text:
Python print name of object but only certain part
I want to export a list with all the object in my scene, but i only want it to print a certain part of the name. The name structure is *xxxxxxx_yyyyy_bb-bb.*The X part can differ from 5 to seven digits.
Is there a STOP sign for Python to read up to, so I can say: read until this sign and then stop?
Appreciate the help.
BR Nico

If you only want to print out the xxxxx you can use this:
x = name.split("_")[0]

so your code could be:
import bpy

for ob in bpy.context.scene.objects:
    print(ob.name.split("_")[0])

If you have names which do not have the format you described, you should choose this variant:
import bpy

for ob in bpy.context.scene.objects:
    if len(ob.name.split("_")) > 1:
        print(ob.name.split("_")[1])
    else:
        print("this object does not have the right format:", ob.name)

Hey thanks for the answer, and if I want to print the yyyyy part can I use the same technique or does it work different? I'm sorry if the question is trivial, but I'm fairly new to python :)

just use a 1 instead of 0 for the yyyy part

When I use 1 instead of 0 I get this error message: IndexError: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "\Text.002", line 5, in
IndexError: list index out of range
Error: Python script failed, check the message in the system console

Then you have names which aren't in the format you said

i updated my answer....

Oh i had an empty in my scene which I didn't see - im sorry for the inconvenience. But I appreciate the help thank you very much

Regular expressions can be very powerful (but the rabbit hole can go pretty deep). Thankfully, the basics are not complicated! Assuming the string is xxxxxxx_yyyyy_bb-bb and you want to get just the yyyyy part, here is a quick sample of how to accomplish this:
import re                                   # need to import regular expression module
str = "xxxxxxx_yyyyy_bb-bb"                 # sample string example
match = re.search(r'[a-z]+_([a-z]+)', str)  # match will store each expression found as a list
print(match[1])                             # fetches second expression found

The output will be: yyyyy because the second part of the expression found is stored in the second element of the match list. It's been a long while since I touched regex, but like anything else code related, there are many ways to skin a cat so-to-speak, so this is only one possible variant!
Here is the regular expressions python documentation.
There are plenty of good additional online resources to help get things started. But in the end, learning regex can add a powerful toolkit to your scripting capabilities!

Hello ! This is interesting, I would just advise against overriding python builtins such as str which can have a host of unwanted consequences https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html

Hey thanks for the other solution. I will definetly get into the regular expressions, but the other solution fits with what I want to do. But cheers anyways

@Gorgious - Thanks for the heads up on overriding Python built ins. Duly noted!


text:
Error message when importing obj file
I try to import on .obj File and this error message pops up.
When I try to import another obj exported file from the same program it works.
Can someone pls tell  me what is wrong with the file / or blender?

Looks like an error from the program which created your Obj file rather than from Blender or it could be a corrupt Obj file. Can you create or download it again and try again?

Already created it a couple of times and it gives me the error message every time

Might be worth updating to the latest Blender version (3.2.2) and then reporting it as a bug via Blender's Help > Report a Bug menu if it's still happening.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Using a blender addon within VScode
I am currently working on automating a data processing pipeline in Blender using Python scripting. To enhance the automation process, I want to utilize the functionality provided by a Blender addon called Eyek. When working within the Blender IDE, I have no issues accessing and using Eyek's features via scripting, but I have no idea how to incorporate Eyek (or any addon for that matter) into my actual workflow within Visual Studio Code.
Ultimately I want to have everything packaged in VScode so that I can run the workflow automatically and without user input.
What steps or configurations are needed to ensure that I can access features from addons while running Blender automation scripts from outside the Blender IDE? Any suggestions or examples would be highly appreciated.
Thank you!

Since that's a third-party addon you're going to have to ask the addon's developer directly. We can't help with external addons or with VScode for that matter.

@JohnEason I mean, it's applicable to any addon I want to work with, I don't know how to import them into VScode to use, scripting in the Blender IDE just works since the addon already installed there...

No idea in that case. There are no Blender developers here, nor does anyone here have any association with the Blender Foundation so I'm not sure where you should ask that one.

For future reference:
First of all, it ended up not making sense trying to adapt the addon file for direct integration in pure Python. The correct path forward was running Blender in headless mode in VScode, as described in one of the answers here. The difficulty came from installing and running Blender in a docker containers, and also installing an addon in this headless Blender.
The solution was to download the blender-VERSION.VERSION.VERSION-linux-x64.tar.xz distribution of blender and move that file to the same directory as the dockerfile. Then you can install and run it headlessly by calling it in your dockerfile:
COPY blender-3.5.1-linux-x64.tar.xz /tmp/
Then downloading the .zip of the addon you want, and unzipping it. Move the folder of your unzipped addon into the same directory as your dockerfile again, and install it into the addon folder of your newly installed Blender by using:
COPY --chown=$MAMBA_USER:$MAMBA_USER your_unzipped_addon_folder_name /usr/local/blender-3.5.1-linux-x64/3.5/scripts/addons/your_addon
Then you can install it in your main python script:
bpy.ops.preferences.addon_enable(module="your_addon")
And use it in your main script like you would in the Blender IDE.
Hope this helps someone!

If you set your VScode up to work with Blender like this video explains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUytEtaVrrc
then its just like developing within Blender but you get debugging etc.
write the code, launch a linked Blender instance, then run the script. Can place breakpoints etc.
can also use the debug terminal while a script is stopped to mess about with things.

Complicating things, I'm running this all in a container, so it would be best to avoid running an instance of blender live as shown here. Is there no way of modifying addon .py files to import certain functions, or is running blender in the container the only path forward?

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


text:
How can I fix this Jittering in my IK rig?
I'm having a Jittering problem with my IK rig for a robot arm. I have included video and my .blend file. The Jittering occurs even when I remove the constraints. The only time it does not happen is when I remove the IK. What did I do wrong?
https://youtu.be/oTAyQ5HnbP4
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SuX5tKYR5SSA04ZfR0qmZAuf-t1AkX-t/view?usp=sharing

The bone called IteratorArm.IK, which is supposed to be the IK controller, is parented to the IK bone called IteratorArm.001, which creates a circular dependency, deparent it:

Thank you so much! This completely fixed the problem!


text:
How can i get the wires to follow my Cloth sim?
How do i get these Wires to Follow my rigged cloth sim?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E9EpR8wCr4Z1J2c0flk4EgsOLXEJ_BJB/view?usp=sharing

Sounds like a job for hook modifiers. See if this YT video helps.

I actually followed that YouTube video to make this. The only thing is that I want to have the wires I already made follow the cloth sim. I do not want to remodel them.


text:
What is a good way attach the wire to the metal arm?

Both of these are IK, but I want to rig it so that the wires are dangling off of the Arm. I don't know how to accomplish that.

did you try hooks? cloth? GN?

Hook it to a vertex on the arm?


text:
Why operators in script could work without being called?
Why the operators of bpy can be called without the script calls it?
I have searched for a long time.

(a screenshot from Blender Python Tutorial:An Introduction to Scripting [how to learn python for beginners]——by Darkfall)
In the line 10,operator draw is defined like a method of object.
After register the class Test Panel and run script working,
operator draw is working without being called!
I can’t understand why operators can work but nobody call draw(),
even not create an object of the class.
I have three possible guess:
1.bpy.utils.register_class(Test Panel)maybe auto run every method in the class,or run every operator in the class?
2.The operators are like __init__.
It would work after an object of its class being created,
or its class being registered?
3.Every def in class(I mean method) would work after run script is pressed?
If my guess or English be wrong, please tell me
because I want to know more concept about (blender)python
and know why it works.

the draw() in bpy.types.Operator runs when the operator is called. And draw() in bpy.types.Panel runs when it is registered using bpy.utils.register_class().

draw() is not an operator it a python method.

draw() is used to draw UI element like label,prop etc.

the python API is an interface to the underlying C code, there are some callbacks that run in the background when you register your class, and it auto-creates instances of your class and runs the methods when needed

Thank you. I get it !


text:
One vertex, how many triangles ok for game?
What the best practice on how many triangles can you create with one vertex when exporting for a game? is there a limit?

See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/115226/low-poly-modern-2018-standards


text:
Trying to render multiple hair particle systems shows only the first one
I'm kinda new on blender so sorry if this is an obvious question, I have this basic terrain, which has a patch of grass as a particle system, in order to add more randomness to it, I decided to create a few different variations for the grass (grass 1, grass 2, grass 3) objects.
So basically only the first particle system is showing up, the other 2 are there, but I had no luck making them appear on the viewport or render unless I change the object emitter from the first system.

Also, it looks kinda blurry in the final render not sure why.
Thank you in advance for all your help!
I'll be adding the .blend file.

Could You please click on „grass 2” particle system and show me settings with screenshot ?
My guess is that It might be that your 3 grass systems are the same. They share same settings. Did You make each system unique with different settings?

Your 2nd and 3rd hair particles are controlled by vertex groups "Group.001" and "Group.002" which don't have any weight applied. Just weight paint them where you want the grass to spread.
Also you should invert the normals of the plane (now they are facing downwards, select all then Shift N in edit mode, choose "inside" option), and put the origin of the grass objects at the bottom of the meshes, so that the leaves grow from their base and not from the middle.


text:
Stairs along bezier path
I'm trying to figure out how to make a stair case along a complicated bezier curve.  The stairs are just made of wooden planks, so it's simple model, I'm just having trouble keeping them all level and flat and following the curve correctly.  Is there a way to keep the rotation of the planks as zero instead of following the normals of the bezier curve?

