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3D manipulator disappeared from object
I'm not sure what's happened here, but my 3D manipulator widget (for X, Y, and Z axis) has disappeared from my main object in Object Mode. It shows up in Edit Mode no problem, as well as every other object in Object Mode. Any ideas? Thanks.

It's because you locked your object:

D'oh. Well spotted. Didn't realise I'd done that. Thanks.


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Slowing down particles
I've tried messing around with the settings, particularly under Velocity, but I can't seem to work out how you slow down the flow of particles. I want them to rise more slower/steadier and to fade just above the tree-tops.

EDIT: Figured out how to make them stop at a certain point, so it's just a case of slowing them down. They rise too fast.

Did you turn Gravity off so they only fly with their initial velocity? Then you just need to find the Normal Slider somewhere in the particles tab and turn that down

Yep, the gravity is off and the Normal slider is as low as it'll go - 0.000

In that section of the Normal Slider: Turn everything down to 0. I would expect your particles to stop moving at all. Then try to tweak Normal or/and Z

I've literally tweaked everything - putting things to 0, 1, or as high as they'll go - nothing seems to work. o_O I'm wondering if it's because the object I'm using, which is a flat plane in the shape of a 4 pointed star, just isn't taxing enough for my PC to render out...?

Do you have any kind of force field in your scene? Is frame dropping active in the timeline?

No, no force field. Frame dropping in the timeline...?

there is a button... Hover over it to find the one with the right tooltip

Also did you make sure you were tweaking the correct particle system? It would be really silly if you had this problem because you accidentally created a second system

Okay, I've enabled Frame Dropping, but it doesn't appear to do anything in this case. Um, just the one from what I can see.

Framedropping is important if your computer cant supply the viewport with the neccessary framerate. Without Framedropping your animation would just get slower as your computer stops being able to handle it

Adjust the timestamp to .010 then lower the mass to .001 under particles physics. And Adjust the Brownian to whatever you desire... Then lower the gravity to 0... See if that helps...

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Where did the the Align selected to active go in 3.0?
In previous version of Blender this option would give the ability to centre the selected object to X Y or Z axis. In Blender 3.0 when you chose the objects they just align with each other in the centre. So what's the best method to get have this option like the old Blender?
This is from previous version of Blender:
https://ibb.co/LgGpsXh

You can still choose Object > Transform > Align Objects, then in the Operator box choose the axis and the mode (Active if this is what your want)

Hi Moonboots, where has this Operator box gone to? It use to be down the left hand side, now I cannot locate it. And When you say align objects its not in my menu, only that new option which is the: Align selected to active.

ok that's weird, I can't tell because it works fine with my Blender 3, I hope someone will understand

Is this the operator box you're referring to? https://ibb.co/fvNLqjJ

here: https://zupimages.net/up/22/07/yle4.jpg and https://zupimages.net/up/22/07/ec0n.jpg

Is that 3.0 you're on? That's weird! I don't have those options in my Blender 3.0. I had those options in my previous versions of Blender.

Ok I found the solution here, its the Addon which deactivates Blender Align objects Operator box: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/185138/blender-2-83-aling-objects-missing

oh ok so that explains your problem

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


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How to make reflective glass material with emission shader
I got a set of nodes with a gradient, and the emission shader output. I would like those cubes to be more reflective almost like glass, and to be able to control their transparency if possible. How do I set up the nodes to the emission shader?

so you want to mix Emission with Glass nodes?

Hi :). Emission shader doesn't reflect light or receive shadows. What's a real world example of your desired result?

I wanted if possible something like this:
https://ibb.co/Y25DVcb

Because Emission turns your mesh into a light, and it doesn't deal with normal surface responses, you can use an Add Shader here to add the emission effect to a Glass BSDF.

The rest is down to your lighting setup.
You can decrease Emission a little to get some translucency.


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How to animate the world scene to affect selected object
I have set up a scene, and I have animated the world position spinning, but its affecting both of the cubes. How can I make the world target only one cube, so the other one doesn't get the reflections from the rotating/animating world scene?

maybe do it in two steps, first one cube, with a transparent background, then the other one, with the rotating world scene, then combine in the video sequencer?


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image appears transparent when imported into Photoshop
When I do a render of a background, in Blender it seems 100% with its opacity, but when I import it into Photoshop I can see its transparent, the background is noticeable. What's causing this issue?

I don't see/understand the issue. Can you explain more? The 2 images look the same to me. Also when you say "seems 100%", have you actually checked in Blender that the alpha channel is really 100%?

Sorry, I made a mistake the file was saved as RGBA instead of RGB, so you if you have save as RGBA (alpha) it comes into PS with semi transparent background.


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How to get a smooth circle using Loop tool function
I already have made a circle shape mesh, but its not a perfect circle, how can I make the outer mesh a perfect circle? I try the loop tools, but it distorts the topology.

weird. can u provide blend file? i tried it and it worked for me

maybe try the To Sphere operation (shortcut Alt Shift S)

Here's the file: https://easyupload.io/zu7ohl
I tried the sphere operation, and its doing the same thing distorting the shape.


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Image reference doesn't not match output setting
I have set up my Blender output settings to 1200 x 450 pixels, and I also import my reference image which is the same dimensions 1200 x 450 pixels, but it's not the same scale as the output settings when I import it. Is there a way or setting which I can check to make it 100% accurate?
PS: The mesh seen in the viewport matches to the camera for the final output, it has been scaled accordingly.

Probably camera distance?

It's not scale, it's the camera distance as @Emir says. Moving the camera up and down (down in this case) would solve your problem. Alternatively, you can scale your reference image to match the camera borders.


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How to change the scroll bar in the outliner section
is there an option for the scroll bar in the outliner to be changed from the default grey to any other colour?

I believe you can only change it globally via Edit > Preferences > Themes tab > Scroll Bar. I think it's the 'Item' colour that you need to change.

Thanks for that, I was so confused which one to change afraid if I tamper with the colours I might ruin the UI, but this was it. Cheers!

No problem. In fact it's mentioned by Pablo in the latest Blender Today LIVE video about upcoming changes in the next Blender version.


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What is this dot? Not fireflies question
I fat fingered a key, saw it show up; how do I get rid of it?  What is it? It shows like the orange dot that marks the last selected object,  but it's white; orange dot is still doing it's thing on other objects. ty.

it doesn't become orange when you select it?

Yeah it does   (Comments have to be 15 characters to post (filler to achieve that lol))  EDIT: No it doesn't lol

It may be the origin of an object that has no more vertices in it, for example maybe you deleted all the vertices of an object in Edit mode, but didn't delete the object itself in Object mode, so the object itself still exists even if it has no more vertices, and its origin is still displayed. So select it and press X to delete.

Isolate it - I think it's a vertex or origin of a bounding box sort of. You have a lot of available layers. Move it and check the outliner to see what's active. Then, look at properties and check the dimensions against the size of the bounding box. You could make the Bounding Box visible in the Data Tab (I think) or Object Tab by controlling the maximum draw. See the box and object take the same size.
In Edit Mode, clean up by deleting loose geometry or vertices to see if that does it (assuming the Bounding Box idea isn't yielding any happy). Report back!
EDIT or Ensure the origin is with the geometry. [T] option. The Properties will report Location based on an object's origin; if there's a big disparity between what you see and what's listed, that's probably it. Another tip-off is you select an object most of the time by its origin.

Got it,  I was able to select it by clicking on it (who knew lol). Wasn't anything visible in my scene though.  Outliner says it was a cylinder.  I couldn't scale it small enough or large enough to actually see it though.  Shrugs  it's gone though; deleted it.  Don't know... :) Thanks though.


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How to display backfaces in black or other color in Blender 2.8?
Backfaces always appear transparent. Is it possible to display them in black or another color? Different from the color of the front faces, of course.
Turn on Face orientation is not an option, as it fills up front faces too.

You can use Geometry node's Backfacing output to mix different shaders. If it's only for preview you can set up different outputs for Cycles and EEVEE. You can set it up so it only works with EEVEE(that is what you get while in LookDev mode), but will not be rendered with Cycles.

It can be done much easier if the "Face orientation" item is enabled!
In the viewport setup, there is a "Face orientation back" item where you can adjust the color and transparency. I advise you to make the color completely transparent on the "Face orientation front" item.


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Duplicate along curve without transformation in Blender 2.80
I looked at the lessons for version 2.7. In version 2.8 I cannot find the Dupliсate tab in the object properties and the Frames button in it. Does anyone know how to duplicate along curve in Blender 2.8?


