity Photo. What I did was pluging the Render Layers node outputs to the File Output node, but I'm sure there's something I'm missing.

Cryptomatte doesn't simply store color, how it works and what is stored in the multi-layer OpenEXR is explained in this answer.

I'll read that, thank you

I think Affinity doesn't support Cryptomatte.

It's because you are using the pick plug instead of the image or matte plug


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X-Ray mode in lookdev view, Blender 2.8
I'm trying to model using a reference image, so I'd like to see though the cylinder so I can see the image. The problem is that, even with the X-Ray button activated, I can't get it transparent in lookdev viewport mode. As you can see from the images below, the x-ray mode works as it should in solid viewport mode, but not in lookdev. As I require to use the lookdev mode to see the image, I can't use the solid mode (at least as far as I know)
Is there any way to make the cylinder less opaque so I can see the reference plane and work on it?

For Loook Dev, from the  Viewport Overlays dropdown menu, under Shading enable the Hidden Wire, Option.

Thank you for the reply, but I can't find that option in that menu.


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Texture in 3D view won't update as I manipulate the UVs in the UV Editor
I'm a new Blender user coming from 3DSMax and Maya, and the UV editor behavior is really weird. Any changes I make to the UVs in the UV editor won't show up on the 3D view.
As you can see, even if I overly stretch the UVs the texture continues the same on the object.
I think it's a setting issue since it can be done in Blender, as seen on this video https://youtu.be/SnKNTANTtd8?t=437
What can I do to solve this? Using Blender 2.8 currently.
[

Where have you specified which coordinates your texture should be using?

I didn't, so there was the problem, as Emir showed bellow. The thing is that it seems if I just select a default Blender texture, such as Checker or Brick texture, I need to add those additional nodes for it to work. If I just select Image Texture and import an image, I don't need those nodes and it works as it should. I'm still used with the way Max or Maya works, so it's just an unfamiliarity issue with Blender.

You need a Mapping Node and a texture coordinate node.

Hope that helps.
Good Luck

Thank you, that worked! Still it seems a bit troublesome to add those nodes everytime I want to add a texture, is there a way to add them automatically? For clarification, the way I added it was clicking on that little circle in Base Color on the material properties tab and selecting Checker Texture.

Just for clarification, I found that if I select Image Texture instead of Checker or Brick textures, it works without the need of additional nodes, at least for UVing, so now it's working as I expected.


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Lock vertex in UV editor
I need to fit UV map to the texture. To do this, I use proportional editing to move the necessary sections of the UV map. But when moving, vertices/faces that I don’t want to move are moved, how can I block / freeze them from moving.

You can select the vertices you don't want to edit and hide them (H), then perform the edit, then unhide all (Alt H).


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How to copy weight paint to another object
I have a t-shirt model that was attached to one skeleton. I removed the weights and bones of one skeleton, transferred the t-shirt to the second skeleton and transferred the weights from the second skeleton onto it. But a few bones bend the shirt wrong. Is there a way to transfer and replace several "weight paints" from the old skeleton, while maintaining the new skeleton?

Do you still have the old model with the old weights? If yes, you can use that object and simply swap the armature in it's armature modifier, without removing/recreating any weights (assuming the deforming bones names are the same in both skeletons). For more problematic situations, try the Data Transfer modifier.

Yes, I have the old model with the old weights, but skeletons are different.

But are the bones named differently?

Do you want to selectively combine weights of the new and the old model perhaps?

Yes, bones named differently, and yes, I need to selectively combine weights.

Definitely look up the "Data Transfer" Modifier. You can choose which of the groups to transfer.

Just to be more clear, "weight" is a property that belongs to vertices into a vertex group, not to an armature. Every time you have a mesh with an armature modifier that points to a skeleton and its vertex group has the same name as a bone of that armature, the bone will move that vertex group. So renaming the bones and/or the vertex groups can be a good starting point, without any need of "removing" weights.


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HDR white background
Can i use HDR images, but with background colors? Not transparent.
İ have a scene with a hdr for lights and reflections, but i want background to stay white or other color. İs it possible?

İ found solution by myself, so if anyone else had this question, here you are

are you the same person that asked the question? then you should merge your accounts, check how here https://blender.stackexchange.com/help/merging-accounts. Also check [ask] and mark your answer as accepted, but please [edit] to explain what's happening in the screenshot.


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Message "cannot-change-old-file-(file-saved-with-@)" trying to copy objects
If I try to copy an object, I get this message: "cannot change old file (file saved with @)". Googling, I see several people getting this message in a variety of circumstances, but none on copying an object.
There are plenty of files with "@" in their name on my system, but no .blend@ files.
The blender animation is created from scratch, no import or such things.
I'm on OpenSuse Tumbleweed; Blender version 2.80.
Any help appreciated!

That could be a problem with writing permissions. When copying an object to buffer (I assume what "I try to copy an object" means) Blender creates .blend file called "copybuffer" or alike, writes it on the disk and saves. If it can't do that for some reason operation will fail with probably similar error. See also  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/46736/saving-blender-file-to-a-shared-folder-results-in-cannot-change-old-file-error and https://blenderartists.org/t/cant-save-old-file-with/698669

Thanks! I noticed the issues in the links you gave already in m google search. In one, the .blend@ is mentioned, which I don't have on my system. In the other, there are external data used, which had to be unpacked - also not an issue here. I searched for "copybuffer "copy" and "buffer", grepping "blend", but no relevant files are shown.


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Child bones creating at 3d cursor instead of at parent
I'm an experienced 3DSMax user learning Blender. So, for rigging, I create a bone, and then Shift+A to extrude a child from that bone and pull it to where I want the next joint. Up until now that's been working fine, but suddenly it's behaving differently- now when I Shift+A it places a bone at the 3D cursor, instead of at the tail of the parent bone. I'm sure I must've toggled something on or off accidentally for this to have happened, does anyone know what it might be...?

Try going into edit mode, selecting the armature's tail, press E to extract, then ESC so you can drag the extruded tail out from the armature.

shift A should not extrude, shift A places a bone where the 3D cursor is. To create a bone at the top of another bone use E (extrude). Also, extrude will make the new bone a child of the previous one.

Gah, of course! It was Shift+E. I just got my hotkeys mixed up. Thanks guys.


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Is there any global control to set the defaults for Empties in 2.8?
Is there any global control to set the defaults (type, size etc) for Empties in 2.8?
In this instance, I am creating a spline controller and using Ctrl+H to hook and create control objects. An empty is created automatically, but the default is a tiny cross. So later I have to go to each one separately and change the type and size. Is there a default setting I can edit, or does anyone know a script that will do it to multiple empties at once?


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Blender 2.8 not showing objects in render view (cycles)
Eevee works Ok and I can cut and paste into 2.79 and this displays in render view OK too? At the start of the project all was fine.  (It will generate a render OK)

Do you have materials applied? Are there any errors displayed on the console?

thanks for the reply...Yes materials are applied, including environment map background,  and everything was working OK.  Not aware of any errors showing - displays OK with Eevee.

Can you go to the outliner filter dropdown and select all restriction toggles?. Is there an indirect only filter applied to the collection (arrow icon next to the collection is bright white)?

You've accidentally paused the rendering. Click on the pause icon to update the view.