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/65567/problems-with-curve-modifier/

Maybe try the Dupliframe method:

Create your plank object and create your bezier curve.
Put your object on the first point of your curve with a Cursor To Selected in the curve and a Selection To Cursor with your object. If the direction of your curve is the inverse of what you need, W > Switch Direction.
Select your curve and in Properties > Data > Path Animation, enable the option, enable Follow and in Frames choose the amount of stairs you will need.
Parent the object to the curve with ctrl P > Set Parent To > Object.
Select the object and in Properties > Object > Duplication, choose Frames and deactivate Speed.
Add an Object Constraint > Limit Rotation to your object. Enable the X and Y axis so that it can't rotate on these two axis and can only rotate on the Z axis.

Here's an approach which you may be able to vary according to your needs.

I'm assuming you would like the steps to be of equal depth .. so first, scale your curve to 0 in Z.
Ensure the Preview U setting on the curve, times the number of segments in the curve, is twice the number of steps you will need
In Object Mode, Alt C convert the curve to a mesh, and use the Loop Tools add-on > Space to space the vertices evenly along the mesh.

With Proportional Editing switched on to 'Connected' and 'Linear' move the topmost vertex back up to where it belongs. Set the radius of the proportional Edit large enough just to see some movement in the bottom-most vertex. As soon as the Z-dimension is significantly greater than 0, you can switch off proportional, and adjust by scaling/moving all in Z.
Use Select > Checker Deselect to select every other vertex, (Ctrl I invert the selection if necessary, to make the bottom vertex unselected.)

G G slide the selected vertices down their edges, until they meet the vertex below. (Do not have Automatic Merge switched on)
With Snap set to 'Vertex' and 'Active', with the existing selection, make a convenient vertex active, and (G Z) move it vertically until it snaps in Z to the vertex above it.

In the N sidebar of the 3D view > Mesh Display, show edge length, and take a note of the depth of your steps
Assign an Array Modifier, with Constant Z Offset of that length, and the Count set to more than the number of steps - 'Merge' switched on.
With all doubles removed, F fill the faces.

Select all the faces, and AltE > Extrude by Vertex Normals
As you can see, because of the boundary effect on vertex normals, the top layer of steps is wonky. I've tried a ton of things to get round this-if anyone can make a suggestion I'd really appreciate it -
So it's necessary to GG slide down the top  layer onto the one below twice, CtrlV > R removing doubles as you go, and X dissolving the surplus diagonal edge.

But in the end, you get this.

I'm really hoping someone will come along and improve this.


text:
Edge split to make flat edge not working
I've been struggling with this one for a day now.

I will have to tackle why all of a sudden everything I put in game is extremely pixelated as well. However the issue I have here is the strange "x" shaped shadow that seams to lead into the handles at the centre. That is directly mirroring the triangulated mesh. In the past with weird artifacts like this usually marking the edge around it sharp and doing edge split modifier works but it is not working here. You can see the cyan lines where I tried to mark sharp edges usually this sort of thing would solve it. I have no idea what alternatives there are to flatten the plane of each drawer. Is it a normals thing? Do I need to fix those in some way too? I'd like to find something else besides Edge Split since it piles onto the mesh making it bigger in size.
Thanks in advance.
Blender file

The X shaped shadow in your shader might be due to the triangles leading to the inner circle, you could try deleting those triangles and recreating using quads instead:

Thanks for your response. The program I used to import to game will automatically triangulate and I prefer to control that myself so I do it in blender first. However it looks like I had the wrong edge loop selected and marked around both handles so my bad!! I redid that step and it worked out in the end. Nice flat shaded drawers finally.

@NStellar okay! Thanks for returning with the answer!


text:
Blender not using selected compute device
I have 2 GeForce GTX 750 Ti GPUs in my system (no SLI), the first has 3 monitors on it and the second has nothing connected. Under the system tab in user preferences I selected the second GPU to be the only compute device. However, when I click render it doesn't seem to be doing anything on the second GPU, only the first.
My situation is similar to this question but it didn't provide me with an answer.
Multiple graphics cards. Is there a way to designate one as compute device only?
Here's a screengrab of the preferences and the GPU load using TechPowerUp GPU-Z while a render was going. The monitor is showing that there is no load on the GPU when there should be something.  I've tried switching which GPU was selected, even selecting both and got the same result, it never uses the second GPU.
Is this expected behavior or maybe a bug? Is there another setting I need to look at changing?
Thanks for the help.

It shows GPU core clock at 135MHz. There is something wrong with that. Usual clock speed of GTX750TI is 1020MHz. It could be that for some reason the driver crashes and it switches to some sort of a safe mode. Updating drivers would be first thing to do. I would try using it just after rebooting the PC. If it works just after a restart then it will be clear that the problem is indeed with the driver crashing. The GPU could be overclocked too much or it might be overheating or it might not be able to get enough power.

I updated the driver to the latest version (it was only 1 version behind for both GPUs) and now it looks like it's being used. My usage and clock speeds spike when I render on it. It still sits at 135 MHz when idling though, maybe that's normal? I will continue testing over the next few days. Thanks for the help!


text:
UPBGE physics does not consider object deformation after starting
I'm starting using UPBGE and I'm facing an issue with the physics engine behaviour. It seems that the engine does consider the Static objects as they are when starting the game.
For example, in this model, I have a basic conveyor on a loop, 2 dynamic cubes and a diverting cube.

When I press "F" the conveyor goes forward. Both cubes are travelling with the conveyor which is fine. The left cube is diverted as planned (big cube is a diverter applying a force on Y axis to objects travelling through it).
But the right cube continues as if it's still on the conveyor. It looks like that in the "engine's brain" the conveyor is translating and not following the curve (and so being inconsistent with the display).

I've tried several ways to make the conveyor move forward :

Using brick logic to translate it along the curve
Baking the animation into action and playing it using logic nodes
Using a GeoNode to replace the curve modifier and driving one of the the GeoNode value from Logic Node

Nothing worked. It's like the deformation is not taken into account by the physics engine once the game is started.
Could someone confirm it's impossible to do what I want to do so I can stop trying. I want to see my right cube falling from the conveyor...
Blender file

Native Blender (which is mostly discussed here) no longer includes the Game Engine which has been a seperate project since it was removed from Blender 2.8 over 2 years ago. You'll probably get a more prompt answer if you tag your question 'upbge' or ask in one of the other UPBGE forums here.

i would recommend asking on blenderartists.org


text:
How do you Extract the color from a Blender Model?
I've tried to look at many tutorials but they don't work or I don't understand
Basically all I know is that is isn't possible to download a png of a material Preview
But I don't know anything of blender so I just look up tutorials for what I need specifically which is porting models to another program. I've done that already of porting models I just need to material. I literally have been trying for hours I just want the color or at least how do I export it as a png? I've seen people use Uv Editing (Even though they call it Uv Editor) and there's also baking but none of that works. This probably sounds like a mess already but I just need help on doing this >b

Does this answer your question? How do I bake a texture using Cycles bake

One thing that seems to be in need of explanation is that Materials and Textures aren’t quite the same.
Image Textures, including those that were originally painted in Blender, can thankfully be exported quite easily:

Have the image in question open in Blender’s image editor. You can just use the one in the Texture Paint screen.
Go to the image editor’s Image menu, and click Save as.
Enter the required information in the appearing file dialog, and click Save.

Materials, however, contain other information, such as how textures are to be used. For example, a black and white texture might not be for color at all, but rather to control how rough the material is in parts. Exporting these in Blender currently is nearly impossible outside of exporting the model as a whole, and different formats will store the materials differently with potential loss of configuration. I would say you should just export the image textures, and then re-set up the material in your target program, or using an in-between editor native to the format.


text:
Blender viewport shading render mode not working propperly
Im watching a blender tutorial and they said to select render mode but when I select render mode the model pretty much disappears and the lighting doesn't work and ends up looking like this.


text:
Transfering (adding) bone weight from one bone to another
I want to port a character from game Cyberpunk 2077 into Garry's Mod (Source engine). Model came in FBX format and I managed to export it as smd (which is needed for Source engine), and upscaled it to be the same size as other models.
Now it's time to reduce bone count. Smd allows up to 128 bones only and model comes with roughly 480 bones. I'll have to remove about 360 of them to keep the limits. It has a lot of bones, e.g. for clothes, hair, or even separate muscles that are totally useless for me. However after deleting some of them I've got unassigned vertices. And here's my question. Is there any option to add weights of one bone to another bone? I don't want to replace weights, just add them. https://i.sstatic.net/VDeF0.png The green circle shows the bone I must keep, named RightLeg, and red circles indicate unecessary bones I want to remove. And after removing: https://i.sstatic.net/KbgPt.png, the red circle shows unassigned vertices. I can paint everything myself, but this will take ages and result might be poor. If anyone can help I will appreciate anything.

You can use the vertex weight mix modifier to add weights from one group to another group.  But for several hundred iterations, you should probably be thinking about scripting, it's not going to be much fun otherwise.

Gonna give it a try tonight, thanks for the reply! Anything is better than painting manually. And about script, well, I'm not even an intermediate in Blender, I know how couple of things work, but scripts are far beoynd my competence :)

I finally had some time to test it out! And yes, the option is exactly what I needed! Process might be slow due to the ammount of bones but I'm happy with the result. I removed quickly 6 bones with adding their wieght and it works like a charm. Thank you so much!


text:
Enable show keyboard-shortcuts in Toolbar?
Is there a way to preview the keyboard shortcuts of a common command in the standard toolbar much like this?
I've been told I should use the F3/spacebar search options but retrieval adds time to learning that quickly adds up exponentially and I would much rather see this information where I can easily and passively recall it until it becomes part of my own natural automaticity.

I mainly ask because I'm coming as a sculptor from other tools and I'm having to not only learn new shortcuts and memorize them but unlearn old ones and any step that makes this as painless as possible is an obvious no-brainer.