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Weird UV artifacts in final render
In preview render (with enabled RenderLayer) it looks ok:

But in actual final render something strange happening with UV map:

I tried to reunwrap mesh, change sample count but result is still the same
What should I do?

Problem's solved! I've forgot about hidden array modifier, which is appeard in render and overlapped wall :)


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How can I make this type of pattern on a rounded surface
I was browsing the internet, and saw this triangle shape around a cylinder shape.  I  use a Boolean modifier to make cuts around the shape, and get bad shading because its triangles. So what method could I use to make this section indicated in Red.
I did the pattern of triangles, then added solidify modifier. I try Boolean, but Blender crashes.

Make it flat, array and simple deform modifier with bend option, then weld.

There's also a procedural material tutorial from Ryan King which might give you the result you want and doesn't require a high poly count: https://youtu.be/78fay5ZVACs.

Create a 6 vertex circle, Fill Type > Triangle Fans, add two triangles on its right:

Select all, inset the individual faces (ii) and remove the inset faces, add some loopcuts:

Array on X and Z, don't forget to enable the Merge option:

Give it a Simple Deform modifier (Bend mode, on Z, a bit more than 360°), also a Weld modifier so that the first and last instance merge:

Put a Solidify modifier before the Weld to give thickness to the object, shade smooth and auto smooth to get a good shading:

Mega Thanks Moonboots!


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font is not displaying correctly
I have chosen a font to display in the viewport, and when I type the numbers, the number 9 and 6 have incorrect mesh. Is this Blender causing this fault or is it the font itself?
The font is: Bahnschrift

The mesh is not incorrect, it's the font that has this overlapping curves. Some programs interpret overlapping vectors as "holes".

As @Gordon said. Afaik Blender works best with *.otf files, Bahnschrift on Windows is *.ttf

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52825/svg-curve-incorrectly-rendered/52875#52875

OK, thank you for the insight, I'll keep in mind to use Open Type Fonts, to avoid any problems.

Variable fonts, even when they come with static TTF files, seem especially prone to this issue because they're intentionally designed with multiple overlapping elements and self intersections.
If you can't find an alternative format, you can fix this yourself with Font Forge.
Steps:

Download Font Forge (free and open source)
Open the font file you want to use in Blender
Select all with Edit > Select > Select All
Remove overlap with Element > Overlap > Remove Overlap
Generate font from File > Generate Fonts…

I used the default TTF options when generating fonts. It takes all of 10 seconds to open a font file, process, and generate the patched file. Even easier if you macro the keyboard shortcuts (in MacOS that's Command + A, Command + ⇧ Shift + O, Command + ⇧ Shift + G).
You can also open each glyph individually if you want to confirm or make manual fixes to an especially problematic character, but in my limited experience, it's not necessary. The bulk process above worked well for me on files from Google Fonts.

Many thanks to user chojnicki and their similar question/answer for pointing me in the right direction.


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How to add soft edges on emerging animating object
I'm animating a simple cube shape, emerging from the floor. As it's revealing going in the Z axis, the edges of the cube look very sharp. Is there a way to make look more natural for the cube to have a feathering-Blurred edge effect to it?
Image A is from Blender, and Image B is from Photoshop for demonstration example:

You could give to your ground a Volume material, or a Surface material with some math for the transparency. Did you try one of those ?

Please elaborate more on this method you're suggesting, with some screenshots. This technique you're referring to, I haven't seen.

You can use an Input > Ambient Occlusion node that you plug into a Color Ramp, if the Only Local option is disabled it will take into account the contact of your object with other objects. In Eevee don't forget to enable the Ambient Occlusion option in the Render panel:

Thank you kindly for the explanation and image example.


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Why is the Angle different between layout and modelling
I have place an object in my scene, and the angle seems different between layout and modelling. I don't know what I have done. I try to reset the camera, also press 5 on number pad but It's looking odd in modelling mode.

Numpad 5 should work, could you please share your file?

It looks as if one view is in Perspective and one in Orthographic view. As @moonboots says, hit Numpad-5 or the grid icon to the right of the viewport below the camera one to toggle between the two views.

The Viewport 'View' camera is region-context dependent. Both your views are perspective, but one appears to have a much longer focal-length than the other, tending towards orthographic:

You can set the 'View' focal-length to your preference for each workspace.

How on earth this happened I don't know, but that was it, the focal length was different. Kind regards.


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Same material from Blenderkit gives different result from EEVEE and Cycles
I have applied a texture from Blenderkit to the default cube. The lights and world is the same.
When I render in EEVEE the material is more visible than Cycles render, the material is almost not visible in Cycles. Is there something I need to tweak to get the same results like in EEVEE?

Hello could you please share your file? Don't forget to pack the images

Here's the Blender file:

it reminds me this question. I'm not sure why your material is so complicated for a simple brushed metal, I propose a simpler one in the linked page.
As for the difference between Eevee and Cycles it's probably because Anisotropic (in Blender 4 it's now in the Principled BSDF under Specular) works in Cycles but not in Eevee, so in Cycles you'll have a deformation of the reflection that you won't have in Eevee:

Thanks for looking at my file, but its not my material. Its from BlenderKit- Add-on.

OK but I gave the probable explanation, the difference comes from the Anisotropic

Thanks for your help as always Moonboots!


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Rendering animation with Cycles doesn't export the emission
I have set up in the compositor window the nodes to for my object to have emission applied to it.
When it renders the animation (using Cycles),the emission is not included. I have googled and not found a solution for this problem I'm facing.

can u provide blend file? and tbh the render result looks like it has emission?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/260675/glare-alpha-not-saved-to-png-file https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/164895/rendering-with-a-luminous-outline-on-transparent-background/ https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/222837/blender-does-not-set-the-alpha-channel-correctly https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/177022/glare-effect-transperancy-problem/177030#177030 and more https://blender.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=png%20glare

I guess what you mean is when you save the render with transparency it seems to have no emission, because the render result itself has as @Chris already remarked. The reasons for this are all given in the various links provided here. Just as a simple solution: never render your images with the glow combined with the image. Set Mix in the Glare node to 1 so it only outputs the glow. In Blender you can add it over the original image and control the amount with the factor. For use in other softwares where you want to keep the transparency, save the image without glow and the glow separately.

This is if you do not want to handle EXRs. Save the glow image with disabled alpha channel, i.e in the PNG options "RGB" instead of "RGBA" to have the glow on a black background. In software like Photoshop you can then add the glow to layers below. However, this does not work if you want to keep transparency on underlying layers because the black background replaces transparency. So in order to have a glow with transparent background, use the RGB channels as masks to fill empty layers with red, green and blue and add them together. A bit too complex for comments, but the question is closed.

The PNG won't keep the effects that exist over transparency. You need to find a trick, a basic one would be to render your image over a black background:

Then use these images in your image or video software in a layer that will be over your background in Add mode:

Why not use a format that support transparent emission. Like EXR?

Here's the File:
I see what you mean moonboots, but my file has animation with Boolean, which reveals each object which has emission. Like airport runway lights which animate on off.
https://i0.wp.com/aerosavvy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Airport-Lighting-Featured-Image.jpg?fit=905%2C509&ssl=1

Hi there Leander, EXR doesn't come with alpha background:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmb5HRU1cUo

I couldn't make EXR work either, have you been able? @Leander

@blender breath so maybe you should mix the background directly in the Compositor?

Just did a test. Both (PNG! and EXR) work just fine. Are you viewing the images incorrectly maybe? Does GIMP possibly just not import the images correctly. (I confirmed the correct channel data in nuke and blender independently.)

@Leander it works in Blender, what does it give if you export and try to open with Photoshop, Krita, Da Vinci or whatever app? And if it works, what are the saving options?

Photoshop is mainly for image editing, photography or painting. So it will not show us only the RGB data, but combine it with the alpha. (Like premultiplication.) Choose "As alpha Channel" for the EXR when importing it into photoshop. Compositing Software (blender, nuke, natron, resolve) can show your r, g, b and a separately by default - I didn't change anything.

OK, thanks I'll note that, I can't test in DaVinci or Photoshop because I don't have them

@lLander, can you also please test to see if it works with After effects? Can you do a screen recording so I can see your export settings from Blender, and how it works in another software, how the emission is imported. Thanks.

@moonboots, unfortunately I need to export into another software as PNG alpha background. So Ill have to do a work around regarding the emission. Thank you.

@blender breath So have you tried the kind of trick I show?

Yes, thank you, it was the closest to getting a better result. I hope in the near future the developers could possibly find a solution for this issue, or maybe an add-on.