Can't believe that after all these year I still forget to check that first, before searching for  more complicated reasons.

This doesn't solve the issue for me. Says "Rendering done" but what I'm looking at is nothing like a Cycles render.


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How can one change the size of a sun lamp in Blender 2.79?
I can't seem to find out where to change the size of the sun lamp. When I look under the sun lamp properties, it only displays "Energy" instead of "Size". Can someone help me with this?

are you talking about 2.79 or 2.8? I can't see Energy in 2.79 (or in 2.8 but I don't have the latest version)

Sun light size has now been replaced by an angular size, which makes more sense for this type of light source.
You can control it from Angle property in the Object Data panel in the Properties Window.


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How to change the location of an addon in the UI
Some addons allow the user to select or name the tab in the N panel, most do not. Too many addons want their own tab.
How can I edit the ini script to change the location of the tool/addon?
I would like to move some addons into existing tabs and/or create new tabs to group the addons to my liking.
I know very little about Python scripting. I have Text Wrangler on my Mac and Notepad ++ on my PC. I've looked at many of the scripts and seen an entry for "Location" but I'm not sure exactly how to format the changes.
Where exactly can I find the necessary Python information. I'll do the required homework, I just need to know what to look for and where to look for it.
Thanks

It's not a good idea to do that, but here is how anyway. Be aware that this may break add-ons.
What you need to be looking for is were the panels because they determine were UI elements are placed. The panel classes can be identified by their inheritance from bpy.types.Panel, although depending on how modules are imported it might just say Panel. Starting from Blender 2.8 there is a mandatory naming convention by which the class name of the panel should also contain _PT_.  Take as an example the following excerpt that defines a panel:
class SOME_COOL_ADDON_PT_settings(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_idname = "SOME_COOL_ADDON_PT_settings"
    bl_label = "Setting for cool addon"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_category = "View"

    ...

The placement in the UI is determined by bl_space_type, bl_region_type and bl_category. This means the panel is created in the 3D View in the right hand panel (which can open/close by pressing N) in the View tab. You could change the tab to Tool by changing the bl_category = "Tool".

Thank you for your advice and assistance. The first thing I'll do is disable most of my user addons, then spend more time refining my skills with Blender 2.80. Then I'll try each addon, one at a time to see if it's something I really need. Once I figure out which addons to keep and which ones to remove, then I make a decision to see if I need to mess with things.


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Face loop select options. Selecting faces between two faces
When I clicked Alt and select the face its select all the faces in the horizontal direction , which is not not what I required I want to select the faces in the vertical direction. Is there anyway to do it. In other software I can shift select two faces and the faces in between automatically gets selected.
How can it be done in Blender?

Also, Ctrl-clicking a face  will select all the faces on the shortest route between the clicked face and the last selected face

Thanks Robin Belts

To choose the direction the loop select will go, you should be in face selection and alt select an edge in the direction you want the edge loop to go. If you want it to go vertical then alt select the top edge while in face selection.

Thanks a lot, It solved my problem


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How to extrude tangent to the face only?
I create this pipe kind of thing from curve->bevel.
Then convert it to mesh. I want to continue slight extrusion at the end which looks in the continuation only. It is not along any axis. How to manage this extrusion?

if you cylinder is hollow I'm not sure you can except if you fill the face, then extrude, in that case don't forget to delete the inner face. But you could slide the selection along the edges with GG, then C to extend the slide, and add an edge loop where your edge loop was initially

Can also create a custom orientation (select the edges, add the custom orientation, then E and X).

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/127747/35559 to slide, followed by cutting in an edge loop.

Thank you everyone for your help. Custom orientation is still mystery for me @lemon

@Jehan, you can create an orientation from a selection: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/3dview/controls/orientation.html#custom-orientations . and use it as new axis orientation.

@moonboots I think Robin's solution works well in this case.

@lemon let me try for it. :) I have to learn it so, why not now! Thanks for help.

yes that's was I was talking about (GG then C)  ;)

@lemon, not sure what you mean, I think it won't work if his cylinder is hollow (no face), and if it is not, the extrusion will follow the normals by default

@moonboots, it works even if hollow. Though, retesting it following your comment, the axis is not always the same (not always X, for instance). GG and C is not the same (no extrusion, a direction per vertex)... but could be what is wanted here. Don't know.

@moonboots ahh my bad... I thought that fill face was also in its continuation..

@lemon I can't make it work with a hollow circle, I don't know why

@moonboots, tested it again and does not work now... mmm...

@lemon, it never worked for me

@moonboots, ok... strange. Bezier curve, bevel, convert to mesh. From top view, rotate and apply rotation. Select a circle at extremity, etc. And here it works. Though effectively not in another configuration... never noticed that. So globally, you are right. But if you select only 3 vertices, it is ok (Blender see that as a face).


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how to queue render with different render settings?
I am trying to render a simple model. My laptop speed is less (for cycles). Can anyone tell me if there is an option where I can simply change settings like lighting or sampling etc. and start creating queue of renders? I don't want to render from multiple cameras. It is single camera and multiple render settings.
It is possible in keyshot.

Hello :). You can queue renders using the Render Burst addon. But sampling is set per scene, so it might be a bit more complicated.

I saw Render Burst which is for multiple camera only if I am not wrong? In Keyshot, you can change multiple setting for each render and then just add them in the render queue. This way I can sleep with renderings happening whole night :D


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What is difference between merge at center and scale along axis = 0 for 3 vertex which are collinear?
I performed an operation where I selected 3 collinear vertices and scale x=0. Then I performed the loop cut and it worked as desired but when I used merge - at center command, I was not able to perform loop cut correctly. What difference does it make? Ultimately both resulted in same geometry without distorting geometry...
see images below.
Image below shows vertices on which operation will be performed.

Below image shows loop cut creation after using  "merge at center"
Below image shows, scale along Y-axis = 0 value and then loop cut was performed and see how it extends upto tip.

If you scale 0 on X, it will make the vertices overlap but they are still separate vertices, there are not merged into one, you can still select one vertex and move it away. It's exactly as if you still had a quad except the tip is not visible anymore (see image below, except I kept the vertices a bit away from each other). With this topology you can still do a loop cut, loop cuts are only possible through quads:

If you merge the vertices with an M, you end up with only one vertex, like the topology below. Blender can't create a loop cut through this face as it doesn't know what edge it is supposed to cut next, loop cuts only work through quads, not tris like here (or ngons):

you are right...I didn't count the vertices by going in x-ray when I scaled them to 0..hence the confusion...thank you as always for your brief explanation :) :)


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Sneak peak all pink even with no texture
I'm a new Blender/Verge3D user. I have a simple project with 4 objects and no texture. When I try to "sneak peak", they turn all pink. I browsed for a bit, and all the issues I found seem to be related to missing texture packs. But I personally don't use any yet so... I don't know what to do.
Here's my project: https://pasteall.org/blend/8f4ab8170c414143a22ffaa71e7362bc
Thanks!

What do you mean by "sneak peak"? Can you upload a screenshot of the pink objects so we can better see what you mean? In Material Preview mod (key Z) I see 4 white objects because they have no material. In workspace "Texture Paint" (main tab) there is one object pink. It's ok because it has no material.

If you're talking about the render (F12, after adding a camera), indeed there are 4 pink objects. If you want to have them in a different color you need to create a material and choose a color. Materials don't require textures.