Again, being able to see this information to the right of all toolbars (even if they take up a little bit more space) is incredibly valuable not only to me but anyone who is learning this software who is coming from other tools or for new learners.
Are there ways of achieving or performing this? Whether through plugin, hidden option, editing a file somewhere -- I don't care, I just desperately want this functionality.
I am jumping ship from other tools and this is one of the big walls I've hit, even though I'm trying my very best with a cheat-sheet it makes developing real speed and automaticity genuinely difficult.

Thank-you for your time.


text:
how to add scratches to a low poly sword in geometry?
So I am trying to add scratches to a low poly sword and I don't know how to do it properly? Tried to use sculpt mode but I don't have enough geometry.

Hello, maybe fake it with a normal or bump map?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/32166/adding-surface-scratches https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21283/add-scratches-to-a-material-in-cycles https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/82472/how-to-add-scratches https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/32494/how-to-make-dirty-looking-object http://blender.stackexchange.com/search?q=metal+scratches

Hello and welcome. This question seems to have been asked before in multiple forms over time, and already has various answers but you never acknowledged any of them. We are not sure if you aware of the existing posts but none of the described techniques address your particular requisites, or you simply didn't do any research at all. Could you [edit] you post and clarify how your question differs from the suggested duplicates? Otherwise could you rephrase it to focus on a particular step you are stuck with?


text:
Glass BSDF shader rendering problem
I'm trying to follow a tutorial on fluid simulation. Everything works fine until the rendering. As shown, the viewport render looks well but when trying to render image (F12) the torus roughness appears different.

I'm assuming that the problem may be in the Glass BSDF shader, will appreciate any help.

Hello could you please shate your file?

Looks like "z-fighting" from overlapping objects. What about this "Boolean" object that is hidden in the viewport but not hidden for render? (see camea icon in the outliner)

Thanks a lot, that was the Boolean object. I was sitting there an hour trying to figure this out. You're the best.


text:
How to render distortion around an object
I was trying to make a distortion effect around a moving object like this one

I'm not sure if there is a way to achieve this in blender or simply I have to use some editing software. Will appreciate any help.

I'm not sure what effect the picture shows, I guess a cone (result of shockwave) that refracts light ? You could simply play with a cone object and a refraction material. It would be easier to setup than post-processing it.


text:
A problem with geometry nodes for scattering objects
It seems like I made something dumb but for some reason using two geometry nodes for scattering objects give me the following result

The second node also distributes points on the scattered objects from the first node. This doesn't happen with me before, will appreciate any help.

It's not clear to me what's the problem and what you mean by "the second node" and "the first node". Could you elaborate? Cheers!

The second geometry node distributes objects on all faces, not only the plane (including the objects distributed by the first geometry node). If you focus on the image you will notice small objects distributed.

@MohamedObeid Well, of course it distributes points on all faces, not only the plane. You do not limit it to the plane in any way. Two successive modifiers build upon each other. The first modifier works on the base geometry, the second modifier works on the geometry created by the previous modifier. Or did I misunderstand the question?


text:
How to recover missing objects in blender
I was working on a project on my Laptop with some objects imported from installed library. When I'm trying to move the project into my pc for rendering the objects form the library looks missing

Having that library installed is there any way to recover these objects with the same position and scale?

Method 1

File > External Data > Find Missing Files

It might be useful to enable "Find All" in options while browsing, if there are multiple libraries in the same folder or subfolders:

Choose the folder containing all library blend files.

Method 2

Outliner > Display Mode

Data API

Change the Library file path

Save the file and restart blender,
The object that using that library will change.

Method 3
Scripting for batch operation
import bpy

for datablock in bpy.data.libraries:
    print(datablock.filepath)

    datablock.filepath = '..'

# Save the file and restart blender manually

It works! Thank you so much.


text:
Grease Pencil Object disappears in Compositing
I've added a denoise node to my compositing set-up, and ever since my grease pencil object no longer renders. I can see it in the rendering process, but after the compositing step, it disappears:

First image is a screenshot taken just after the render finished. Second image is a couple seconds after, once compositing is done.
Here is my node set-up:

And here is my file:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qikMqL0qLM8kCeVBX4qdQyrz7lVV0P9U/view?usp=sharing
Thank you!

Please upload your blend file here, so it will always be available in the future:
https://blend-exchange.com/

i can reproduce this, the noisy image output doesn't include the greasepencil, might be a bug. Then, I might be missing something but i don't see why you do this in comp, cos just enabling denoise in the render settings gives you the same image and includes GP

Dealing with the same issue today, and I guess whatever is happening in compositing with the denoise node just kills the grease pencil, so I'm rendering it on a different scene and adding it back on its own in the compositor after the main scene gets denoised :(


text:
How to move only one side of a cube in object mode - equivalent of stretching the cube in that direction without moving other faces
Having come from another CAD package, I am accustomed to being able to identify a cuboid and grow it in one direction i.e. stretch the 'scale' in this dimension, but on one side of the cube only.  I am sure that this can be done easily (I can see ways using extrude, but then there is a join required etc... - several commands, and cumbersome).
What am I missing?   Ideally this should be available in block mode, not edit mode, similarly to the scale, move and rotate functions.
Help!

switch the Transfom Pivot Point to 3D Cursor?

Not sure - trying to do it in one action, as I was used to in the older software.  It seems a trivial thing to ask, but I am stumped.  I really should just be able to 'grab' that face and pull, in essence.  It is a very useful thing to do to adjust an added bit in a design, I feel.

You can just move the face in Edit mode:

If you want to do it in Object mode, put the 3D cursor on the face that is supposed to be the pivot point:

go into the Transform Pivot Point panel and choose 3D Cursor (or keyboard shortcut . to get the pie menu:

then scale on the axis you want (SX here):

Great - thank you.  I am still getting to grips with the ins and outs of the package, and I appreciate your patience.  I knew that there had to be an easy way, but I am trying to learn enough to get going with the models that I wish to create for 3D printing.  I do not intend to go further into the advanced features, but the package is impressive.

My edit not intended as a crit. of this answer, it's what @VJM wants... but....

It sounds as if 'Normal' should be one of your favourite Transform Orientations?

, comma, set Transform Orientation to 'Normal'
GZ will move any selected face along its normal.

As @moonboots points out, there is a way to scale in Object Mode, if you insist, but it's not a habit I would want to get into...

You have to define a pivot
If the face is skewed to the World, and to its own object axis, you have to define a scaling orientation
Your object will be left with a non-uniform Object-level scale, which will probably have to be applied in order not to mess up modifiers, texture-spaces, etc, etc.

Thank you - I will use Edit Mode.  I have been playing with this, and am now reasonably comfortable with the processes.  It is just very different from the package I was using previously - much more powerful and with many nice features, but perhaps this makes the simple operations (that I have grown accustomed to using) require more key strokes.  I really appreciate the rapid response, and must apologise for my lack of knowledge of the package and its terminology (which, of course, is different).  I hope to gain proficiency as time progresses!

@VJM Apologise? What for? That's why BSE is here. The Blender learning curve is a bit steep, and it's been notorious for an overloaded keymap. That has been reduced in recent versions, but I wouldn't wish it away. Once learned, it's a Pretty Damn Quick way to work.

Thank you - I appreciate the balance that needs to be stuck.  With respect, I found the previous user interface that I used on another program much more intuitive, and remarkably fast (my colleagues felt the same).  Let's hope I can get up to speed quickly; I know what I want to do, and it is very limited in scope.  Only gave up on the other program because of poor shape decomposition, which caused issues in stl files.


text:
How do I get double sided normals without adding vertices?
How would I get double facing normals to export to other programs without the feature?

Presumably, you want to export into Unity or something and have both sides be visible.  And you want to minimize vertex count.
The short answer for how to make a plane for Blender that faces both ways is, you don't.  For what you're asking about, you should be looking at the capabilities of your engine to do what you want, not at Blender.
If you want to have backface visibility in Unity, you use a shader that doesn't do backface culling.  If you want to have backface visibility and backface lighting, you use a shader that doesn't do backface culling, and that recalculates your normals based on backfacing, scaling the normal by -1 before calculating shading for backfacing fragments.  In the pixel shader, not the vertex shader.  These techniques do not create any extra vertices.
Note that even though these techniques do not create vertices, that doesn't mean they're free.  There is partly a cost from doing a little extra math in the shader, but mostly, from overdraw (drawing faces that don't contribute to the final frame it hands off to the monitor.)  Actual engine performance is complicated and involves a lot of different factors.  It's unwise to optimize for any single issue like vertex count; instead, you need to see where your bottlenecks are for the particular thing you're doing.
Even techniques that seem like, maybe, they might work-- a good example being the doubled faces offered in a different answer-- will create doubled vertices when they go to the video card, because each side will require its own per-face normals, and video cards don't have per face normals (or per face anything); they just double the vertex behind the scenes.

There is a way that I haven't really seen used anywhere, where you use edges overlapping in an X shape, then fill it in with tris with normals facing opposite directions like this:

I answered my own question because the first time I saw this, I was very interested and I don't know if this is just a newbie thing that everyone knows.

You're right that it doesn't add any vertex to the mesh, but it does add to the polycount which is what matters for performance. You're also risking Z fighting artifacts depending on the render engine

UV'ed, it's bad but interesting!

