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my huge file size is causing blender to freeze every few seconds
this is not normal and its a fairly simple low poly scene as well with no textures and materials yet. i have multi res for some sculpts but even when its off it lags like crazy. i have done far more complicated projects that took up a fraction of the file space. i have compress files enabled by default, looked through the outliner and see nothing unusual, even tried appending everything into a new file and it was still the same. please help because working on it is almost impossible and i need to finish it for my assignment.
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AlP6LHpiuaPjgR1yBwVETzMm23nc

Deleting the the Sphere(three heads) and saving, reduced the file size by 2/3rds. So maybe start there.

dont see why deleting the spheres would be logical seeing as all the time and effort i put into sculpting them

The scene takes up almost 2 GB RAM, if you are indeed using an old laptop, this might be the bottleneck, especially if you have a web browser open with a few tabs, too.
In windows you should always have an eye on the task manager, especially the performance tab.
As Anders, I would not call this low poly aswell, with almost 50k polygons. That is why rob suggested to delete the heads, as they are making up the majority of those. You could however dissolve a lot of edges, too...

Hmm.. I don't have any problem playing around in your scene. You are sure you don't have anything else running on your pc. And what is your PC speccs for that matter?
I would not call the scene low poly. Have you applied any subdivision surface modifier to the models, because they are smoothed out and have a lot of faces, that would make the models horrible to work on, if you need to change anything?
I am writing this in Answer, because I don't have enough reputation to just comment on your post.
Hope this could help you, please reply back to my questions and I'll try help you out :)
Best regards
Anders

i operate on my dad's crappy laptop so obviously its not optomised for blender but the problem is the file size is rediculously huge considering the files contents. you can see for yourself in edit mode there arent a greta deal of subdivisions

Well, as you mention, your dad's crappy laptop might not handle these scenes well, even though it does not seem as much faces. I would recommend buying a better pc for 3D work. If it's an old laptop it might have outdated RAMs that can't handle scenes like these.


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Why are the Emptys moving forward faster?
**In this animation, the Emptys move faster than the rest for an inexplicable reason. Sorry, I can’t upload a video. If anyone has an idea how to fix this, I’d be very happy to. **

Hello, please share the file, only keep the useful items: https://pasteall.org/blend/

https://pasteall.org/media/c/8/c82d032bc8885427360ab5a4b4363c90.blend

Your empty TuchHook.004 is parented to Empty but it is also parented to the bone called Spine2 with a Child Of constraint. So it is double parented, thus this x2 movement. You need to choose either the parent or the constraint.

Thank you very much!!!

your skirt is not correctly weighted, you need to select all its vertices in Edit mode and in the Obect Data panel > Vertex Group, choose the vertex group this object is supposed to be part of and click on Assign.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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I have a problem with the cloth animation

Somehow my cloth-simulation seems to pull the clothes inside although I have applied a collision modifier at the fair underneath

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

https://pasteall.org/media/d/5/d52096cda19fe603568499ee547a4e4e.blend

Select the coat and put the Armature modifier above the Cloth modifier:

Thank you very much!!

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


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my cloth animation isn't working properly!
Can someone help me with my cloth animation?

This is the link to the file: https://pasteall.org/media/9/0/90eedbf0f361be141f82fe27c02a9b54.blend

this is NOT a solution, but some hints and hopefully a way to get better results:

collision objects and object (cloth) shouldn't intersect when you start the simulation: (this isn't possible in real world and the simulation will be weird if it does)

-> your park bench does intersect your cloth

higher quality steps increase the quality of cloth simulation a lot ...but of course increase the calculation time for it a lot too...

so i deleted the collision for your bench, and raised to 30 the quality level...and i got:

Thank you! But do you know a solution with the bench?

You could animate the „sitting down“, and render just the sitting.


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Download external zip (with images) file and unpack it
Have an addon and it works well now https://github.com/Gl2imm/Apex-Toolbox
Have the intention to add in some of the items for easy use, but the images there are huge and not everyone wants to download addon with 200-300Mb size. Good option is to Optionally download External zip file with images and unpack it, so additional options will pop up to append them.
There is not much info/example about downloads here. Cant figure out at least simple logic for it to work. I looked in Easy PBR code and here How do I Download an External File from URL and Display Progress in a Panel without blocking the UI? but is way too complicated setup.
What I'm trying to do is a simple button on the panel that says "Download additional files" maybe with a progress bar (if its too complicated maybe with just a status like Download Started/Download Complete).
If someone have good working examples pls share.

What exactly is the problem with this answer? There's only so much reduction in complexity that can be achieved. This isn't part of the blender api, so you'll inherently have to dive into something a bit more complex. It doesn't seem that hard.

That sample i tried it didnt work. If at least it were workable solution then i could step by step alter it for my needs. Im not very good at python, so were looking for a simple solutions. This project is useful for 3D Artist community, so im doing as much as i can within my knowledge ))


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Image rendered and saved is not same
Trying to figure out what can be done to render this effect with transparent background.
It looks like the render itself done correct in Blender, but when you save the image and open it - it loose the part that dont have background. Any help will appreciated
Rendered image

Saved Image

Ya. Thx alot. Good enough to understand. Did not know about emission pixels and transparency issues

it seems to me you have selected a output format that doesn't support transparency like jpeg maybe , try export your files in png/exr/tiff ( png beeing the easier to handle , but you should lean toward EXR if your rig is emissive on a transparent background , png won't handle it )

Thx. Its a png. But looking at the link given by Gordon in comment - its seems emission pixels and transparency issue. But i will try also with tiff and exr.

That's not a real answer if you had actually dipped into the problem. The problem here is not having transparency in the file, it's having emission over transparency and your recommendation of using a PNG is the worst choice for that (apart from that it's already a PNG in the question).

Saved with an edit ;)

edited before your comment thought ;)

Thx alot for your answers. Did not know this before, never rendered emission on transparent bg before. This effect is used by streamers in YT thumbnails, so some did it with transparency and get this. I will test it out with other formats and update documentation. Will try from PC to select Gordon's comment as answer, as i cant rn on mobile


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Why doesn't my boolean difference modifier work?
OK, I have a long, thin cube. I want to cut a spherical shape out of the bottom. Here is the cube and sphere:

Here's what happens when I add a boolean difference modifier to the cube, with the sphere as the target:

Here are my modifier settings:

Why does it just make the sphere fuzzy instead of removing the overlap from the cube? Why does something so simple have to be so frustrating?

Blender Booleans are flaky sometimes, especially when the target objects share vertices, edges, or faces.  Try 1) applying all scaling to both objects and 2) scaling the sphere cutter object slightly smaller so it falls completely within the Y axis of your cube.

Booleans are very powerful tools but they are very picky about overlapping vertices and edges.
In this case you have a sphere with a top and bottom vertices which have a lot of connecting edges. Top vertex can be seen in attached image. Your boolean will break if the side of your object overlaps with any of these edges.

You could change you sphere to a round cube which doesn't have similar vertices on top and bottom. (To add a round cube use an build-in add-on Add Mesh: Extra objects). Round cube is easier to align with your object. Just make sure none of the vertices and edges overlap.


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How can I round the FACE of a cube?
I'm not asking how to bevel a shape's edge, I'm asking how to create something like this:

For this, I created a cylinder of default size and scooted it 1m on the Y axis so that it appears as if the cube as a rounded face. However, this leads to Z-fighting between the two separate objects. I would like to know how to alter the cube's face so that it is a single shape with a rounded face. Sorry I don't have the vocabulary to be more clear.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/64121 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/19630 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/151231

If you want that exact shape, just leave the cylinder where it is, but select all the faces that are inside the cube as well as the top and bottom, and delete them.

Next, if you added the cylinder in object mode, select the two objects and join them with Ctrl+J. If you added it in edit mode, then they're already one object so you're good to go. Then, back in edit mode, select the outer faces of the former cylinder and the edge of the cube. Press F to make a face. Do this for the top and bottom.

Then, just select the whole thing and pick Mesh > Clean Up > Merge By Distance to get rid of any extra vertices.

You may want to delete the inner face of the cube that is no longer visible as well.


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Having problems with exporting to OBJ
Hey guys i have a question i did a house model and i have a plenty of good materials with normal map, multiply shaders is there anyway i can join this all together to make a bake in order for me to export it to an OBJ?

OBJ (Wavefront) file itself only stores geometry data, it does not keep anything regarding materials or textures.  However you can always use other formats like .fbx which supports textures and materials.

.fbx export why there are no materials or textures?, second paragraph.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/90096 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13508 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/24422

Materials and shaders are not transferable with Obj format. It does not allow to export Blender materials and shaders. All it can do is to export a simple Phong shader plus some textures. And not everything can be baked into a texture. So the general answer is no.
You could bake all the color information into a single diffuse map. Use Cycles and bake with method Combined. Also a normal map should arrive. But the rest you most probably need to reassing in your target platform then.
Make sure to use relative paths so that the textures are not missing.

and in FBX there is any other way i can export the materials and shaders and all that stuff?

FBX can transfer a bit more. Simply try it out. But also this format is not able to transfer a Blender material with all its content one to one. Blender Materials is a Blender internal feature. Same goes for all other major 3D apps.


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How would I bevel complicated corner?
I'm curious how I would bevel this complicated corner to the red lines.  I just can't figure it out so any help would be greatly appreciated.

That's a situation you do not want to have :D This is not suitable geometry to use the bevel function. You could sculpt it or delete the geometry there and recreate it with a bevel.

You can use proportional editing to 'round' such corner.

Select the edge and move it inwards (this will be the bevel radius)
Enable Proportional editing set to Sharp
Use the Size slider to adjust the influence

Jachym Michal thank you.  When I select the move gizmo I don't get that move menu box to pop up.  Any ideas?