Thank you for your answers! "Sneak peak" is a feature of Verge3D.. It is different from rendering I think, but I'm unsure. Anyway, I ended up solving the issue only by appending my objects to a new empty project. I think my problem was with the fact that I deleted a light source at some point... Anyway, I didn't really "solve" my problem, but I was able to get rid of it at least ;)


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Constraint camera movement inside an object
I have shaped an object to try to define the "allowed" space for my camera. Now I'm trying to constraint the camera to its inside, but I can't make it work in spite of all the browsing I've done. I've tried the following constraints:

limit distance: seems to constraint the camera in a sphere centered on the origin object,
Limit Location: seems to only allow for explicit coordinate boundaries,
Floor: unsure of what it does, but I think it only limits in one direction (as does an irl floor... :]), relatively to the origin of the object.

I would simply like the faces of my (closed) object to behave like walls to the camera.
Thanks for your help!

What you're looking for is something that is sometimes referred to as a geometry constraint. Blender still doesn't have one. There may be addons that provide them, but I can't find anything online suggesting that there is even a discussion about their existence in Blender, neither actual nor proposed. :(

Wow this looks insane to me. Do you have an advice then for creating a space people can visit (like an partment for example), without being worried to go through walls all the time?

When you say "...that people can visit..." it sounds to me like you're maybe suggesting that the resulting experience needs to be interactive in some way. Is that the case? If so, you may need to employ more serious solutions, such as scripting. On the other hand, if the project is only intended to become a pre-rendered video, then you can work around the problem by simply staging your scenes and planning ahead where your camera needs to be. Once rendered, the lack of abilty to constrain cameras to wall interiors no longer matters.

Well you're right. I'm planning to use verge3D to make a web integrating app where people can visit a room, and interact with objects.
This was the initial project and I knew nothing about any 3D software. After a bit of research, I ended up going for the blender/verge3D solution, but maybe this was a bad idea? Ideally, I would like for people to be able to move freely, and not only on a track I design. This way, they could zoom in on things as much as they would like. When you're talking about some scripting, I'm curious what you're thinkg about. If you have any reference, it'd be great!

What you're describing is likely outside the scope of Blender as a standalone solution. The kind of scripting I was referring to is only the commonly used Python scripting which goes into building extra functionality through the use of addons. But you're going to need even more than that, I'm afraid, and the absence of this kind of constraint in Blender is probably not going to be your biggest hurdle. I would suggest only building the actual assets you need in Blender and then exporting them to some other development environment where all the constraint dynamics you need will then be built.

Huh! I was afraid of this! Do you have any advice on the dev environment I could look into? Thanks a lot for your answers in any case!

Since you're describing game-like development, Unity and Unreal Engine come to mind. If you want an alternative to those, consider Godot, which is a free and open source offering that works a lot like Unity.


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Add polygons to extruded 2D object
After watching so many tutorials I thought I could quickly pose a short question here. I want to add some topography to an extruded object which I imported from a 2D vector file. The problem is that in ordner to sculpt it I need to add some more polygons on the top face and on the sides. I know this could be done with the knife tool but I'm searching for a way to turn this into a nicely ordered grid. I've tried out the boolean intersect but did not advance this far enough.
How can I add more polygons to the red object?
Should I try to combine the top face with the grid on top and intersect the sides with the planes below?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Maribel
Example:

version Remesh
If you want an even grid also on edges you can try to use modifier Remesh > Sharps

or Blocks modifier directly on Silhouethe object... just use Solidify modifier before Remesh to let it works.

version Knife Project
Select Silhouette than Grid, go to Top View, switch to edit mode and search for Knife Project, but ...

... since silhouette use more vertices that grid you will have generated n-gons on edges that can be problematic for modifiers or modeling. You wil see :)

Notes:
If you need a grid on sides, extrude it after Knife Project. You can use Loop Cut Ctrl+R for that.
For some generated terrain you can use Displace modifier with Cloud texture ... here used on version Remesh > Blocks > Octree Depth 9

For the Knife Project option it's only important that the cutting object (the silhouette) is a flat plane, while in his screenshot it looks like it's an extruded object. But it doesn't matter if the silhouette is above or below the grid for cutting to work, it's just a matter of seeing the silhouette in Solid View.

@GordonBrinkmann Right, doesn't matter if above or under ... edited :) But it doesn't has to be necessarily a flat plane - it can be curvy, and it can be extruded if there is not a bottom face. It just has to be "open" (non-manifold). I'm not sure what do you mean "Solid View". BTW it can be only silhouette without faces or more silhouettes above or what ever . What matters the most is point of view (since it is projection.

You're right, not necessarily a flat plane, but open... I just mentioned because the silhouette in the screenshot is extruded so I guess it has a bottom and following your answer it might throw an error without any obvious reason for him. With 'solid view' I mean putting silhouette on top isn't necessary for it to work but helps to see where you are cutting when in solid view and not x-ray or wireframe view.


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When I open the materials tab -- with Render set to Eevee -- Blender 2.8 immediately crashes
Happens every time with render set to Eevee, but not with Cycles or Workbench.
I’m using Windows 7 with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 550M graphics card.
Intel Core i5-2410M CPU @ 2.30 Ghz
64-bit Operating system
Yes, I know that's not such a great system & not a great graphics card.
But other than buying a new computer, is there anything I can do?

Latest drivers? Otherwise I'd suggest file a bug report.

Yep -- latest drivers on my graphics card.  Not sure how to file a bug report.

Go to Help (main menu) and click Report a Bug - should be self explanatory @gymreading


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Retopologizing -- Is it bad practice to knife a face in order to make enough edges to bridge edge loops?
Let's say you want to connect two pieces of your topology using "bridge edge loops" but you have 2 edges on one side and 1 edge on the other.
I'm tempted to use the knife to split a face, so that the edges are 2 and 2.
The course I'm taking seems to encourage splitting all the faces leading up to that edge too, using loop cut & slide.
Is it bad practice to split just a single face to connect edges? (...even if it doesn't mess up the "edge flow"?)
Pic attached, if it helps.

The knife cut is great for this.

Looking at the topology I would use an edge loop. You can split with a knife and create an ngon but could cause issues down the line


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Why can't I replace a Bone with a Custom Shape (a circle)?
I want to replace a bone with a custom shape -- a circle.
I add the circle in Object Mode.
I go to Pose Mode & select the bone.  In the Bone Properties tab under Viewport Display/Custom Shape, I select the circle from the "Custom Object" dropdown.  The bone disappears, but the circle doesn't show. Why won't it show?
I'm pretty sure I'm doing everything correctly, because when I follow the exact same procedure to replace the bone with a cube, it works!
Why won't a circle work for this? Is there something special about a circle?
I try checking the Wireframe box, but that doesn't work. All the bones are displayed "In Front" btw.
In fact, I'm following a tutorial & this method works for the instructor in the tutorial... but not for me.  Maybe this is a bug in the latest version of Blender?

works for me in 3.0b. What version do you have? What OS do you have? Can u provide blend file? From your description - it should work.

Thanks for your answer. I had mistakenly added a "curve" circle rather than the "mesh" one. The mesh one works.

a quirk I've noticed, at least in the 3.x series is that you can use empty objects as bone shapes, but an empty with a circle visualization in particular for some reason results in a bone that is nearly impossible to select. again, other empty visualizations seem to work fine, as well as just using a mesh circle. I figured I'd share after pulling my hair out a bit on this one.

