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multiple texture in a Single material
I want to use two texture in one object(curtain), upper part of it will be designed texture and bottom part to be solid color or different texture .People said to use baked texture or color different map.But same time I need to change the tile or transparency.Please give me some solution.

See my answer here, but instead of using different BSFD shaders, just use two diffuse, one with your texture, and the other with just the solid color.

You can do this procedurally by using the generated vector like this:

The Blue channel mean the Z coordinates,and by increasing the contrast you can get your mask,and you can still edit the texture without any problems.

Same as Omar, but with a separate x/y/z instead of r/g/b (it usually makes more sense but is the same for blender), using 2 UVs so that you can adjust size and translate each texture independently (or use a solid color) and using a constant interpolation in the ColorRamp (only one stop to move, and sharp transition).

Instead of mixing colors you could mix different shaders (like satin on the top and velvet on the bottom)

i created an image that was 1/3 black and 2/3 transparent (shown in the last image). this is how i cut the material in half. i made my two materials in the node editor and connected them with a mix shader. i used the alpha channel of the split image as the factor of the mix shader. this makes it so where it is black in the image it shows one material and where it is transparent it shows the other.

if you need more help on how to get to this point please ask me questions on specifically what you need. thanks -Tainin


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My project turned black and can only see the outline
help

after i closed blender and opened again my project turned black ive tried rendering it again but that doesn't help please

hard to know with such a description. please upload the file. Check if you have not disabled the light or are in a different layer

You have it in wireframe mode. You need to select solid, texture, or material from the bar at the bottom of the viewport above the timeline (Assuming you are using the default layout)

Doesn't matter what mode you're on when rendering, and because there's the transparency checker background in the image he uploaded you can tell it's the rendered image, not the 3D viewport. His problem is most likely to be that he doesn't have turned on the layer where the lights are.

Ohh, it's rendered :P

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Why is my mesh flipping? (Rigid body simulation)
I'm attempting to run a simple rigid body simulation with the following parameters: A plane as a "floor" set as a passive rigid body, and a mesh "scrabble tile" as an active rigid body and all defaults except for "Box" as the collision shape.
I'd like the scrabble tile to start face up, fall, and settle on the ground. The problem is that at frame 2, the mesh seems to completely flip so that the bottom side of the tile is facing up, for no apparent reason. See screenshots (can't post a 3rd, but if you rotate underneath the tile in frame 2, you'd see the text).
Any advice on fixing this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Here is frame 1 (good):

Here is frame 2 (bad):

I had the same problem in blender 3.0, the cause was the object having a negative scale. It worked fine after updating the object's scale with positive values.
This link posted in one of the previous answers was useful:

https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?311350-Rigid-Body-Tools-turns-my-object-upside-down.

A little more searching and I found the answer... https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?311350-Rigid-Body-Tools-turns-my-object-upside-down!

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

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


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Texture painting gone wrong
I've been lurking on many tutorials now, still doesn't fix my problem.
I have this level I'd like to paint texture on.
When I do, it gets me crazy-ugly-uncomprehensible results like this.
I tried smoothing it, multiple texture settings adjustments, it keeps messy.
Hours, days I've been crying over this.
Thank you very much for your help.
(a very secondary problem is I just want the normals/ambient occlusion to be painted, without the colour)

It is told in your question that you'd like to paint normals/ambient occlusion without color however painting with normal map texture is shown on your screenshot. So what would you like to paint with ? Is blocky painted result on the 2nd screenshot what you'd like to avoid ?

It's exactly what I want to avoid :)  thank you                                 yes but the fact it paints the normal maps' colours is disturbing me, I'll check if the colours disappear on rendering.


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Normal map fragmented aspect
I have this creepy issue with normal baking.
As you see, the result gives me a fragmented skin aspect. The fragments are the faces of the LOWPOLY.
Anyone knows why? Doubled the normal map resolution, changes nothing.***
Thank you !!

Set the shading of the lowpoly to smooth.. http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/41184/baked-normal-map-from-high-poly-bad-corners

Oh genius!!! Works perfectly. Thank you
Somewhat feels like it should be automatic


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Sculpt high detail with custom brush over low poly terrain for Unity
I have made a low poly terrain in Blender, but now want to sculpt with a brush to detail it. This is not the problem, I saw tutorials.
Problem is, the brush is high poly, so my terrain will drastically increase in poly counts. I want to bake a normal map of the details.

Should I bake the brush, decimate it and make it into a low poly, then paint over my terrain?
Should I paint with high poly, transforming my terrain into a polycount disaster, then bake the whole thing with normal map at the end ? (Blender will crash for sure)

I think more about the (1) but don't know if it's possible actually to paint with a low poly normal mapped brush...
Thank you very much, pictures coming tomorrow.

I would model a low poly Terrain...UV unwrap.....copy the terrain name it same name as first just add "HI_poly" to name (so it is easy to tell between the 2) add a multi res to the Hi poly...sculpt out your hi poly...(if you have an issue with it crashing you are running out of ram when it bakes the normal map)
stay under a million verts on the hi poly(hopefully that will keep it from crashing...that's what I had to do when I had just 4 gigs of ram)
once you are happy with your hi poly sculpt...
take your Lo poly terrain paint just a basic color on an image save the image...add a materiel to the lo poly and add that basic color image to that materiel....now first select the hi poly mesh, then shift select the lo poly mesh and bake an ambient occlusion map....then bake your normal map....(make sure you have selected to active in the bake panel) save the images I use _AO _NORM...ECT ECT
now paint out your lo poly color map in as much detail as you can....use that image for color take the images into GIMP and create our color map by overlaying the AO....you can also make your spec map...de-saturate the color image... invert the colors and adjust to likeness....
hope this helps.
oh and save often.


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Rendering using CLI
I'm trying to code a webapp similar to http://tarkett-professionals.esignserver3.com/gallery.do but simpler. I've checked blender documentation but being a developer not a modeler/3d artist i couldn't find answer to this.
Is it  possible to render a single frame of a scene using command line interface with given variables like a color of a surface or the camera angle?
Or can you point me to a direction i can achieve this kind of task.
Thanks in advance.

Rendering from the CLI is possible, however to change things like camera angle/materials you'll have to feed blender a python script which can make these changes via the python api.

@gandalf3 Cheers mate i'll check those links.

The important thing to note is that with the command line, you can add custom arguments at the end of the cli call. Then in python you can read them back in with sys.argv[i]. The caveat is that you would read them in order of last argument first with sys.argv[-1], sys.argv[-2], etc. That's how you pipe in custom values for your startup python script.


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Network Render quality settings
Hopefully this is a simple question..
Ive just set up a small render farm with the "network render" plugin but I cant seem to change the render quality ... all the render options (samples, dimensions etc) are no longer visible .. Im a bit of a newbie to Blender so Im hoping I missing something simple..  thanks heaps in advance !!

ok.. (posting this in case it helps someone else)
I think I figured it out..  change renderer back to cycles..
adjust render settings.. (and save) .. then choose network render again ..
Cant say for sure as my file is still rendering but going by the time each frame is taking its looking promising..


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Python: How can I know the position of a modifier in the stack?
For example in the following case, the Armature modifier should have a position index of 0 and the Subdivision a position index of 1. How can I get this index?

Blender's collections don't support indexing (although support could be added).
So the simplest way is to convert to a list:
index = list(ob.modifiers).index(mod)
If you need to access indices multiple times you could create a table:
modifier_index_map = {mod: i for (i, mod) in enumerate(ob.modifiers)}

index = modifier_index_map[modifier]

If your not sure the modifier is in the map:
index_or_none = modifier_index_map.get(modifier)

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


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Interrupted loop-cut alternative
Unfortunately I have deleted some face. Now my loop cut stop at the deleted face.
I am trying to model my lock, but without a loop cut I am currently lost.
Can anybody tell me how to model my lock? Do I have to rebuild the deleted faces to make perfect loop cuts again, or can / should I do it differently?
Thanks.

I'd make the lock as an entirely separate piece of geometry (probably in a separate object). After all, it's separate in the real world (even if attached with screws etc.).

@gandalf3 I would like to avoid that, being a newbie who would like to keep things simple. If I have a separate object, it wouldn't move with my door when I push it, I think.

It'll likely be much more difficult to manage topology while trying to build it into the fence than to make it as a separate object and either join it (Ctrl J) or parent it (Ctrl P) later. Child objects will stay in position relative to their parents, so opening the door will move the lock.

Possible duplicate of Delimit loop subdivide

The first thing i tend to teach people in 3d modeling is that loop cuts are good and that their geometries should be quad based.
Having told them that I immediately tell them that loop cuts arent ALWAYS a good thing and that not having them is sometimes preferential before they start to spam loops everywhere generating unnecessary geometry.
Its much more important that you have clean and simple topology than it is to work with loop cuts (unless you have a very good reason)
In your case I would finish the door and then model the lock as a separate object, keeping the geometry as simple as possible. If you parent the lock to the door (ctrl+p) it will stay with the door at all times when you move it.
Don't be afraid of non-manifold objects/meshes.
Unless you work in 3D printing, then be very afraid.

You can also use the knife tool with k, this way you can create a loop cut where ever you want.

The knife tool is very prone to generating n-gons, which are something to avoid, in most cases.

The alternative to a loopcut in this case is to model as separate objects as is already proposed. This also applies to the planks of the door; they shouldn't be a part of the door, it's what the door is made of, thus they are sticked to it with nails or whatever. In case of modeling these as separate objects (the lock as well) the object will be constructed from parts:

Then all the planks and lock should get some nails in the corners for faking the reason why they still stay intact.
If faking some depth in the place where the lock is then it's possible to add some geometry there and extrude it inside. As the plank behind the lock is just a scaled cube, add 2 loopcuts, scale them appropriately and inset the resulting face. After that you can extrude that face inside and get a small indentation where lock can be put on:

Here the lock is moved by Y axis (movement is not confirmed hence the Axis line is shown as green) to show the indentation behind it. There's much less geometry to bevel for better effects of man-made objects and it can be operated much easier overall.