Hey :). Perhaps this could help: The box with settings is not showing up

worked like a charm!  Thanks


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How to make every single part of a complex geometry thinner?
I got a CT-scanned DICOM images of a luffa (loofah) and I got a 3D version of it using a software called InVesalius (quite similar to 3D Slicer and you can export the geometry in various formats such as .stl, .obj, .x3d). I want to setup a CFD simulation of this luffa. The problem is, it is impossible to get a proper realistic (thin, hair-like) geometry of this luffa using both aforementioned software.
How do I do that in Blender using the exported 3D geometries? (I couldn't find anything searching & surfing the internet).
Here is how it looks like in real life:

And here are how the 3D geometries I exported from InVesalius (or 3D Slicer) look in Blender:

Close up:

How could I get a hair-like, thin geometry of a natural luffa in this virtual reconstruction?

Here are two ways you might be able to go about doing this, though they aren't going to provide you perfect results. Both of these techniques involve moving all faces in along their normals.
Option 1
In edit mode, select everything and hit ALT+S, then slowly draw your mouse down to shrink. You may wish to select the Offset Even checkbox in the little settings box.
Option 2
Add a displace modifier to your mesh. Leave the Midlevel at 0.5, and set the strength to 0.0. Then, slowly draw the strength into the negative numbers, which will shrink the mesh. The exact number will depend heavily on the scale of your mesh, and the degree to which you need it thinned.

Thank you. These options didn't work for the geometry above. Thanks again, I appreciate it.


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how do i add a glow only to the smoke using the compositor
i want to add a glare effect to only the smoke but as you can see it applied it to the entire smoke domain when i added a material pass

Use a separate render layer for the smoke

could you elaborate i dont know what you mean by that

Move your smoke to a different layer then in the layer manger add a new named layer and assign it the smoke layer. When you render you will see the process run once for each named layer. Now in the Compositor you can select the layers as different inputs and filter them/Glare as you need.


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making cigarette smoke

im having lots of trouble replicating the thin and whispy smoke that comes out of a cigarette. nevermind the material but how do i do this? the particles arent compact enough which makes the smoke look to thick. ive tried tweaking with just about every setting but to no avail.

Hey, there is a different version of Blender with the Mantaflow branch, which is said to be a lot better at simulating smoke. Apart from that and I hate to say it, but googling helps a lot in this particular simulation, here for example is cigarette smoke + the .blend that produced it: https://vimeo.com/2287753


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is there a way i can control which parts of the render have the glow?
im trying to replicate something similar to below where near the exhaust the flames are extremely bright and towards the end of the flame it fades out. i got the glow to be amped up but i have no idea how i can go about controlling where the glow is coming from.


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blender internal nodes: all my materials are coming out mixed with pink
im having a hard time understand how these nodes work. i DO have the material activate in BI and not cycles but it still comes out pink. furthermore the textures are only partly pink. using texture coordinates doenst help

If you change the Red and Blue settings in the Mix Node does that change the Pink? What outcome did you want?

@rob im following this tutorial but using the node setup for an object (skydome) instead of the world background. changing the red and blue around did nothing

Have you tried unchecking "Invert Normal" in the Material Node?

Check if shader has missing images in "Texture" tab. Pink is usually a sign of missing files

@SergeL yeah there is an issue with the texture it appears because when i change the default pink colour for both textures it responds. however i look at my setup and i dont see anything wrong? https://i.imgur.com/nXEhefw.png


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mesh shakes and detaches from my armature when in pose mode
when i try and move the arms in pose mode its a bit fidgety all though works no problem. if i try and rotate or move all the bones at once the mesh jumps out of the armature and sort of rattles when i move it. i used vertex select so all the parts of the mesh either have full or zero influence. im aware that its a difficult mesh to rig so maybe thats the issue?

blend file:

Your mesh object is unnecessarily parented to one of the bones, meaning it is not only being moved by the bones it is weight painted to, but also by the parent, which is why it becomes offset from the armature as it is being moved twice.
Select the mesh and press Alt+P and choose Clear and Keep Transformation to clear the parent.
As for the shaking, you have a dependency cycle, which can be seen by looking in the System Console (the message appears when you toggle in and out of edit mode on the armature):

This means that Blender can't work out how to move the bones properly as they each rely on each other for their position. To fix this you can un-parent the 'launcher', 'pincer' and 'energy pistol' bones. This doesn't seem to effect anything in the armature, so it shouldn't cause any problems.


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Weight paint too sharp transition between affected areas
I try to weight paint my mesh, but no matter what settings I put in weight or strength option, there is a super sharp difference between where I painted and clean mesh. Why does this happen? I can't paint a smooth transition no matter what I try. The transition is very sharp even though the weights are almost blue.

it might look sharp but it's actually not, select your object, go in Edit mode, open the Viewport N panel > Item > Vertex Weight, select some vertices, you'll see that the weight will be different even though the color seems to be the same.

Hey! Edit mode also shows a hard transition, but also when I exit pose mode into object mode, the mesh is super deformed....

Pose mode is for bones, if the mesh is deformed it's because the armature doesn't act the way you want, when you parent the object to its armature, make sure in Pose mode that the bones are in their Rest pose (alt G, alt R, alt S)

Yes, when the armature is resting, everything is fine. But this hard transition is what causes problems. Since I can't get a smooth transition like in the screenshot, when I change the pose, the mesh gets deformed accordingly to the hard transition.

if weight painting is not precise enough, go in the Properties panel > Object Data > Vertex Groups, select the vertices you want, and assign them the weight you want, playing with the Weight value under the Vertex Groups list

I started to paint the weight from scratch, and now it seems the brush does not react to ANY setting at all... I can't change the smoothness of the transition and in edit mode, when I select the vertices that I painted and try to reduce the weight like you said, nothing changes.....
here is a screenshot
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xAU9BdpU-kOG0BbH0xOxQoVdD7P4yeNJ

does the same thing happen with the same file but an older version of Blender? Just to make sure it's not a bug...

I guess I have to try it out on older versions

Also with the same blender version try to append the object in a new file to make sure it's not caused by a brush setting

On another forum I finally got an answer!
The problem was that since I erased all weights from all bones to paint weights from scratch, all vertices other than the painted, had to be attached to any other bones. Basically one vertex needs to be attached to more than one bone.

mmh sorry I don't understand, maybe try to elaborate... no a vertex doesn't need to be assigned to more than one bone

So, when I painted vertices on the leg bones and after I moved the leg to check, the whole mesh went crazy because all other vertices were not attached to anything. Only after I attached all the other vertices to other bones, the mesh knew where it was and I could also have smooth transitions between weights


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How to fix rotations on bones?
so I've created this Character and was trying to give him some bones. I add the IK bone to move the legs around. For some reason as soon as it gets to a certain, point the bone starts to rotate giving weird deformations in the Hip. Another thing is that the feet are deformated all the time when I'm in pose or edit mode, I don't know why. How can I remove these deformations?

Forgot to add the blender file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ejtD9z9xt9EQxnLj6GlJ_MXxhl5g06ZN

You need to correct the bone's Pole Angle (choose -90°). Also, you'll need to move the Pole Target bone so that your leg doesn't twist too much when moving.


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How do i get rid of this "blocky" effect on my mantaflow explosion?
I followed https://developer.blender.org/T74559 and still no luck. Any ideas?

Try higher resolution.

Yea, i tried 400 without adaptive domain.


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How to place checkboxes in the same row?

Everyone, I want to arrange the checkboxes horizontally like this, what should I do? I tried some methods but it doesn't seem to work

Hello and welcome to the site! As of now your question contains very little information and is hard to answer (though the image is a good start!). Please elaborate a bit, especially concerning which methods you have already tried.

Maybe you can drag and drop it!!

You need to split your layout or column or whatever with split() method.
def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout()
    props = context.scene.my_props # your properties
    col = layout.split()
    col.prop(props, "x_axis") # your property name
    col.prop(props, "y_axis") # your property name
    col.prop(props, "z_axis") # your property name

More on UI Layout

Ok, thank you for your answer :)


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Is there a way to split a hollow mesh by faces?
For example, I have a hollow cubic sphere like this:

A problem is to split it by all its faces like this:

The way I have done this one is an application the P > Selection to an outer face and an appropriate inner one. Then I just have connected appropriate edges to get that little piece. But this way is not really practical since I have to iterate over each face of the sphere manually.
Is there a way to get the result automatically?

@vklidu, I agree. His answer is good and faster than mine...

@JachymMichal any reason you ignore us? Seems to be personal now :) I agree with lemon, your answer was faster. I dont have a clue what is going on here, sorry. Split Face by Edge was a new for me and seems to be as less clicks. So why? Thanks for info.

Hey @vklidu :). Sorry, didn't get any notifications. I deleted the answer because it didn't add very much. Just wanted to keep the site nice and tidy :).

@JachymMichal Thanks for info :) I was thinking what was wrong with my comment. OK, still seems to me meaningful version. If you change mind (to bing it back), let me know I will delete it.

Nah, I like your polished version better :). Teamwork, right?

Here is JachymMichal's (deleted) a bit polished answer.
With all vertices selected:

press ⎇ Alt+M Split > Face by Edges
press E (Extrude) S (Scale)
press P (Separate) by Loose Parts

Scale works for centric objects like a cube or sphere.

You can:

AltE then "individual faces"
Don't move the extrusion just validate it
Invert the selection CtrlI to select the base vertices
X delete vertices
A to select
E to extrude
Again don't move the extrusion just validate it
S to scale
P to separate by loose parts

@JachymMichal, no its ok. But effectively split>Faces by edges (that I did not know) is quicker.

@JachymMichal why have you deleted your answer? Should work, no?

Hey :). Sorry, didn't get any notifications. I deleted the answer because it didn't add very much. Just wanted to keep the site nice and tidy :).


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Can I export a drawing made in blender to a 2d file?
I created a model and drew an outline on the surface. Is there anyway to choose an angle and save only the lines to create a PSD file or a 2d vector (just the lines, no BG)? I wanted to use it as line art that I can color in.

just render the file with a transparent background.