Thanks for the answer, but I figured it out. I had added a circle from the "curve" menu, rather than the one from the "mesh" menu.  The circle from the mesh menu works.
I'll leave this question up just in case someone else makes the same error. Thanks.


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How to copy vertex weights over to the other side?
Below is Edit Mode in which the vertex group "DEF-upper_arm.L" is selected. There are weights assigned.
I want to copy the weights over to the corresponding vertices on the other side (that is, DEF-upper_arm.R).
Is there an easy way to do that?

You can select the vertex group in the Vertex Groups list, then in the Object Data panel, in the dropdown menu on the right of the list, select Copy Vertex Group then Mirror Vertex Group:


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Can't see camera's 'passepartout' / overlay around the camera's view
I have 'passepartout' selected in the Camera tab.
I have "Lock Camera to View" deselected in View (in the "N" tools section).
Yet I don't get a passepartout in Camera Perspective.
What am I doing wrong?

Have you made sure it's not just offscreen by zooming out with the scroll wheel?

Thanks to Leander, I discovered it was offscreen.  I used to scroll wheel to scroll out (way, way out), and there it was.

Follow these steps for solution.


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Python API, get bezier points taking into account shape key values
I need to access the points of a curve object (at the current frame) using the Python API.
If the object doesn't have shape keys, it's easy enough, object.data.splines has all the info I need.
If the object has shape keys, I know the shape key info is in object.data.shape_keys.key_blocks but I'm not entirely sure how to get the final position of each point/tangent in the bezier curves out of this.
First of all, the data in there is not split into splines.
Then if I know the value of each ShapeKey object I'm not sure what's the correct formula to interpolate them.
It would be great if there's some way to get for each spline in the curve, the position of each point and handles, taking into account all the shape keys that are into effect at the current frame.

You can create a shape key that is the mix of the current shape keys (as it is accessible from the shape key menu).
From it get spline info.
Then delete this shape key which was created only for that purpose.
Something like:
import bpy

curve = bpy.context.object

# Add a new shape key that is a mix of the existing one
bpy.ops.object.shape_key_add(from_mix=True)

# Get the last shape key
shape_key = curve.data.shape_keys.key_blocks[len(curve.data.shape_keys.key_blocks)-1]

# Get the info you want
for sk in shape_key.data:
    print( sk.co )
    print( sk.handle_left )
    print( sk.radius )

# Remove the shape key
bpy.ops.object.shape_key_remove( all = False )

Works great, I just had to change the call to shape_key_remove to be shape_key_remove(shape_key).


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How can I get rendered animation to video instead of a bunch of pictures
I made a blender animation, and when I rendered it, it just became alot of pictures and no video. How can I make it a video instead of having a bunch of pictures?

In the right context menu, see the Output section and select the output format that you wish. The default is PNG.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52230/how-to-convert-image-sequence-to-video-using-the-vse

Use the Video Sequence Editor to load your rendered image sequence and compile into a video format. This is the conventional means of creating a video with 3d modeling/animation software because compositing is often required for the final product. It takes very little time to compile a video from an image sequence within Blender and you will still have your higher quality image stills if you need to do editing later.
If you still insist on making video directly from your render (not recommended, as you may find you aren't happy with the settings, or artifacts may appear in the video that you can't weed out), you can do that by changing your render file format (Output panel -> Output section -> File Format drop-down) to one of the 3 options under "Movie". Obviously, this will force you to render everything from scratch.
Video Sequencer Example:
I rendered a couple of image sequences from the NLA Editor overnight and am outputting to video right now. Here is how I did that.
Go to the animation tab and/or select the Video Sequencer panel. Then from the menu (those horizontal white bars), you want to choose Add -> Image/Image Sequence:

A file selection view will open. To make sure you have what you need (you will be surprised how it doesn't work sometimes), Choose the start and end frame in the options to the left, and the channel (that is, the layer) you want those images to be placed in, AND box-select (tap B-key, click-and-drag) the image files you want to be used in sequence.  If you only want a single file, follow these same instructions but make the start and end frame the same.

Once you do that, a strip will appear in the channel you chose in the Video Sequence editor. You can select it, press the G key and move it forward or back in time, or even into other channel positions. If you press the N key, you will see options that allow you to extend or crop the image sequence.

I am duplicating the first strip twice using ctrl-C, ctrl-v, and moving them into position. You do not have to have each strip on a separate channel. The third instance of this strip is needs a copy of the first frame so I added that the same way I imported the first strip, but with start and end frames being frame 0.  The latter sequences were saved to a different directory but I still add that one the same as the first. I copied the last frame for one of those and stretched it out over 8 frames using the context menu (N key).

As you scrub the play head (or press "play" on the Timeline), the video sequencer will tick through the animation and play it at full speed once it is loaded (it may still be crunchy if you are low on memory). Here is a gif of that happening:

I copied all those film strips in all those channels 3 times to make an animation that is about 14 seconds (my framerate is set in the Output panel to be 30 fps). Then I was ready to export to video format.
Exporting to video is done in the rendering panel on the right. I selected the mpeg option under file output with high quality settings, Matroska container, and H.264 video codec (those settings are in the video drop down that opens in the rendering panel once you select a video file format).

I do not show this but you want to check Sequencer under the Post Processing drop-down and make sure you have "Frame Start" and "End" set to the beginning and end frames of your animation sequence. Step size should be 1.
Finally, choose Render -> Animation from the top drop-down menu, and wait. This will compile significantly faster than your images took to render.

You can see the result here:
https://youtu.be/LY7LGA8AMr0

Hi agian, thanks alot. But I'm a nooby in Blender so, could U give me more direction on the video sequence editor? Im kinda lost in the editor and don't know how to export anything from that screen

I have been rendering an image sequence for animation since last night and I still have about 15 frames to go. I will post instructions with my sequence when it's ready if nobody else has responded with a good answer. I can't easily access the program until it is done. I am using 2.8, is that the version you are using?

Yes I am indeed using 2.8 :D Thanks alot, appreciate it :D

I just posted instructions


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How to fuse/weld/combine 2 "tunnles" in scuplting
Im fairly new to blender probably only a month 1/2 or so in.
I thought doing a skull tonight would be a good practice sculpt but Iv run into an issue in that I cant connect these "tunnels" (not sure what the exact terminology would be) nor can i seem to find a solution via searching.
The closest thing iv come up with is a Boolean union but they are part of the same mesh or do all the bits separately then union them...im at a loss.

Fastest way to solve this is:
Go to edit mode. Select the areas oposing each other (probably with C - circle selection).
Run Edge - bridge edge loops.
I assume you are using Dyntopo - dynamic topology, so then you can return to sculpt mode, and with dyntopo on, you can add resolution and smooth this area.

Wow that simple!?
worked like a charm,thanks a ton my dude!


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Make hair particles different colors on the same mesh?
Hello all I am wondering if there is a way to have a my hair/fur show up as 2 different colors on the same mesh? Im not looking for anything fancy just a hard split in the colors.The only guides i can find are about root to tip gradients or natural coloration using the nodes.