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How to shrink this cross mesh on this object
I'm trying to shrink-wrap this cross object on this complex shape with curves. It shrink-wraps but the result is bad. Is there another method to do this?
I also tried offset, it does shrinkwrap but again the result is incorrect.

you will get a better result by

using subdivision surface before
use project on surface

but you will have problems in that area:

Thanks for that Chris, but the result was messy. So the UV mapped worked better in this situation. Cheers.


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How to copy animation data without affecting the position
I want to copy the animation data of each of my letters, without affecting the position.
I'm linking the letter e to the letter T, its animating perfectly but it's snapping to the position where the T is, and I want the letter e to be next to the T.

Yes, I need the e letter to fly in like the T letter, which spins around 360 and also affects the scale., so how can I do this easily without having manually to do it for each letter?

i would work with empties or animation nodes or geometry nodes, tbh

one solution is to create an empty and give that empty just the scale and rotation animation.
Then click on your object (letter) and link the animation data to that empty.
example:

here the empty cube has rotation + scale animation.
Then i linked the cubes to the empties animation.
blend file:

Here's my Blender file, I've missed something... As you can see the Empty cube is animating, I have linked each letters origin to its centre, but its doing the same thing, the letters are collapsing all in the centre of the world.

https://ibb.co/3TrCYc9

first delete your location animation of your empty, as i wrote, this will be linked to. So if you link your objects to an empty WITH location animation, it will be copied to. here your empty animation data: [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/kcg4W.png

second: apply scale + rotation  of your letters

third: make sure your objects origin points are all in the middle of the letters so that it looks good when it rotates

fourth: select your letters, shift select your empty -> ctrl -l -> link animation data.

another hint: you should start your animation of your empty with scale = 1, else the animation will "jump" -> result: https://i.sstatic.net/GH671.gif


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Substance painter visible lines appear on mesh
I have UV unwrapped my object, and imported it into Substance Painter. I wanted to test to see if the UV unwrapping is correct, so I added a UV grid to it, to see how the mesh is unwrapped, so it seems the quads look proportionally unwrapped. When I import it into Pt I can see Tile on my model, any texture I apply to it, looks like tiles.

It is always better to keep UV map continuity ... your UV faces are organised nicely in a grid, but scattered randomly across object surface.
Like here is used Lightmap Pack unwrap method (seems to be your case).
In this screen I plugged UVmap node directly to Material Output to let you see how individual faces in UV are randomly placed in UV - zero continuity.

Try to keep neiborgh faces as much as possible. For Sphere with cube topology you can use default UV map ... if you really need Lightmap Pack (or you want it for space efficiency) create an UV map (unwrap) from Cube ...

Than Subdivide and apply (or if you fave subdivided cube use Cast > Sphere modifier) ...

Mainly, for the Lightmap Pack alggorhytm is good idea to set some Margine ... without that it will (and seems to be your case) generates a lines in between, because of pixel interpolation.
Pixels at edges between two UV faces are contaminated by values of neighbour face placed somewhere else at object surface.
This lines are not visible in color, but especially in Normal or Bump maps (that seems to be your case too).

Thank you for helpful explanation and example!


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How to make this Gradient effect decline fade on a mesh
How can I make this effect on a mesh which seems like there is a sloping gradient. But I need for the face to be flat and not on a skewing angle. on the left is what I'm trying to achieve, its done in photoshop. And on the right is the attempt I'm making in Blender.

I Inset top face of a cube, subdivide (e.g. using ✲ CtrlR to only subdivide on one axis) for better curvature if not using linear falloff (which I'll actually use here), select the subdivided faces of the inset again, and I inset it again, but this time make sure to not scale it down. ✲ CtrlI invert selection, H hide to avoid affecting that geometry by the next step, O enable proportional editing, select an edge on one side and G move it down (might want to increase the influence radius with $\color{#888}{█}\color{green}⬇\color{#888}{█}$ mouse wheel down). ⎇ AltH reveal hidden geometry:

Move your light source beyond the lowered side, increase the light's radius, make sure you have enough samples:

Cycles 1024 samples, 'sharp' falloff and area lamp:

Thanks for this, video recording helped so much! Cheers!

Hi. Can you tell me how you make such long gif files weighing no more than 2 mb?

@ugorek There are many tricks, in this case I actually just recorded with ShareX and was only barely above limit (~2.06 MB something like that). So I used https://ezgif.com/optimize and just decreased compression to minimum. There is automatic removal of frames and manual removal of frames, you can crop, scale down… I often render to PNG series, use http://apngasm.sourceforge.net/ to make APNG, compress with https://tinypng.com/ , it doesn't work on BSE then, so I use ezgif.com to convert to GIF. Also, when recording, make sure you have as much static, flat color as possible.


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Converting centimetres to pixels to render image
I have a question who Blender displays and renders the size output of an object. In Photoshop I have a canvas 500 x 500 pixels, and my image is 300 x 300 pixels. If I convert pixels to cm, I get 7.9375 cm. When I select my cube in Blender, and type in the values, the cube becomes really small in size, also my Blender canvas is 500 x 500. when I import the rendered cube in PS, its the same miniature size I see in my blender viewport. So since the conversion of pixels to cm is correct, then why does it not render it according to specific size dimensions.
The tiny cube is the result when importing it into PS.

Inside Blender, there is no thing as 'Object Size in pixels'. Every objects' size is calculated and stored in "Blender Units" (Assume 1 Blender Unit = 1 Meter).
The "Canvas" aka Render Size however, is set in px, because this is becoming an actual image. But this has nothing to do with Blender's internal length measures, so there is no point in

setting your canvas to cm
setting your image plane to px

For printing your render on paper, you need to choose a real-world "Print Size" and a "Print Resolution". Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_per_inch
Combine the print size with the resolution and you get the amount of pixels that are needed to 'fill' the paper at a certain resolution.
You can do it with this little python script. It uses Millimeter as length unit:

Just copy/paste the following code into blender's internal Text Editor, change your print size variables (and resolution if you like), then hit Run Script:
import bpy

# Specify your desired resolution and print size in x and y
dpi = 300
mm_x = 210
mm_y = 297

########  NO EDIT BELOW THIS LINE!  #############

# calculate dots per millimeter (25,4mm = 1 Inch),
# since the print size is also given in mm.
dpmm = dpi/25.4

# multiply print size and resolution; this will be the new resolution
new_x = mm_x * dpmm
new_y = mm_y * dpmm

# set the new values in the Output Properties UI
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x = int(new_x)
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y = int(new_y)

To wrap this all up: You now know the print size in mm and in px and you know the scaling factor by which your image plane (blue) is smaller than the 'canvas' (grey). Here the blue plane has a scale of 0.5 and the grey one has the default scale of 1.
Luckily, when the Camera's Orthographic Scale is set to 2, the render area is exactly equal to the size of a default cube (or Plane) with a default scale of 1 - so even if there is no 'canvas plane', we can still assume that an image plane, scaled down by some factor x, must have a final rendered pixel size equal to x * render_size
For example, if the canvas is 1000px, the blue plane has 0.5 scale factor, so it must be 500px.

The size of the objects in a picture is not initially tied to the image's pixel size. Instead, this relationship (DPI) is used in printing, and it is determined by the dimensions of the image and how it will eventually be printed on paper.
But, in a camera you can set up a value called Orthographic scale:

You can try to play with this value to get a result that you want.
Also you can set a different DPI in picture to have this match.

Thanks for your reply, but I already have these values in my orthographic scale:
https://ibb.co/tLrGPbK
Regarding the DPI you mention, can you please upload a screenshot what you're referring to?

Blender doesn't care about DPI, you have no ability to set it in Blender. You can set this value in any software related to printing


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Can I send the BGE image, with alpha layer to other SW like openCV or OBS studio?
I would like to overlay 3D video with tranparency generated by the BGE over a real-time video.
So, I supposed that I have to access to the images buffer(with RGBA pixel) and send it to openCV or OBS. But is it possible?
Thank you in advance,
Arnaud


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Part of hair children is missing
I have this bird model with hair particles.
All the hair is looking okay except this bit on the left.
The hair particles are going outwards but the linked children seem to go inwards or something.
The normals are correct. Im using mirror modifier with use modifier stack enabled.
any guesses?


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Blender vertex weight table
Very frustrated with blenders latest weightpainting. Can't get it to work.
Never been a fan of weightpainting anyway. Where can I find the weight table in blender 2.8? Maybe that works


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can't comb hair down
I have this human model and I want to put hairs on it.
I want the hair to be laying/hanging on to his forhead but for some reason the hairs are unable to do that. it looks like there is some invisible wall or something where the hair can't go through.
maybe something to do with collision or something but I cant figure it out.
rotating the individual hairs also doesnt work.
Please check out my .blend file and try to rotate or comb the hairs down because I can't (blender 2.8)

Turns out its just a simple option you have to tick off.


text:
Eevee render cuts off back drop

I know it has something to do with screen space refraction but I cant find it with a few google searches.
Behind this window is a png backdrop with alpha mask and a plane with an emission shader.
When the camera slide along the backdrop fades grey.
How can I fix this?