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Fix or make new?
I am trying to extrude a 2D floorplan.
However, I somehow managed to mess it up. For some reason, some faces are missing.
I have uploaded my blender file here:
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/36771
Is there a way to easily fix that, or should I just start from scratch hoping I won't make the same mistake again?

Try grid fill: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/9252/599

By extruding with Snap during Transform turned on you can easily get this. The ngon on the right is at your choise, either converting in to quads (creating loopcuts in the wall, so adding geometry), or leaving as is, if ngons are good for you there.

Does something like that happen to you advanced users, too, and I should learn to deal with it, or do you think I should start thinking about the logic behind what I am doing? :-)

It's very general question. To be short - it happens to many artists and you should think about the logic.

@tmighty, yes things like what you have described in this question, and the other asked earlier, happens to advanced users, too. Except as users gain experience and become advanced users, they learn to modify work practices and avoid some of these issues, on the one hand, and on the other, they learn to fix the mistakes once they are made. These mistakes are just the tuition in the "School of hard knocks".


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Changing displayed size
I have extruded a floorplan. To stay relatively close to the elements that I need to extrude, I have chosen a certain grid scale.
However, the model size is not what I intended.
I wanted to make the front wall like 6 metres.
Is there a relatively easy way to change the mesh size so that the front wall becomes like 6 metres while keeping the grid element size?
Thank you.

You can change the Scale in Properties > Scene > Units (visible in your screenshot) to adjust the units without actually changing the geometry.

Where is "Properties" located at, please? I am having such a hard time finding things in Blender. I have found a "Scene" tab under "Grease Pencil", but I guess that is not what you meant.

The properties editor is the big vertical section on the right

Do you mean Scene->Units->Scale? That would change the grid size for me. I tried to avoid that.

Oh I see. Well never mind that then..

After setting the scene scale in the Blender Properties panel so that the units report 6m, you can adjust the grid scale under the display properties, in the 3D view Panel (press N hovering over the 3D view), until you get the result you want.

Any asset (object, mesh, texture etc) can be scaled independently of the world scale or grid size.
Here is a link to the official blender manual pages for using the scale tools

I think the OP is talking about the scale of the Units, rather than the actual size of the object.


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Extruding inwards leaves vertices alone
I am trying to extrude some face inwards (the opposite of extruding outwards).
In this screenshot you can see that I have selected the faces:

In the next screenshot can you see that I was actually able to intrude the faces, but the outer vertices stay where they are:

Does anybody know why this happens and how to avoid it?
Thank you!

Yes, it does.
Extruding in 3D modeling means something like:

to shift a selection in space while creating all the geometry
  that is needed to keep all the non-selected parts in place

You can have more detailed information about how tha algorithm works in the official manual page.

Let's consider a UV sphere:

Notice how in the example above the non selected faces keep their positions (and so their edges and vertices). Is something different from grabbing, as involves the creation of new geometry.

By extruding, for example, along the normal axis, you may see from the pictures above how the operation does the same thing. In both cases (positive and negative normal axis extrusion) the surrounding vertices of the initial selection geometry keep their position.

One way to achieve the result you want is to extrude inward and than dissolve the starting geometry.

After inward extrusion, assign the selected faces to a vertex group, than extend the selection with Ctrl++. Than that go to Vertex groups and remove previuosly assinged vertex group from the selection.

Press X to open the "Delete" menue and choose "Dissolve edges".

I think you want to combine an extrusion (or intrusion) on 1 side and a simple grab on the other side. I think you can solve this using an edge loop and grab.
Start adding an edge loop with Ctrl+R then left click and move it (with mouse) left until it sticks the other edge loop.

Now go in face selection mode (1) and select "normal" as transform orientation (2)

Now you can select the faces and grab them with G,Z,Z. This allows you to move faces along their normal Z axis (as a simple extrusion does).

You also have to clean your mesh before doing this, you have already created empty faces that will make your life harder :

Select all with A, hit W and click "remove doubles" to clean your empty faces (probably resulting of previous extrusion attempts)

Bithur, red text on grey background can be difficult to read, especially with the level of artifacts introduced in your image, can you redo them?


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Fluid physics very low res when poured into an obstacle that moves
I am creating an animation of an obstacle filling with fluid, and the obstacle is moving. When the obstacle is still the animation looks something like real fluids. When the obstacle/vessel is moving the resolution turns to massive polygon chunks that poke through the obstacle. I've subdivided all of the meshes so they have a lot of vertices and I'm rendering at about 120 res, but the results are really ugly. How can I make my fluid behave realistically with a moving obstacle as the vessel?

That sounds really weird. The resolution shouldn't change over time. I tried to replicate the problem, but everything worked just fine and as expected. If you could upload your blend file it would be easier to check what is wrong.


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Assign material breaks viewport
Whenever I try to assign multiple materials to a mesh the view port displays the mesh as a mess of black faces. This happens on all the models I've tried. It does not effect cycles rendering but it shows this way in LookDev and makes it very difficult to work.


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Can I render faster in cycles with a Radeon R5 graphics card?
I have a Windows 10 PC with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics 2.00 GHz, Is there support for it to improve Blender Cycles'rendering using GPU? Thanks

DarkChannel69, welcome to the site. You might want to take the tour and review the contents of the help center. I am flagging your question for migration to the Hardware recommendations site, because it is out of scope for Blender stack exchange, since it is about Hardware, and not about using Blender as defined in the help center.

I have experience with an R5, although I'm on a really crappy laptop here.
In my experience, OpenCL support for Cycles isn't that good. Slow, limited(no support for HDR textures, volumetrics, SSS), and the architecture still is pretty crappy. My AMD A8 usually does just fine for all rendering tasks. Then again, I'm on a crappy 4GB RAM computer, so test your setup.
In short, there is support. It is not guaranteed to actually be of assistance. Get a Nvidia if possible.

I agree with LiquidHelix. Go with NVidia whenever possible because of the CUDA supported features. I am using R9 290 and sometimes it gets really frustrating to blender certain scenes.


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How to animate two objects going apart from eachother
I want to make a futuristic sliding door.So I have a framing and two parts inside.I want to know how to animate the two parts moving in oposite positions so the door opens.

Just use Location Keyframes on one door and a Mirror Modifier for the other one with a Constant Offset.

You need to keyframe your objects. In the timeline go to frame 0 and set your objects so as the door is shut, then select each object, press I > Location. This defines the start of the animation. To get the door to open, in the timeline set the current frame to 50 (if you want your door to open in 2 seconds) and repeat the first process excepted this time you must set the door open before adding the keyframes. Play the animation: the door opens.


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How to make lines visible on rendering
So I want to make a wall similar to this one.I want to have squares on the walls with small lines between them that have a bit of depth(hence why I am not using UV-Mapping) and that actually show up in the render.How can I make these lines?

Could you please explain this in a way a starter could understand this?

You could use 3 ways:

model this geometry as contents of one mesh (i.e. subdividing or inset and bevel etc);
create it as it's created in real world - tiles as one object, cement as another.
or just find image of tiles somewhere and apply it as a texture (while it would mean completely another way of adding details, you'll still be able to bake a normal map from that image in order to create a vision of details).

First way is faster, while the second one is better, more flexible and correct.
Since first way was already described, I add details only about second. This technique is described in tutorial Creating a Grungy Brick Wall in Blender.

Model tiles as separate objects (so Array modifier fits perfectly). Leave gaps between them which will be closed afterwards.

Add another object, make it very thin, a bit thiner than tiles and a bit shorter than they are. Add some geometry only to avoid Multiresolution modifier turning object into a ball.
Subdivide added mesh enough to sculpt in the gaps between tiles. Sculpt with both objects visible in order to see how much of effect should be added (i.e. in the beginning of the sculpting you won't really see the object you sculpt on except for the gaps. Keep in mind that cement shouldn't be visible very much and it shouldn't cover tiles with itself).

You could create one more mesh (e.g by duplicating the mesh which represents the cement and deleting Multires from it), bake these 2 meshes into the third one in order to get normal map which you can apply to the third object. See How do I bake a texture using Cycles bake about baking in Cycles. See Baking Normal maps in Cycles for more info about baking normal maps.
This is not needed in order to render scene. This will be needed to lower amount of time to render result and computer resources involved for it to work.
Setup lighting which is desired. Create adjacent materials for objects which represent cement and tiles and render.

Possible result of tiles:

Advantages of this way:

You can model tiles in any way you'd like to; it's lot simpler to bevel cubes when they are separate objects and you don't need to track topology of the whole model, at the same time modeling it to get mesh looking as desired. After modeling you're left only to spread it over the scene with Array modifier.
It's a lot easier to setup materials (no vertex colors, at least for this task; this doesn't mean you won't need to fake dirt).
It's easier to fake inaccuracies of cement surface (which isn't flat).

This is a relatively simple problem if you're willing to add geometry. For a game model where low vert count is critical, this would be a poor solution...
Select your wall plane. Subdivide it to taste, depending on how big you want the tiles to be.

Add an edge loop to the inside and outside of each subdivision (easiest way is to use Ctrl+R).

Select the tile faces and move them out a little bit, depending on how deep you want the crack to be.

And voila.

This could also relatively easily be done with UV mapping, by adding a bump map to simulate depth or a displacement map to physically create depth.