If you want both sides of an object (front and back) to look good, without one side that looks dark/badly shaded, you could use the Solidify Modifier, and both sides of the object will look the same, without those shading issues. However, the poly count will increase.


text:
How do you stop Blender from looking for an image texture?
I have an image texture I'm not using anymore, but Blender keeps the filepath and keeps showing errors, saying it can't find the texture.

if the textuures are really not used, you can find them in the outliner > orphan data

they are "orphan" because they have no object or anything that uses them (quite an amazing naming scheme hahaha)
Then you will find a "purge" button,
this will "purge" or remove all the orphans (sounds wrong I know)

Then, all of the unused materials will be removed from the blend.file
or you can do this to, go to file > clean up > and remove all unused data blocks


text:
Fix parallax occlusion mapping from the side
I followed a parallax occlusion mapping tutorial on learnopengl.com and ported it into Unity and Blender. In Unity it worked fine, but when I tried it in blender it had a problem.
From the top the parallax worked as expected:

But from the side:

Heres what I translated:

From:
{
    float height =  texture(depthMap, texCoords).r;
    vec2 p = viewDir.xy / viewDir.z * (height * height_scale);
    return texCoords - p;
}

I suspect your problem is due to the orientation of vectors. Your algorithm assumes alignment of the face with the world coordinates but that’s only the case with the top surface.

I tried to use the vector transform node to change the coordinates from World to Object but I don't know much about this. I'm guessing I'd have to transform it to be in the same space as the normal?

Yes - I think that’s exactly what you’d need to do, since the ‘surface offset’ is in the direction of the normal. You need to also be careful of rotation too - so the ‘up’ in relation to the texture matches the orientation of your UV face - otherwise your parallax adjustment will be in the wrong direction. It needs some complicated vector manipulation to get it just right. Maybe Unity does that for you somehow…?

Well, I was using the learnopengl tutorial and there was something about a TBN matrix. I did all the computations myself and the method I used multiplied the view vector by TBN (tangent bitangent normal). I tried to replicate the TBN matrix in blender but it didn't work. link

instead of z, what if you use the dot product of normal and incoming (from the geometry node)?

If anything, that made it worse

and instead of UV, using generated coordinates and a box projection setting for the texture.

Nope, again probably only worse

Well the answer was simpler than I thought. To fix it you Dot Product the Incoming Vector with the TBN Matrix.

To get the Bitangent you cross product the Tangent with the Normal
You don't need to do the mix node like I did, I just did that so it looked pretty on backfaces :)


text:
Modifier Panel not showing in graph editor sidebar

I'm trying to add a noise modifier to my camera rotation but it doesn't seem to affect the values. The only thing I also see in the sidebar on graph editor is the "Show Cursor" panel. I would greatly appreciate your help!

select only one of your tracks?

This site has the answer. Enough have the hidden N panel open
Select only ONE point of an animation curve Make the graph editor View/Modifiers/F-Curve tabs discoverable

it happened because you selected the wrong thing
let me explain
there are some objects in the blender that won't show the modifier panel.
like:

Camera
Light
Empty object
Bone

because there is nothing to change with the modifier on that object.

you can select one of your mesh objects (like your motorcycle model) and the modifier panel will show.


text:
Pivot point will not move in edit mode when moving mesh, in object mode only pivot point moves not the mesh
I am a beginner in Blender.
My pivot point suddenly looked odd. It has an y, x, y axis on it. When in Object mode the mesh refuse to move when I grab it with 'G'. When I am in Edit mode the pivot point refuse to move when I select and move the mesh.

When I open a new project, the problem dosen't persist. So it is something I've done with this file.
Is it possible to turn back to a regular pivot point?

It looks like you've enabled the Affect Only Origins option, disable it:

I was slower this time, this same picture but with a red box :D

Sorry MikoCG, Blender Stack Exchange is like the wild west, you need to be fast  :/

@MikoCG Life on the surface


text:
Tracking in Boujou and exporting to Blender
Tracking in Boujou and exporting to Blender. Hello! I started to learn about tracking in Blender. But I didn't get a good result. I have a rather complex scene in Blender with bone animation and several emitters with partials.  Unfortunately the task of work is very urgent and I turned to the program Boujou. I then definitely want to go back to Blender tracking, but now the question is about exporting to Blender from Boujou. I received from Boujou FBX, the tracking was fine. But Blender is not accepting correctly - there is a noticeable parallax between the 3d object and the frame sequences. I spent all day experimenting with scaling and other settings in Boujou, the results were consistently bad. Then I tried this FBX in Maya and made sure that the export is done perfectly and the error is in Blender. I have the latest version 2.93 downloaded 2-3 days ago. How do I properly import the camera from Boujou into Blender?

It would help if you gave a sample of the tracking data exported and your blender project. Your question currently doesn't tell us enough to know how to help

Sorry, this is my first time asking a question on this site. I have prepared a video showing the error. Blender, Maya, Boujou, FBX, Tracking at Boujou. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hy47IEwye4

I'm afraid without the files themselves I can't help. Perhaps someone else knows this exact problem.

I was prompted for the answer below. And at the same time my friend on social media. The sensor fit should have been set to vertical in the camera settings. I have a vertical frame format. And the setting was automatic. Thanks, for the answer everyone!

That is a very specific scenario :O  I suspect maybe Blender does get the camera animation correctly, but not the camera & render settings themselves. So i'd suggest you to check the render resolution, aspect ratio, and the field of view of the camera.

L0Lock, thank you very much for your reply. You and my friend were both right at the same time.The Sensor fit should have been set to vertical in the camera settings. You made my day, I will sleep like a baby tonight. I spent 3 days tracking and half of it exporting to Blender from Boujou.

Also, thank you very much for the advice on how to use the forum! I'm sorry I didn't mark the answer right away. I ticked it off. 8))


text:
I've imported a .svg file into blender. How do i select all the curves in order to alt+c them into a mesh?
I have designed a spider gear for a project, however i now need to represent it as a 2d orthographic drawing.
I have created 2 .svg files one with the hidden lines and the second with the visible lines which, when combined, should give me a 2D representation of the 3D object.
My problem is that when i try and select the curves in order to alt+c them into a mesh i can only select 1 curve at a time (there are 1000+ curves per svg file).
Is it possible to select all of the curves at once then alt+c them?
I tried using select all (a) but it wont let me press alt+c.

Don't blindly convert to a mesh unless strictly necessary, it is a destructive process

Suspect the issue here could be that non-curve (or non-convertable) objects are selected (camera for instance).  Try selecting all by type, or converting directly after the import when all newly added geom is selected (untested for svg, but is regular MO for  most importers)

Join all your curves with ⎈ Ctrl J, then ⎇ Alt C

Can you add more detail?


text:
How to get the shadow render pass cycles?
How to get the shadow render pass cycles? I know that this pass was removed and instead Blender has a shadow catcher. Its logic is that an object that is not needed in the render is excluded from the rendering. But I have a large scene with dozens of objects and I don't need to exclude anything from the render by looping through a large list of objects. I need a shadow pass that I can then combine with occlusion in compositing to get a nice solid shadow. Now when I watch the shadow catcher pass I get a white screen.
I can't find a solution that meets my specific needs. On YouTube, there are mainly solutions for excluding objects that do not participate in the rendering.

I've been looking for a solution for several days. I was offered an interesting option for using the override material. In one move, without ruining the scene, he repaints everything in the scene as if it were made of white plaster, the whole thing looks quite similar to a shadow pass. And just with one click it is removed from the scene, returning it to the original materials. Of course this will be an additional render pass. But it seems that this was the case before in production for the production of masks and occlusion. In case someone finds it useful 8)


text:
Bake shape keys animation to UE5
In my model, the animation of the shape keys is carried out through added properties on the dummy through the driver. Please tell me how I can bake animations of these properties in order to transfer the shape keys to the Unreal Engine?


text:
Paste Pose Flipped is working incorrectly and I can't figure out why
I am having some trouble with flipping a walking pose, when I paste in the pose using the paste pose flipped button all it does is spin the model around 180 degrees so it's facing backwards, it doesn't actually flip or mirror anything. I'm just left with a model pointing backwards and if I spin it around to face the correct direction it's in the exact same position as before. Anyone know what might be going on?

hello, maybe you need to correct one of your bones orientation in Edit mode? Please share your armature: https://pasteall.org/blend/

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

@moonboots I pasted the model to the link

you need to share the link it will give you

right, sorry, never used this thing before. Here is is. https://pasteall.org/blend/0ee810765eaa46d1971dcec7e9f2b98a


text:
How to parent an object to multiple bones?
So, I'm trying to rig a dragon with four fins lining his head and jaw. I need them to deform in a way that is believable, so at first I tried weight painting them between the head and jaw, but when I moved the jaw, they would shrink. So I realized I had to assign each fin to a bone, but I'm having trouble getting the bones to move properly.  When the dragon is in his default rest pose, the fin bones move properly when reacting to the jaw, but when I tilt the head, they move completely out of position. This is because the fin bones are parented to the head, and have a "Child of" constraint attached to the jaw. So when I move the head, it detects the movement of the jaw as well and the parent output of the head doubles up because of it. What I'm wondering is how I can make local deformations of the jaw affect the fin bones, but have transformations of the jaw caused by it's parent to the head bone not affect the fin bones. (Or if there's a different method to produce the desired result.)

Maybe parent both fin bones and jaw bone to the head bone, then on top of that, add a child constraint (at like 40-50% power) to the fin bones so they are also moved by the jaw bone. It's kinda logical to what literally would be the case if the creature were real (i.e. head is moving everything, jaw is attached to it, and fins are also attached to the head AND also being affected by jaw movement)

@BuzzKirill That would create the same problem I have right now, only toned down. Like I explained the child of constraint is basically causing the head to effect the fin bones at like 200%. If I set the child of constraint to 40-50% power, the head would move the fin bones at 140-150%.