Basically I just want the pink assigned faces to have pink hair while the green has green hair.
Thanks!

check out https://blog.michelanders.nl/2015/02/using-vertex-colors-to-color-hair-in_14.html

Having more fun with Materials, here's the "Moonboots" technique that uses a single Particle System that relies on Texture Paint on the UV mapping of the object.
I create two material slots, one for the mesh surface faces (named "Yellow") and one for the Particle System (named "RBG Texture Paint").  I could have used the same "RBG Texture Paint" on both the mesh and hair, if I wanted the mesh surface and hair strand colors to align.

Here I choose the Hair PS material slot "RBG Texture Paint":

In the Texture Paint editor (left hand panel), I created an image (internal to the blend file) and painted areas using the UV Map (displayed) as a guide to the faces.  I had divided the cylinder edges in half; is why there are two "column" rows, and then the two circular areas for the end faces.

Then in the right hand panel, in the Material editor,  I referenced the "red grn blu" image from the Texture editor creation.
Here is my example:

I don't know if it's possible to do it in another way than with 2 particle systems, that said you can do it in Cycles if your emitter has an Image Texture:
Once you've created your emitter material with an Image Texture, give a material to your particle with this setup: Use the UV output of the Texture Coordinate, on the bottom of the Texture Coordinate select the emitter object as Object and enable From Instancer so that the particles inherit the emitter colors:

I used your Texture Paint technique and herein posted a "single PS" solution.  I call it the "Moonboots" technique

There is some pertinent discussion here and here.
I would divide the Hair into two different Particle Systems that can each have their own Material assigned to the render:

The downside is that you aren't sharing all the parameters, and have to set up your hair Emission counts for each with some trial and error.
I cannot find any Shader input that can make use of a vertex group boolean into a color chooser, which is a sad deficiency IMHO.

and oh my the blender-exchange is actually working today.  here is my 3.0 example file


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Blender 2.8 - Can't select hair in point select mode in particle edit
I've recently begun learning how to work with particle hair in Blender, and in some videos about it I've seen that you can select individual hair keys and have the hair tools only affect the selected keys.
I've found the selection modes in particle edit mode, however the "Point" selection mode does not appear to be working. I can't select anything, using A and Alt+A to select and deselect all do nothing. Tip select mode appears to work, but it only allows me to use the tools on the tip of the hair key which is not what I want.
Is there something I am missing or is this a bug?
Thanks.

I've had this problem in the past, but for me it's fixed in 2.8. I think you might have a bug on your hands.

I was able to look at this some more and it's only an issue in the blend file I was working with. The point select mode works as expected in brand new files.
I originally created the file in 2.79, perhaps that's part of the cause?
I can append everything from the old file into a new file and everything works, so I am going to go with that as my solution. But I'll keep the old files around and maybe file a bug report.


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Vertex Group X Symmetry paints both weights onto same area
I was painting the weight of one of my breast bones in a rigify rig, with vertex groups X symmetry enabled, and when I checked the opposite bone I realized that it was not symmetrica, all the paint I had applied on the left side for the left bone was also on the left side for the right bone.
I tried clearing the vertex groups and starting over, with the same effect.
The mesh is symmetrical and the bones are evenly placed and named DEF-breast.L and DEF-breast.R
Anyone has any clues of what might be going on?

Can you try to use Vertex Groups X Symmetry without Mirror X.


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How can I make parts of my mesh slightly transparent in sculpt/edit mode?
Im sculpting a character model, and there are bits of it that get in the way.
I could hide them completely, but then its easy to lose track of proportions and move things where they shouldn't be.
Is there any way to make an object or part of a mesh transparent while editing it?

Give them a material with transparency and use a material preview.  This doesn't work with dynotopo sculpting, but nothing will, because dynotopo sculpting does not preserve any kind of face or vertex data.

ok first this wont work with dyntopo very well . but you can use Vertex Weight Proximity  and Mask modifiers to hide some parts of your mesh with like an empty or something. with dyntopo you can add details you need and then assign vertex data to group

I ended finding out the answer on my own.
I can add a material to the section I want to make transparent and in the material options, under Viewport Display, you can select a color with an Alpha value, so you can keep working in solid mode


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Problem with shading
i am making my first model in blender and im habing issues with shading:

Good topology: all quad (no ngons), square faces.  You could get a lot of the way there by creating additional edge loops along your cylinder so that your faces approached square aspect instead of so long and skinny (which then triangulate to long skinny triangles, with uneven interpolation of normals.)  If not already using autosmooth, make sure that's turned on as well.

What are you trying to achieve?

I'm trying to make a hole in my cylinder but it gives me bad shading when i use shade smooth.


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Need help to understand Rendering Problem Under Cycle
I have been following some online tut and there the node setup was working properly. But, in my pc the rendered image seems functional under Eevee while it's not looking that great in Cycles.
Eevee -

Cycles - Rendering Taking too much time than usual. So, sharing the viewport screenshot.

My nodes setup -

I would appreciate, If anybody can come up with an explanation of the problem, along with the solution.

Hey :). You're plugging stuff into the Displacement output. This is causing noticeably slower rendering in Cycles and a 'displacement'. Eevee doesn't support this feature, so nothing changes there.

Link the tutorial, perhaps you just missed a step :)

@ Jachym Michal. It is a paid course on Udemy

Well, then I can't really help more :). I explained why it happens, and since it's intended behavior, not a bug, there's no 'solution' per se :). You can of course simply not use displacement in your material.

Can you provide some reference material for learning about displacement textures, so, May be I could solve it myself.

Hey :). Try searching this site for posts about displacement and check the Blender manual. It's not a complicated topic :). Good luck.


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Curve to mesh option is disabled
I am using 2.80 blender version due to system requirement. I want to convert bazier curve into mesh. I applied mirror modifier on curve. When I tried to apply it on object it gives me message first convert curve into mesh.I am trying to convert it in object mode > Object > convert to > mesh from curve /meta/ surf/ text but both options are disabled or grayed out due to which i can not apply it. I am attaching a screenshot. Please do the needful.

is your object selected? Maybe share your file: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

The object is active (yellow origin visible):

But not selected (yellow or orange outlines visible):

in edit mode, when i select curve it is visible but to convert into mesh i need to go object mode as per the tutorials hence I go to object mode and that selection disappears. As I uploaded screenshot it is not selected as here shown. I don't know any other method of selection.

If you test to press A in object mode, no selection?

I have not converted curve, into mesh and I can select curve. In my screenshot at collection stack, the selection of curve is visible. but objects is not in yellow but the curves are

The object is not selected in the collection here. Click on it from the collection (should be yellow on blue).

let me tell you the process i did so that you will come to know what exactly the problem is. I created bezier curve and apply mirror modifier to it  for z axis. I reshape it so that I will get the above result. now bazier curve, modifier is visible in the stack under one collection bazier curve.To make mesh visible from curve , under CONTEXT OBBJECT DATA menu I increase depth value which transformed curve into visible object but it is not yet mesh.to convert it into mesh.

if I am selecting the curve, as soon as I go to object mode the selection is disappearing

The selection should not disappear in the process you're describing here. Your Blender version seems to be 2.80. Would you mind upgrading it to 2.83 or 2.90?

in 2.80 I can atleast work with few blinking issue. but in 2.90 or even higher than 2.80 version I can not even see menu option properly. all menus become transperant and can not read or see polygon selection etc, I searched it require opengl 3.3 or higher. I have 3.3  but still there is an issue

I'll try to see if I can get the exact same version as yours and test it. Will let you know

OK, I've installed 2.80.75 and tested it. All is fine here and I've not the same issue as you described. Could be due to your computer. Though, what is happening when you click in the outliner to select the curve?