Try to turn on overscan in the Properties tab>render>film.

That seemed to do the trick. Thanks!


text:
Blender or smooth normals of intersecting meshes
Is there an easy way of smoothing the normals of an intersection of 2 meshes (1 object) in the shader properties? I know it can be done with modeling but it could be a real time safer if it can be done some other way.
Any tips are welcome

If they're separate objects, you can use a data transfer modifier to copy custom normals, generally on nearest face interpolated.  Normals are vertex data, so the closer that vertices are to the join, the better result you'll have.  You can also try using a bevel node in your material, which will try to fake some smoothing of the normals.

Well its one object but different meshes inside the object. But that means I have to edit the mesh and its topology to make it 1 mesh?

If you make it one mesh, the problem will solve itself.  If you separate by parts, you can use data transfer like I said.


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Ocean plane shader with transparency
I've made this ocean scene following a tutorial.
I want the shader to be transparent so I can see sharks or whatever though the water.
But adding transmission doesn't seem to work. And since it's a plane I also can't use volume absorption (I think)
Any suggestions?
My scene:

Reference:

In the reference, there is an ocean floor. Tried that?

yes but still cant see through the transmission pricinpled shader

Could you please share the tutorial? I've been looking for one like this.

This isn't so much about Blender as physics.

Real ocean water is very light. Like almost white.
Aim your camera more downwards, to decrease reflections.
Add a shallow seabed to better control your ocean color.

Ahh yes changing the diffuse color from black to light and adding the seabed did the trick. Thank you!! Also isnt water rougness just zero? maybe put 0.3 in transmission rougness makes more sense. But maybe I'm wrong

You're right, the roughness should probably be lower, but since there's a rough bump map, it doesn't make a difference here :).

Also maybe you know this but, why does changing the base color change the way it looks? I thought transmissive materials ignore the base color?

They don't ignore it :). Transmission is not transparency. It works the same as glass/water and gives a slight color tint. It also reflects environment colors, even when base color is pure white.

To add transparency, push the "Transmission" slider towards the right under the "Principled BDSF" shader (The default shader). Make sure you are on Cycles.

Hello :). While this is not bad advice, I'm pretty sure the material in question is already at full Transmission. Also, transmission and transparency are slightly different things :).

yes it already was at full transmission!


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Export Fluid Simulation
I am currently abroad only with a Laptop.
I want to render a few simulations, my brother was so generous to offer his PC, he is several hundred miles away sadly.
What is the best way to export the simulation data so that he can render it for me? Its only 330MB, so that shouldnt be a problem.
Thanks!

The fluid sim stores its cache data in a separate file sequence, with the path specified on the domain object. You'll want to send your brother both your .blend file, and this cache sequence. He may need to adjust the path to the cache in the .blend file depending on where he places them.

I think simply sending the .blend file to your brother and having him open it in blender and pressing the render button would work, although there may be a better way.

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

authors: Бешеная Лиса


text:
Vertex Color not showing up in Cycles Render
very strange problem:
A SpeedTree model comes with vertex colors for shading control.
These vertex colors show up in Shaded Mode / EEVEE Render, but disappear when switching to Cycles. They are neither rendered in color, nor are they being used in my shader which I made for color variation.
This is a consistent problem with 2.83 and 2.90.1.
Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

I also attached the file below, maybe something is off there?
https://filehorst.de/d/dlymjper

Update: This is due to the naming of the vertex color set. Naming it something else than "color" fixes the issue.


text:
Cycles lighting Principled BSDF differently on CPU and GPU
working on a scene right now, where I used Substance Painter for a simple plane and plugged all my maps into the principled shader.
Turns out the scene is lit differently when rendering on CPU or GPU.
That results in flickering which is not tolerable.
The scene is exactly the same, I saved it and only changed the render device.
The scene uses filmic color management and seems fine otherwise, only the objects with the principled shader are affected.
I had to censor the character, sorry.
Any help would be appreciated.

OK I found the answer, really stupid mistake.
I had direct light clamping on 10 and it did really weird things where light sources would be randomly clamped out.
I could re-render the same frame several times and achieve different results each time.
I just turned it off now.

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


text:
Distribute points of loop evenly with Python
I added a method to an addon to create a ring around an object by drawing a line which is then projected onto the object like this:

The algorithm is not perfect but works. The only thing that is missing is to distribute the vertices of the ring evenly (same distances between the vertices), I think it could be done in a post processing step.
Does somebody know an approach or has an algorithm for that?

The looptools addon has an operator for that, it's under bpy.ops.mesh.looptools_circle maybe you can copy the behavior ?

I think the ring is draw by gpu module with random geometry (like all triangle). Draw circle dot in opengl is hard, can consider draw square.

is your ring always a perfect circle?

@Chris No. I draw a line then a circle with this diameter and then project the point onto the mesh in the direction of a center that I calculated before.

@Gorgious Ah ok thx, will have a look. But it is not a perfect circle, just a ring, but will see.

@Jayanam oh in this case you want the space tools I think. bpy.ops.mesh.looptools_space  Check out the tools in the n panel in edit mode after enabling the looptools addon https://i.sstatic.net/Tav8R.png

Since moving the vertices around changes the original shape, a better result than loop tools space could be achieved, but it's not trivial. I think machine learning could be used here, to find the most optimal arrangement of vertices, given some formulas calculating score based on the number of vertices (either the lower the better or the closer to x the better), as well as minimum, maximum, average (mean etc.) distances from the original ring. Perhaps also the distances between vertices could affect score if you're willing to give them some tolerance.


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I read that it is possible to hide panels and tabs on Blender´s interface
I´ve read on that now it´s possible to hide panels in Blender to simplify the interface. Project Blender 101 cites this although there´s no links to check the code.
On https://developer.blender.org/ I have searched for any example that could help me simplify Blender 2.79a interface. For example, I´d like to hide the dynamics tab property (on the property panel on the right) and also on the tab dynamics on the Tools panel to the left.
How can I do that? Any help would be welcomed.
Thanks.

Blender 101 is an upcoming initiative to simplify Blender interface for future versions. It is only for 2.8+ and is not yet developed, even in current nightlies. As far as I know, once it is out it will require Python coding to create templates/workspaces, so it is not something trivial end users could do at a press of a button, as far as I know.

Blender 101 at this point is not much more than an idea and an internet platform to discuss it. Nothing official and nothing to download. Also remember that a somewhat "simplified" interface might make things more difficult in the end. Especially if you are a beginner and want to watch (and believe me, you do) a lot of video tutorials.

I would recommend buying Pie Menu Editor, It's an addon that lets you customize a lot of blender's UI, You can hide panels and even set them to be toggled. Plus it does like 1001 other awesome things :P


text:
How can I make the rendered image to look like what the character looks like in object mode?
I basically want the rendered image to look like what the character looks like in object mode. How can I achieve this? Also one of my characters eyes is white while the other is solid, and his hair wont render. Here are some pictures to show what I'm talking about.

File

Why not simply capture the OpenGL render from thew viewport?

HI, if you can, share your file through http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/, then edit your post and paste the provided link

Hey bro if this is what you are looking for the solution is simple

navigate to the outliner tab

Make sure that every object in the scene is enabled for render (make sure that the camera icon beside every object is not grey in color )

I hope this solves your problem. :)

Hey that looks great I will do that now, thanks!


text:
Double face curve when using profile and bevel

I have a curve which I want to use as a profile. I also created a mesh object (not closed) similar to an open cylinder.
When I draw a new curve and apply the curve to taper object, and then apply the mesh as the bevel object I get a curve object with double faces.
What parameter should I adjust to fix it?
The curve below it´s how it should look correctly. (Second curve is just a mesh representation, not actual editable curve).

To be clear, is that mesh near the scene center the bevel object? Bevel objects need no depth: they're a path and shouldn't have faces. Also, this kind of thing can arise from using mirror modifiers on an object that is already symmetrical.