Yeah you're right, sorry. I just tried a different setup using a Copy rotation constraint and it seems to do the job. 1) parent both fin and jaw to the head 2) add a Copy rotation constraint to the fin, with jaw as parent. 3) axis: the axis that the jaw rotates in (must be the same for fin, make sure to check the "roll" parameter for these bones. E.g. R, X, X should rotate both bones in a similar way ). Target and owner: local space. Influence: depends, set 0.5 as a start then tweak accordingly.

I think this is a use case of the Armature bone constraint, where the four fin bones get parented to head and jaw with weightings.
In order to work fine, jaw has to be child of the head, while fin bones are parented to nothing (they get parented via the armature constraints).
Check the "Preserve Volume" option to avoid shrinking, and trim weights differently fron one fin bone to another. When satisfied, push the "Normalize Weights" button.

@josh_sanfecili That's perfect! Thank you so much!!


text:
What is wrong with this hair particle system?
I'm trying to make a character with long hair and for some reason the hair is not smooth, there are no subdivisions and your can see every vertex. Also when I go into particle edit, there are random vertex's just floating around. Does anyone know what's going on here?

Welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue in such way that anyone searching for a similar problem may easily find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this","issue with" or "question about". Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, answers you get depend heavily on how inviting it is. See "What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?""

To make the hair smoother, increase the path steps.
To prevent the keypoints from floating everywhere, rekey it to a higher number.

Update
Based on your comment, I do not understand what you are asking. There is no project file available to check. So, here is what I guess.
I guess you are asking about how to make smooth children hairs shown on the viewport.

To make the children hairs smooth, in the Object mode, increase the Strand Steps under the Viewport Display on the Particle tab, as shown on the following screenshot:

Thank you, that does make the paths smoother, but the hair itself is still jagged. This is strange because I have made hair particles with jagged paths and the hair itself remained smooth.

@TheMadMothra The answer is updated.

Sorry for the late reply, This got me kind of exhausted so I took a break from blender. I tried increasing the steps and rekeying, and the hair moved a little bit but it is still jagged.


text:
'bpy_prop_collection[key]: key "flip_fluids_addon" not found'
I was trying to attached the ff code to my scene via Text Editor to call/enable said add-on but encountered error in title.
import addon_utils
addon_utils.enable("flip_fluids_addon")

I just need to make sure the scene has the add-on enable for renderfarms.
Having issues w/ flip render via renderfarm.

works for me. Maybe you did not install it before?

This error looks related to a bug in Blender which occurs when trying to enable an addon through script or command line: https://developer.blender.org/T87629
If this is the case, the full error message from the Blender System Console would look something like this:
Exception in module register(): C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\flip_fluids_addon\__init__.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\USERNAME\blender-2.93.6\2.93\scripts\modules\addon_utils.py", line 386, in enable
    mod.register()
  File "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\flip_fluids_addon\__init__.py", line 145, in register
    properties.register()
  File "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\flip_fluids_addon\properties\__init__.py", line 72, in register
    preferences_properties.register()
  File "C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.93\scripts\addons\flip_fluids_addon\properties\preferences_properties.py", line 310, in register
    preferences = vcu.get_blender_preferences(bpy.context).addons[id_name].preferences
KeyError: 'bpy_prop_collection[key]: key "flip_fluids_addon" not found'

Workaround #1: Alternate addon enable script
Instead of using the addon_utils module, use the preferences.addon_enable operator, which does not seem to trigger this bug.
import bpy
bpy.ops.preferences.addon_enable(module="flip_fluids_addon")

Workaround #2: Update the FLIP Fluids addon
Due to this bug, the FLIP Fluids addon added a workaround to bypass this error in more recent versions. You will need to update the FLIP Fluids addon to version 1.1.0 or later in order to use the addon_utils script.

Workaround#1 worked!
Attaching the script and making sure it runs when blend file was opened did the trick.
Thank you.


text:
Python Bmesh get vertices / edges from selected face
So I made a bmesh script in python. So far it works but I am stuck at getting the edges and vertices from the face I selected.
Code so far
Make circle
bmesh.ops.create_circle(
    bm,
    #cap_ends=self.cap_ends,
    cap_ends=True,
    segments=32,
    radius=1000,
    #matrix=mat_out1,
    )
edges_circle = bm.edges[:]
faces_circle = bm.faces[:]

bmesh.ops.extrude_edge_only(
bm,
edges=edges_circle)
geom_extrude_mid = ret["geom"]

bmesh.ops.translate(
bm,
verts=verts_extrude_a,
vec=(0.0, 0.0, 150)
)

From here I get stuck
ret = bmesh.ops.inset_individual(
bm,
faces=faces_circle,
thickness=250,
depth=0,
use_even_offset=False,
use_interpolate=False,
use_relative_offset=False
)
del ret
faces_inset_a = bm.faces[:]
bm.faces.ensure_lookup_table()
bm.faces[32].select = True

How can I make an VAR that contains the edges and vertices?
I search google whole day already and could not find any good answer.
Since inset does not give back geom data I cant use
verts_inset_a = [ele for ele in **geom_extrude_mid**
               if isinstance(ele, bmesh.types.BMVert)]
edges_inset_a = [ele for ele in **geom_extrude_mid**
               if isinstance(ele, bmesh.types.BMEdge) and ele.is_boundary]
faces_inset_a = [ele for ele in **geom_extrude_mid**
               if isinstance(ele, bmesh.types.BMFace)

Why do you del ret? ret from bmesh.ops.inset_individual is the newly inset faces.
so:
ret = bmesh.ops.inset_individual(
bm,
faces=faces_circle,
thickness=250,
depth=0,
use_even_offset=False,
use_interpolate=False,
use_relative_offset=False
)

faces_inset = ret["faces"]

and then:
for f in faces_inset:
   verts = f.verts
   edges = f.edges

you can push those into a list or whatever you want to do with them.

Let me try this tomorrow.
What I noticed is that the outer faces are in the new bmesh.ops.inset_individual and not the inner. Maybe I was doing something wrong but that was the result I got earlier.
I need to inner face and not the outer.

This way does indeed gives back the outer faces of the inset not the one that is created. Do you know how to get the inner face? See screenshot I need to get the one that is selected in the screenshot
https://snipboard.io/UOxIsM.jpg
The bpy command is
bpy.ops.mesh.inset(thickness=0.135652, depth=0, use_outset=False, use_select_inset=False)

isn't the inset face the one you started with?  The only new faces are the outer faces, but the inset face should be the original.

You can prove this by running the inset twice with the same faces=faces_circle.  you can see that faces_circle is the inset face.

You might try
TEST = [v for v in bm.verts if v.select]

This will select the vertices from active selection.
Change bm.verts in bm.edges for the edges of the selected face


text:
Edges cant be beveled
Could someone maybe figure out why the edges in this model can not be beveled?
All the other edges can be beveled but the one selected not.
In the file the edges that I would like to bevel are alread selected and mesh is in edit mode

There is a inner surface on top of the cylinder part: delete it.

Thanks that did it. :-)

Because these edges have three adjacent faces. I gues you dont need the n-gon one, so  if you delete it you can bevel the edge.
Please see the screencast for demonstration.


text:
Creating Curved Geometry? - Modeling Question
Simple question—how would I go about modeling the left and right edges of this radio's handle? If the subdivision modifier is required, how should the model look before applying the modifier? How should it be edited afterwards?

Modeling the main body of it doesn’t sound too complicated, and with a Boolean operation, you can probably get the indent on the inside. Add some bevel or some subdivision, and there you are. I’ll test out this theory later.

Voting to close as this is a question about modeling a specific shape and is not likely to be useful for a wide audience. I'd suggest asking this on an online forum such as Blender Artists Community.

Create an angle:

Bevel it:

Extrude:

Extrude to give thickness:

Bevel the edges, etc:


text:
Is there a way to make emission shaders look less flat in cycles?

Im creating an exhibition scene, but the lights that I use look flat and strange in the scene. Is there any way to make them more detailed?

Same way you make anything look less flat.  Give them some kind of displacement.  Noise texture into a bump map or actual displacement in the geometry of the globals, for example.

Can you show the material setup?
Did you use an emission shader? Have you tried using the principled shader with an "Emission Strength" value less than 1.0?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/166425/blacklight-cfl-bulb-effect https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/51172/gradient-glowing-object-how-to

mix it with a Diffuse node?


text:
Can you use Oculus controllers in a blender scene?
I've made a simple scene in blender where I have orbs that you can look at using an Oculus Quest. I've managed to get that to work, however I was wondering if you can use the Oculus controllers in a way that you can interact with objects.

There is an official addon VR Inspection shipped by default with Blender that allows basic interaction with a scene using a supported Virtual Reality device using the open library OpenXR.
You can activate it by going to Edit > Preferences > Addons > 3D View: VR Scene Inspection. You can then interact with it from the 3D View Sidebar ( N Panel), VR tab.

Beware that this is not a full featured editing interface, nor a replacement for traditional input methods, rather a consumption tool for visualization purposes and interactive real time scene inspection.


text:
Textures not showing during render
I downloaded a free 3ds file and I can see the textures, but when I render, then it just renders this white/grey model without the textures.
Before render:

After render - no textures are displaying:

How is that even possible? I receive the same results, whether I render in Eevee or Cycles
As usual, thanks in advance

hello could you please share the file? https://pasteall.org/blend/

The file is 32 mb, pasteall only allows up to 24 mb. If I try to zip the file, then pasteall will not allow to upload a file that is not a .blend file

so use another platform like wetransfer, send the file to yourself and share the link

http://kronusproductions.com/uploads/new_friends/06-20-22-enterprise.blend.zip

for some reason your link doesn't work  :/

When I click on the link, it automatically displays the download of a zip file. Can you try adding http:// in front of the text that you copy and paste into another tab on your browser

http://kronusproductions.com plus /uploads/new_friends/06-20-22-enterprise.blend.zip

Your material seems to be just a white color, could you please make a screenshot of the texture you're supposed to see?