Sir, as you can see in my screenshot i made a model in different parts. all parts are made by polygon or box modeling. only this part I made with bezier as I am new to blender and learning it. All other parts are properly highlighting after selection and all options are available for them but only this part is not showing those option. There is no comp issue but technique issue.I can not select that shape in object mode. and without object mode i can not convert it into mesh. I agree it should be selected but how can I select that part is my question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbSoSGZ3eu4 Please see this link for detailed explinition of my question


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What’s the difference between applying shape keys and saving shape keys?
So I understand that once you have a pose, you can apply it as a shape key via the armature modifier. But what’s the difference between saving it and applying it? Is there any special reason one would want to save a shape key?

As explained if you hover over the function, with Apply, the modifier is removed, with Save, it is kept.

So is it possible to create a new shape key using the save function? For example, I adjusted my character’s mouth into an “O” after creating the basis key, go into the armature modifier and click “save as shape key” instead of “apply”, if I want to make a new shape key after positioning, can I just readjust the pose and click “save as shape key” to set the new shape key instead of hitting apply?

yes it looks like it works this way, you can create as many shapekey as you want with Save As Shapekey


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How do I apply hook modifier to shape keys?
Ok, so I figured out how to make my eyelashes for my character to follow the eyelids using the hook modifier. I'm somewhat stuck with applying the deformation as a shape key. For example, when I select the eyelash, the eyelid deforms along with it in object mode. However, I cannot apply it as a shape key in edit mode when selecting the eyelash itself, as the eyelid would not deform along with it. But in object mode it does. Does anyone have a workaround? It's my first time using shape keys.

"However, I cannot apply it as a shape key in edit mode when selecting the eyelash itself, as the eyelid would not deform along with it. But in object mode it does. Does anyone have a workaround?"  What's wrong with applying it in object mode?

Hmm. Maybe I’ll try it again. Like when I move the eyelash, the eyelid gets deformed as expected, and if I apply as a shape key, it works, but the eyelash is not registered as a shape key. I’ll post a gif I suppose. Might be easier to explain.

So I’ll have to like go into edit mode and move the position of the eyelash to the same position as how the hook modifier is affecting the eyelid of the main mesh.

Used a combination of bones and weight painting and the hook modifier to make the eyelash follow the eyelid. More idiot proof way is to just join the eyelash to the main body mesh via different vertex groups and go to edit mode to create the shape key as usual


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Manipulator missing for some reason
I was just creating a little roblox GFX for someone. I was halfway done, and I logged off for the day, but then the manipulator was gone, I am not sure why. Here is a picture.
Picture
https://gyazo.com/dcc4148edc2fe26bf2639fb6ecac4e2b
Note: I grouped things using shift G, if that has anything to do about it, thanks for helping!

Turn on "show gizmo" button:

Oh, lol, thanks for you help.


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loop cut not working
hi i have been working on a tutorial (link is below) and when i try loop cutting this is what i get
before loop cuting

after loop cutting
thanks in advance
tutorial: https://www.blendernation.com/2020/09/27/car-modeling-for-beginners-in-blender-2-8x/

i tried after i had seen your post but it doesn't seem to solve the problem

Did you try to lower (or uncheck) the "merge" value of the mirror modifier?

yep, it solved the problem thanks

Idk what u did wrong I suggest u this tutorial : https://youtu.be/w14W84-nyyM

Your issue is likely caused by the Merge option of your Mirror modifier. This option causes vertices within a certain range to merge together.
You can just uncheck the Merge option. Setting it to even lower number might help too.


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Can't find point instance in order to change point shape
hi i am following Andrew's tutorial for geometry nodes but the point instance node is removed if anyone knows any alternative that would allow to change the points' (or particles') shape
here is my setup till now (notice: i used the multiply for easier density Control

this is the image from the tutorial

thanks

Or you can use V2.93

it is now called "instance on points" -> you can search for that node name

i got it thanks


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Glass showing gray spots
i am following Andrew's doughnut series but when going into rendering mode or rendering the image of the glass cup it shows gray opaque spots i tried to recalculate Normals with shift+N and alt+N and none worked
thanks in advance

Render Properties > Light Paths > Max Bounces. Try increasing Transmission/transparent

i has tried i cranked it up to a crazy 213 for transmision and 299 for transperant and 67 totall still the same


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how to create smoke, fog in blender 3.0 cycles
do any one knows any way of creating the smoke or fog that is in the below pic
thanks

You can use this website for actual tutorial of how to make smoke in blender
https://tutorialguru1.blogspot.com/2023/02/how-to-make-smoke-in-blender.html

Make a "box" surrounding your scene, then use a Noise Texture + ColorRamp as the Density input for a Volume Scatter Node connected to the "box's" volume socket:

I used a (long rectangular) area light pointed straight up at the back of the plane to "light up" the back. Take note that you can increase the detail of the volume (at the cost of performance) by changing the settings underlined on the right (for "tile size", smaller is more detailed). You can also increase the detail by lowering the "end" value, bud don't go too low, as this is related to camera position.

awesome....!!!!! that's the best smoke tutorial in 15 secs i ever saw!


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How to add a modifier to many key frames?
I have an animated armature that is a person walking, but the animation is too short. I would like to add a cycles modifier to my final keyframes to repeat the motion, but there are way too many keyframes to reasonably add the modifier to each one individually. Is there a way to add a modifier to many keyframes at once?
Thanks!

Thanks, josh sanfelici, I will try that. Just out of curiosity though, is there a way to add a modifier to multiple keyframes at once?

I updated my answer.

Okay, thank you!

You can copy and paste all needed keyframes all at once in the dopesheet or action editor, or you can use the repeat function in the Nonlinear Animation Editor.
Anyway, to answer the question, you can add a modifier to one channel, tweak its values then click its copy button, then select all the needed channels and click paste button.


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3.0: Rearrange/restore menu bar?
Today I updated from 2.93 to 3.0 and noticed the Tool Settings menu has swapped places with the View/Select/Add/Object menu. How can I change it back? I am not opposed to installing an addon or manually editing files to do this.
The new layout:

How I want it:

I would also like to remove the translucent background from the lower level, but that's not as important.

It's an internal change you can't edit this, but you can make the translucent background transparent

@Karan actually interface is written on python. So you can change the layout

@Karan how do I make it transparent?

I found it, it's Preferences > Themes > 3D Viewport > Theme Space > Header. Changing the alpha value to 0 makes the lower bar transparent without affecting the upper bar.

You can click (Right Mouse Button) on any element in the interface and choose "Edit source".

It will open the source file (text area should be somewhere)  where you can find where this button or switcher has been introduced.
So you can edit the file and rearrange elements and once you're done press F3 ⇾ Reload scripts. If you do everything correctly, you should notice that interface changes. If not, probably, the interface will be broken completely, all buttons and menus will be gone. So that's why backup the file first.