You´re correct. I solved this with a plain flat surface. Double faces were removed.


text:
reduce diffuse light on shadow catcher (Cycles Render)
Is there a way to reduce the passive/diffuse shadow only for the shadow catcher? I'm using Cycles Render.
Not that I don't like the cool diffuse shadow, but even for this simple cube render below I have to zoom too far out to remove sharp shadow edges at the edges of the image.
Render:

Here's the basic file I used: https://cl.ly/c9c748770cc7

try to reduce size to 0 where sun light has option max bounces below,but reduce size of the shadow of the sun to 0

I've originally used a “Hemi” light, but even when switching to sun and reducing the size to 0 doesn't change things. Though I couldn't find the option for the shadow size. Where can I find this?


text:
Select faces with crossing normals
I'm working on a geology surface model, and I'm trying to find an automated way to identify cracks, rifts or crevasses. One way I thought of is to identify faces with normals crossing at a certain opposed angle (+- 180°). Of course the value of this angle is important, as is the distance threshold (ultimately, most normals are probably crossing each other).
Does anyone have an idea how to do that? I suppose it would need some scripting as it's a quite specific problem...

You could try hooking up a Pointiness node to a ColorRamp. If you're working in the experimental 2.8, the Ambient Occlusion node does exactly what you're after, and you can ramp it, as well. In addition, if you check the 'inside' box, you'll see where are your strongest ridges and outcrops are.
Since it is an experimental version, I'd suggest saving a copy of your model when you're finished modeling it, and uploading the copy into 2.8 just to bake out the AO shader as a map to use in your original.
You can also bake out the AO directly in 2.79, but this requires world setting and futzing around with lights, plus your results are usually very noisy under 2k resolution. The shader in 2.8 is both simpler and faster, plus it looks much cleaner. If you want to go for the 2.79 option, the wiki actually has a good tutorial on it, and you can find it all over YouTube.
Please Take Notice: Currently, the Ambient Occlusion node 2.8 only works in Cycles, not Eevee. As you start in Eevee by default, you'll need to switch your render engine, now located under the render settings tab.

In 2.79, I found an Ambient Occlusion checker in the Shadow Properties tab (only in Cycles, as you said). Changing the strength, it really does identify the cracks. I'll try the node solution too.


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Motion tracking video will not appear in render
I'm trying to do some simple motion tracking in Blender and all I need is for the video I imported to show in the render.
This is how I was told the nodes are supposed to be set up. I have my movie clip and my rendered layers.

But the render looks like this... I really would appreciate some help

Enable the Transparent option under Properties > Render (Camera Icon) > Film to get your cube layer rendered properly. BTW: Suggest take the [tour] to learn about how this site works, cheers.

THANK YOU SO MUCHH

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/38452/cycles-not-rendering-image-or-movie-clip-used-as-background-in-the-viewport/38464#38464, https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/38333/background-image-shows-in-front-of-3d-objects-not-behind-them/38334#38334, https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/49049/my-objects-are-semi-transparent-and-not-one-behind-the-other-in-the-compositor/49137#49137


text:
Blender Motion creation
Is it possible for math function to be created in python, that could be used in the designing of animation? For example using sin or cosine for the motion of the bones .
Is this what most animators do when they create some of there animation or are they all using GUI to produce the desired result?

I don't know how to use it myself, but I've heard there's an addon called Animation Nodes that does this.

Thank you, I think this will work for my projects.


text:
Rigging a wheel with multiple parts?
I imported a Martian rover with the wheels having multiple parts. There are 6 wheels in total and they seem to be "connected" in some way (if you click one part of the wheel all the other parts on the other wheels get highlighted too). How am I supposed to rig this?
Here is the link to the model: https://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/nmss-sev

I'm afraid you'll have to re-organise the model quite a bit.
I would start by hiding everything but the wheels. Then select all the wheel parts (A) and join them together (Ctrl-J). This will give you one object consisting of all the wheels.
Now switch to edit mode, select a wheel assembly (B or C) (make sure you can reach all the vertices, "limit selection to visible" should be unchecked, light colour) and use P→"Selection".
Repeat until you have 6 separate objects.
Then, for each of these wheel assemblies, you'll have to set the origin to the center of the wheels. Easiest (for me): in object mode, select each wheel and use "object"→"transform"→"origin to geometry" (or animating them is going to be tricky).
Then you'll have to do the same for the wheel supports. Think about how different parts move in relation to the others, that'll give you a good indication on how to combine them (Parent-child relations).
While you are working on such projects, use layers to organise the parts and hide parts you are not working on (by hiding the layer).

Sorry if this annoys you but I'm kind of new to blender. I got to the "Transform" part but I can't find origin to geometry. Could you provide a picture of it?

Nevermind I got it.

That is the sort of task an armature is good for. While you can rig all of the vehicle pieces to one armature, you will probably find it easier if you join it into one mesh object, at least making the wheels one object or each set of wheels one object.
There is a T-Joint in between each pair of wheels, this axle can be assigned to one bone and the wheels attached to it to another bone. With the wheel bone a child of the axle, it will move with the axle and still be able to rotate on its own.

You should use snapping to position the bones in relation to the vertices it will control. Use ⇧ ShiftS to snap the cursor to selection and selection to cursor.

Select the vertices at the top of the tube and snap cursor to selected.
Add a bone to the armature, this will be created at the cursor so is aligned with the top of the axle housing.
Select the two lower ends of the axle and snap cursor to selected, this places the cursor in the lower centre of the axle.
Select the opposite end of the bone and snap selection to cursor.
Extrude a new bone from the end of that to use for the wheels. As the parent bone was snapped to the centre of the axle housing, this bone is aligned with the centre of the wheels.
Repeat for each set of wheels.

Vertex groups are the connection between a bone and the vertices, by assigning vertices to a vertex group called Wheel_Front.L they will move together with a bone that has the same name.

Add an Armature modifier to the model and set it's armature property.
With the mouse over the axle press L to select the linked vertices of the axle and assign them to a vertex group matching the bone name.
Press H to hide the selected vertices so you can easily select all the disconnected vertices for the wheel.
Press Z to go into wireframe view and B to start border select mode, then drag the selection rectangle around the wheel vertices, this part will be easier if it is all joined into one object.
Assign these vertices to a vertex group matching the bone name.
Press ⎇ AltH to unhide the hidden vertices.

To make animating easier, you may want to add some constraints to the bones, a limit rotation can be used to limit the bones rotation to the one axis you want to use.
 This is a one wheel example used for the above images.
You can do the same thing for other parts of the model, like the doors, lights, radio dishes...


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Inside glass not the same color as the exterior glass
Is there a way to make the glass on the inside of my interior the same color as the glass on the outside? They are the same mesh but for some reason they are both different colors. The glass is blue when outside but see through when inside.

Your glass node has white color so any color you see is coming from the Glossy node that has blueish tint and your sky. If you want realistic glass, you only need the glass node. Glass and Glossy materials are going to reflect the light and color of the environment. If you want a surface that is the same color regardless of the environment (not realistic) use Transparent and Diffuse nodes instead.

I removed the glossy node but the color still is not the same inside.

You are probably still using glass node which also has glossy aspect that reflects light. Use transparent.


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Mesh axis wrong
Wanted to move mesh on X axis, but the X axis is diagonal for some reason.
Any help would be appreciated.

Maybe you switched to the "wrong" transform orientation

.. to expand..  if you mean you want to translate along the local X of the object, select 'Local' as the transform orientation, hit 'G' 'X' and 'X' again. The first X gives you global X, the second X gives you the X of the selected transform orientation.

Yeah that does not work for some reason.


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Weird lighting artifact in render

Tried turning up maximum bounces to 12, still there but less.

You might want to try changing the Ray Visibility settings instead.  (Although turning up the maximum bounces might be better in cases where you need these settings turned on)
The two settings that I turn off to help me get rid of these artifacts are Glossy and Transmission.

You would find these settings under Your light source > Object > Cycles Settings.
With both settings on:

With transmission off:

With both transmission and glossy off:

Hopefully this helps you! :D


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Don't know how to change distance for mist creation
I followed this tutorial on how to create mist in blender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxNeMMZs_sM
I have this dome that will be where the camera is pointed at, but for some reason the mist is always appearing on top of it even though I set it so that the mist would appear behind it.

Any help would be appreciated.

In your screenshots you seem to have enabled the Mist pass but aren't using it in the compositor - you're using the Depth instead.

Whenever I plug in mist instead of depth nothing shows up.

Mist returns a value between 0.0 and 1.0 so you can feed that directly into your Mix ‘Fac’ socket - so shouldn’t need those Maths nodes. From your screenshot you have mist configured to vary from 1m to 500m so check that it matches you scene scale. The ‘Clamp’ on those Maths nodes might cause you a problem too - as it stands the Divide will return only betwee 0.0 and 1.0 (as it’s clamped) so the clamped Subtract of 0.7 can only return beteen 0.0 and 0.3 (since 1.0 - 0.7 = 0.3) which will be limiting your maximum mist when trying to base it on Depth.