You can do this in Cycles without mesh manipulation.
I will circle back and do a formal writeup, but everything is here (just do a UV unwrap first):


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How to make a frame out of edges
So I have this shape that I want to turn into a sign.I want to make a black frame around this on these selected edges using materials.How can I make the edges look like an actual frame in object mode?

Extrude the polygon to create some depth for the sign.
Inset the polygon to create the width of your frame.
Extrude the polygon inwards to create the inside faces of the frame.
Assign materials in the Properties panel.

If you want to add the frame only using materials, then you'll need to apply an image texture to the material. For that you'll probably want to unwrap your model first in order to be able to better place the image and match it to the shape of the object.
Having said that, it might be easier/better to model the frame with some faces. for example, you could dissolve the four faces you have and then inset the one face you'll end up with after dissolving. Then you can select the outer faces for the frame and assign a different material to those faces.


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Top Right Panel
Ok real noob question here.But there used to be a panel over this one on the picture that showed all the objects in your blend.I think I might have hidden it some way.I want to know how to make it show again.

That one is called Outliner. Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1223/how-to-close-open-a-view-panel

1 - Drag the corner to create a new window
2 - Select in the dropdown menu the outliner

Blender panels and viewports are highly customizable, Check the top left Icon in this panel and choose "Outliner"to get that panel back.


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Subdivision doesn't allow me to subdivide another side
I am sorry for the title since I was not sure what to put in it.
My problem is that I have this shape that is just a scaled Cube and I wish to subdivide first the top face and then the side face.

After I subdivide the top face though, the center of the side face (noted by the dot in its center) changes and goes up a bit which stops me from subdividing that face since when I try to do it, it just makes some kind of weird subdivision to one edge.

What can I do?

You must have made a bad move somewhere before the subdivide

Seems like for some reason the second face is an NGon. Try with a new object.

I took a cube, scaled it at 1/4 of its original size in the Z axis and double in the Y axis and used grab to move it a bit up. What could have caused the bad move?

I tried with a new object and the same thing happened. It seems that every time i subdivide any of the faces, the other faces adjacent to it become Ngons.

@konaka - Your workflow is flawed. Either select the whole cube in Edit Mode and press "W" to Subdivide or press CTRL + R to add Loop Cuts.

oh ok I thought you wanted to subdivide the whole cube. Actually when you subdivide the top face you create some vertices that are also part of the side faces. As the little black dot of each face depends on its vertices, it is moved towards the new vertices. For example, create a simple plane, in vertex mode subdivide one of its edge, then swith to face mode, you'll see that the dot as moved.

yes it is now a ngone as you also create vertices on the side faces when you subdivide the top face

Oh. I think I misunderstood your problem. The reason the adjacent edges become Ngons is that when a face is subdivided, its edges are subdivided as well. Since there a faces sharing that edge with it, they will become Ngons, as one of its edges is now many edges. The reason the face has a higher center of geometry (the little dot) is because now its top edge is many edges (and many vertices). For clarification, an Ngon is a face with over 4 edges/vertices.

" first the top face and then the side face" why not both at once? Subdividing works only with quads. By subdividing one quad you make Ngon on the place of the quads which are connected to the subdivided one. Ngons won't be cut with edges by subdivision (only vertices on the border of the face will appear).


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Can you change the shader and font settings as a new default?
I was wondering if you know how to change the default settings in Blender? When I change the "Viewport Shading" to render by pushing "Shift Z", then push "Shift Z" again to go back to "Solid", is it possible to have it go back to "Material" instead? I have tried looking up how to do this but nothing came up.

Also when I load a font, the view always goes to "Short List". Is there a way to change the default setting to "Thumbnails" so that every time I open a font it stays on "Thumbnails"?

I know its probably not a big deal clicking one extra button but it would be a lot easier for my workflow. Would you know anything about this? Thanks!

You can turn on the pie menu addon in the user interface and that would probably solve your first question. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.72/UI/Pie_Menus

For the first question about the keyboard shortcuts

Go to Blender User preferences window [Ctrl+Alt+U] under the "Input Tab"
Search for "Context toggle values" in the search field.
Scroll down to the "3D View" category
You should see three entries by default for [Z] [Alt+Z] and [Shift+Z]
key combinations.
Expand each of them and change the strings in the "Value" fields to whatever you want.
In you case change the [Shift+Z] to toggle between "MATERIAL" and "RENDERED"


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Crazy rotation bone problem
im rigging a leg using Inverse Kinematics, i put on the controller bone in the feet and the pole bone in the knee, but when i move the leg to much to the top the upper leg bone goes crazy and twist the whole leg, the only bone moving like crazy is the upper one, how can i fix that?
i put some pictures and the Blender File if it helps
https://www.mediafire.com/?viz059q15ofn5dd

The knee is pointing towards the pole target as set in the IK constraint. You need to lift the pole target higher than the knee when you raise the foot.

woooow i didnt know that!!! so ...my rig is correct? i just need to move the pole along the knee?


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Rigify generate error
Hi im having a mayor problem in rigify
When I generate a rig with rigify from "Human (Meta-Rig)" I get the message
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "...\Blender\2.78\scripts\addons\rigify\ui.py" , line 286, in execute generate.generate_rig(context, context.object)
File "...\Blender\2.78\scripts\addons\rigify\generate.py", line 141, in generate_rig bone_gen = obj.data.bones[bone.name]
KeyError: 'bpy_prop_collection[key]: key "hips" not found'
location: :-1
What shall i do ???

It appears that your meta rig does not have a bone named hips, which the script expects.
check that you haven't renamed any bones in your metarig. If you do, you will have to revert the corresponding bones back to their original names. You may want to create a new metarig to compare to in order to do this.

the problem is that the rig actually has a bone named Hip, i dont understand why i doesnt  not work---- heres the link to the file in case theres a chance of fix it u.u    https://www.mediafire.com/?kaqpqd3555g37kw


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Kinematic bones move all the mesh as if was mirrored
I move an elbow from my IK bone and the other arm moves too. Why is that? how can i solve it?
Help =(

Your bone is called Bone.011 so it's not getting mirrored properly. You need to make sure the bones have names like hand.l, hand.r (for the other side) and so on.
For the automatic weighting, you can just redo it by reparenting the mesh to the armature with automatic weights.
Another thing that can break the automatic weights are incorrect normals, so you can go into edit mode, select all vertices and Recalculate Normals to make sure they are good.

When you link your armature to your mesh using automatic weight, sometimes the weight is applied wrongly to the mesh. It could be that you did not apply your mesh's scale.

In object mode, Hit AltA
Select "Scale" from the Drop down menu.

You could also go to the vertex group control panel and manually remove those vertices that aren't suppose to be affected by the bone.

Thank you. i had try apply scale from the drop menu but nothing happened, were i can see the panel where the vertex group is?
or how can i undo the automatic weight so i can try it again? Sorry for the bad english.


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Is it possible to programmatically get the underlying volumetric voxel grid from the fluid simulation?
I have some python scripts that generate and run a fluid simulation in Blender for me. To my understanding, Blender uses a voxel grid for it's volumetric fluid representation in the fluid simulator with a mesh laid on top. I'd like to be able to read the state of that voxel grid at each frame in the simulation (and, say, save that state to a file). Is it possible to do this programmatically when interacting with Blender? Maybe it would be possible to read the cache files somehow?
Thanks!

Interesting idea. I think that the state of each frame is not in an easily stored variable or something, but more like the calculation is done and output is written to the mesh, then the next calculation is done. I once asked a related question: "Is it possible to pause and later resume a fluid sim bake?" and the answer was basically no. I believe that if speed and vector data were stored in a file for each frame, both of these features could be implemented.

I was just looking through the Blender source at where they read in the fluid bake cache files, and it looks like it should be fairly straight forward to write a script to read those in, which will give you the mesh and velocities. But I haven't been able to find a way to get the actual voxel grid.

I see. I don't understand the details of how it works, but I imagine that the mesh would be a product of the voxel data. In other words, from the voxel data and motion vector data you could derive a mesh, but not the other way around. In any case, the voxel grid may not exist in the code as its own construct, but something that is hidden within the math itself. But again, the subject is over my head. Would love to hear a plain English explanation from the devs of the fluid sim about how it works.

I think you're right. I'd love to hear more from the devs about it, but I'm not sure even they would know. It looks like they use the El'Been fluid simulation library, which doesn't seem to have been updated for ~10 years.


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how does the RGB curve work?
The original documentation was a little less informative so as to fully describe what an RGB curve does. Does it maximize the color of texture? Or, are the x and y coordinates equivalent to input and output level like in Gimp? And how do the seperate channel's curve work out?

It works exactly like GIMP afaik. GIMP even has separate curves for each channel, just like blender.

Via RGB Curves node (whether Cycles or Compositor) you can adjust contrast, gamma, gain and also offset adjustments. The displayed curve refer to a given color input brightness. The horizontal axis represents the input values, and the vertical axis represents the output values.

Enable C (Composite) to adjust RGB channels simultaneously. Enable R, G, or B if you want to limit the adjustment to a particular color channel.

Also see the manual:

Cycles RGB Curves: https://www.blender.org/manual/render/cycles/nodes/types/color/rgb_curves.html
Composite RGB Curves: https://www.blender.org/manual/compositing/types/color/rgb_curves.html

This is a good answer worth also examining white point and black point. Bear in mind that Cycles is a scene referred imaging model as opposed to display referred. That means that values extend from zero to infinity. One is able to use the white and black points to map part of that infinite range to the display referred output transform. Try it by putting ten or so lights very close to the default cube and using the white and black points to creatively control the display referred output. This is in contrast to display referred imaging applications like GIMP.

@troy_s Thanks Troy :) Yep, I know that there is a lot to cover, but my intention was to focus on the curve itself to get a basic understanding what it does and how to use it. I don't have the time right now, but I also want to add some basic color operation examples, introducing the term of Lookup Table and more. But feel free to edit my answer - I'd really appreciate it.