I did make a screenshot of what you are supposed to see. It is the first screenshot in my post

what you show in your first screenshot seems to be the Solid mode, not the Material or Rendered mode, Solid mode doesn't show the material

Do you see how in the "solid mode" it displays the words "Enterprise" and "1701" on the top part of the ship? That is what I want to see in the render, along with the other markings that you see displayed in the first screenshot

you could simply select each part, open the Material panel, click on the base color and choose a grey color instead of the white?

The material is showing but it's white, so you can't see all the details you see in Solid mode. What you can do is open the Shader Editor window, enable Use Nodes, select an object, give it a grey color instead of white, create a new material if necessary:


text:
Blender not rendering as expected and transparent background gone
I was following along a tutorial to make braided tubes, which created the desired effect, but when I went to render, the entire scene is greyed out. WTF

The following is a screenshot of the scene - very simple, one camera and one light. The point light is set to 1000 W

BTW, in the previous version, that is used 2.93, I had my background set to transparent. How did that change in the upgrade to 3.2?

Sorry if I do not reply quickly, I have to leave for the evening shift

Transparent backghround in 3.2 is under Render Properties > Film > Transparent (checkbox).

Thank you @https://blender.stackexchange.com/users/75504/christopher-bennett


text:
How can automate a specific process of importing, editing, and exporting scenes?
I have some pre-existing GLTF scenes (or objects) that I've been using Blender to modify and re-format so that I can export them as .FBX scenes that Unreal Engine 4 can import properly.
While I've narrowed down the specific sequence of edits to make, and settings to use both on importing (GLTF) and exporting (FBX), it's becoming incredibly tedious and frustrating to do this over and over again.
I think there's a few ways to streamline this, like writing a script or i/o plugin, but I have no idea how to write or format such a thing. The official API documentation just did not click with me.

There is a free tutorial called Scripting for Artists on Blender Cloud.  If you haven't yet, give it a try. Perhaps it will click better than the API documents

The glTF unit tests show an example of using Python scripting to import and export glTF files in Blender:  https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Blender-IO/blob/master/tests/roundtrip_gltf.py


text:
simulate cushion without changing overall shape
I'm working on a modular sofa project with a lot of different cushion geometries. In the past I've used the cloth simulation with pressure and some clever weight painting to create the wrinkles and softness I needed for the sofa. However, my client now wants to see something more rectilinear and inflating the sofa will be too blobby. I was wondering if there's some way to simulate the wrinkling without changing the overall shape too much?
I'm relatively new to blender (I do most of my modeling in Rhino), but I was hoping I might be able to essentially do the following:

model the inflation, creating the wrinkles
smooth the inflated cushion to remove the wrinkles
calculate the offset between the wrinkled and unwrinkled cushion
apply offset to my uninflated cushion

If someone has an idea on how I could accomplish the above or a better solution I'd love to know. I would really like to avoid hand-sculpting or applying normal maps as I have so much geometry to work with! Thanks

Sketches and/or images how it should look would help

maybe inflate a cushion, bake the normals, and use these normals for a more rectilinear cushion?


text:
Another Noise Tool - Landscape Menu
Absolute blender newbie here. When I add a landscape mesh, I automatically see a menu to the left with a lot of different options (operator presets for example. Once I click off and try to click back on, I don't see it anymore. I'm just wondering how I can see it again. Screenshot for reference:

This applies to adding any mesh in Blender, not just the Landscape one. See my answer in this posting: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/251703/blender-3-0-add-mesh-icosphere/251706#251706

Hey thanks for the pointer! I tried F9, but it still didn't come back. I didn't change anything in the interim, just clicked off then clicked back on. I'm running M2 MacBook Pro, wondering if this has any impact.

Even if you just go in and out of edit mode without actually changing anything you won't be able to get that settings dialog back.

Oh ok. So Blender just expects you to get all of those parameters right the first time. From then on, you just need to use the default editing tools to the right? It's just a bit confusing because it would make sense for a simple object like a cube, but terrain is highly specific and it would be nice to have all that functionality at all times. Thanks for all your help btw.

Correct! Once you've added an object and set its initial parameters with that dialog there's no way to change the original topology.


text:
Why can I not bevel?
I'm new to 3d modeling and I bought this book by Arijan Belec and one of his steps in this book is to bevel the edge of part of the model but every time I apply the bevel, I get no reaction.

bevel depends on your geometry. Maybe you share your object via blend file so we can check it out?

As I can see by the slightly thicker than usual black lines you have a lot of overlapping geometry there which is most probably the issue. Is it taught to be modeled like that in the book?

As Gordon says, the topology is probably bad, maybe try a M > Merge by Distance to see if it fixes the problem


text:
Moving animation keyframes breaks all
When I want to move a group of keyframes the entire sequence breaks
How should I move them?

Hello, what are your trying to achieve? If you want the whole armature to move, only move the curve of the root bone (or the bone that is at the top of the hierarchy)

Hi, I want to move keyframes to the right for having more space between keyframes. But when I do that the sequence brokes

I see the problem. I had to select all armature before moving the keyframes. Thanks for the help

Oh OK then   ;)   ............


text:
Can't hide object
I'm using a downloaded 3D model and can't hide an object from the render.
I want to hide Stormtrooper_Gun, when I try it it's like blocked and purple

The purple colour means that the object's render visibility is currently controlled by a driver. Right-click on the icon and select  Delete Driver.

It worked, thanks
Would you explain what's a driver please? I'm kinda new on this

See Drivers — Blender Manual. Basically a way to control a value by another or a function. I reckon if you downloaded a rigged character, there probably is a controller somewhere in your rig that is specifically meant to enable/disable that object, I'd look into that if I were you, since it's often handier to use a rig's toggles than manually toggling objects on/off, and it's easier to animate too.

As @L0Lock says, read the manual. I understand that some third-party models are imported with drivers, presumably so that you can make the gun appear during an animation sequence.


text:
Bevel modifier with weights affecting undesired parts
I'm using the Bevel Modiffier with weight limit method. The problem comes with unweighted parts being affected
Without modifier:

With modifier

hello could you please share this part of your object?

There it goes https://file.io/lP7EYdNIzVBm

It has nothing to do with your Bevel modifier, it's because you've assigned Edge Crease to this edge loop, it prevents the Subdivision Surface effect, but as you now have 90° angle between your faces it creates a bad shading:

To fix it you can enable the Auto Smooth option:


text:
Is there a way I can remove the lighting when rendering animation?
I want my animation when rendered to look like this for example
but when the animation is rendered it looks like this
Is there a way I can do this? Any help is appreciated!

There are 2 ways to make your object brighter, you can change the scene settings (lights and world color + strength):

Or you can plug your image into the Emission input of your Principled BSDF and even play a bit with the Emission Strength, as the object emits light its texture will much less depend on the scene settings:

You could even mix a Diffuse with an Emission, which may give you more control:

If you want to avoid any shadow and only need Emission, then directly plug the image into an Emission node:


text:
Why does my softbody have a hole in the bottom?
When I play the simulation, the softbody has a hole in it. The container has the default settings.

physics tab

(the screenshot is from after it settled)

I turned up my bending, but nothing is working.

You can decrease Mass ... Or use less vertices (un-subdivide) use softbody modifier and after that Subdivision modifier in stack ... Or personally I rather use Cloth Sim, that has internal springs or you can play with Pressure

This looks like a normal softbody to me... What do you mean by "hole"?? Can you show a pic of the hole you are referring to please?

If by 'hole' you mean the cavity that has formed under the sphere where the bottom surface has become concave, then that is a limitation of using Soft Body simulation to simulate what you consider to be a solid.
The Soft Body simulation in your example is simulating the object's surface only. This means that there is no internal structure to push the deformed surface back out. The surface is made up of vertices and edges and the simulation tries to move the vertices so as to get the edges back to their preferred lengths and relative angles.
In your case, the deformation has pushed the bottom of the sphere beyond flat and it has effectively folded back on itself. Since there is no internal structure to resist that deformation it has 'flipped' inside out and found a new 'at rest' position - where the inverted geometry can reach the edge's preferred lengths.
One solution is to add internal geometry to allow the simulation to 'push' those surfaces back out again. One way of achieving this is to criss-cross the inside of the mesh with "struts" of edges which can oppose the deformation and act as internal material pushing back out.
To achieve this, go into Edit mode,select a vertex and Shift-select the opposite vertex, then hit F. This will create an edge spanning the middle of the sphere. Repeat this for vertices in many opposing directions (keep the spread even so that the internal "pressure" is evenly distributed.
Now running your simulation should have the soft body reacting as if it has internal structure.


text:
How do you create a triangle pattern in a plane?

I want to create this picture, except going on for the entire plane, and just the geometry, not with multiple shapes. Is there a way to do this? (not with the going over lines)

Hello :). Do you mean a triangulated plane or a texture? What have you tried so far?

I meant the geometry of the plane, so if I moved a vert and had proportional editing on, the surface would be a lot of triangles like a hill

Perhaps related: How do I stack triangles into a bigger triangle with array modifier?

no, like the triangles are in the plane without anything changing

Just to add to Markus von Broady's answer:

Shear the result by -0,5
Scale by √75 (0,8660254...)
Done

Tadaa...

wait but its not equilateral help!

https://imgur.com/a/sIGZqaz

Might've missed something, but the triangles come equilateral at my end :).

can i have the blend please :)

Or you could rotate an edge 60°, make a face and subdivide that :) https://i.imgur.com/JHHxkpW.gif

@Markus Now that's just stupidly simple. Or add a circle with 3 sides. Aaargh...  :D

oh i am so bad at blender

Instead of typing 0.8660254 into the y-scale filed, just type sqrt(0.75). Blender will evaluate simple Python expressions like that for you :)

@maddin45 Thanks, i'll edit it in :). Tried it with the √ symbol before, but Blender got confused :).