Could we take this into live chat? Whenever I turn off the clamps the colors invert.

Can’t really chat as only limited internet (most of my Blending is offline while travelling) but I’ll try and write an answer to explain. However, the Clamp on the last Math node should remain (since that stops the Fac being out of range) - the one on the Divide will be the main problem.

Here are two ways to produce a mist effect in the compositor.
Mist Pass
Simply enable the Mist pass in the Render Layers. You can then adjust the depth of the mist in the World settings as in the screenshot in your question. ie,

To use the Mist pass you simply use the Mist render layer output as the Factor of a Mix node to mix between your rendered image and the mist color :

To adjust the mist you need to adjust the Mist Pass settings in the World properties and re-render the scene. You could get limited adjustability by adjusting the Mist output using Maths nodes or similar before using it in the factor but it's limited to the range of mist in your original settings (eg, if the mist ends at 500m then there's no way of adjusting it further than that). You're generally best just adjusting the Mist Pass settings and re-rendering.
Depth Pass
An alternative is to use the raw Depth pass and manipulate it using Maths nodes or similar to get the desired mist. This can be achieved as follows :

Here the Divide maths node re-scales the Depth - we need to convert the raw depth so that the desired depth of mist corresponds to the mathematical range of 0.0 to 1.0 to use in a Mix node. Adjust the divisor to get the desired depth. The Subtract node allows you to adjust the distance to the start of the mist.
Note that the Divide node is set to not Clamp but the Subtract is set to Clamp. The Subtract set to Clamp is to ensure that the value passed to the Factor is always within the range 0.0 to 1.0 - otherwise strange effects can occur since the compositor nodes do not automatically clamp the factors (as Cycles material nodes do). However, Clamping the Divide node would skew the calculation and can cause undesired effects - such as the mist not increasing to maximum value at the far distance of its range.


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Weird shadow effect
There are weird shadows on my model and I have no idea why.
I thought it was because there was no lighting inside the model, but when I added in lights the problem still continued to persist.

Could you explicitate which are the weird shadows?

Those black areas near the bottom of the glass dome.

That's a smoothing artifact, caused by the pronounced angle on the border of the glass. You can check Autosmooth in Mesh/Normals to get rid of it.

Note that Autosmmoth is a render trick (as well as Smooth shading), it doesn't actually modify the mesh. So for some cases, it won't work well. As an alternative, you can use a Edgesplit modifier instead : it will physically cut the edges, instead of simply adjusting the normals.

Thank you! This was bugging me for a few days and I was clueless on how to fix it.


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Would it be possible to improve camera_fit_coords in my zoom method with a generator?
I'm trying to improve my zoom_to method for moving the camera towards an object in the scene:
def zoom_to(scene, camera, object):

    co_list = []
    for point_co in [point[:] for point in object.bound_box]:
        for co in point_co:
            co_list.append(co)

    loc_new_for_cam, foo = camera.camera_fit_coords(scene, co_list)

    camera.location = loc_new_for_cam

However I'm not quite understanding how camera_fit_coords works and I'm wondering if a python generator would improve the code by not having the double for-cycle build a useless list.
I tried with:
def gen_co_list(obj):
    for point_co in [point[:] for point in obj.bound_box]:
        for co in point_co:
            yield co

def zoom_to_g(scene, camera, obj):
    loc_new_for_cam, foo = camera.camera_fit_coords(scene, gen_co_list(obj))
    camera.location = loc_new_for_cam

But I get:

ValueError: Object.camera_fit_coords(): error with argument 2, "coordinates" -  sequence expected at dimension 1, not 'generator'

Also, if there is a way of avoiding foo completely, this could be a one-liner even. It might not be as clear, though.

EDIT: found the true improvement thanks to @batFINGER
After using the tip from @batFINGER and some other minor modification (I was initially editing gen_co_list...), the method can become a still comprehensible one-liner:
 def zoom_to_g5(scene, camera, object):
    depsgraph = bpy.context.evaluated_depsgraph_get()
    camera.location, foo = camera.camera_fit_coords(depsgraph, [co for corner in object.bound_box for co in corner])

I wanted a faster method, so I'm using list comprehension instead of a generator. There shouldn't be a memory problem since there are only ever 8 corners in the bounding box.
The method is ~25% faster, clocking in at:
>>>print(min(timeit.Timer('cam.location=0.0,0.0,7.0; zoom_to_g5(scn, cam, obj)', setup=setup).repeat(7, 1000)))
0.007111115999578033

OLD
It seems it was a mistake in my comprehension of generators, and the code should have been:
def gen_co_list(object):
    for point_co in [point[:] for point in object.bound_box]:
        for co in point_co:
            yield co

def zoom_to_g(scene, camera, object):
    depsgraph = bpy.context.evaluated_depsgraph_get()
    loc_new_for_cam, foo = camera.camera_fit_coords(depsgraph, [co for co in gen_co_list(object)])
    camera.location = loc_new_for_cam

That said, trying to time the code yields different results than what I expected:
setup = """
import bpy
scn = bpy.context.scene
cam = bpy.data.objects['Camera']
obj = bpy.data.objects['Cube']
def zoom_to(scene, camera, object):
    co_list = []
    for point_co in [point[:] for point in object.bound_box]:
        for co in point_co:
            co_list.append(co)
    depsgraph = bpy.context.evaluated_depsgraph_get()
    loc_new_for_cam, foo = camera.camera_fit_coords(depsgraph, co_list)
    camera.location = loc_new_for_cam

def gen_co_list(object):
    for point_co in [point[:] for point in object.bound_box]:
        for co in point_co:
            yield co

def zoom_to_g(scene, camera, object):
    depsgraph = bpy.context.evaluated_depsgraph_get()
    loc_new_for_cam, foo = camera.camera_fit_coords(depsgraph, [co for co in gen_co_list(object)])
    camera.location = loc_new_for_cam
"""

>>>print(min(timeit.Timer('cam.location=0.0,0.0,7.0; zoom_to(scn, cam, obj)', setup=setup).repeat(7, 1000)))
0.009414574999937031
>>>print(min(timeit.Timer('cam.location=0.0,0.0,7.0; zoom_to_g(scn, cam, obj)', setup=setup).repeat(7, 1000)))
0.00963822900030209

run on blender's classic cube.
I will therefore stick with the first zoom_to version, even though I thought the contrary would happen.

Be tempted to return a generator  return (axis for p in C.object.bound_box for axis in p) and avoid  the list copy point[:]

That's what I was looking for! After 3 more iterations of code improvement I have the better method, and it is ~25% faster than the original one!


text:
How to restore default theme presets?
I accidentally deleted the theme presets in user preferences and I would like to be able to restore them. How can I do this?

Here is what you need to do :D


text:
Update Edge Info when using script in Edit Mode
I'm editing a mesh using a script, while in Edit Mode. I need to display the Edge Angles while editing, but these don't get updated until I leave and re-enter Edit Mode.
Is there a function I can call to force updating the displayed Edge Angles while staying in Edit Mode?
Minimal example (slightly edited from "Bmesh Simple Editmode":
# This example assumes we have a mesh object in edit-mode

import bpy
import bmesh

# Get the active mesh
obj = bpy.context.edit_object
me = obj.data

# Get a BMesh representation
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

bm.faces.active = None

# Modify the BMesh, can do anything here...
bm.verts[0].co.x -= 1.0

# Show the updates in the viewport
# and recalculate n-gon tessellation.
bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)

2.78.5 2.79 - in this versions I haven't this problem. Maybe you need to update Blender?

@batFINGER have you tried official blender build from blender.org?

@batFinger: Thanks for the info. I'm currently using an official Blender 2.78c build on Linux 64bit. I'll give the official 2.79 version a shot tonight, and file a bug report if the behaviour is still there.

@batFINGER for bug report you need to know what versions has this. Now I have no idea about that.