I edited the link because it was broken but actually the two links point to the same content, which is a bit misleading because the cycles node doesn't have the black and white levels


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how can I get pure white color in blender?
I recently tried to procedurally texture a white stone, like the ones that are usually kept for decorations in the garden but I just can't get the stone to be completely white with few random black bands. This is what I ended up to:
is there any way I can achieve the effect and with less flat bands like above and here is my very intuitive work in my node setup:

There are three main issues that prevent your stone from getting a brighter color:

Dim lighting: your light sources aren't strong enough to produce white colors, even from white materials. The best example here is the floor, which has a simple 0.8 gray material. If the floor is gray, there's no reason your stone will be white. Increase light intensity to fix this.
The wave texture produces some pretty dark bands, that will darken the entire material in any blending mode where dark colors darken the overall result (including the Overlay mode you're using). I put the wave texture through a color ramp to map the black into mid-light gray to fix this.
Even after moderating the wave texture, it helps to also reduce its influence in the following overlay node by toning down the Factor to 0.25.
And lastly, I added an RGB curves node to lighten the overall color as well.

On a general note, it's worth mentioning that you won't get a "pure white" color with so many bumps and overlayed textures that darken the overall result (Voronoi, Wave). But that's fine, because unless we're talking about a very smooth surface - like our floor here (instead of an ordinary natural stone), a perfectly white color will be unrealistic.

Is there a way to do without the lighting, so that in an animation where I would want a dimmer scene but the same texture?

You can eliminate the need to render entirely with texture baking: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13508/how-do-i-bake-a-texture-using-cycles-bake


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How to cut a hole in a subdivided mesh?
Without actually applying the subdivision modifier, how can we cut a hole through the subdivided mesh? I tried using loop cuts but the topology turned out bad:

Using the boolean modifier it had some artifacts and you also need to apply the modifier:

Further trying to fix them with loop cuts gave this strange edges:

and scaling them along the y axis to zero did no good. So How can we cut a hole through a subdivisioned mesh without actually applying the modifiers? I know disabling the boolean modifier would give a nice hole in the render but what if we have to do some editing with the part, like adding a drawer object(particularly in this case)?


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How can we build shape keys for protruding eyes?
I've been working on the same character for months and have finally come down to the part of facial rigging but I can't get it to close it's eyes using the shape keys, the character is simple and not an optimal design, just experimental:

since his eyes are protruding just using one shape key would not do the trick. So I tried to use a set of shape keys like so:

but when I add a second shape key as a turn point from there: the first problem arises that the object changes to it's basis shape rather than staying in key1:

so I started editing anyway to see if it works out, but blender just extrapolates key 1 instead when I inrease the value of slider 2:

Could anyone tell me what is happening here and how can I fix this, please?

Since the closing of an eyelid around an eye involves rotation, I think you're better off rigging them with bones. Also, since it appears you haven't modeled any eyelids and are just pulling down the skin above the eyes, modeling some eyelids would be the first step.

@Mentalist, I'm new to this. Are eyelids modelled or carved from the skin?In realistic rigs they look as if a part of the skin are they modelled seperately?

Click the 'Apply Shape Keys in Edit Mode' button right after you make a new Shape Key, so that your shape key is based on the previously made shape key(s).

Also, depending on how your rig is going to be setup, you may have to change the shape keys to blend relative to the previous position, rather than 'Basis' in the blend section too.  But it depends on how you want your bone controls to drive the shape keys.

but it seems to edit the mesh we would have to set the slider value to one otherwise the mesh is uneditable.


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Show/Hide object orientations in Blender 2.8?
I can't find the option to show/hide the local axis/orientation in the Blender 2.8 UI.

I had the same problem and setting the Object DATA Properties (green stick figure icon, 2nd from bottom) helped.

That's what I was looking for.. Thanks!

In short: armature properties/viewport display/axes

Thank you for that, and you're right. This displays the root axes for the whole armature.  What I'm really looking for is how to display all joints local axes, I couldn't find an image with what I'm looking for.  I'm working on mocap retargeting, so I can visually see which is the pitch,roll,yaw axis, without having to go to the rotate tool for each joint to check..  I should've asked a more specific question to begin with.  I'll create another question, now that I have a better idea of what I'm looking for.  Thanks for the answer!

@SeanNovak this is working at bones level too. What do you mean? You can edit your question if don't want to add another one.


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Geometry jitters while animated along path
I'm having an issue with a path animation.  I have a root object, with a number of children, animated on the path.  My problem is, the further down the path I go, a jitter develops in the parented geometry.  I have linked a video of the problem.  http://sean.novak.us/vid/help/jittersAlongPath.mp4

Are there any other constraints in play?

Looks like float point precision issues as you move away from scene origin

The character armatures use constraints to follow the seats.  However, the ship geometry is parented to the animated path constrained object.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos, I thought the same thing, until I scaled down the whole scene by 0.1.  If it was only a relation to 0,0,0, I think I would have observed SOME change.  This makes me think it has something to do with the transformation along the curve.

What type of curve do you use? I've heard a few instances of Bezier Curve internal math leading to precision issues, and Paths being better for animations

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos, I am using Bezier.  I'll switch and see if it helps.  Thanks for the suggestion!

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos, I'm back to thinking it's your first suggestion, the float point precision issue.  While the path seems like it helps a bit.  If I ONLY scale down the path, the jitter lessens.  However, It seems if I scale down the geometry as well, the jitters return.  I think I need to apply transformations to all of the geometry to get it right.  Uffff.. this is going to take a while.

That's not it either.  Applying scale did nothing.  I'm guessing the shorter path, with larger geometry is less noticeable, simply because the geometry is larger and the jitter is less noticeable.  If I scale the geometry in proportion to the path, the jitter remains the same.  Distance from world origin makes not difference.

Ufff, I ended yesterday unsuccessful.  To get around this issue, I'm just going to render the camera rig on the path.  Then composite the ship interior and characters as a separate render.  I'll probably loose fidelity in the animated reflections, etc.  But, I'll try to fake the lighting by animating them to match rotations etc.  What a pain!

Turns out, this IS in fact a floating point precision issue.  Not something to do with the math along the path, itself.  In an effort to keep my vehicle and camera near the world origin, I created a root object, parented my environment and path to it, then animated it's location to try to keep the vehicle near to 0,0,0.  It has helped a LOT!  Here is a video, outlining the solution and result: http://sean.novak.us/vid/help/jitterSolution.mp4

Hi I saw your  solution to  the jittering problem, which I have now too. Can you explain it better? I think you created a world origin object and parented all your  objects  in the scene... I'm not sure what do you mean by "world origin object"... Thank  you sir.

Hi Michael, did you watch the video that I linked?  Yes, basically use an empty, parent everything to it, then animate it so that your camera is near 0,0,0 (world origin).


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How to add faces to a flat plane?
Probably a very simple question but my research hasn't turned up an answer...
I have a flat plane, comprised of two faces (A Rectangle with a line down the middle separating each face).
How do I split the faces so I have eight even-sized faces on the flat-plane rectangle?
Much appreciated.

Select all and press w
Then choose "subdivide".

Nothing happens when I select 'Subdivide' from the menu.

Are you in edit mode? Do you have all the faces and vertices selected (a)

I'm in edit mode and I have the two faces selected, yes.

Is it adding vertices? Sometimes depending on your geometry, it will add verts but not connect them to the faces.

Try creating a new plane and starting from scratch. Just add a plane. Scale on x by 2, ctrl+r for a loop cut, left click, right click, for center. a to select all, then w, subdivide. That will do it.

I think what I was looking for was 'Loop Cut' (CTRL + r). I've restarted the project. Will confirm if Loop Cut is the working method if/when I next stumble on this problem.


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Why is glossy shader adding pink in cycles?
All my shaders using gloss are mysteriously adding pink, textures are not missing, and the glossy shaders without textures have the pink issue as well. When I disconnect the gloss shader, the pink goes away. Anyone seen this before? I included an image of one of the materials, silver below. (I reduced the setup see what was causing pink and narrowed it down to glossy) When glossy, is disconnected, pink goes away.
Also, noticed in the preview window, the material shows as it should, unfortunately, the pink shows in the render.

Could show a screenshot of the material actually on an object eg Suzanne or a sphere.

Nevermind! so I checked/unchecked "Use Nodes" and the pink went away.


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How to make 3D model fully distributable
this is not a fully related Blender question but I figured this might be the right place to ask.
I would like to create a standalone distributable 3D model. That is, a file that I can send and that the recipient can open and visualize without the need of installing anything.
Is there any way to do this? Currently I export the model into VRLM and then I can use Cortona 3D to open it with a browse. That still needs a plugin to be installed and I would like to avoid that by compiling everything into a single executable file.
Thank!
Lore

This could depend on how you expect people to see and interact with your model, and how simple the process you wish to be but come to mind:

making it a distributable "blender game" (an interactive environment), but requires skills, experience and does not support all cycles features, eg. Your recipient could download it and "play it" locally.
see:
http://www.blender.org/manual/game_engine/licensing.html#standalone-games
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/FAQ/Game_Engine/Standalone_game
using services like https://www.blend4web.com/en/ which require no plugins (is even gpl so you can even host your own)... Your recipient could just visit a page and interact in the browser with the model. (examples: https://www.blend4web.com/en/demo/)
another similar service (but not gpl, afaik) is https://sketchfab.com/

I only want to add that in case of Blend4Web a Blender scene can be exported even as a standalone web page which can be opened with a standard browser.