@susu How so I save it with just the lines? The object shows even when I disable the view.


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Can't find subdivide for Blender 2.9
I'm a complete noob. I was following this tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGRt24fYYWU
and nothing happened when I pressed cntrl + 4 so I've been looking for "subdivide" but every tutorial I look for has it in different places that don't seem to exist. For instance it's not in the object context menu when I right click.

Should be in edit mode to do that.

@lemon Oh thank you but the guy in the video is able to do while in object mode and his cube turns into a sphere. A wrench icon also appears next to the word "cube" in the scene collection. Do you have any idea how he did that?

ok, so he probably uses subdivision modifier.Use Ctrl+1 or 2, etc.

the shortcut: https://youtu.be/mGRt24fYYWU?t=49

That didn't work for me but I clicked on the wrench while in object mode and clicked on  "Add Modifier", "subdivision surface", and then I changed the levels to 4 and I got the sphere.

@lemon The link to the shortcut might not have helped him since he followed the tutorial and already mentioned the shortcut in his question... I have a simple idea: maybe myblender used the Numpad 4 instead of the regular 4.

In order to use the subdivide tool, you must first be in Edit Mode.

Select the edges you want to subdivide, or hit "a" to select all
Go to "edge" tab in top left next to what mode you are in
Hit "subdivide"

For more reading, here is the Blender Subdivision Documentation
Hope this helps, good luck!

But he didn't want to use the Subdivide Tool, he tried to follow the tutorial where the Subdivision Surface modifier is added to the cube, using the shortcut Ctrl+4 (for which you have to be in Object Mode, otherwise the shortcut won't work). And the Subdivision Surface modifier also creates a rounded, almost spherical cube, what the Subdivide Tool doesn't do by default. You can enable this option but you didn't explain to him how. OF course he can read it in the documentation, but the answer alone doesn't give the result he's looking for.

For blender 2.9, select the object you want to subdivide in object mode, press ↹ Tab to switch to edit mode. In edit mode click  RMB anywhere in the scene and a menu will pop up. Choose subdivide.
You can also adjust the number of subdivisions and other settings by looking at the lower left side of the viewport and clicking on the subdivide word with a drop down to choose what you exactly want.


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Shrinkwrap subtractive deform
So I'm trying to make an effect similar to the inverse of those metal pin toys where you put your hand in and then it pops out on the other side. So I want to take a model and dynamically have it imprint this array of rectangles. I'm currently using a shrinkwrap modifier on it set to a negative project. But I'm running into some issues that I'm not sure how to solve. For instance, once my cutout model goes beyond half of it's height down, then the shrinkwrapped vertices decide they want to project on the top faces of the mesh, not the bottom. Also I want the faces remain horizontal. So right now if only 1-2 vertices are being projected, the remaining ones will sit where they are.

Shrinkwrap only calculates based on the current frame so you just need to make your collider very very tall to avoid popping out. You can always use  a custom hidden collider object that is parented to the actual object that you want to show.
In order to make the whole pins move, I would put the shrinkwrap modifier on a simple grid, and use vertex instancing to add the pins.
Basically:

Create a grid with one vertex per pin, placed in the center of where the pin should be
Create a single pin model
Instance the pin model on the grid's vertices, and make sure it aligns correctly. Don't use the align on normals option, because shrinkwrapping may change normals, causing twisting etc.
test colliding with the grid using shrinkwrap


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Selecting faces of "inside" of solidified surface
I'm following a tutorial for making a coffee mug, and the mug starts with no thickness and the "solidify" modifier is applied to give it the thickness. Now I want to select the vertices on the inside of the mug (in the tutorial, he is just able to do this), but when I go to select one of these faces, it also selects the face on the outside of the cup corresponding to it. I would like to only select the inside faces.
When I try to hide an outside face, it also hides the inside face.

'Apply' has a specific meaning in the context of modifiers. In this case, it looks like you've only added the Solidify modifier and enabled edit-mode viewing. Since the base geometry is still a plane, the correct interpretation of it is to select both upper and lower faces produced from solidifying it.
To 'fix' this, all you need to do is apply the modifier --- producing a new base geometry. To do this in 2.8 and below, enter object mode and click the apply button on the modifier's card. In 2.90, this changed from being visible as a button to being an item on the drop-down menu to the right of the modifier's name. CTRL-A works as a shortcut when the mouse is over the modifier's card.

Thank you so much, this 2.9 and beyond fix worked perfectly.

You're welcome! Please don't forget to mark my answer as accepted, as I'm hoping to build up reputation to help answer some of my own questions :p


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Why does my render not show whitespot/overexposed part when i save it in OpenEXR format?
I've been wondering why this happens. When I save my rendered image (this is a smoke & fire sim) in OpenEXR format, it doesn't show any whitespot, instead it is full of a solid blue color, maybe this is good in a dynamic range sense but i can't seem to find a solution on how to return the white highlight, I tried to mess with curves and brightness in after effects without avail. But, when I use PNG format, it shows the whitespot just fine. Is there any compositing tricks/render setting to do in order to show the whitespot in the OpenEXR format?
(Rendered in Cycles)
OpenEXR:

PNG (The one in viewport also looks the same as PNG):

Here are some settings that i use:

Because Blender's EXR stores the data "as is" with no color transformation. This is a format for wide data transfer, not for preview. There are things to do, but that highly depends on what softwares you use when doing your final edits.
In short, the things is that you want to set your EXR to a linear color that reproduces Blender's Filmic color management (usually via LUTs and some gamma adjustments) and set your final output to sRGB.
On Blender, it's as on this topic:
Set your EXR's nodes to Linear color management, and your final file output to Standard color management.
On another topic: Be carefull with DWAA compression. If you only output your final render, it's fine. But if you ever deal with passes, don't use it, it will destroy them. Use Pxr24 if you want lossy, or any losslees compression method. But DWAA will lose crucial data on passes. Other software automatically use another compression method for passes, but not Blender.

Thank you for the help!


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Why does my GPU render have a lot more noise than my CPU with the same settings?
I was test rendering ian hubert's splash screen blender file when i noticed that my CPU render is much cleaner than my GPU render. How could that happen? I used the exact same setting for both of the renders, 128 Samples, no denoiser, no adaptive sampling. I am using Ryzen 5 4600H and GTX 1650 Mobile.

CPU Render:

GPU Render:

I don't know if this is normal or not. If it's not normal, i would appreciate any help to get rid of this issue. This is the Blend file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1krvqJd035Jh8_4Ljx1ANsv7pz5anSJ-z/view?usp=sharing

Thank you in advance!

Yes this is normal because there are differences, CPU is slower but more precise and GPU is faster but less precise, that's simple as it gets but it is much more complicated if you start to read about it... Also you are using volumetrics and CPU handles volumes much better than GPU

Thank you for the answer! For the volumetrics, I think ian hubert used Mist pass in the compositing tab, it's not volumetrics.

It is volumetrics, there is volume cube named Cube.044 that has Volume scatter with 0.001 density

okay thanks for the info, I'm not that experienced with it.


text:
Weird stuffs in smoke + fire sim
So, i've been messing around with this project for a solid total of 10+ hours. And i still can't figure out why the fire is so weird. It has this bobbly blocky thing even in "decent" resolution at one point (256).
How do i terminate this issue? Any help/tips are truly appreciated!
oh yeah, here's my settings, im in b2.92

The simulation is set for smoke and fire, and for whatever reason the smoke is occluding most of the inner flame, making the voxel nature of the simulation very obvious. I recommend you set it to fire only, and only use the flame smoke, or possibly make the smoke not as dense (in the material settings).

Thanks, that helps! But what do I do if I wanted a thick smoke, since I wanted this simulation to look like a legit flamethrower like the iridesium's version but, I wanted to integrate this fire sim to a video. If I do fire only, it wouldn't look legit since the video background is visible even at the back of the fire sim.


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Blender Misaligned address in CuCtxSynchronisze
I'm a beginner blender user.
I'm trying to render this simulation but almost every time I render it, it will stop rendering at some point in the render and show the "Blender Misaligned address in CuCtxSynchronisze" thing. It's not only in this one render, I've experienced this hundreds of times when I'm trying to render anything. This frustrates me, especially when I leave my laptop to render while I'm gone and come back just to find out that it stopped because of this error.
I've tried someone's advice on youtube to use a smaller Tile but it didn't work.
Informations:
I'm using CUDA to render.
Cycles engine.
My laptop: Asus TUF A15 GTX 1650, Ryzen 5 4600H, 32GB of RAM.
I tried both using Optix Denoiser and disabling denoiser. Both have this issue.
Sample count is 32-64 since this is just some test render.
1920x1080
It would be very helpful if someone can give me a solution.

Thank you in advance.

I guess you're just running out of memory, try to render using the CPU instead and see whether the error persists. Related: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/102536/cuda-error-launch-failed-in-cuctxsynchronize-and-cuctxcreate-launch-failed, https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/96878/cuda-error-launch-failed-in-cuctxsynchronize-line-1372, https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/94178/rendering-with-gpu-crashed, https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/64613/gpu-rendering-issue-cuda-error-at-cuctxcreate-illegal-address

It shouldn't be the memory since the dedicated GPU memory stays at around 1,3GB when I'm rendering this simulation and my GTX 1650 can handle up to 4GB.

If there is no solution then well, thanks for your advice, I will use CPU for rendering. I'm just a little upset since my GPU can render 10-20% ish faster than my CPU does.

I figured that i can use OptiX rather than normal CUDA rendering on my GPU. So i used optix and it worked well! No pauses and even faster rendering.


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Can’t render animation
When I render as animation the render doesn’t work, the window appears but there’s no image or any statistics of the render. What I find weird is that I can render a still image perfectly fine and I rendered two other render layers in the same scene fine. This render layer is just the background as the other two had it set as transparent.

Hi, please add your blend file because you told us the symptoms, but nearly nothing what you have done. Could be a lot of reasons. If you don't want to let us guess...just provide your blend file, thx.