I've opened a bug report

Need to update the normals.
Thanks to the information in the invalid bug report the angle info needed requires the face normals.  This can be achieved by calling Bmesh.normal_update()
# This example assumes we have a mesh object in edit-mode

import bpy
import bmesh

# Get the active mesh
obj = bpy.context.edit_object
me = obj.data

# Get a BMesh representation
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

bm.faces.active = None

# Modify the BMesh, can do anything here...
bm.verts[0].co.x -= 1.0

# recalculate normals.
bm.normal_update()
bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)

or by calling  BMFace.normal_update() for each affected face. Simple example on all faces.
# recalculate normals.
for f in bm.faces:
    f.normal_update()

PS. not the normal avenue to come to a solution, and apologies for suggesting the dud bug report. (Another Doh moment on reading bug report lol)

I'm trying to guess why you need to stay in edit mode. If it isn't critical you can add,
bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()

(both lines) before the call to update. This is essentially doing in code what you do manually in the gif - flipping from object back to edit mode to update the display of length values.
Updating the 3d view is also covered in this answer here


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Cannot Manipulate Pelvis Despite other solutions
So I have a model, I want to make a crouch anim, however, I can't edit the pelvis bone despite Having gone to edit mode and unchecked lock, connected as well as the manipulate center point button.
Are there any work arounds to this? Something I'm missing?
Attached is pic to hopefully give a better understanding of what my rig is like, and if I perhaps missed something.
https://i.sstatic.net/gZqkj.jpg

Posing a model/rig is done Armature Pose Mode, not Edit Mode.

"I can't edit the pelvis bone": It's not clear if you wish to edit that bone (needs edit mode) or pose that bone (needs pose mode).

Sorry, should clarify, In armature pose mode I cannot manipulate the root bone (pelvis).


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Lost my rotary selector (Tab Key Pie Menus)
I just updated to v2.79 and found that the Tab key mode selector is gone. When the Tab key is pressed, a rotary selector appears that allows selection of any of the available modes. I had added it under v2.78c to make it easy to select different modes. I can't remember where I got it. I remember finding it in a video tutorial, but which one (I've favorite-ed about 200 so far).


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How to disable scrollbars in node editor?
In 2.82 scrollbars in node editor is not only useless, but annoying, it's also pop-up, which is very bad. How do I disable them enterely?

I don't think you can disable scrollbars.
But you can make them transparent.

Go to Preferences > Themes > User Interface > Scroll Bars
Set Item alpha value to 0
And Outline to some less intrusive color (it can't be made transparent)

Thank you, but that doesn't solve the problem. It still pops up and hinders window size changing. It works fine in 2.79. It doesn't even make any sense... why pop-up? That area of a screen still can't be used for anything.


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Bevel not working properly
My bevel tool seems to be broken. It works normally on simple objects, but not on long objects. Look:

I want to know how to make the edge of the second image like the first image.
Ask for more details if needed

Your question is answered here: "why are the longer edges being beveled more?" -- The answer there explains exactly what's going on. The fix is much shorter, and contained in gandalf3's comment: "Try applying the scale (Ctrl+A in object mode)"

See if this helps: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/34719/15140

Thanks a lot @NicolaSap , now my bevel worked!


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Meshes are semi-transparent
I was on wireframe view using the knife tool on a mesh and when I finished and went out of it I realized everything was semi-transparent and I don't know why. Here's a screenshot:

I want to know how I can turn everything back to normal

Toggle "X-Ray Mode" in the upper right-hand corner.


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Help with modeling
I've been modeling the sentry turret from the Portal game and I'm struggling on creating a part of the mesh. Here's a small montage I made of what I want to do:

I'd like to learn how to model it :D

Hello and welcome. Please use descriptive titles

A great modifier for getting objects to wrap around curved surfaces is the Shrinkwrap modifier.
Take a flat plane and apply the Shrinkwrap modifier to it with the turret wall as a target. This essentially flattens it onto the inner wall of the turret. Take note, you will need to subdivide the plane so that the Shrinkwrap modifier can bend the mesh.
From there, you can add a small Solidify modifier so that it sticks out a bit.


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How to round circle inside UV

I don't really know how to explain it, but the image is self-explanatory. Feel free to ask for more details if needed

Just scale it on X axis (select all UV, press S X, adjust with mouse and confirm with left click). G for grabbing in position.

Did the circle unwrap as an oval if so you may want to reset the scale of the object you are working on? I'm guessing your base object which looks like a scaled sphere you may have forgotten to reset the scale before you continued modelling in edit mode.

Check your view axis, you need to look at the face you need to unwrap. Maybe change to ortho to go 100%. Select the faces for the eyes, go to UV or press U for unwrap methods, select Project from view and check the scale to bounds.

Thanks a LOT! Worked perfectly, you are a hero


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Export animated modifiers to glTF
I animated a bending tree using the Simple Deform (Bend) modifier. It works well within blender 2.81 but i cannot export it into a .gltf file.
How can i do this using shape keys or something?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/search?q=+glTF+shape+keys

Not sure, but the workflow described here might do it: https://blenderartists.org/t/export-bezier-curve-animation-as-gltf-and-or-fbx/1151423/4?u=donmccurdy


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Is there literally NO way to start a particle animation when the particle is emitted?
I've been battling the particle system for over a week now without any success.
A little context to what my issue is:
I'm using an instantiated collection(!) with 4 meshes in it as particles, each of them with shapekey animations. The problem is that all of them play at the same time. I'd like each particle to start it's own animation when it's emitted, and not based on the timeline.
Example: Let's say I modeled a piece of popcorn and have base shapekey as just the corn seed, and another shapekey as the actual popcorn itself. Now when I make a popcorn machine, I want each emitted popcorn to start as a seed when it's "emitted", and turn into an actual popcorn after however many frames after it's born. With the default particle system, all popcorn would pop at the exact same time, meaning some would be emitted already popped, which makes no sense.
So I obviously looked everywhere I could, looked at all the (frankly small number of) topics on this matter, like here, here, here, here, and even found a video tutorial which covers the exact same issue, but is unfortunately for an older version for both blender and AN, some nodes from AN are absent in the latest version, and doesn't work at all with collections as instantiated particles.
So I'm pretty much at a point of giving up, but if anyone miraculously somehow knows some solution to this issue, please by all means let me know your genius, as it seems like nobody knows a definite solution to this. Thanks!

How is your popcorn made? Could you use Scalar displacement maps or even Vector displacement maps to get from the seed to the puff? Because particle age can influence those in a shader...... Maybe share a kernel in a blend file  on Blend Exchange

Thanks for the reply! As I said, I'm using shapekeys to morph the mesh from one state to another, the popcorn bit was just an example haha, it's not actually what I'm doing. Uhm, the rest kinda gone over my head, not sure what scalar and vector displacements are, but you're saying that I can use them in the actual material nodes? I suppose that is what you mean by shader? So I don't even need animation nodes? Can you show how I can do that?

I'm not suggesting it's pretty/quick and easy ... I don't know if  your morphs are a good candidate for displacement.. do you have access to Zbrush or the like? I believe the maps could be made in Blender.. harder work.  Yes. In principle, I think you could change shapes in material nodes / the renderer. No shape keys, or AN.

Interesting idea, it could work. Unfortunately I don't have Zbrush, though I could get it, but I never used it before. So theoretically I could turn my shapekey morphs to vector displacement maps, and animate that using particle info like when it's emitted? Would that be done with the particle info node? That's the only particle related node afaik. Oh boy, it's getting complicated quickly again. I understand the concept, but have no idea how to execute it. I've been using blender for only 5 months after all.

Yup, particle info. it would need trying out, which is why my comment isn't an answer.. but, give us an example set of keys, I'd be happy to struggle with it because I've been looking at something related myself. (Still hoping for a simpler answer for you). If this commentary becomes too extended, we may move it to a chat.

Well okay, here's my actual project: http://www.mediafire.com/file/nw7vdlimralczf6/particle_animation.blend/file
Removed some unnecessary stuff and tidied it up a bit. If something isn't clear or you can't find something, get back to me.
I'd say I'd be most interested in how to use that particle info node, as I have some other particles with actual animated materials, but no shapekeys or anything like that. Would be good to know how to control some sliders in the shader with like the age factor or something.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


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How do I select parts of my model to independently rotate?
I'm a noob. I have a 3D scan of a casting of my teeth. I want to select each tooth and rotate them independently, but I don't even know where to begin. I am sure that there is a very easy method to do this, but I don't have a clue what it is.
Thank you in advance for the answers.
:)

"I am sure that there is a very easy method to do this" ... I really doubt there is an easy method actually :) Welcome to Blender.StackExchange: I hope you'll like using Blender, and I personally suggest starting from easier tasks!

You can't easily rotate each tooth because you have a single mesh. You might want to look into bones https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Bones

TL;DR
Turning your teeth can be somewhat painful, and the results can be ugly! You have been warned!
Summary:

Go into Edit Mode (Tab).
Make your selection somehow (C circle select, for instance).
separate the object (P).
Go back to Object Mode (Tab).
Move the origin to the center of mass (ShiftCtrlAltC)
Rotate somehow (RR for instance).
optional: fill the gaps.