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Displacement from list of values
I have a mesh and a list of displacemnt values for each of the coordinates of a second mesh. The two meshes represent the same surface but the location of the vertices is different.
Would it be possible to apply such a displacement to the underformed original mesh?
To summarize:
Mesh 1 --> undeformed;
Mesh 2 --> deformed, different vertex locations, I have the list of displacement for each vertex
I want to apply the deformation I have for Mesh 2 to Mesh 1
Thanks

Could you submit some screenshots? It's not very clear, what exactly the issue is.

Sounds like how shapekeys work.  Have a basis mesh and a shapekey is just the new location for each vert. http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15593/how-to-change-shapekey-vertex-position-through-python/15610#15610  Would be a simple script to add a shape key using your list of displacement vectors

Don't have a screenshot... I can ty and explain better.
Someone bent my original mesh (imagine is as a beam). To do so, this user had to transform the mesh so that the vertices of the new mesh are not at the same position as the vertex of my original mesh. This someone provided me with the displacement undergone by each vertex (as a list of values), the unbent version of his mesh and the bent version of his mesh. What I'm missing here is the bent version of MY original mesh. Do you think there's a way to bent my mesh the same way as he did by using the displacement list?
Thanks!

I think you should ask another question: about how apply coordinates to multiple vertexes. The existing question is so unclear that I dont' believe you will get any valuable help...

Would know how to apply coordinates to multiple vertices?


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Seamless Procedural Texture is stretching
I'm using procedural texture coordinates with applied scale for the textures.
How can I avoid horizontal distortion?
thanks!

Change the projection method option from 'flat' to 'box' in the image texture nodes.


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Make background HDRI unsharp
I want to present some office products(like folders and binders) on a desk and with a office background, while the background should be unsharp on the renderings.
Should I use HDRI images or set up a interior scene?

You should prefer using an HDRI in this case for the background. Cycles is a bit sensitive to interior render scenes in terms of noise and therefore high render times. Only build a complete environment if you have very good reasons for it. In your case, all you need is the table as an object, the rest you're better off with a HDRI background.
You can create the blur effect via various methods, I personally find it most convenient to see the result while preview rendering already. If you plan on using Depth of Field in the camera, that would blur the background automatically already. If not, you can create a low res HDRI which is blurrend in an image editor of your choice, and use a node setup like this:

Plug the blurred version in the bottom image node, and the high res one in the top one. This way reflections on your object will be sharp, but the background will be blurred.

Is this a Compositing or an Object/Shader related Node setup? I cannot find these nodes in the Compositing Nodes

@MicroMachine You'll find those nodes in the World Material node tree. So switch to Shader Node Tree setup, and from there choose 'World' instead of 'Material'

if you dont want to use a different, second HDRI, you can use this SetUp to blur the vectors of the Hdri with a Noise texture.


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How can I round up a single edge of a plane?
How can I round up a single edge of a plane?
I hope the pictures help to understand the question.
I'm using Blender v.2.78

This can be accomplished with the Edge Fillet Plus utility in the Edit Tools 2 addon. First, enable this addon in user preferences.

Then use the W menu in Edit Mode with the two edges selected:

This process converts the face to an N-Gon. To fill this shape, Alt + Right Click the line to loop select as shown above and hit F to fill the area.

You should also be aware when using N-Gon's https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/89/when-should-n-gons-be-used-and-when-shouldnt-they

can you provide a link to the addon?

@AlexanderHein The addon should be in Blender by default, but you can read more about it on the blender wiki: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Modeling/Extra_Tools

A fairly simple way to create rounded corners
No add-ons required. Uses quad topology.

Loop Cut to create holding edges CtrlR
Select and Delete the corner vertex X
Select the vertex that will be at the center for the Spin radius
Snap Cursor to Selection ShiftS
Select the outermost vert and Spin it  (Viewport orientation matters, look straight-on)
Adjust the Spin parameters (I used 6 steps at a 90° angle) in the Operator Panel
Switch to Edge Selection
Select the two non-touching edges and Fill F to make each face.

In some cases you may then also want to Inset I all your planar geometry:

...such as in situations where you plan to SubSurf:

great. thanks very much, i've been looking for clean quad based topology like this.


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Weight painting a dot and not a gradient
I'm following a tutorial where the person quickly goes over everything so you have to have knowledge of the program. I am starting on beginners tutorials but had a look at How to Make Towels - Blender Tutorial   At 03:14 he adds in a weight in the form of a dot.  When I tried to do this mine came out as a gradient (imagine using a gradient where the point is in the middle).
How do I change this to show as a dot?

check to have enough subdivisions, too... he had over 5000 vertices when painting

His is also a radial gradient, but smaller.
Make sure you are using a Draw brush in the Tool panel T.
You can make the brush smaler with F so each stroke will be more like a dot. You can also change the size of the "gradient" around it by choosing a different brush curve:


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why is blender 2.76b not installing?
Blender version of 2.70 and lower work just fine but now I want to be updated with the new improvements in Blender so I tried to install the Blender 2.76b. The installation process goes on just fine but when I run it, it shows:
I don't know what's the problem. I checked out the requirement page in blender.org and I think my PC meets it. Here are some information on my GPU:
Can someone please tell me what is wrong with this and how can I get 2.76b installed?

I get a similar message myself on 2.76b, no GPU currently with the laptop I have  at the moment, but no issues within Blender. Are you using the .msi or .zip version?

I downloaded the .msi 'cuz of low size.

@Timaroberts, how do you get to run it? Blender's not launching at all!

Just extract the.zip and run the.exe file. No need to install

Just maybe .... you have to change your sound quality from
16bit 192000hz sound to 24bit 44100hz instead. Hope it helps.
Make sure to go through all your sound devices and set it
up appropriately.

does the sound affect that much?

no harm trying if it's solves the bug , you can set up your sound again after it starts to work. 192000hz looks like sound card setting to me ... so I am guessing could be a bug or something.

I don't know how that did it but it really stopped giving the error message as above. but it still doesn't install.

did you try the zip version instead of the exe installer?

Aren't they the same. Doesn't the zip also contain a .msi installer? I'm not sure

No they aren't exactly the same the zip version does not require any installation. Just drop the content into any folder and run.

Funny enough I checked my sound settings and that was it. Didn't cross my mind since I wasn't having issues myself.


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What are other ways to fake underwater environment?
The most realistic way to create an underwater scene is using volume shader, but looking for a more faster way(i.e. to fake), are there any ways besides these. I tried to search up for it but it doesn't seem there are much tutorials on it. Could anyone suggest some ways?

You can make every thing in the post production,Starting from the absorption using the z depth pass,and the light distortion using the displace node,and the overall colors using the color balance node.

@Omar Ahmad, I didn't mean to composite after I render, just meant to make it inside of blender.

@bzal I think Omar meant inside of Blender's built-in compositor. The output you get after rendering would be passed through the compositor before being written to a file, so you wouldn't need to do any extra processing on it with other software. Also, a Z-depth pass will probably be faster (in performance) than setting up a Cycles material for it. Although if you really want to, you can probably set up volume shading that gets denser with distance using a Gradient Texture.


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How to control foam in the modifier panel?
I was recently trying to create an ocean scene and searched up some tutorials, there were lots using a lot of node setups but after a long walk I found a ways to generate foam from the modifier panel, so I gave it a try:
There's not much control given in the modifier's panel and mostly the render looks dull but some part look pretty good like the one encircled. Is there some way to control this more accurately?

Related: http://www.blendernation.com/2016/01/21/blender-2-7x-jumping-the-shark-qa/

Possible duplicate of Dynamic Paint Cycles - How do you make waves caused by an object to turn white?


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license issues with blender addons
1) I've seen a lot of coders giving their addons for free. Though the license of the GPL states that any derivative works of blender and it's source code is to be distributed under the GPL, Python is not a software as such. So, why would this restrict people to freely giveaway their addon? And Why would blenderguru's pro lighting studios not be freely available then?
2)How is it so that though blender is distributed under the GPL, it can be sublicensed under e.g. CC-ND-BY or CC-0 licenses under sites such as blendswap?

First, my answer should be interpreted by readers informed by the knowledge that I'm not an attorney in any juridiction, and do not pretend to be one on the internet. Can you provide a citation for your claim that "python is not a software", seeing as how it is produced under the auspices of the Python Software Foundation? Further, an add on that does not incorporate any of the Blender code base, and this would include blender data files, is not, to the best of my knowledge, a "derivative work".

@brasshat, I didn't mean python is not a software, I added AS SUCH. I lists that it's GPL-compatible, but not licensed under the GPL. However, that might have less to do with files created with python than python itself

@brasshat, please do clarify your last statement, "an addon that does not incorporate......."

suppose you want to do some special analysis of data files created with Blender. Now, if you modify the existing code of the Blender file to do this, that might be considered a derivative work. If you write a stand alone product that perforrms the exact same analysis, but does not do this by modifying the Blender codebase, this would not be a derivative work.

Here are the licenses that Blender uses as of 24.1.2017:

Blender source code - GNU GPL Version 2 or older
Blender Cycles render engine - Apache 2.0
Python libraries - Python license
Bullet physics libraries - Zlib license
Libmv (Blender's motion tracking) - MIT license
Open Shading Language - BSD license

All these components that make up Blender can be distributed together under the GNU GPL Version 3 license (they are all compatible with it).
The art that you create with Blender:

What you create with Blender is your sole property. All your artwork – images or movie files – including the .blend files and other data files Blender can write, is free for you to use as you like.(blender.org)

Therefore you can license your art however you like. That's where CC-ND-BY, CC-0 and others come from: Creative Commons licenses. If the artwork does not have the license specified, you are not allowed to distribute it or commercially use it, etc. Always ask the author's permission.
Blender game (Blender art + Blender code):
The inclusion of Blender player (= Blender game engine) requires that the entire bundle has to be released compatible with Blender’s license (GNU).
Regarding 3rd party addons:
Blender also includes the Blender Python API, so every piece of code of the addon that uses some Blender Python API must be also licensed under GNU. This only applies to the addon script files or binaries.
What does that mean: It does not mean the author must give you such code for free. It means when you have the code, you are free to distribute it (or modify) under the same license. You can distribute it however you like - for free or for money.