@Chris I'm not sure that I can since the file is over 100 mb and the only service I know of (Blend Exchange) has a 30 mb limit.

Have you enabled File Extensions in the Output Properties? Or have you rendered the animation before without changing a filename and Overwrite is disabled?

Hi, @Cabbage, see if you can strip down a toy version of your file to the absolute minimum that shows the error. (A step you should probably be taking anyway, to take a shot at debugging)

It seems that I fixed the problem, but it was a weird solution:
I changed the output path in the Output Properties tab from "tmp" to another folder, although it worked before in "tmp" for the other layers, and there was a node in the Composite window for saving to a specific folder.


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In the Dissolve tab for smoke simulations is the ‘time’ seconds or frames?
I’m currently testing out smoke and fire simulations and I came across the ‘Dissolve’ tab, and I’m not sure whether ‘time’ means frames or seconds.

This is from the Blender Manual. Does that answer your question?

Oh yes, thanks a lot!


text:
My viewport camera is orbiting strangely
In the default screen usually my camera orbits the cube perfectly, but now it orbits like I’m on the end of a sledgehammer swinging, and sometimes it orbits in anyway it wants to. Sometimes it fixes itself but it’s really annoying.

maybe enable Edit > Preferences > Navigation > Orbit Around Selection?

maybe select cube and hit [NumPad .]   ?

@moonboots I tried it but it didn’t work

@eezacque didn’t work

does it happen with any file? any version of Blender? maybe share a file with a simple scene...

@moonboots I noticed it in version 3.3, but even with a 3.2 config it still occurs. Also it does happen in any file, including files made in the previous versions.


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How can I get Distribute Points on Face to work on specific face?
I have a plane, with slight thickness and I've used Geo nodes to put artifacts on it, however I only want them on a specific face and not clipping through the plane or anything like that. Marked in red is what I don't want.

there are many ways to do this, one possible way is this:

result:

The poisson Disk makes sure that the cubes don't overlap, if you set a distance min > 0.
The normal is the vector which describes the direction of the face, the so called "face direction" which is perpendicular to a planar face. If you split this normal vector into its components, you can compare the z value to 0, if this is bigger 0, then the normal points at least "a little bit up". That's enough to know because on a (non rotated cube, which is your plane) the normals for the side points sidewards, the lower face's normal points downwards and the upper faces's normal points upwards (which is what we want to filter).
The transform node before the instance on points node make sure that they "sit" correct on the plane.
If you want to have an answer for objects with different heights, please don't edit your question, but open a new question because you neither specify that nor did you provide a blend file and/or your node tree so that we could know that. You can ask as many questions as you want.


text:
Is it possible to use a rig controller to control textures?
I have an eye, and I want to be able to change the size and shape of the pupil (seperate texture) and I’ve used shape keys, but they don’t work right, so I wondered if it would be possible to use a controller (like an empty) to control the faces of the sphere that the texture’s on without using shape keys. Thanks

I also want to use the same method to make eyes, the problem is that I continue and copy the examples and it doesn't work as it should, the image is only repeated and distorted

Yep, you can use an object as source of coordinate system:

Another way is using drivers:

Click RMB on empty's scale slider and select "copy as new driver"
Then paste it into shader node value. Now empty controls the value inside node tree:


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Why is my texture a different colour than what it’s meant to be?
So I’m making this book in blender for a game I’m making but the paper colour is the same colour as the leather even though it’s meant to be white, material preview mode is fine but renders aren’t.
This is how it looks in render view and rendering itself.

Hello and welcome. Rather than take photos of your monitor post actual screenshots instead, see How to take a screenshot. Photos are harder to read, because we have to guess if we are looking at a external interference like reflections or smudges or Moiré patterns, hardware issues such as a malfunctioning display or connection, a software level bug or driver malfunction, or an or actual artifact or issue with the model itself.

It looks like your World is red, it affects the color of your objects. If you don't want that, you can open the Shader Editor, switch it to World instead of Object, create this setup: mix the 2 Shader > Background nodes into a Shader > Mix Shader and use an Input > Light Path (Is Camera Ray output) as factor so that you still see the red color as background but it doesn't affect the scene anymore.


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Cycles isn’t rendering fire/smoke simulations
I have an animation with fire+smoke, but when I render it no fire or smoke shows up and I don’t know the problem, I’m using cycles and the domain has a shader for it. Any help?

Have you baked the simulation?

can you provide a screenshot of the domain shader? and maybe provide the details on how you created the fire+smoke and if you have baked the simulation. there are many issues that could cause your description of the problem, so extra information will help us find the actual problem.

@GordonBrinkmann yes, I’ve baked it

Ok so I’ve figured out it only renders if the flow object is visible in the render

@Cabbage I don't know what you've done actually, because it usually renders without the flow object being visible. I just tested it, the flow object isn't necessary for rendering.

@GordonBrinkmann I started manually adding the domain and flow but after learning it didn’t come with a shader I used quick effects instead, I’m not sure what I did wrong

I figured out the problem, bake all the data BEFORE disabling the emitter otherwise data won’t bake and won’t render.


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Add vertices to face after using bisect
I made a cut through an object using the "bisect" tool. In this case I wanted to cut through the center "dome" part of the flower shown below. This pretty much worked as expected, but it left me with one large face along the plane of the bisect. I would like to subdivide this large face adding many more vertices because I will need to sculpt on it later.
I tried selecting the face in edit mode, right clicking, and selecting "subdivide" but this adds no vertices on the large face.
How do I subdivide this large face created from the bisect?

Depending on the geometry you've created and the geometry you are looking for, here are two approaches that work.

repeated inset
If you can select the edge loop around the face, you can use the I key to inset it several times creating a looping pattern.  When you have enough loops, do one more, and with the vertices still selected type M and select at center.
Here is a circle, filled using the inset technique:

grid fill
You can remove the face, select the resulting edge loop and use Face → Grid Fill from the menu to create a repeating grid.
Here is a circle filled using a grid fill:

If you can't select the edge loop, you can accomplish the same thing by selecting all of the vertices around the edge using other selection tools.
Each technique has its own strengths and weaknesses, mostly when it comes to topology.  The inset technique allows you to easily select edge rings while the grid fill doesn't.


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Part of my object doesn't show it's texture in cycles

Hello, I'm a beginner in Blender and i found this problemm while trying to preview my object's texture in cycles. Part of my object doesn't show it's texture. I have checked the normals and there is no problem in it. I tried Eevee rendering and the texture shows up, it also shows up in material preview.
Maybe you guys can find some solution. Thank you in Advance :)

There's something I don't understand: why are you plugging the image texture into the Principled Normal socket? If you want to create bumps, you need to plug a Vector > Bump node before the Normal socket. It may be your problem...

Oh right, that is actually my problem. Silly me. Thank you for helping me man!

The problem is that you've plugged your Image Texture into the Normal socket of your Principled BSDF. It's not the way it works, you need at least to put a Vector > Bump map between these 2 nodes, and ideally it's better to use a b&w height picture, created from your original picture with a software like CrazyBump or else...

Thank you for helping me :) it works.


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My Smoke simulation has this buggy blocky shadow
I have been tackling this problem for the last 2 days and I can't find any solution to it.
So, I baked this smoke sim and test rendered it, It has some weird blocky shadow and reflection, I thought it was just a random bug, so I closed blender opened it again, and re-render it, it outputs the same result. I tried to delete the flow object and replaced it with something else, it still outputs the same result. Tried to delete the domain and re-do it, nothing changes. I am very confused on what's happening here.

I have 3 view layers/render passes:

The smoke itself:

Shadow Catcher

Reflection Catcher/Glossy Indirect

Maybe you guys can figure what's the problem, here's the Blend file link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P84r9d5UbGE-TWvDeEQERqG2zU_gcYc2/view?usp=sharing
Thank you in advance!

I have an NVIDIA GTX 1650 and Ryzen 5 4600h


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Add-on loading problem
I am just getting started writing a multi-file add-on for Blender 2.93. I can run the below inside a single script inside Blender and get a button added to the user interface:
bl_info = {
    "name": "Simple operator",
    "author": "",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 80, 0),
    "location": "View3D > Add > Mesh > New Object",
    "description": "Initial test",
    "warning": "",
    "doc_url": "",
    "category": "Add Mesh",
}

import bpy  # noqa

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Object Operator"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object is not None

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_monkey_add()
        return {'FINISHED'}

class Layout(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the scene context of the properties editor"""
    bl_label = "Layout Demo"
    bl_idname = "SCENE_PT_layout"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "scene"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout

        scene = context.scene

        # Large button
        layout.label(text="Simple operator")
        row = layout.row()
        row.scale_y = 3.0
        row.operator("object.simple_operator")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(Layout)
    bpy.utils.register_class(SimpleOperator)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Layout)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(SimpleOperator)

register()

To simulate a multi-file add-on I just pasted this code to a file _init_.py placed into a zip file
my_plugin_name.zip
  |my_plugin_name
        |__init__.py

Loading this plugin by Edit --> Preferences --> Add-ons --> Install and selecting "my_plugin_name.zip" yields no visible change to the GUI. In the console I however I see
reloading addon: my_plugin_name 1623853552.3498223 1623853837.9650578 '/home/username/.config/blender/2.93/scripts/addons/my_plugin_name/__init__.py'
Modules Installed () from '/home/username/my_plugin_name.zip' into '/home/username/.config/blender/2.93/scripts/addons'

So it does seem _init_.py is loaded, but nothing happens still. The execution of _init_.py seems to happen before the install, which is a bit strange. The script is correctly copied to '/home/username/.config/blender/2.93/scripts/addons/my_plugin_name/_init_.py'.  Ideas?
I am using Ubuntu 20.04 in case that matters.

what happens when you close blender and reload? The blender dev extensions to VS Code made a world of difference, a bit tricky to set up but totally worth it

May or may not be issue ... Take out the register() call. Or put it in the standard if __name__ == "__main__": conditional. The register method of the module is to be called  when the addon is enabled, not when it is imported.