But how can you change the position of VIEW3D_HT_tool_header to VIEW3D_HT_header and vise-versa?

I couldn't find it until I checked "Developer Extras" in the Interface settings. Looking at the code I don't know where to start, I was hoping I could rearrange pointers or something but it seems each button's function is written where it is.

OH! I forgot about Developer Extras! I apologize

Yes. Sure every element are here, so you can move and rearrange them.

I don't know enough about Python to get it to work right so unfortunately I guess I'll have to live with it for now. Thanks anyway


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Do you need to bake eevee characters for a short animation video
I have my character unwrapped and made. I am unsure how if i need to do anything else like baking. Do i just unwrapp my character and add texture or do i need to do anything else. the animation will be in eevee. Help would be greatly appreciated, thanks

As far as the question goes, the answer is No - Eevee is not a game engine rather a render engine so baking is no requirement. Suggest add more detail to your question about your actual goal.

hi i am making a short animation with a single character in eevee. I am just wondering if i needed to bake when texture painting my low poly character. So i dont even need to unwrap the character for texture painting???

@BlenderBA He didn’t say UV unwrapping wasn’t necessary…

Ok thanks, i really appreciate it

Texture painting has nothing to do with baking. As the name suggests 'baking' is used to simplify shaders or adding detail to a low poly model by using a normal map if you need to save resources eg. when using the character in a game engine. Still unclear what you're asking to me...

Thank you that was really useful. I was just wondering what baking was for and you have been a great help


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How do I add multiple images to my clothes mesh
I am designing a formula one racing suit that has to deform since it will be on a human character. I want to add images of sponsors on to the suit whilst keeping the background color (red) on the suit at the same time. I want to have the images on top of the background color. I am looking to add ten to fifteen images. I don't know how to do this through uv mapping or texture painting. what would be the easiest method to do this? Help would be much appreciated. Thanks...

hello, you have a lot of tutorials about how to add a logo on a surface, example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn1KrLsGUUQ

here are some newer tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJlIeWhJh5g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tvJUUWYmHY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hqd1-DX7Go


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Multiple shape keys triggering at the wrong time causing unwanted deformations
I am trying to use corrective shape keys to fix my characters elbow deformations
However when I try to use two shape keys together they cause bad deformations
On the elbow of my character, I tried to add 2 shape keys, both with drivers: One for the first part of the deformation and the other for the second part
However the second shape key triggers at the same time as the first one causing unwanted deformations
I am unsure how to solve this issue!
Help would be much appreciated
Thanks, Beni

If two shapekeys don't look good when used in conjunction, then don't use them in conjunction.
If you have a shapekey you'd like to turn off when another shapekey is being triggered, you can use a scripted expression for the driver, add the value of the other shapekey as a variable which we'll call var2, and use a scripted expression like, "var * (var2<=0)", which will turn off the shapekey the instant that the other other shapekey is triggered.  There's no interpolation there, but you haven't specified what kind of interpolation you'd like; if we use "var * (1.0-var2)" then we'll smoothly interpolate between regular triggering and no triggering, as var2 ranges from 0 to 1.
Generally, what you'll want here is a third shapekey for when both trigger, manually created.  It might be simplest to consider creating custom properties, driven by the same drivers as your original shapekeys; then, you can trigger the third shapekey by something like var1var2, the first shapekey by var1 -(var1var2), and the second shapekey by var2-(var1*var2), for simple, linear interpolation between all three.  Custom properties are not strictly necessary, you could use empty shapekeys instead, and it could be created in a way that didn't require any "temporary values" like this, but temporary values make it easier to understand what you're doing.

Thanks, the issue is that the first second shape key that is meant to trigger later in the deformation triggers too early and conflicts with the first shape key. Which scripted expression should I use here?

@BlenderBA you should put the expression you're using in the question.


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How to use Vertex Groups to determine the distribution of an object in geometry nodes?
I am using the new Geometry Nodes to put chocolate chips on a cookie. I have weight painted the cookie shape to keep the chocolate chips on the top of the cookie.
If the vertex group is named "Distribution", how would I reference this to keep the geometry nodes (choc chips) on the top of the cookie?

what do you mean by "how would I reference this"? If you want the particles to appear only on the vertex group, choose it in the Point Distribute > Density field

thank you very much

If you want the particles to appear only on the vertex group, choose it in the Point Distribute > Density field:

is it possible to make this Vertex Group a NodeTree Input in the Modifier tab, so I can reuse my scattering tool with different objects and different given vertex groups? ... When I tried so, nothing will be scattered

@ Marten Zander, hello, sorry I tried a bit so I was able to answer to this question but I'm not good with Geometry Nodes  :/  maybe ask the question?


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Why isn't the Image Editor showing the denoising image like in the Compositor?
I am fiddling with denoising a set of images but the image in the Image Editor is not denoised as in the Composition Tab. Is there something that I am missing to do?
I have already tried detaching and reattaching the nodes whilst also reloading the Image Editor.

You have to switch on top row of Image Editor from your 0001.png to Viewer Node :)


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How do I denoise an image sequence that has already been rendered?
I have completed Andrew's donut tutorial and I have a full set of 30 frames that makes up the image sequence. I opened another Blender tab (closing down the tutorial with saving) to compile the frames into a video. However, I forgot to denoise the frames.
Now when I go to the 'Compositing' tab and open the Image Editor, the 'Render Result' is completely blank. Is there any way to denoise the image sequence without having to re-render the whole sequence?

This is only going to work when using OpenEXR Multilayer along with denoising data enabled. What output format did you set? png?

Yes I used PNG as the output format. It says on the website that the OpenEXR is not suitable for lit 3D scenes with volumetric aspects, which is exactly what the scene is.

You can try to connect the image to the denoise node without using the normal and albedo sockets but the result won't that good as it could be. Just render to a multilayered exr next time which allows to store all the image passes into one file. BTW: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/106670/compositors-corner-pin-node-does-something-odd-to-input-image/106671#106671

How would I render to a multilayered exr next time? I am new to this sorry.

Where did you read that EXR is not suitable? Quite the oppositie is true. The format that is useless png.

You can try to connect the image (or image sequence) to the denoise node without using the Normal and Albedo sockets but the result won't be as good as it could be.

In general, Intel's OpenImageDenoise is the best option for now, see how to set it up properly: How to properly connect the Denoise node in Compositor?. Alternativly, you can try using other software, see: Denoising Animations in Cycles.

Next time, I suggest enable Denoising Data and set the file format to OpenEXR Multilayer which allows to store any additional passes like Denoising Normal, Denoising Albedo, etc. to the image file as well (without doing anything), see: Save all render passes to EXR image?


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How do I make wine bottle reflections blue?
In my photographic work I've often desaturated the blue tint that appears in the highlights on red wine bottles but now creating them in Blender I'm finding the subtle tint adds a great level of realism. If you image search on the net for red wine bottles you'll see all the slicks/highlights on the glass have a tiny tint of blue to them.
Does anyone know how I can achieve this in Cycles? I can do it in LuxCore (reflection colour is part of the glass material) but I'd like to stick to Cycles if it's possible!
Secondly, does anyone have any idea why this actually happens? Green glass, white light, blue tint!

If you want tinted reflections without tinted transmission, you can put your glass together manually-- it's relatively simple.  It's just a refraction BSDF mixed with a glossy BSDF on the basis of Fresnel:

Shown here with a red reflection, but of course, you can use anything you'd like.