When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
  price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
  have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
  them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you
  want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new
  free programs, and that you know you can do these things.(excerpt from GNU)

If the addon includes artwork (assets, textures, etc.) these have their own licenses and you will have to get permission to distribute them. So you can distribute the 'Pro lighting studios' script files, but not the assets. Script files usually have header inside stating the license.
Using GNU license and closed source license together:
GNU does not allow linking an application with closed code - it is forbidden to include a commercial library in a GNU code - you would have to make such library open-source to use it.
But you can do something like commercial render engines do: the export plugin is GNU (uses Blender API) and converts scene data to commercial application (ie. renderer) which is not GNU (doesn't use Blender API) and the licenses differ. This works because the addon is not dependent on the non-GNU application.
Assets in Pro Lighting Skies or Grass Essentials - the addon will work with any other assets too, addon's functionality is not dependent on them. Because of this the assets can be closed-sourced.
In the case of Blender game it would not work without the assets so they must be released under GNU (the game logic is part of the assets and the game is dependent on them).

This is a crystal clear cut answer, but, I have a question in mind, IF we sell the addons on a site such as turbosquid, what would happen, would the licenses that they provide to their content somehow contradict with the GNU?

and "so every piece of code of the addon that uses some Blender Python API must be also licensed under GNU." Does that mean, that the same addon can be licensed  by parts? Multiple licensed?

@bzal I expanded the answer

@bzal, regarding your question about licenses of turbosquid, keep in mind that to the best of my knowledge, in most cases, and all cases I know of, the license of an application (like Blender) and the liicense of a file created by the application are different and have no linkage. So that there is nothing in the license of Blender that would affect the licensing of any file you might use Blender to create. The conflict in licensing with Turbosquid is unrelated to any licensing of Blender, but would be a consideration in the files you create that you choose to offer there.

@bzal turbosquid cannot change the license, it's illegal to change it. GNU content (Blender addon) must be distributed also GNU. So any other buyer of the content (website or individual) could legally re-sell it cheaper or give it for free. This is also the case with BlenderMarket, Gumroad, etc.


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What to pay attention when modelling for animation?
Modelling must be one of the first things to be done when it comes to 3D art and it must be one of the most intuitive stuff that depends more on practise. But, after 2yrs with Blender, when I finally came down to animation and it appears that there is more to it than that. Books and references on the internet suggest modelling for animation should be done very differently than how it is done for still imaging. Why is it so? What should be done to successfully optimize one's skills to model for animation? If there are any resources that would help us climb up the stairs(that is from very basic principles to advanced level), it would be very helpful if links were provided.

This is a very large question... for instance, what do you want to animate ? A human character ? or a mechanical device (gears of a watch as example) ?

I heard the 12 principles of animation is a good place to start a checklist  https://vimeo.com/93206523

@lemon, a complete animation may compromise both, so I'd like to start with the basics. Would it be a mechanical device or a human character.

There's no hard rules for making good deforming mesh.  Here are some general guidelines:

minimize n-gons.
minimize vertices with more than 5 edges.
maximize quads.

As far as tutorials go, Blenderella is one of the best Blender-based resources I can think of.  Steven Stahlberg used to make some good tutorials too, but I can't find them.
Just make sure to test a lot.  Even make your deforming rig before all your geometry is added, and start animating it, adding in loops wherever there's no volume preservation.  Blender is remarkably good at interpolating weights.  As a bonus, you'd be surprised how little geometry you can get away with and still make desirable deformations.

Is maximize quads only for animation or is it for anything possible(like still imaging)?

It's generally for animation (that is, deforming mesh).  That said, quads are often a bit more predictable when it comes to third-party rendering as well, so modelling with quads are a 'safe bet' for still imaging too.  The only time quads aren't favourable are in any large, inorganic structures such as buildings.  In that case, having extra quads starts to slow down rendering times.

@MikeBelanger, what about the process that involves also retopo?

@root sorry what I really mean is quad or tris are unfavourable in large, undeformable buildings.  Imagine modelling a building with 50 windows in it with only quads.  Now imagine how many less you'd need if you could use n-gons.  I don't know about quad vs. tri rendering times, good question though.

@bzal: I honestly haven't tried retopo, but it looks pretty good.  My modelling skills are still stuck in pre-2.5.  Maybe its me who needs to check out Blenderella videos :P Jonathan Williamson has a lot of good stuff about topology too.

although the blenderella hair tutorial is what i took before was more of a speed race!

When people say "modelling for animation", they are referring to making a mesh that deforms well. A model that is used in a single image is easy to position and make look good. A model that gets animated will get deformed and twisted in ways you probably never thought of and needs to look good in the process.
You need to consider how the model will be animated, think of the arm being lifted and swung around, think of extremes like swinging from an overhead bar or doing a high roundhouse kick, your model needs to be deformed by the armature without the shoulders or hips getting kinked and looking unnatural. Some rigs also allow a character's arms to be stretched and bent which also needs to be considered.
Often shapekeys are used to clean up a joint during animation but you still need a mesh that looks good deformed before you make a shapekey that adds a little polish for certain extreme positions.
Not sure of any tutorials that explain this in detail, I think it is more a matter of experience from watching your mesh deform and working out a topology that works for each position.
You can find many rigged models online from sites such as blender cloud or blendswap. Download some of the characters, pose them and look at how the mesh deforms. Enable wireframe display so you can see the topology as it is deformed. Compare how some look better deformed than others. Compare them to your characters.

Few practical suggestions that are more a complement to the other answers (but cannot be an exhaustive list).
Learn the anatomy of your model. Examples : how a shoulder moves when the arm moves, how the leg moves at the hip level, how the skin stretches or folds.
Study separately bending meshes. Examples : front and back of a knee, the inner and outer parts of the articulation of a finger.
Look at how make or inset edge rings. Useful for eyes, mouth, nostril...
Retopology : possibly your model looks fine but some parts need to be redefined because they dont fit the wanted curves for animation. So retopo it (or at least the needed parts).
Use quads essentially, but quads lines need to be aligned to the bending curves (don't go through a quad or inner tris will appear).
Take into account the stretch of the textures.
Rest pose : build your model in an average rest pose, the relaxed pose. Extreme or not natural positions will be harder to rig and skin.
Work with mirror modifier : never make the job twice in particular for the weight painting part (mirror also helps to avoid to paint on the wrong part). But sometimes mirror does not work (example : weighting a long dress because weight influence may need to go over the mirror center).
Facial expressions : test your model by simply moving a vertex with proportional editing mode on. That can allow to test your mesh reaction when deformed before doing any rigging or shape keys.
Look and study the others realizations. But be critic and keep in mind that your mesh could need a bit different approach because of its particular shape.
...

is retopo done differently for animation and still models? I saw a face being retoped in youtube that wasn't aimed at it's clean topology.

@bzal, as far as I know, the principles are the same. But the aim is both to have a clean mesh and curves adapted for bending/folding

authors: Станіслав Бобров


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How to to do something before the blender game engine ends with a script
I want to do something before the blender game engine stops. For example, print "THE END" on terminal when I press ESC to exit (scripting).

You can use an app event handler for this.
An event handler is a function (known as a "callback") that is launched when the event is triggered. You can append a custom function of your own to blender's event handlers, and it will be launched when these events are fired.
Conveniently, there's such an event for the end of the game engine (bpy.app.handlers.game_post).
import bpy

def execute_after_game( scene ):
    print( "GAME OVER!!" )

bpy.app.handlers.game_post.append( execute_after_game )

This example will add a function that prints "GAME OVER!!" to the terminal after the game is finished.

This solution is for Blender. It will not work with the BGE.

When does your game end?
It ends when you either press ESC (default setting), or you activate the Game Actuator.
The default setting does not let you much choice as you can't "intercept" the end of the game.
But, you can override the default.
Attention: be very careful with the next steps. Otherwise it is possible you can't stop your game anymore.
Therefore we first completely override the exit behavior with our own one.
KeyboardSensor ESC -> AND -> GameActuator Mode: Quit Game

Please do it exactly that way.
What happens?
When you setup ESC in any keyboard sensor the default exit will be disabled. Therefore you have to setup a custom exit (game actuator).
With that you know when the game ends as you sense the request for ending the game (pressing ESC).
Your requirement was

print "THE END" on terminal

So you can trigger a Python controller with the same keyboard sensor. (Do not replace or disconnect the AND Controller - most-likely you forget to activate the connected actuators from your Python controller)
Be aware actuators will not show any effect as the game ends within the next frame.


text:
How can I merge two edges in 90 degrees to a one single rounded edge?
I have the following problem and I do not know how to solve.
I have two edges I would like to merge them with a curve but I do not know how to do it. Here is an example :

In yellow I marked what I want to achieve with the selected edges.
How can I do  this ?
Thanks !

I don't think you want to merge these edges. In order the geometry to be smoother it should be created somehow (via Subsurf, subdividing, whatever). The solution might depend on how do you want the result to be like, i.e. should remaining edges connect top left corner of yellow part ? Or not only it ? Should all the model be smooth or only these edges ?

Aside from that you can use very easy workaround - create Bezier curve (or not Bezier), convert it to mesh, join it with main surface and (optionally) connect vertices of curve with ones of mesh. The original edges may be not needed any more,

If this is an extrusion select the edge that is common between these two running in the Y-Direction, You can hit Ctrl+B and move your mouse away the specified amount, or enter the distance, then you could roll your mouse wheel, or enter the number of segments.