I tried closing and reloading several times without any success. Tried different approaches for calling register() too. I just got the the blender development extension to work, after some file permission problems. It is really good, but I also need to be able to ship this extension stand-alone to people sooner or later.


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Best Topology for modelling animal legs
I have done a modelling course making a dinosaur and am now practising making my own.
The course made the leg and attached it to the body as shown here. It involved rotating the edge loops quite a bit until they could be joined to the body's edge loop cut out for the leg. This process was rather clunky in my opinion.

While making my own model I went to see what others are doing for this step and I found this video (at 3:38) where instead the modeller just extrudes part of the body's faces out and then extrudes the bottom part of that new protrusion down to make the leg.
This creates 2 very different topologies, and I cannot tell which is better. The second method is a lot easier to do as it involves a much easier to manage topology, which in my book is good.
What are the pros and cons of these methods other than ease of use (the only thing my novice self has encountered)?
Just as an FYI I am modelling and rigging to practice making a small game, so I am also looking to animate these models.

I have modeled many dinosaurs myself; I started out using the approach you're saying the course used (and that approach is still valid), but I have come to prefer the approach used in the youtube video; I just think it better compliments the shape of the hipbone, which you can see a 3D recreation of here:.
The former approach will lend itself to making that whole area more smooth (as you can see in the image you attached), whereas the latter approach lends itself to giving more definition to that hipbone shape (see how visible the hipbone is in this still from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)
It makes it very easy to have edge loops actually following (and thus better bringing out) the curvature of the hipbone; organic modeling is all about having the topology flow with the forms you see in the shape.

Thank you for your comprehensive response, so the important take-away is to learn to understand the edge loop flow for the style you would ultimately want to go with, that makes sense and will take some time and experimenting to learn. Thank you again :) was very helpful.


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How to use a texture colour to define a transmission map
I have a model that has a texture applied to the plane. The red icons are actually supposed to light up because of an LED behind them.

To achieve a controllable transmission level on my map I took the texture and isolated the red icons as pure white on a black background:

And then plugged this into the Principled BSDF along with a Mix RGB node to control the level of transmission:

Could this be done by simply taking the original texture and isolating the red colour and defining that as my input using nodes?
This would be helpful in future in case the texture changes, then I wouldn't have to re-do the transmission map as well.

Hey :). just to add to my answer - there's this great thread listing more advanced techniques than just a ColorRamp Make specific color in a texture transparent

Sure thing.
Just add a ColorRamp and increase the contrast.
You can also set it to Constant (for maximum contrast) if you don't mind jagged edges.

Oh so you select it not based on colour but based on its BW contrast with respect to the rest of the texture?

Yes. In this case it works, because there are just two colors. To isolate a specific color from a photo, I'd reccomend this answer by Gorgious.

Not sure I am able to use the added answer you provided in the comments. I make the node connection and use the Combine RGB to specify the Red colour from the texture and it just makes everything transparent. I must be doing something wrong

Actually what worked was the Separate RGB node and maths greater than 0.95 for the red channel. That did the trick for this case. Thank you again!

No problem :). If you unplug the Separate RGB node, you can simply choose a color to isolate :).

I've found that doesn't work because there are white parts to my texture that also have red as part of the definition so that is also why the Subtract doesn't work.


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Cut a plane with a curve
I know there's many question about cutting a mesh with another mesh but I need to ask this because the boolean modifier isn't working.
I need to cut the plane with the shape of the track (that is another plane with an array and curve modifier) and get the inversion of the track cut onto the plane.
How can I do it?

Hello :). This sounds like a job for Knife Project Tool. This answer should help: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/28532/

Thank you! this worked!


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Read csv file (converted from excel) and set variables x,y,z etc as the cell values

How to set cell values as x,y,z,l,m,n,p,q,r variables in python without using pandas (ignore second set of coordinates)
So x=5000, y=300, z=2700, l=0.2, m=-1, n=0.1, p=0, q=0, r=0

import csv

def read_csv(file_name='your_file.csv'): # use \\ instead of \ in filepath
    with open(file_name) as csv_file:
        file = csv.reader(csv_file)
        return [i for i in file]

csvFileArray = read_csv()
row = csvFileArray[2]  # first row
x, y, z, l, m, n, p, q, r = row[1], row[2], row[3], row[4], row[5], row[6], row[7], row[8], row[9]