The fastest way I can think of is to divide a plane into 2 triangles first (e.g. select opposite corner vertices and press J), then select both and subdivide.

You can also use Subdivision Surface + Triangulate modifiers:

This is probably the closest you will get to triangles. In the picture you shared, a square is impossible, so it will never fit the mesh right.

What about a hexagon plane?

@Clobro I don't have time for a full answer but: add a circle with 6 sides, in edit mode, extrude but don't move vertices. scale to 0 and weld, you now have one hexagon. Use the array modifier to make as many as you need.

"poke faces" :)


text:
How do you make a cube with another cube inside it?
I am making something similar to a slime in blender, with softbody.
I don't really know how to put a cube in it, with a darker color.

Do you mean you want a smaller cube to be able to "hop around " inside a larger cube?

no, like a cube that is stationary inside the other cube

Ok. And do you need them to be 2 separate cubes, or is "faking it" with a material acceptable (using only one cube)?

it is fine as long as it looks like a slime

Try putting one cube inside the other, and use a Material like this on your outer cube:

Transparency can be a bit of a pain in eevee sometimes, so I opted for this form of shader graph to give you more control. You can change both the BaseColor as well as the Glossy tint separately (to get that slimy look), as well as change the IOR of the Fresnel if you need the slime to seem thicker/thinner. Also because of the way EEVEE handles transparency, the inner cube cannot be transparent as well (unless you are using a single material - the graph for which is substantially more complicated). Because of this, it doesn't matter quite as much what material you give it (I used a copy of the same one for time savings sake - I just disconnected the Transparent and associated Mix Shader).
Lastly, I threw in a Noise Texture as a Displacement to make the outside more "slimy" and bumpy looking as well. Also, pay attention to the Blend Mode highlighted on the right (switching away from opaque is necessary for transparency in EEVEE)

does it animate/fall if i put a softbody

Yeah of course - it's just a material. You can even further "animate" the bumpy outside to further effect if you want. You'll have to put a softbody on both cubes if you want them to fall together, though.

Thanks, I really appreciate you putting so much effort into this!

Hey, no problem. If you need any more assistance with it, let me know,

Also, for the noise mixing node, what connects to which? Sorry, it's not very clear in the image.

Oh, sorry - I connected Fac from the Noise Texture (black and white output) to the top of the 2 color inputs of the MixRGB Node  (I'm mixing it with pure white). I find the raw value from the Noise Texture on it's own is often far too strong for the Displacement and looks unrealistic, so I "lighten" the whole image by mixing it with white.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


text:
How do you make two cubes move at the same time without one lumping at the bottom?
I have two cubes, one is inside the other, and I have softbody enabled on both of them. The problem is, when I have them fall, the inner cube falls down and dies.
blend file: here

just check your stiffness checkbox for your inner cube.
Result:

what about the part that floats around in the middle cube? Because I want it to float in the center of the cube. Is there a way to set coords?

This was not your question. I answered your question. If you ask another question, please open a new question. Thank you.

you can do this by setting the "animated" flag with keyframes and then animate the coordinates via keyframes.


text:
How do you give an object a solid color in the render?
I want to have a part of my render be a very specific color, for the whole object. Is there a way to do this?

@brockmann yes thank you i am sorry for asking the question

No problem, glad it helps. Otherwise please use the [edit] link at the
bottom of your question (https://i.sstatic.net/lXFuK.png) and add
more information on how you set up your project.
Add images that
might help us understand your scene and settings. See How to upload
an image to a post?.
Consider sharing your .blend file so that others can inspect it. You
can upload it at http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ and then
paste the resulting link as part of your question.


text:
Why doesn't my material show up?
Im new to blender and I can't seem to get the metallic texture to work. If I also change a color of an object it doesn't go to that specific color( darker)
Thank you :)

in Eevee, by default, you'll only see the reflection of the world and of the lights, see my answer here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/190642/how-do-i-get-proper-reflections-eevee

Have you enabled [X] Screen Space Reflections in the Eevee render settings? It's not enabled by default and only the light and the grey world color but not the floor is mirrored in the metallic sphere.


text:
Texture Paint Stencil Transparency + Transform
Hi I'm trying to get stenciling to work for texture painting.
But when loading up the image that'll be used for stenciling the image comes out very transparent. Additionally none of the transformation macros seem to apply to the stencil; which I had confirmed in settings are set properly.

Additionally, when loading up a stencil, it seems to appear transparent making it difficult to use it properly.

I updated to the latest version of Blender - v2.93.6 - to try and see if it was a bug, but the issue still persisted even with the update.
I haven't found any solutions online for this, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

For the stencil opacity, have you tried to tweak the Texture Opacity value in the N panel > Tool >Brush Settings  Cursor?

I did, which seems to make it more visible. However, it still seems to have a shadow effect, even after adjusting the Brush Cursor Settings.


text:
Render is blank gray screen
I've tried everything, but the render of my scene is just a blank gray screen. I've checked off "sequencer", made sure the composite node is connected, also checked all the items in my outliner to show up on final render, and have added lights to the scene. The camera is in line with the scene view too. When I preview "Rendered" in the viewport, everything looks the way it should, but once I hit "Render image", I get nothing but a blank screen. This is both for cycles/evee....Does anyone have any more suggestions?

Hello and welcome. Please use the [edit] link at the
bottom of your question (https://i.sstatic.net/lXFuK.png) and add
more information on how you set up your project.
Add images that
might help us understand your scene and settings. See How to upload
an image to a post?.

might be lots of reasons....search here for black screen or black render...and if that doesn't help, provide blend file so we can check it out


text:
Realistic folded transparent/translucent shadows
I'm currently modeling a bedroom scene that has very thin curtains over each side of the window. I'm able to make them transmit light from the back side with no issue, however they either cast no shadow or full black shadow.
The curtains are wavy/folded like you'd picture curtains being, and the light is hitting them from an angle that should allow for a shadow to be cast that still shows those folds with a variable density of shadow on the walls/floors.
I've tried editing everything I can think of in the material, combining my Principled BSDF and a Translucent BSDF (as well as trying Transparent) but can't get the shadows to act anywhere close to how they should. I'm using Cycles.
Has anybody successfully created an overlapping translucent shadow before, and how did you do it?
Thanks for the help!!

Hi :). Could you please add some images comparing your result with real curtains? Thanks.

Using a Mix Shader with Transparent BSDF gets us the shadows we want, but also affects the object's shading in a way we don't want.

We can fix this using the Light Paths node.  The Is Shadow Ray output can be used as the Factor of the Mix Shader.

You can use the color values of the Transparent BSDF to control how much shadow appears.

Areas with many folds like the dark areas you can see leftover may require more Total and Transparency bounces under Render Properties -> Light Paths -> Max Bounces.

Thank you so much for your response! I could have sworn I've tried this exact thing, though. Let me go follow these instructions real quick and see with what I can come up.
Yeah, I absolutely have tried exactly this prior to asking my question. However, I never gave it a test render outside of the viewport, and have only viewed it very grainy-ly. I think that, combined with the fact that my light source isn't hitting at hard enough of an angle to get that result is why it looked incorrect.
Thanks again for your response and help!!

@Bugiboop glad I could help


text:
How to texture to make a water-stained concrete effect
I'm completely new to texturing. Water stains are wide st the top then converge in. And underneath the stains, has to be a concrete texture. Is it a possible to achieve through procedural texturing? If so, which nodes should I use?
I could also just use an image, but I'm having trouble finding images that extend as long as I need them to be.
Here is the texture i'm inspired by

This reference image is stylized, but I would like to make a bit of a more realistic texture.

'Procedural' .... would baking the result of a simulation into an image count?

Maybe try it this way, for the water stains mix a Noise Texture with a gradient on Z through a Mix Color node in Screen mode, stretch the noise to make it more vertical, also give it a bit of Distortion. Mix the result with a Noise Texture that makes the basic wall texture, through a Mix Color in Multiply mode:

Thank you so much! I have no idea what im doing so thank you for highlighting an image

@Clorp Hello and welcome. Please don't just reply "Thanks" as an answer or comment, instead upvote the post that helped you. If you feel it completely solved your issue consider marking it as accepted.


text:
When I merge by distance the model gets these distorted shadows
I'm new to this so not sure if I'm explaining it all correctly, but basically in order to parent with automatic weights, I have to use "merge by distance", otherwise it doesn't work. Now when I do this the model starts to look a little weird and honestly I have no clue why in the first place all the vertices are detached from each other cause I don't remember doing that. But does anyone know how to merge by distance while keeping the model looking the same or at least similar?

Here's a link to the file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PcmUFIxb2ng5YvfKcGmG7qqcuI5KJjy9/view?usp=sharing

Hello could you please highlight the distortion you are talking about? Does it have to do with your image textures? You haven't packed them

Can you try Right-clicking and selecting Shade Autosmooth then turning the Angle up to 180 degrees on the bottom-left Shade Smooth dialog that appears. I suspect your overlapping verts are due to the strange topology you have round the edges of the coat of your model.

@JohnEason That completely fixed it! Thank you so much!