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functioning of the geometry node- what does it do with the vector math
mathematically cosθ|a||b| is the dot product of two vectors, but in blender what does the vector math node do both technically and intuitively?
. If possible could you also please explain the normalize, cross product and subtract operations, and how do these follow with the geometry node?

The Dot Product is purely mathematical. It seems as if you were wondering about the Geomertry node. If not, edit and explain why you think that it is not mathematical. One a side note, your equation is wrong. This is the correct dotproduct

@Leander, it's not wrong, I didn't write the left hand side for briefity

The source used for the vector math node can be found here.
For each Operation -

Add, the output Vector is the two input vectors added together. The Value output is the average of the output vector components (x+y+z)/3.
Subtract, the output Vector is input vector one(upper) minus input vector two(lower). The Value output is the average of the output vector components (x+y+z)/3.
Average, the output vector is the normalised result of the sum of both inputs. That is the vector divided by the length of the vector. The length is calculated as the square root of the dot product.
Normalize, The result vector is the normalised vector of input vector one. The result value is the length of the vector.
Dot Product, the output value is the dot product of the input vectors, that is vector one times vector two and all components added together v1.x*v2.x + v1.y*v2.y + v1.z*v2.z. The Vector output is 0,0,0.
Cross Product, the output vector is the cross product of both inputs. The Value output is the length of the result, calculated as the square root of the dot product of the output vector. The cross product is calculated as

result[0] = v1.y * v2.z - v1.z * v2.y
result[1] = v1.z * v2.x - v1.x * v2.z
result[2] = v1.x * v2.y - v1.y * v2.x

could you give atleast one example of how the geometry is interpreted by these function?

@lind The geometry itself isn't interpreted - the Geometry node provides details of how a particular light ray interacts with the geometry, so the Position is the vector in space where the interaction occurred, the Normal is the surface normal at that point, etc. The Vector Math node simply operates on those vectors as mathematical functions.

@RichSedman, Do you have any sources in sight for learning these?

I haven't read the source code, but it almost certainly does the Algebraic Definition of dot product from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_product .
For cross product, go read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_product#Computing_the_cross_product .
Add and subtract will be element-wise, so o_i = a_i + b_i or a_i - b_i .
Normalize is covered by http://www.wikihow.com/Normalize-a-Vector, although their narrative is kind of awkward.

I am familiar with the definitions of dot/cross/normalize etc , my point was how do these interpret the geometry?

Well, for a few, the terms are self-explanatory, but for things like Tangent, True Normal, and Parametric, I have no idea.


text:
How to draw(bgl) line while clicking point to point
I'm trying to figure out how to draw lines like the Carve addon's Line option. It starts by left clicking, and it adds a dot. Then it stretches a line to the next spot you click. I want this exact behavior, even drawn the same way. I tried searching the the Carve addon code, but I can't tell what I need and what I don't.

Check out the operator_modal_draw.py template in the text editor which can be edited to give the above functionality.  Unfortunately it appears bgl is going to be dropped for blender 2.8.

Yeah, I know abot the template, I just don't get it. But that is mute now if they're dropping bgl. Thanks.


text:
Two colors on one material on many objects with one blinking at a time
I need a cycles material that has two colors, say red and blue. This material is assigned to many objects. While animating, only one random object can be red at a time, the rest must be blue. How would I go about doing this?

Use the pass index (= Object Index in Object Info Node) to mix the shaders. You can animate it if the blue object should change over time.


text:
How to add panel to 3D view Tool shelf in Texture Paint Mode
I'm just trying to to get my addon panel to show up in the tool shelf in Texture Paint mode, but I can't figure out the correct 'bl_' combination to make it work.

I use this
bl_<prop>      | allowed
---------------+-------------------------------------------------------------
bl_space_type  | 'CLIP_EDITOR', 'CONSOLE', 'DOPESHEET_EDITOR', 'EMPTY',
               | 'FILE_BROWSER', 'GRAPH_EDITOR', 'IMAGE_EDITOR', 'INFO',
               | 'LOGIC_EDITOR', 'NLA_EDITOR', 'NODE_EDITOR', 'OUTLINER',
               | 'PROPERTIES', 'SEQUENCE_EDITOR', 'TEXT_EDITOR', 'TIMELINE',
               | 'USER_PREFERENCES', 'VIEW_3D'
---------------+-------------------------------------------------------------
bl_region_type | 'CHANNELS', 'HEADER', 'PREVIEW', 'TEMPORARY', 'TOOLS',
               | 'TOOL_PROPS', 'UI', 'WINDOW'
---------------+-------------------------------------------------------------
bl_context     | 'armature_edit', 'curve_edit', 'imagepaint', 'lattice_edit',
               | 'mball_edit', 'mesh_edit', 'objectmode', 'particlemode',
               | 'posemode', 'sculpt_mode', 'surface_edit', 'text_edit',
               | 'vertexpaint', 'weightpaint'

So for you I think it's:
bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
bl_region_type = 'TOOLS'
bl_context = "imagepaint"

Thanks! Where did you find that?

assembled from documentation  https://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_current/bpy.types.Header.html?highlight=bl_space_type#bpy.types.Header.bl_space_type   etc -- literally just adding the bl_<kind> to the search

Ah, my search was too specific then.


text:
Move object to mouse position using python?
From top view(orthographic), I'd like to be able to click in the 3D view and move an object to where I clicked. I know I have to do this in a modal operator, what I  need to know is how do I convert the mouse position coordinates into xy coordinates in the 3D view?

Can do this using bpy.extras.region_2d_to_location_3d
Here is a sample script using the Modal Draw Template script. As well as drawing a line, it moves the context object to the mouse cursor.  The depth is set to (0, 0, 0)
import bpy
import bgl
import blf
import gpu
from gpu_extras.batch import batch_for_shader
from bpy_extras.view3d_utils import region_2d_to_location_3d

def draw_callback_px(self, context):
    print("mouse points", len(self.mouse_path))

    font_id = 0  # XXX, need to find out how best to get this.

    # draw some text
    blf.position(font_id, 15, 30, 0)
    blf.size(font_id, 20, 72)
    blf.draw(font_id, "Hello Word " + str(len(self.mouse_path)))

    # 50% alpha, 2 pixel width line
    shader = gpu.shader.from_builtin('2D_UNIFORM_COLOR')
    bgl.glEnable(bgl.GL_BLEND)
    bgl.glLineWidth(2)
    batch = batch_for_shader(shader, 'LINE_STRIP', {"pos": self.mouse_path})
    shader.bind()
    shader.uniform_float("color", (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.5))
    batch.draw(shader)

    # restore opengl defaults
    bgl.glLineWidth(1)
    bgl.glDisable(bgl.GL_BLEND)

class ModalDrawOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Draw a line with the mouse"""
    bl_idname = "view3d.modal_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Modal View3D Operator"

    def modal(self, context, event):
        context.area.tag_redraw()

        if event.type == 'MOUSEMOVE':
            x, y = event.mouse_region_x, event.mouse_region_y
            self.mouse_path.append((x, y))
            obj = context.object
            if obj:
                loc = region_2d_to_location_3d(context.region, context.space_data.region_3d, (x, y), (0, 0, 0))
                obj.location = loc

        elif event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':
            bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(self._handle, 'WINDOW')
            return {'FINISHED'}

        elif event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(self._handle, 'WINDOW')
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        if context.area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
            # the arguments we pass the the callback
            args = (self, context)
            # Add the region OpenGL drawing callback
            # draw in view space with 'POST_VIEW' and 'PRE_VIEW'
            self._handle = bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(draw_callback_px, args, 'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')

            self.mouse_path = []

            context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}
        else:
            self.report({'WARNING'}, "View3D not found, cannot run operator")
            return {'CANCELLED'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Sorry for my ignorance, but how do you actually run this? Does this create a UI item? Or do you need to call the Python file in block logic?
Thanks :)

Press the space bar in the 3d view, then search for "Simple Modal View3d Operator".


text:
How to place vertices evenly spaced along a path\curve using Python?
How would I go about placing vertices spaced evenly along a path or curve? I've looked at the Extrude Along Path addon, but I don't get the math, and it's doing more than I want to do. To be more specific, I need to know how to get the location of where to place the each vertex.

Why use python?

Because I'm writing an addon.

The mathutils module has an interpolate_bezier function that will give you a list of points along a curve.
import bpy
from mathutils.geometry import interpolate_bezier

res = 5 # number of points to get

src_spline = bpy.data.objects['BezierCurve'].data.splines[0]

k1 = src_spline.bezier_points[0].co
h1 = src_spline.bezier_points[0].handle_right

k2 = src_spline.bezier_points[1].co
h2 = src_spline.bezier_points[1].handle_left

points = interpolate_bezier(k1, h1, h2, k2, res)

for p in points:
    o = bpy.data.objects.new('p', None)
    o.location = p
    bpy.context.scene.objects.link(o)

authors: Владимир Билоусько


text:
Hair Particles / Gras poise over plane in camera
I have some troubles understanding camera in blender.
I take a mesh plane object and set up a simple particle system.
In Orthogonal Mode the scene looks like expected. I put three images in one because I am not allowed to upload more than 2 images.

In Camera View the stupid problem happen: Some hairs are above the plane. I upload you the rendered image to see it better.

Thank you!

The model should be view-indipendent (except if you specifically build it for being not). Are you using Simpe Children option?

No I Using Children -> None. Should I switch to Simple Children?

Sorry guy, I just see that: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/39487/particles-are-not-in-contact-with-object?rq=1 give some help but if someone can explain it I will be happy otherwise I will close this question in some days.


text:
How to get monitor resolution from Python API?
Is there a way to get the monitor resolution using the Python API?