x = float(x)
y = float(y)
z = float(z)
l = float(l)
m = float(m)
n = float(n)
p = float(p)
q = float(q)
r = float(r)

```


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How to read excel file and use as coordinates in python code?
Currently this is the excel file:

How do I use python to import the file and get it to read it so that it effectively reads it as:
x, y, z, l, m, n, p, q, r = 5000, 300, 2700, 0.2, -1, 0.1, 0, 0, 0
And is it possible to read more than one line as shown in the image and create another set of coordinates?

The simplest way for this kind of data would be to convert to a .csv (comma-separated-values) file. You can do it easily in Excel with Save As > csv. Then simply access the lines with open(path).
This is my input file :

import bpy

for line_number, line in enumerate(open(r'C:\YourFolder\YourFile.csv')):
    columns = line.rstrip().split(';')  # Replace by a comma ',' if the separator is a comma
    if line_number == 0:  # Populate the headers
        headers = columns
    else:
        print(f'Line {line_number}:')
        for i, column in enumerate(columns):
            print(f'{headers[i]} = {column}')

Result :

In your specific case, you can skip the first column and skip lines easily. Keep in mind in python and most programming languages, the first element of a list has an index of 0. There are a few ways to do it but take this for example.
The file :

New code :
import bpy

from mathutils import Vector

vectors = []

for line_number, line in enumerate(open(r'C:\YourFolder\YourFile.csv')):
    columns = line.rstrip().split(';')  # Replace by a comma ',' if the separator is a comma
    if line_number == 0:  # Populate the headers
        headers = columns
    elif line_number % 2 == 0:  #  Keep only odd lines (which have a pair index since it's zero-based)
        vectors.append(Vector((float(c) for c in columns[1:4])))
        print(f'Line {line_number + 1}:')
        for i, column in enumerate(columns[1::]):  # Skip the first column
            print(f'{headers[i + 1]} = {column}')

print(vectors)

Result :

Consider that there are hundreds of posts and pretty good answers about how to import csv data here already... no need to repeat that (IMHO): https://blender.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=import%20csv

Thanks @Gorgious, how would I be able to skip rows, eg choosing row 3 and 5 and dismissing the first column for names? Is it also possible to say x= (a specific cell in excel), y= (another specific cell) etc- I want to be able to use these values creating vectors/matrices

@newblender I've updated my answer. If you want to access specific cells in the excel sheet, you can do it with csv but you will have less trouble with the pandas module as stated in the other answer. The csv method is more of a linear parse-and-convert approach.

I seem to get an error 'line_number is not defined' what would I need to define it as? And rather than printing the values, am I able to equate x=.. and so on?

Sorry that was a typo ! should be good now. If you want to set variables to the value of some column, you can just use for example instead of the second print statement, if i == 0: x = column. Note that I added a vectors list (which get printed at the end) which gets the x, y, and z value in each line.

@Gorgious, unfortunately I've now got the following message: ValueError: mathutils.Vector(): sequence size is 0, expected > 2, any ideas on how to solve it?

Alternatively, you could use the pandas library. (How to install - see here: Using 3rd party Python modules)
With pandas, you can then use the pandas.read_excel() to import your worksheet into a DataFrame, which is basically an array but with named columns to make indexing easier.

Personally, if it's an option, I would export as a CSV and read it in with something like https://docs.python.org/3/library/csv.html


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How to get rigify outlines in armatures
I've been rigging my own models and lately I see a lot of models with weird outlines instead of the normal bones I use.(Like the ones shown below) How do I make these?

You can custom your bones. Create the new shape you want to see as bone, for example a circle. Then select your armature, go in Object or Pose mode, then Properties panel > Bone > Viewport Display, and select the object you've created. If you enable the Wireframe option you'll only see a wireframe object like in your picture.

Yep, that's the answer. The image in the original post looks like a Rigify setup. When you hit Generate Rig with Rigify it creates a collection called Widgets that holds all of the shape objects for the rig.


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EEVEE Adding noise texture lags out renderer
I'm trying to make a Dr. Strange style shield, I've got the lighting down, but whenever I add the noise texture to vary the light on the shield, it lags out whenever I try to render the animation. Any ideas on how to stop this? My hardware is probably overpowered for this so its quite confusing.
(Blend file attached)

Possibly the same issue as https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/200952/29586


text:
Animated mesh doesn't move with armature
I am trying to make a rotating fan and everything goes well until my fan rotator and frame are unable to move along with the motor (armature).
The fan blades were parent to the rotator and it works well with the armature though. Can anyone help me with this issue? Thanks and have a good day.
Link to my project:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hwkuazv7i394wfx/FAN.blend?dl=0

Your object is a bit messy (for example why is your armature scaled on the Z axis?), but to quickly fix your problem, what you need to do is assigning the meshes of rim and rotator.001 to the right vertex group which is Bone.001, because it's the bone that is supposed to control them.

thanks moonboots! it works and will rescale the mesh again


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Use Geometry Nodes to reproject onto camera view
I want to use geometry nodes to reproject 3-dimensional objects as 2-dimensional shapes against a camera view. Wherever the camera goes or does, the 2-dimensional shapes will follow, change, and adjust accordingly with the camera view.
Being a total novice with Geometry Nodes and most procedural methods, I learned that this task would be no casual endeavor (lol). There were many things to consider such as, how complex geometry should be flattened into 2-dimensions.
I came up with the idea after buying and observing Alan Wyatt's products in his Tradigitalist Toolbag (i.e. Live Paint Filter, Line Art Curve Modifier). I was inspired to see if us ordinary folks could make something similar. It doesn't seem impossible but still extremely challenging, nonetheless.

Your question is very similar to this current thread: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/293758/how-can-i-create-an-outline-around-an-object
Did you take a look at it?

I have. I noticed it got activity around the same time I posted this question. There are some good ideas on that thread but, nothing complete. I'm certain if it gets answered, my question will be too.

depending on what you are trying to do exactly, it may be easier, to find a solution for you.
One could for example create a parallel projection against the camera view. But this would not fit exactly to the outline, that the camera sees from the object itself, as the camera is viewing in perspective mode - normally.
So, will the object be visible, too, or are you aiming for something like a shadow play. The latter should be possible.

The line art modifier was a game changing feature for me when it first came out. However, the line art modifier couldn’t project 3d into 2d since it simply drew strokes onto the 3d object. You can only use reproject after applying the line art modifier. I wanted the reprojection without applying the modifier.

My end goal was to use the line art modifier on procedurally generated 2d geometry of a 3d model. It was so that I could make full use of grease pencil’s features. It doesn’t matter if the original object is still visible in the camera view or if the 2-dimensional geometry is made up of curves instead of flat planes. If it can be procedurally created so that I could use it with grease pencil, then I'm satisfied.

Here is a rough solution for those who are curious.

We will begin with projecting the perspective. If you have ever studied Perspective Drawing or Projective Geometry, then you may have noticed that the point of perspective or camera view is a vanishing point. In other words, all points, lines, planes, and geometry converge at the camera view to create the perspective we see in the picture plane. This can be noticed when modeling in Blender.

For this answer, the geometry node modifier will be applied to a soon to be deleted mesh. We need a picture plane to project our 2D geometry against so, we will use a grid big enough that will fit the projection. Since the picture plane needs to be in front of the camera for the perspective to be visible, we will also offset the picture plane to always be in front of the camera view.
Because we want our 2D geometry to “adjust accordingly” to camera view, we simply need to add Transform Geometry nodes to where needed. In this case, it is the object (I’m using Suzanne) we want to flatten and the picture plane we are going to flatten against.
To create the projection, we will use the Raycast node. The target will be our picture plane and the hit will be the object we want flattened. To create a perspective projection, all points must intersect at camera view thus, a Ray Direction is needed. Our Ray Direction will be the difference between the camera view and each point of the object.
Grease Pencil
Although it is not mentioned anywhere in this question, but since you are me asking and I am you answering, I know you want to generate this 2D geometry for the purpose of using grease pencil. To do so, convert your object into curve lines and then convert them back into mesh lines. The former is to create lines and the latter is to make those lines usable with the line art modifier.
Additionally, use a Scale Elements node with Edge selected to freely control the distance of the 2D generated geometry. The position of the 2D Geometry can be moved regardless of where the original picture plane is set. This will be most useful to use with a Grease Pencil object.
As a final note, when using line art modifier on the 2D generated geometry, make sure to have Loose Edge Type selected to create the line art.

I hope this simple answer was intuitive enough to help you curious folks out!


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Expand Selection of Nearby faces by Level through Geometry Nodes
I'm trying to find a way to expand the selection of nearby faces within geometry nodes. For my case, I'm beginning with a select number of faces created from a Raycast node and increasing my selection outward with the faces nearby.

I would like to be able to control the selection of nearby faces by Level (Integer) rather than using 2 Evaluate on Domain nodes for each level of faces I expand to. Does someone know a handy way to do so?

Blender 4.1.1

This is the way since Blender 3.5:

Not screenshoting the result - it's the same as yours, since you were doing 3 float face-edge interpolations and I've set iterations to 3.

lol . I had spent an hour last night trouble shooting and blindly rummaging through the manual to find the node. I gave up and posted this question when I was worn out. I have to say that the Blur Attribute node is not one I use very often hence, why I couldn't come up with this solution. Many thanks!


text:
How do you Combine Multiple Transformations into one Transformation Matrix with Geometry Nodes?
Stupid Question here,
I want to combine multiple transformations into one total transformation.
In my example, I have two Object Info nodes whose transformations, I want to apply to some random mesh (Icosphere).

I figured out how to combine Positions and Scales but not Rotations. Or perhaps there is an easier way with the new Matrix Attribute?

Both for Rotation and for Transformation you can use Multiplication nodes.

Perhaps, I can answer this question myself for those that are still interested.
In short, you can’t. At least, not easily though.
Let’s first examine what the goal is. You want to combine multiple separate transformations/transformation matrices into one total or compound transformation matrix. The word, combine, isn’t very descriptive for our context (I would have elaborated if asked) but, from the image that was posted, we can deduce that it is an operation that “looks” binary and thus possibly abelian. In other words, you want a compound transformation matrix whose individual transformations can be reordered and canceled out when combining inverses as well.

As you have noticed, multiple translations and multiple scales can be combined into single compound translations and single compound scales respectively. However, Rotations cannot be combined in the same way. That’s because for rotations, ORDER MATTERS. This is true whether you’re using quaternions or euler rotations. This result is not just a technicality of Blender but a mathematical one as well. Thus, there is likely no property of matrices that can resolve this combination issue (this is just an opinion and isn’t something I’ve worked out). So, when combining, you won’t get a single compound transformation matrix but at least 2 different, unique combinations when 2 or more transformations are combined.

If you combine without order then this is impossible to achieve but, if you do combine with order in mind, you can achieve combining with the Rotate Rotation node.

Likewise, only the rotation ordered last can be canceled out with its inverse.

From a mathematical point of view, because a matrix coding a rotation is not symetric, the product of two rotation matrices is not commutative. This means that changing the order is changing the result $A \times B \neq B \times A$. To inverse $A \times B$, apply $B^{-1} \times A^{-1}$.


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How do you use the Mouse Position Node for Geometry Node Tools?
I am once again playing with Geometry Node Tools. This time, I'm trying to figure out how to use the Mouse Position Node.

According to the manual, the Mouse Position Node outputs pixel quantities as scalar integers. Where is the mouse cursor located in 3D space?
In an attempt to use this node, I tried to recreate Ctrl+RMB (Add a vertex) from Edit mode. The vertices did not line up to where the mouse cursor was.

For testing, I incorporated the camera into my node tree to visualize where my mouse cursor was. However, I seriously could not picture where the mouse cursor was located from my viewport nor was I able to make sense of the values given by the Mouse Position Node.

Does anyone know how to use this node?