Thanks Nathan, that looks like the way to go. I was trying to do the bottle with volume absorption but you really can't see any of that once you have the red wine combined with the green bottle so this method will be much simpler too!


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Why hair particles don't stay where must be?
Always when I try to add hair, I've got the problem.
Hair don't stay where must be (over than red square in example).
People in youtube easier create hair but I've always got that. I don't know what I'm doing wrong?

How many planes do you have? One red, one white, or just one?

I am not sure, but I think the hair is set around the vertices of the vertex group  that you selected and not limited to the polygons. If you select a smaller polygon inside your (red? black?) polygon you will probably get the area you want.

@Kiskit
I have 1 plane with some red polygons
And in particle system's setings I set that red polygons how density. But they are go across that red square

So you have set particles density to a vertex group and that vertex group is the red area only?

@Kiskit yes, you are right

Maybe post your blend so we can have a look. It sounds like you're doing it correctly

@Kiskit I'm a little bit of stupid so explain pls how can I clip blend file to my question? Or you meant another way?

https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/658/including-a-blend-file


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Automatic weighting on my model is all over the place
I am a beginner/hobbyist who has some very basic experience with modelling and armatures/posing. I have been scouring the forums for a while here and there, and I see people with similar issues to mine and yet none of the solutions offered to them appear to help my problem.
You see, whenever I parent my armature to my mesh using automatic weights, the weighting is all over the place, with results as odd as bones in the arm affecting the leg on the opposite side, or some bones having no influence on the mesh at all. And i'm really unsure what could be causing it.

Things I have done to try and sort it out:

Recalculated normals of the mesh
Made sure every modifier (mirror, subdivision) was applied to my mesh before parenting
Set the rest pose of the mesh as the pose that would be parented
Eliminated all doubles from my mesh
Ensured that all bones were named correctly in terms of L and R sides (used symmetrize on the mesh to save time)

This is not a bone heat weighting error. It appears to be a mesh issue as even when importing and applying similar armatures from other projects, the results are still aberrant, but honestly I don't know what's occurring.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Seems that the images don't show the descriptions: The first one is an example of how posing a limb on one side influences a much larger area than intended and more so on the opposite side. The second is showing what the vertex groups and weighting looks like, with the example showing how the R forearm is affecting everything apart from itself. The entire model is as messy as this with every bone.

Check that scale (And position and rotation) is applied to the mesh and armature

Thanks for the help man, sorry for replying so late. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find out what you meant, so I decided to knuckle down and finally learn how to weight paint manually. I'm happy with my result and I learnt a lot from it!!


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My circular array only gives 2 objects instead of my count
Trying to do a circular array in Blender 2.8 as shown in many video's on Youtube. Except I don't get my desired count (5) but I only get two.
What I did:

Placed my model off center
Placed my origin in the center of the world
Added an Empty in center of world (Cube, Axis, or whatever)
Added Array modifier to my model
Set next properties (Fixed Count, 5, Checked Offset and set to empty, unchecked Relative offset)
Gave my empty a spin on the Z axis for 72° (360/5)

Any idea what I am missing here?
I must have done something wrong, I'm trying to do this for several attempts already but can't get it to work.
many many thanks for your assistance

It must have something to do with my model. Because when I use a simple circle or cube I can get it to work. I'm not sure because I have no other modifiers that aren't applied. I had a mirror which has been applied.

Hello and welcome to the site! As you already said, it might be because of your model. Yet we do not know what your model looks like, so finding an answer is pretty hard. Could you please edit your post and add e.g. a picture?

Applied scale and rotation for object in question?


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Lost the slots tool/option

There should be slots next to global but I cant find them.

What slots are you referring to? Where are you missing them in 2.79b or 2.8?

What slots are you referring to? Where are you missing them in 2.79b or 2.8? – gtzkw

He is probably referring to layers and the interface looks like 2.79b.

There should be slots next to global but I cant find them. - Volt

Press numpad/ or View > View Global/Local.


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Mirror UV Mapping
Is there a way to unwrap a symmetrical model so that the UVs for each side overlap? I'm working on a model which will have the same patterns on each side, and I'd like to avoid having to create half of a texture which isn't used, and make sure both sides match exactly

you could put a seam on the symmetrical axis, unwrap, then in the UV/Image Editor, select the symmetrical half, mirror it with SX-1, and make the 2 halves coincide

See this is what I though I could do, but whenever I unwrap the model Blender tries to optimise the space used up by the UVs, so they're moved around to be positioned better and never quite match the same size

and if you move, scale, rotate, etc. it is still not good? it should work though

Weirdly I managed to get that to work, but only if I unwrap the entire model in one go. Unwrapping individual parts at a time seems to be what's caused it to be distorted. If you post this as a separate answer I'll mark it as the solution, thanks

So, what you need to do is mark seam where the cut is supposed to happen, then unwrap the whole mesh with U > Unwrap, then in the UV/Image Editor, mirror the half with a SX-1, then move it, rotate it so that it overalys its mirrored version. In the UV/Image Editor you can use the Snap (vertex mode) option if you want the vertices to snap perfectly.

I encountered the need to mirror my UV earlier so this is how I manage to do it.

Duplicate my mesh
Apply the mirror modifier on the duplicate mesh accordingly
Transfer the duplicate mesh UV to the original mesh using Transfer Data modifier

Already got an accepted answer, which seems to be a more general one, but this definitely seems like a good option to work around the multi-res issue I had if the UVs can't just be mirrored directly (had this happen before if not unwrapping the whole thing at once). Thanks!

After wasting a good amount of time on this exact issue, I've found a good solution; one that does not effect multi-res, vertex groups, shape keys, or anything else of the sort, as it works entirely in texture-space.

In edit mode, select the faces you wish to mirror on the side of the mesh with the correct UVs
Now select these faces in the UV editor
In the UV editor, under the UV menu, select "Copy UVs"
Return to edit mode and mirror your selection with Ctrl + Shift + M
With the corresponding faces selected in the UV editor, select "Paste UVs" from the UV menu

This method will stack topologically identical sections on top of each other, for example: a bottom lip would get stacked on top of a top lip. To avoid this, repeat the process for each section individually.

The easiest way would be to only model half of the mesh and use a mirror modifier. If you unwrap the mesh the UV will be mirrored as well.

Unfortunately when I remove half the mesh and use the mirror modifier I lose a ton of detail that's been sculpted to a multires modifier, so trying to avoid that


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Rendering messes up my image but its correct in viewport. please help
I was wondering if anyone could help me with a problem I have when rendering in blender.
So my Viewport looks like

But when I render it looks like

If you could please give me some advice on how to fix it I would be very grateful.
Thanks

Hmm... this is not supposed to happen. Which blender version are you using?

You have a copy of the donut and the icing in the collection named archive. It's hidden in the viewport only ("eye" icon) but not hidden for rendering. The ojbects are rendered overlapping. That's what you see on the final render.
Uncheck the checkmark of the archive collection in the Outliner and all objects in there are completely hidden in the viewport and rendering in Blender 2.9x.
(Blender 2.8x users must disable the rendering with a Restriction Toggle as shown here: Image Texture completely washed out in Render, but not in Viewport Shading)