Great! Glad to help!


text:
Exporting vertex colors made with geometry nodes in .FBX for Unreal engine
I'm having trouble exporting vertex colors which I assigned via geometry nodes. The advice given in these posts: How to export vertex colors , How to keep vertex colors generated with geometry nodes when exporting to .FBX? does not work for me this time, although it did work on an earlier attempt on an older version of blender, so perhaps this is verison related. I am on 3.6.1 now
Vertex color is displayed correctly in blender for me
I've set the attribute domain to Face Corner
But the vertex colors made using geometry nodes do not import to external softwares
Vertex colors that I painted in vertex paint mode do however export correctly
And I can assign the attribute as vertex color if I reimport the .FBX to blender, so the attribute is being exported, just not in a way that external softwares can recognise. Any ideas on how to fix this?


text:
Sheep's wool type hair clumping and parting with geometry nodes, blender 3.6
How can I achieve hair partings seen on animals with very thick fur, where fur parts in long vertical clumps?

My first attempt was to cut the mesh surface into these clumps and use "part by mesh islands" in the interpolate hair strands node. However, these partings are destroyed by any clumping geometry nodes applied on top.

Clumps don't seem to respect partings at all, which makes parting pretty useless. Is there an option I'm missing here? Clump size exaggerated to make the issue obvious. Any other method of achieving the sheeps fur look is also appreciated of course.

A custom Guide Mask for the Clump Hair Curves node group should do the trick. This can be either a vertex group that you can specify in the modifier interface directly or an image texture mask.
In the example, the quick fur of Blender 3.6 was used and the Clump Hair Curves asset was added.
Option 1: Vertex Group - The vertex group must be on the surface object ("Curved Plane"). The weights require vertices (e.g. a subdivided plane ;-) and the same options as described below.
Option 2: Image Texture Mask -
Because you cannot specify the image texture in the Geometry Nodes modifier directly you need to move it to the nodes editor. This is done with the dropdown menu entry "Move to Nodes" of the modifier.

It creates a wrapper GN node tree with the Clump Hair Curves node group in it. In the Geometry Nodes editor you can now define the options.
Clump Hair Curves Options

uncheck Existing Guide Map so any existing guide map is not used (Interpolate Hair Curves creates usually one)
define a Guide Distance value for the creation of the new curve guides
connect an Image Texture node to the group's Guide Mask input

Last but not least, you need to

create a new group input for the modifier so you can specify the UV map of the hair curves' surface object ("Curved Plane" in the example). This is needed to map the image mask properly.
(To create the input just drag the Vector slot of the Image Texture node to the empty Group Input node slot and rename it in the side panel of the editor (N).
define the UV map in the modifier settings ("UVMap" for the default UV map)

requires Blender 3.5


text:
Trying to animate a character walking
So I have this rig of a Minecraft character walking and im trying to rotate the chest of her back and forth, but the chest stops rotating halfway through and seems to snap weirdly. Is there any way I can fix this, does it have something to do with my keyframes?
The chest rotations are at keyframes 1, 13, and 25, the chest seems to snap to it's original position midway and it looks bad.

hello, maybe share your file so that we understand more easily (at least the armature if it's enough)? https://pasteall.org/blend/

Hi moonboots, I shared the file at the link you sent.


text:
How to render semi-transparent shadows on a shadow catcher?
Hi I'm trying to render a shadow for a 2D sprite. I want it to be semi-transparent. I have a shadow-catcher plane, the object is invisible for the camera and my rendering engine is Cycles. However, right now the shadow is just black. How can I make it semi-transparent?

Solved it. I did not select Film->transparent.


text:
Donut tutorial : Unexpected lighting behavior
I am following the Blender Guru donut tutorial and I've ran into an issue. My camera view is diagonal and I have to put two brick walls into the scene. One of them is lighted correctly, but the second one, no matter how I add it, seems to be lighted the wrong way.

What am I doing wrong? The .zip with the project (.blend file and textures)

It looks as though your wall is looking the wrong way. Have you tried rotating it by 180 degrees?
For future reference, read up on the topic "normals"
Edit:
Ok, I got it now, sorry for the false lead earlier:
You plugged the texture for the brick wall relief directly into the normal port of your shader.
You need to put a "Bump"-Node (Add-> Vector -> Bump) in between, like so:

Yes, I have. Face orientation is alright.

I changed the answer, it should now solve your problem!


text:
Tank Track Animation
recently I wanted to get into animation, and I was wondering how I'd go about animating tank tracks, most of the tutorials I've seen involve having tracks made from scratch and I'm trying to animate a tank I built myself from a game, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what I should do.

Blender will animate it for you :).

Create the track using an Array modifier
Add a Bezier circle and Curve modifier to create the shape
Move the Bezier circle - the track will automatically rotate

Note:
The track and Bezier curve position needs to be exactly like in this gif. Both from profile. Otherwise it won't work.


text:
Apply random greyscale vertex colour to every element of an object using geometry nodes
I'm trying to use geometry nodes to make an ID map I can bake. I'll be baking in external software so ideally this would be vertex colour that can be exported in an FBX file. Applying colour based on UVs would be fine too, but I think vertex colour would be more straightforward.
How can I apply a different random value to the vertices of each loose part within an object? I cannot seem to find any Geometry node that allows me to affect loose parts of an object individually. I have also been unable to export vertex colours generated using geometry nodes.

there is a node for this called the mesh island node.

it tells you how many island there are and thier index, so if you want you could export a 0 to 1 range (if you need that is something situations) by dividing the index by the count, and storing as a float (or color if that is preferable).
If you want a random color then you could use the White Noise Texture  node and the index as the vector (if you want to be a stickler for precision  you should set the White Noise Texture to 1D and the island index as the W), you could store this as a vertex color [color attribute].

But how are those colors stored as vertex colors to be exported?

@GordonBrinkmann with a store named attribute node or the group output.

Is the Named Atrribute exported to FBX?

@GordonBrinkmann they should be. you could check the geometry data to see if it's there after applying the modifier.


text:
How can I embed an image sequence so I can export a .gltf, .fbx, .obj file etc. that retains that animation?
I have a simple rectangular plane that has a 2D png image sequence applied to it. Super simple, I built it using the Import > Images as Planes method. It seems to working well in blender, because I can see my animation playing correctly in the render and material views. However, when I export it there doesn't seem to be a setting I can activate to embed that image sequence onto my object. I'm trying to use my animation in Reality Composer so I need it in some kind of 3d file format type. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I've tried to bake the image sequence but that doesn't seem to do anything (maybe I'm not doing it correctly?). Any help is super appreciated, thank you!

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57531/fbx-export-why-there-are-no-materials-or-textures

Video textures aren't currently supported in glTF. It's possible one could embed a very short sequence of images by placing each image on its own "Plane" mesh, and animating them such that only one is visible at a time (for example, set scale to zero, animate scale to STEP to 1 at that particular image's animation time, and then STEP back to scale zero when the next image's animation time is reached).  But this wouldn't work well with enough images for smooth video, I don't think.


text:
Turning a csv with RGB values into a 3D array
I have a csv file with lots of RGB colours (in 3 columns, r, g, b). I want to use that data to make an array of cubes, one cube per RGB value. I want to use the RGB to specify the x,y,z coordinates and ideally the colour of the cube material. (This second step is less important; I'd be happy with just the first step for now.)
This intuitively feels like a do-able thing, but I'm a noob in Blender and from watching some tutorials on using csv data, I don't feel I understand enough to adapt any techniques to doing this problem. Grateful for any help!

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/101299/render-100k-objects-each-with-independent-color-and-scale-through-time https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/76535/create-model-from-xyz-data-points/ https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/61614/can-object-parameters-be-set-from-data-file

Head over to the Scripting tab, create a new python file and paste this code (of course change <your path to> to your locations):
import bpy
import csv

with open('<your path to>/rgb.csv') as csvfile:

    reader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',')

    currline = -1
    for row in reader:
        currline += 1

        if currline == 0: # ignore header line
            print(f'columns: {" ".join(row)}')
            continue

        r = float(row[0])
        g = float(row[1])
        b = float(row[2])

        volume = 10 # span cubes in space
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(
            enter_editmode = False,
            size     = 1,
            align    = 'WORLD',
            location = (r * volume, g * volume, b * volume), # use (r g b) for (x y z)
            scale    = (1, 1, 1)
        )
        bpy.context.active_object.name = 'row ' + str(currline)   # name cube with data row
        mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name = str(r) + ',' +str(g) + ',' + str(b)) # name mat with (r g b)
        mat.diffuse_color = (r, g, b, 1)

        bpy.context.active_object.data.materials.append(mat)

With a test .csv layouted like so
r,g,b,
0.1,0.1,1,
0.1,0.2,1,
0.1,0.3,1,
0.6,0.1,0.4,
0.7,0.1,0.2,
0.1,0.1,0.5,

you get the following result:

Edit: diffuse_color is only the color in the viewport, which may raise confusion. Changing the "real" color takes a bit more like described here.

Amazing, thank you, that works! With the colour, I realise now that as well as changing the real colour as you mention in your edit, the RGB data is in 0-255 format, so I'll also need to convert it to 0-1.

You can also use the more pythonic for currline, row in enumerate(reader): which takes care of incrementing the variable


text:
Flicker on render when using glass shader
I have a render that is using multiple glass doors on a cabinet. I am getting flickering ie light levels varying from frame to frame. I have other shelves on the unit that don't have any glass in front of them and they are not flickering. My suspicion is that it may have something to do with cycles renderer or the glass BSDF. I have attached my settings for the renderer.

How many glass doors are there and what Max Bounces settings do you have under Light Paths?

also would be great to see some frames from the render to see what kind of flickering is going on.
the important settings would be under the light paths category

Why not share a screenshot or a .gif of the problem so everyone could understand what's going on instantly at a single glance?

If the glass in the cabinets is a plane (2d) that might make it do something wierd.
also you could try using principled bsdf with transmission on.