Blender 4.3.2

That was quite hard to figure out given the documentation is incredibly poor on what "projection" and "view" mean, but finally:
With the given configuration of transforms, you can turn -1,-1 to bottom left and +1,+1 to top right of the view.
All you need is to map the pixel values to something between -1 and +1.

Amazing! I never liked the manual. It's way too vague and lacks any useful examples.


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Unknown effect applied
I applied an unknown effect (metallic look?) to these faces(probably by hotkey), even I delete a face and rebuild on same vertices or change another material, they still look like this, please tell how to remove and become pure grey like the lower part, many thanks!

Have you checked your normals?

As mqbaka mqbaka says it may be inverted normals, or inner faces, overlapping vertices... maybe share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

hi, I uploaded here,https://pasteall.org/blend/1e07191cf3114a3d82727c2364cefd96

Right-click and select Shade Flat in Object mode will sort that. However there are definitely oddities with that file! Were the three meshes originally seperate objects which you've joined with CTRL - J? - The faces of the cube are all inverted as is the rectangle on top of the middle mesh, but I'd expect all three meshes to show shading problems if they were all one object when shade smooth was applied unless it was just done to the middle mesh in Edit mode. - Not something you could do by accident!

It works for my uploaded file, thanks! probably I did too much copy paste for this file, and I tried many different shade smooth in different way(edit/object mode), sometimes I forgot to undo the test.... anyway, thanks again~


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The color drifts to white where there is light
So the problem is on the picture. Feels like it's about the light, but i can't find it by tweeking the stuff.
Could you help, please?
thanks!

You should post images of the full node network for your material as well as your world background and also post the settings for any lights you're using.

so if it's because of the light, select it and in the Properties panel > Object Data > Light, decrease the Power (or Strength for the Sun)

Try reducing the roughness of your specular reflections. 0.5 is high. Also check the width or angle of your light


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something went wrong with normals, i guess
guys! after I extruded some faces along normals, it really got my mesh funky. In solid veiw it is visible that something is wrong. But when you get some texture on it, it stretches like hell. Also, when i tried to subdivide, some faces went ok, but the others divided the surrounding instead. Is there something I could do to fix? you can see the faces from the second floor, where I did not use extrude along normals and obviously those are okey... please, help...

Hi. 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 is likely to find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this", "help", "issue with" or "question about". Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on how insightful it is. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

I don't see the issue from your screen shot.  You do know how to recover a previous version of your file?   Search in this website for how to do recovery.

it's not easy to understand, it looks like you ask different questions, we can see a shading problem, maybe right click in Object mode > Shade Flat? Or please explain more precisely and share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

It certainly looks as if smooth shading's interpolation of normals doesn't simulate the surfaces you would like it to.. that could be split edges, inconsistent normals in the underlying geometry, ... all sorts.. the quickest diagnosis would come from a shared file, as moonboots suggests.


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How can I see the image?
I'm trying to create a flag animation, when I'm adding an image this pink color appear. How do I make the image show? I'm new to blender.

pink means that the image is missing, so there's a problem here, maybe reopen the image in your Image Texture node?

Thank you, I tried a different image and it worked with another image!

Some of my images are showing and some are not is there a reason for this?

we lack informations here, I can't tell  ;)

From your screen ... Texture node doesnt display "Color Space" ... there should be some :) Unsupported file format? Unsupported character in file name or directory path? If you open side panel (N) in shader editor with Texture node selected you can see under properties if given path to image can be loaded.


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Can I use 3D People or Renderpeople and place them on Blender?
For resources that provide digital humans like Renderpeople and 3D People, can Blender utilize these resources? I wanted to know if I can animate them myself.

Yes, you can, either with the builtin .obj importer or directly with the .blend file which they sometimes provide on their assets.

Thank You! I will take this into account once I buy the resources!

IIRC they have a few free resources you can test beforehand, one of them is already rigged and animated (a woman)


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Normal map creates wrong shadows - with code
I try to understand how blender processes normal maps. As an exercise I try to create a bump map of a half sphere, where each pixel's rgb values describe the normal of the surface of the sphere. That a point $(x,y,z)$ lies on the unit sphere means $x^2 + y^2+z^2 = 1$.
Also the normal vector is equal to the point itself, because the vector sticks out of the sphere perpendicularly. Then, by solving for $z$, I can map each $(x,y)$ onto its corresponding normal vector via
$$n(x,y) = (x,y,\sqrt{1-x^2-y^2}).$$
From the code below I get this image:
which in blender produces this result:

Code
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
n= 640
x = np.linspace(-1,1,n)
y = np.linspace(-1,1,n)
X,Y = np.meshgrid(x,y)
Z = (1 - X*X - Y*Y)**0.5

mask = X**2 + Y**2 <= 1

Z[~mask] = 0

N = np.dstack((X,Y,Z))*mask[:,:,np.newaxis]
N = (N + 1 ) / 2

plt.imshow(N)
cv2.imwrite("sphere_normals.png", N)

There are 2 types of normal maps, usualy called "Direct-x" and "OpenGL". I suppose you create "Direct-x" type, while Blender uses "OpenGL":

The only difference between them is green channel, invert it.


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Why is the color of my object glitched

Im new to blender, and every time I add I material for a color and this happens and I don't know what to do.

That is definitely not normal behavior. Could you perhaps post some info about your hardware (specifically CPU and GPU) as well which OS you're using?

Also, some users experiencing a similar phenomenon have had success by deleting the %appdata%\Blender Foundation\ folder. See here - https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/251952/75504

Off hand nothing clear comes to mind, but there must be a reason.  If this were to happen to me I would try the different renders {Eevee, Workbench, Cycles} to see how it might affect the appearance and present any clues.  I'd also check the Shader editor as it appears that nodes are enabled (but not shown) and I'd check the geometry node editor to see if some had been set up (maybe you were following some tutorial earlier and are now not thinking about geometry nodes (which can affect shaders)?).
I'd also suggest simply starting a new project to see if you get the same results - seems like your project is very simple and easy to redo from scratch.  I guess I'd also check the Viewport Shading dropdown, the lighting and the object Viewport display settings, render the object and make more changes to see how it affects the color.
Blender is quite amazing but there are a lot of controls and it can be hard to remember all of the items that can have an impact.  Sometimes you just have to hunt and debug, looking for clues.  Your question is presented in a very simply way (not a lot of data to go on) but if I had this, I'd be looking at those things I suggested.
Good luck!


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how can I make my donut has shadows just like another picture?

how can I make my donut  has shadows just like another picture?

You're currently in Solid mode, while BGuru is in Rendered mode, switch to Rendered mode (the fourth button on the top right of your 3D view). Also make sure that you've enabled the Shadow option of your light.

Also, make sure you have enabled the Scene Lights option (https://i.sstatic.net/oizDu.png) to see the lights in Rendered and Material Preview mode


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blender wont render using the correct enigne
So, I'm a complete newbie at blender started just a few days ago and I can't for the life of me figure this out. I will set the render engine to cycles but whenever I hit f12 it just renders with Eevee and what's worse is that it's not even the correct lighting or anything if I just view it is using Eevee.
this is what it looks like in the viewport using Eevee or cycles

and this is what it looks like when I render

I'm also doing this with rigid body world on if that changes anything

Do you have a supported graphics card and if so is it enabled under Preferences > System? - The Device setting (GPU compute) below Render in your Scene options appears to be disabled.

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.

@JohnEason (sorry it took a long time for me to look at this) I did what you said and set the cycles render device in preferences to CUDA and used my graphics card which is an RTX 2070 so I believe it's supported. Now it's not greyed out like before but it's still rendering the same image it was before.                                                                                Something else to note is that no matter what i do the rendered image won't change. i deleted the whole scene but when i went to render it was the same exact image as before.

I think someone here is going to have to look at your Blend file (uploaded to https://pasteall.org/blend/ ) to see what's going on.

https://pasteall.org/blend/c436a0fc00d6486683a04515b7410e49 this is the file, I had to delete some blocks to get it less than 24MB


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drawing bezier at 3d cursor draw on some plane
I followed 3D cursor orientation (adapting to 3.0.1 UI) to set the 3d cursor to some surface, when I rotate/pan, looks like the 3d cursor is correctly placed (but I don't know is the Z axis is the one pointed on the surface's normal)
then

shift+a -> curves -> bezier
tab (enter edit)
suppr -> vertices (erase)
select draw tool
set mode to 2d (but 3d do the same), fill mode full (I want to create a surface to be able to extrude it
on top left I see "bezier" then a button "3d cursor" that is selected
draw something on the surface (looks like drawn on the surface)
rotate the view (the actual drawing is somewhere else in the background on some plane)

I have few questions...

how can I change the appearance of 3d cursor? I can't see clearly what is the Z axis (since the drawing on 2D will occurs on 3D cursor XY plane)
why isn't the drawing occuring on the XY plane of 3d cursor?
is there some shortcut to set the view in orthographic view into 3D cusor XY plane (like top/front/top/back in world referential)

thanks and regards

seems that I found... if someone can confirm
in edit -> settings -> Editing -> Objects -> new Objects -> Align to -> 3D Cursor

how to set 3d cursor to normal of underlying geometry under 3.0 : select 3d cursor tool, on top left there is a "orientation" settings that appears, select Geometry
to have the same behavior on shift+rightclick : open settings -> keymap -> search for the 3d cursor -> select the shift rigthclick entry -> modify orientation to geometry
** if you don't modify the settings for shift+rightclick, the 3D cursor Z axis will be oriented according to current view angle.... **


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Cannot flip normals in python with `flip()`
I want to flip the normals via python. I have a single polygon as an object loaded. I am using blender 3.4.1.

I try to do the following in python:
>>> bpy.data.meshes['Plane'].polygons[0].normal
Vector((0.0, 0.0, 1.0))
>>> bpy.data.meshes['Plane'].polygons[0].flip()
>>> bpy.data.meshes['Plane'].polygons[0].normal
Vector((-0.0, 0.0, -1.0))

After executing this, the normals in the viewport did not change. Often I see the command normal_flip being used which seems to be not in the scope of the object I work with:
>>> bpy.data.meshes['Plane'].polygons[0].normal_flip()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
AttributeError: 'MeshPolygon' object has no attribute 'normal_flip'

Flip normals on a selection
If you do a Flip Normals with ⎇ AltN and look at the Info Editor, you will see that the only output done is:
bpy.ops.mesh.flip_normals()

All you have to run is this. Though I would also put this inside a check for selection first, because it works only on a selection yet will run with no error nor feedback of whether it did something or not, even with nothing selected.
import bpy
import bmesh

obj = bpy.context.edit_object
me = obj.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

if any (f.select for f in bm.faces):
    print("Flipping Normals")
    bpy.ops.mesh.flip_normals()

else:
    print("Nothin selected to flip normals.")

Flip selection on a specific polygon index independently of selection
normal_flip() is part of bmesh, here's hot to use it on a specific face:
import bpy
import bmesh

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(bpy.context.object.data)
me = bpy.context.object.data

bm.faces[0].normal_flip()

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)

To learn more:
mesh - Python: find faces with incorrect normals to flip and flip them - Blender Stack Exchange
Scaling/Rezise in Blender 2.8 Python/Script not working on mesh - Blender Stack Exchange

My actual case is a pretty complex mesh, with broken normals where I only have to treat only a subset of faces. If I use mesh.flip_normals I cannot differentiate unfortunately.

What about Recalculate Normals (Shift N)? bpy.ops.mesh.normals_make_consistent(inside=False)

Many have flipped by this. But still some are wrong it seems.

You can always select the problematic faces and run the above. But if you really want to write down the indexes of faces and treat them with normal_flip(), I'll edit that into my answer. Just a few minutes.

Yeah, they are quite a lot.


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Export obj files with textures from Project