More a python question than a blender question, and already has an answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3129322/how-do-i-get-monitor-resolution-in-python

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs to StackOverflow site


text:
Tracking in video: Offset an entire track?
I'm tracking a clear object in my video for stabilization that is moving in the direction I want it to, however I want the actual video to not stabilize on this location, but rather at a point that is underneath this object at all times. I know I can offset individual track points, but is it possible to offset the entire track once it is finished?

If @cegaton didn't already answer your question (in that case you should use the answer function here and quickly explain the steps you took to solve your problem) could you then provide some example images of what you try to achieve?


text:
How does the color ramp work in Cycles?
How does the color ramp work in Cycles?:
I had only been using the blender internal and have suddenly set foot on cycles which turns out to be a 90% node based for materializing and almost anything.
Being a non-programmer and self-taught up to this point both in blender and GIMP, I'm having trouble in every node in cycles except the shaders and textures. Specially for this part of the question, would anyone be kind enough to explain me how the "color - ramp" node works???
It appears to be very different than the BI.

The color ramp maps values to colors.
A black and white picture is made up of a bunch of pixels, each with a value between 0 and 1, where 0 is black, 1 is white and 0.5 is half way between, etc.
What the color ramp node does, is it takes a black and white input (if you input a color image, it will convert it) and re maps each pixel to a new value.
If a white pointer on the color ramp is at postion 0.5, then a value at 0.5 will be mapped to white.
To see this in action, lets look at two color ramp nodes:
The one on the top represents an un modified image, white goes to white, black goes to black, grey goes to grey.
The one on the bottom is a modified image, everything about .5 grey goes to white.

We will now have a little 3 pixel demo image:
[.25][.5][.75]
The first pixel is at 25% grey, the next at 50% grey and the last at 75% grey. Lets see what the lower color ramp will do to each of these pixels.
.25
The first pixel, at point two five will get mapped to .5. The reason is that it is half way between a white and a black point, and since the color fade is linear, the half way value will be .5.
.5
The pixel at .5 lands directly on the white pointer, and therefore is set to 1.
.75
The .75 valued pixel lands past the white pointer, between it and the end. This means that it will also be set to white, a value of 1.
What I would do now is put some images through the color ramp, using the image texture node, and just play around until you get the hang of what effect it is having.
Footnote The pixel at .25 would not have the value if the interpolation was not set to linear. For the sake of understandably I won't mention interpolation in detail, leave it a the default until you get the hang of things.

Maybe a node setup showing bump mapping with the color ramp node would give a good visual representation of what the values achieve

If black represents a value of zero and white a value of one(scalar values) then what would other colors like red, green etc,. represent scalar values of?

If the default color ramp equal to the convert RGB to BW node?

I meant that you can switch to different colors in the node itself, therefore if I change the black to red for instance and white to green then what would happen to the mapping values???

@bzal Yes, it converts to black and white, in its default state. You can set pointers to equal different colors, and like you said, set white to green, and black to red.

So the positions are what that determine the value of each pixel in the color and not the color(red, green,...etc), right?                                               This is what I understood:  if the black and white sliders are set to green and blue for instance, then if i set the black(i.e green ) slider to  a position of 0.8 then the pixel in the BW image with the value of 0.8 would be mapped to green,...........?


text:
Viewing hair in rendered mode whilst in particle edit
I wanted to preview my hair in cycles rendered mode as I edited in real time side by side, however, once I enter the particle edit mode the rendered mode doesn't have any hair:
I searched up for similar issues, and they suggest enabling overlays, but, that doesn't give me rendered hair in my rendered view, it gives me editing strands:

Is this a currently impossible thing or is there a setting combo I'm missing?

It is not possible. You can have different view angles and shading methods in separate windows, but not different modes. I guess for the simple reason that you should not edit the mesh in one window while in the other you could possibly be changing the weight painting for example. That said, I do not know if this is intentionally made like this or technically limited. We are just users, no developers here so we can only speculate.

There is a tool setting option to see the particle children in Particle Edit mode (side panel > Tool > Options > [X] Children checkbox). But you will see them in every view. This option can cause lag in viewport when too many children are displayed.


text:
Rendering eyelashes with UV mapped texture
I have 4 meshes for eyelashes on a head model.  I have an eyelash image texture with the typical white alpha layer mask.  How do I get Blender to render the eyelashes so they look like eyelashes instead of eyelash meshes with white eyelashes on them (see image)?  Blender refuses to use the alpha mask and instead treats it like that mask layer is a diffuse/primary image layer. I select "use alpha" and all other settings I can find that mention alpha layer but no matter what, the eyelashes always render as sheet meshes with white eyelash patterns on them.

do you use Blender Internal render engine?

Correction, I have it set to cycles.

do you have that problem in rendered mode?

The eyelashes appear white/wrong no matter what mode I use.  The alpha layer mask is displayed instead of the brown eyelashes that should show through the mask.  There's no transparency.  The entire eyelash mesh is visible instead of JUST eyelashes.


text:
Increasing Emission without Increasing Brightness
How would I go about increasing the strength/distance of an Emission texture without the texture getting brighter in Blender Cycles?
Lets say I take the following texture and make a light mask out of it. I then mix them equally with the Texture as a Diffuse BSDF and the Mask as an Emission.

With the Strength set as 1.000 the texture looks ok but I feel it just isn't bright enough. But if I set it to something higher (like 100.000) the texture gets oversaturated.

Is there some way I can have the light emit to infinity if I so pleased, yet have the texture remain the same brightness in Cycles?

Use the Light Path input node Is Camera Ray socket as the factor to your Mix Shader node

This will result in the Emission being used for everything but the Camera (so it will be used for lighting the scene) and only the Diffuse Shader will be used when viewed direct from the camera.

Thank you. For a moment it looked like it was still brightening the texture, but realized it was the reflection from the floor. I added another "Emission Mask" so that I could individually control the brightness of the texture separate from the actual light.


text:
Replacing packed image with external image through Python
I have imported a game's level into Blender (3.3.21) and the importer packs the image textures. However, I have extracted these assets and would like to replace all the packed images with the extracted ones via python, but it does not seem to work... at least doing it in a simple way.
So far this is how I am doing things:
import bpy
import os

basedirs = "/media/edward/VERBATIM HD/GameExtracts/textures/JK.mat"

for mats in bpy.data.materials:
    if mats.use_nodes:
        imgname = mats.node_tree.nodes["Image Texture"].image.name[:-4] + " - "
        for paths, dirs, files in os.walk(basedirs):
            for filename in files:
                if imgname in filename and ".png" in filename:
                    print(paths + "/" + filename)
                    mats.node_tree.nodes["Image Texture"].image.filepath = paths + "/" + filename

Doing this I get the error
ERROR: Image "" not available. Keeping packed image

How would I go about just simply having the node use the external path rather than the internal package? I hope I don't have to go through the process of replacing the Whole node.

Ah, there was something I forgot. Instead of assigning the image.filepath this is how it should look:
mats.node_tree.nodes["Image Texture"].image = bpy.data.images.load(paths + "/" + filename)


text:
Removing details
I have a model that has amazingly many details that are not really relevant for me. I would instead like to use a normal map for them.
However I have not found a way to remove these details easily.
The Decimation Modifier did not work well for me, but perhaps I just missed an important setting.
Can anybody tell me how to get rid of these details quickly?
Thank you!

You can try to add a Shrinkwrap modifier to the mesh. As you don't need high level of details, you shouldn't catch them with modifier. To adjust level of details, you can add Subsurf at 1-st subdivision level. So Shrinkwrap will not be able to make details to appear.

@Mr Zak Nice idea. Maybe you should write an answer?

@Gonzou maybe, not sure yet. Anyway, I'll be able to add it in several hours, not now.

Try to use a Dissolve Faces option. Select all faces of the detailed part of your mesh, then press X-->Dissolve Faces.

You may also use the Limited Dissolve option. Select the faces as above, press X-->Limited Dissolve and increase the Max Angle factor in a Tool Shelf panel . Of course after doing this you'll have to clean up your mesh a bit, but I guess there'll be no problem with that in your case.

That sounds like a good idea, but I am having an absolutely hard time just selecting the faces, so that is not a good solution for me.

@tmighty Are you joking? :). You can make this kind of selection in one step. Wait a minute, I'll show you how to do it fast.

Answer updated. Please see the first .GIF.

It is not extremely clear to me, from the picture, how those vertices are related to the rest of the mesh, however: one quick way could be to select all vertices and X > dissolve vertices to get a n-gon face instead, assigned to their "contour" edges). If you need only quads, then, you can select all the remaining vertex on all edges that you need to remove, one by one and again X > dissolve vertices also them, until you get only the vertices you need to have only quads (you may need to remove remaining a big ngon face and fill the hole with quad faces.


text:
UVs should stretch texture
I would like to create a fence that is "buckled" (sorry, I don't know the correct translation). The fence should be affected a lot by gravity.
If anybody knows how to explain that better, please tell me!
This is a picture:

I thought I would do this with a plane. I thought I should subdivide it and move the vertices around so that the textures will be stretched and shrunken in order to give create such a worn-out fence.
My approach looks like this:

However, when I put a texture onto my model in Unity3D, the texture is absolutely fine, but that is not what I wanted. :-) I wanted the texture to be uneven.
Can somebody tell me how I can achieve that?
Thank you!

Related question: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23293/uv-coordinates-on-a-deformed-plane

Unwrap your mesh before deforming it will result in a good mapping.

Then when deforming the mesh, the texture will follow.

Do you know if there is a feature that would allow me to simply paint in distortions in Blender of the kind that I have introduced?

you can sculpt or use a cloth sim