I am new to blender and I have a blender project (link) which contains several objects. I want to export each object as an obj file with material and complete texture information. Yet, if I export the files I only end up with the obj and .mtl file without the textures, e.g. the mtl-file does not contain the map_Kd command and the image files do not appear. The textures all lie in an external folder next to the blender project. These are the option when exporting. If I did not provide enough information I apologize! The option "Write materials" like in this post does not appear.
Thanks!

To export all of your meshes as separate objects select objects which you want to export go to Scripting workspace and in side of it go to Templates > Python > Batch Export and change line 29 to be
bpy.ops.export_scene.obj(filepath=fn + ".obj", use_selection=True)

and that press "play button".
For textures see this answer


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Import Python Dependencies from current script/addon directory. (Filepath shows up as /script.py, or blender install)
I'm trying to import a github python directory, which is not on PyPi, and I am attempting to develop an addon for blender. I cannot use the method which automatically downloads dependencies because of this, so I have to work within a folder that acts as my addon's "zip" folder.
However the alternative method to import dependencies requires a direct filepath, so I need to get the working file directory of the addon/script.py file while testing the addon in blender (so I don't have to reinstall the addon for every minor change):
path = pathlib.Path(bpy.data.filepath)
myProjects_dir = path.parent.parent.parent.resolve()
myProjects_dir = str(myProjects_dir)
print(myProjects_dir)

but this just prints the blender install directory folder. Every variation of this using abspath or os.path.realpath, which end up either being a blank line, /, or /Script.py, with no actual path or parent directory listed.
How am I supposed to actively write a blender addon if I cannot test it in the editor with one click? Am I really expected to have to install and uninstall the addon every time?

You need to understand Blender's Directory Layout and how to access it from Python. Your specific case requires the USER path with the scripts/addons path appended followed by the path to your addon.  Something along these lines:
import bpy
import pathlib

USER  = pathlib.Path(bpy.utils.resource_path('USER'))
ADDONS = USER / 'addons'
MYADDON = ADDONS / 'my_addon_name'  # Replace with the name of your addon

path_string = str(MYADDON)

Many examples will use os rather than pathlib but since Python 3.4 pathlib is preferred for simple path manipulation because it is object oriented and less heavy weight.


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blender scale problem
I want to duplicate a torus inwards but when I do the thickness of the torus decreases is there a way to get around this

I don't know if there's a scientific way to do it but you can do it visually: Choose the front view and press AltZ to have transparency, select the smaller torus and press AltS in order to fatten. You can precisely set the Offset in the Operator box if you want:

You could also have created these torus with a curve (create a Curve > Circle, then in Edit mode duplicate and scale):

Then bevel it, which makes it keep the same radius:

You can also use a simple circle and give it a triple circle as bevel Object:

I tried a circle curve and beveled it and when I try to duplicate and scale it gets smaller

create the 3 circles within the same curve object

thanks moonboots


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Setting translation overrides scaling
With the default scene with the cube selected, consider this script:
import bpy

bpy.context.active_object.dimensions = (10,10,10)
bpy.context.active_object.matrix_world.translation = (1,1,1)

This code should make the sides of the cube 10 meters long, and then move it. However, the dimension change is ignored. If I reverse the order of the statements, it works. Also if I run the statements separately, they work. Is this a bug or is there something more I need to do? I tried to call
bpy.context.collection.objects.update()

between the statements, without any effect. I am creating a plugin where I have to change the dimensions first before moving an object, so reversing the order of the statements is not a feasible fix in my case.

My guess is same issue as here. https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/234068/15543  Use scale not dimension. Make a  translation matrix T and a scale matrix S then T @ S @ matrix_world is the result.

I see, I guess the trick is to make an semi-atomic update of matrix_world.

The edge cases of setting dimension property has always been an issue. (eg setting 3D dim to 2D object as in link) Suggest  use scale not dimension. Setting dimension sets scale based on modified unit size https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/212926/how-to-get-the-base-dimensions-of-an-object-ignoring-all-of-its-modifiers   For example could calc scale based on current  dimension eg if cube currently dimension (8, 4, 4) -> calc scale to (1.25, 2.5, 2.5)  and apply it to matrix world.

Okey, good spotting! We do something like the suggested above in the code base now.


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Headless unittest and GUI items
I am trying to create unit tests for my Blender add-on. When there are no GUI elements involved the approach found here works fine: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Tools/Tests/Python
E.g., running my_test.py in Blender headless:
blender --background -noaudio --python tests/my_test.py  -- --verbose

However, functions requiring certain GUI elements such as the position of the mouse cursor fail. For instance, I want to test a function that calls view3d_utils.region_2d_to_vector_3d(.). I cannot run this even when I omit the --background argument. I guess the context is not fully created at the time when the test is executed.
Can we somehow tell Blender in headless to simulate a viewport, mouse etc? That would be very neat as I then could run the tests in a CI/CD chain.

When headless the properties that pertain to the UI are None.  eg context.area, context.region  Perhaps look into --enable-event-simulate start-up option.

That can come in handy! Seems that it can simulate input events: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.Window.html

I tried to do this prior to running my function bpy.context.window.event_simulate("MOUSEMOVE", "NOTHING"), however I get segfault. Maybe the simulation feature is not fully developed.


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Is there a way to add repulsion to each particle as they are being pushed or collided together?
When you collide or push multiple spheres (particles) together like in the image they will be symmetric or lopsided depending on the number of spheres. If a repulsion could be added to each particle as they are being pushed together the symmetry would smooth out. This would be very helpful for another physics project I am working on.

Have you looked at the Self Effect particle settings? Using a Force in there should repel all particles from each other.

This is a behaviour that can also be managed with boids.

Would it be possible to walk me through it step by step? Or a link to a video? Thank you

@BillAlsept - What have you got so far? How are you setting up the particles and getting them to collide? Or are you using something other than particles (such as Rigid Body)?

@RichSedman I have only asked two questions on blender and in the other question there was an answer that had the program And setup you are asking about. That question was answered by vklidu.

Ah, I see. There is no automatic link between questions and questions - it would be useful if you could edit your question to include additional description (eg, that it’s rigid body rather than Particles) and a link to your other question.

@RichSedman I will see what I can do. I just meant click on my name and you will see my other question where I was given the setup that I am using now. I do believe it has rigid body. Thanks


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Python Simulate Keypress
I am currently trying to create a skript that auto motiontracks scenes. And for that I want full control of which features get detected and  how markers are tracked.
What I want to do: Simulate a Keypress in Python Code
Im not really great when it comes to coding and I dont fully understand how to work with the Documentation. What I have found up to now:
bpy.types.Window(bpy_struct) | has the following:
event_simulate(type, value, unicode='', x=0, y=0, shift=False, ctrl=False, alt=False, oskey=False)
But Im not sure how to implement it, the following does not work:
bpy.types.Window.event_simulate(type = 'RIGHT_ARROW', alt=True)

I should be in the right context since I can use lines like:
bpy.ops.clip.detect_features()

Which works.
Am I on the right track or am I missing something?
Thank you very much! <3


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Very new to Blender. Need help with hotkeys
So I absolutely hated the default blender controls and changed them, but somewhere along the way, I made it so I can't use some features. I can't describe it very well, because I don't know what they're called. My question mainly is what's the hotkey for scroll and what are the things in the red called(or the hotkey to click them)? I've been trying to make it right for an hour and still have no idea how to do it. Is there a tutorial for this? I'm really new.

The section you have highlighted in red is called the Outliner. It has it's own category in the keymap menu.

Did you first search in this forum for "hotkey"?  There's lots of information that may have already answered your question.
I think you need to set some operations back to mouse, so a search for "mouse" (filter) will no longer show them.  If you go to Edit :: Preferences, in the Keymap tab you can scroll down and find a Restore button next to any categories where you made changes. It's like restoring to "factory defaults". I see one to the right of your "3D View" category in your screenshot. I'm not seeing all categories for you in addition to "3D View" and "File Browser", like "Property Editor" where you must have changed some settings. Clear your "mouse" search filter to see more, as they may not be labeled "mouse" even when you think they should be so labelled, like Property Editor :: Set Active == LMB.

Also look in the View 2D category to reset some mouse ops:

Ok, I played around with what you said and I fixed it! :) Also I'm sure someone already must have asked something like this, but I couldn't find it. Thanks!


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Can't randomize rotation for multiple objects along local axis
I'm trying to repeat Tip #72 (Randomize Transform) from this tutorial
And I can't figure out how to randomize rotation of multiple objects along local axis. In my case, objects are rotate along global axis despite I selected local orientation with pivot at individual origins.

However direct rotation by the hands works fine.

it looks like it can only take the global axis into account

If you don't mind putting your screw /screws  in a collection, or linking them there, and using instances of them in the final product, which is probably a good idea anyway.. then Geometry Nodes give a simple solution..?


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how do i deactivate these random zooms while rotating an object?
i use the logitech master mx3 and i rotate an object by holding the middle mousebutton (mousewheel) and move my mouse. but somehow there are random zooms while i press the mousewheel to rotate the object and its like it zooms in randomly just a little bit. like every two or three times i press the mousewheel it des this and i don't want to change the buttons to rotate it, i want to keep it at m middle mousebutton … does anyone know why or how i can deactivate it?

Recording the behavior using a screen recording tool like ShareX could help. Also you could turn off Logitech Gaming Software to see if it's perhaps some shortcut-like functionality that causes this.

How can i share a video?

For example using https://streamable.com/

https://streamable.com/hjhjns there is a video,i hope you can understand in this video what my problem is...

To me it looks like if every time you press/release the mousewheel, you also scroll the wheel by a single step.

I think an Autohotkey macro could be written to block mouse wheel scrolling if it was just held, and reverse mouse wheel scrolling if it's pressed immediately after.


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how to aviod "flashes" in eevee with irradience volumes
I'm getting single frame "flashes" in blender 3.0 rendering with eevee and irradience volumes. If i rerender these frames manually, they're unlikely to reappear. Currently its about a 1/60 chance that i get a flash like this on any given frame. Increasing the resolution of samples in the irradience volume seems to cause more of these flashes. I do not have any scattering volumes in the scene or bloom enabled, unlike similar problems. I do believe the distance between the sample points in the irradiance volume are closer together than the Distance setting, but i need the distance to be fairly large otherwise I need even more samples to cover the area.
As you can see the pattern of the flash is quite strange, it doesnt seem to be associated with any geometry in the scene, more like something overlaid on the frame.

Solved it! It seems even though my GPU was available and working in cycles, the blender app wasn't being launched with the GPU at first. Switching windows 10 preferences to force it to use the GPU seems to have done away with the flashes. I followed this guide. https://pureinfotech.com/set-gpu-app-windows-10/


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How to load a lot of images (9000)
Newbie here. I want to create a video of moving a camera down a hallway that has (pngs) as the portraits on the walls, kind of like a gallery. I have about 9000 images that I want to display as the portraits so trying to set this up manually would take forever. What is the best way to tackle this? Is there a way to generate this long hallway at design time with a script or something? Or is there a way to do this dynamically at runtime? Thanks for the suggestions.

Are you sure you system will be able to handle 9000 PNG images loaded into memory to begin with?

That is a good question. I have 32 GB memory so I hope so. If not, I may need to do it more dynamically at runtime so that I don't have everything loaded at once. Maybe there's a way to do it in batches. Not sure if Blender supports any type of batch rendering.

What render engine will you be using? If EEVEE or using Cycles GPU acceleration it must fit into your video memory rather than system RAM

I’m not sure on render engine yet. Thanks for the info about video memory.