Walk-through:
It's not going to be an easy job: 3D scans tend to be very messy and extremely dense in terms of vertex count! Also: teeth are usually very close to each other and they don't stand on a perfectly circular base area (so it's impossible to turn them without clashes). But you can try :)
This is a very poor attempt at making a set of teeth: say you want to move the second from the right.

Tab to the edit mode, then navigate (zoom in/out by turning the mouse wheel, turn around by pressing the mouse wheel, move around by holding Shift while pressing the mouse wheel) until you have your tooth "aligned" with the view (use Z to change to wireframe if needed). When you have it from the right point of view, hide all the rest from the view, by hitting AltB and making a rectangle.

Now select your tooth vertices with precision. Use C to enable a "circle select" (you control the size of the circle by scrolling the mouse wheel). Add new vertices, then click the right mouse button to exit the selection, then turn around, press C again, and so on. You can always CtrlZ to undo.

Bring the rest into view by using AltB again. Then hit P > "Selection". This will separate your tooth from the rest of the mesh. You can now exit edit mode: Tab.

Select your "loose tooth", hit ShiftCtrlAltC > "Origin to center of mass". Then use RR to rotate: R then Z will help but only if your model is correctly aligned Z-up.

Unfortunately now there is a gap between the tooth and the underlying surface. Filling it is another level of complexity...
A very rough way would be: selecting both your objects (tooth and the rest of your jaw), CtrlJ to join them. Tab into edit mode. A to deselect all. ShiftCtrlAltM to select the boundaries of the two holes. Spacebar > Bridge Edge Loops to fill the hole. The filling wil be very rough though:

wow!! Thank you for this! I will give it a go :D


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How do I export my work to be used in After Effects
Here is a screenshot of my work:

https://i.sstatic.net/3dX1J.jpg
I would like to render the 3D model with its textures on, and make it look like it is part of the original shot. How on earth do I do that? I don't know where to begin as I want the angles and perspective to line up with the angles of the original video.
Thank you,
and I apologise for the (probably) newbie question :-)


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How to make Daredevil dripping wax using liquid simulation
so i was wondering if anyone knows how to go about recreating the dripping wax effect as seen in the intro in the Daredevil show.
Check out the intro:
https://youtu.be/KFYFh8w4758
 if anyone know i would be very interested to learn how
thank you :)

Can you show us what you've got, or what you have tried so far and why it didn't work?

The effect is accomplished by using a hidden underlying mesh object to serve as a obstacle/attraction. This effect can be simulated by Blender's built-in fluid simulator, but could be easier and done more prettily with an add-on called FLIP Fluids. If this is just a personal/experimental project, you could go ahead and download it from their GitHub repository at https://github.com/rlguy/Blender-FLIP-Fluids. If you're planning on selling it your work or sharing it with larger numbers of people, probably buy it from their Blender Market page.
Jeez I just realized how much that sounded like a sponsorship
Anyway, I still think it's a valuable tool to be aware of.
Honestly, probably some in-depth fluid tutorials will teach you all you need to create this effect whichever method you choose. Take a look at this video, as a good starting point.  https://youtu.be/3o9E2t0cTCc
That will give you a basic overview of everything, then you can teaser h individual aspects a bit more closely.
I hope you get this working! Seems like an awesome project.

How to i attract the liquid or "wax" onto the shape. I am thinking of getting flip. It's on my list. it would be nice however, to be able to make the effect with out an external plug in.

Probably make a control (attraction) object inside the shape, and use the shape as a obstacle


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I want to make the wax material used in the intro to daredevil
so im looking to make a melting wax material, I figured out the wax part. but not the waves and the dark wax drips in it.
i would love to find out how to animate it as well. I tried the wave node but it was not satisfactory.
This has the texture i'm looking for in it https://youtu.be/KFYFh8w4758?t=11
Thank you :)

there's a guy who has tried it in Blender, he explains briefly how he did it in the comments section: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx9ch7izVac    also a discussion on this topic here: https://blenderartists.org/t/daredevil-intro/664835/2


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How To rig a fat guy
So I've been experimenting with the best what to rig this guy, I've re rigged him about five times already. So basically this guy is for a mobile game where you roll him around the world and if you don't keep him knocked out he will run away, so keep in mind his bones will have to be affected by physics later on. any good methods of rigging this much fat?

What are your constraints for this game, are you sure you will be able to use physics? can you use modifiers? otherwise you could fake physics with bones

we have a great programmer that made awesome rag doll physics for it

there's a simple way with Mesh Deform modifier and Cloth physics, but will you be able to use it in your game? I don't think so. There's a more complicated solution that uses Cloth physics but doesn't use Mesh Deform, it is explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c11l2o5uCQs  do you want me to give a full answer?


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Best way to rig a cartoon mouth
so i have been experimenting A LOT with blender but this has got me stumped. I'm trying to make this character open his mouth very far (to his legs) and im wondering what the best way to go about this while also keeping the Lips and the body separate from each other. Any help i would very much appreciate.

Suggestion.  Try using a armature.  Is there a hole for the mouth cavity?  You can search here at BSE for Armatures or Bones.  There are also tutorials on the famous video website.  Although the reader can guess ... the question is not providing much information.  Is the mouth floating on the body?  Does the head mesh move with the mouth.

There is a hole in the body mesh and the lips are parented to the body. Okay so my goal is to make it so when i distort the lips with shape keys  the mesh around the mouth follows the lips. so imagine the lips are stretching the skin of the body apart.

Armature Bones can move limbs as well as areas of soft flesh such as the mouth.  BSE awaits your display of the Armature Modifier.  Consider searching .. Bones Armature to move the mouth.


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Grease Pencil limitations
So I'm wondering if its possible to do similar 3D mixed with 2D animations in blender 2.8, is it possible to do the whole process in blender because of the grease pencil?
Here is an example of what i mean.
https://youtu.be/Yuk3gZZyNrg

This style is totally possible with a combination of 3d,freestyle render and grease pencil.
The whole process can be done within Blender itself...including the compositing.
Here is a link to "Hero" a Blender and Grease pencil film to give you an idea of some of the possibilities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmSdY56VtY
But really...the sky is the limit.

That's so cool! Honestly blender is amazing


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Reflections do not show in imported model
I'm making a Martian habitat animation for a school project and I imported one of the public NASA rovers into my workspace to use. One thing I have noticed is that the windows on the rover is black, yet on the videos where NASA showcases it, the ground reflects onto the window.

My model.

NASA's model.
Here is what it looks like in edit mode.

You should add a screen capture about the materials used for the windows

The windows don't have separate materials that differ from the rest of the model. Here is the screen capture. https://gyazo.com/350436083744f8db9efa45a33f452161

The model contains only one material. If you want the windows to have another one, go in the material panel and add it (see below). For this example I've set it red. I've done it using Blender Internal but for Cycles this is exactly the same principle (you'll simply need to setup the material with nodes).

Now you need to associate the wanted faces to this new material.
Enter edit mode, select the faces, choose the material and click "assign".
Here the windows are composed of four layers (probably for security reasons:). So to access the layer behind I hide the first one with H.
Once done, use AltH to make hidden parts reappear.

You can add several materials to a single object. In your case, I'd add a glossy black material, then select the window faces and apply the glossy black (I'd not use a glass material, as there's nothing inside the model, and transparency is slow to render).
The same applies to all parts of the model that should have a material (or surface texture) that differs from the main body (like the undercarriage, the wheels and details on the main body).
To add a new material to an object, click on the "+" button next to the list of materials, then select the new (empty) line and create a new material.
Then select the faces in your model to which you want to apply that new material, select the new material and click the "apply" button.

Whenever I try to just highlight the windows, the material ends up being on the whole model, do you know how to fix that?

Do you add a new material, or replace the current one?


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Wheels leaving trails when moving?
I'm creating a Martian habitat animation for a school project and was wondering how to make my Mars Rover leave trails on the surface when it is driving around?

Related

You could animate a displacement map that reveals itself as the wheels pass. If you take your UV from the road, add all the trails, and then add a mask (maybe in after effects, then you would have an animated texture) to reveal them when needed.
This would only work if you already have the animation of the vehicle.


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I can't see my faces in object mode in solid mode.

Why can't I see the outside faces of the object?

There is shown a cube extruded into the form of a small house and you can see its faces because they form that grey solid surface. Likely you ask about something else which doesn't seem to be clear from the question. [Edit] it to clarify

Are you possibly looking for Edit mode? Press Tab to toggle it

Your screenshot seems to be showing the faces it is supposed to show.
Is it possible that, since the 3D viewport lacks unambiguous lighting and depth clues, you are experiencing a perspective reversal?

( ↑ An example of "ambiguous figure", "reversible figure" or "bistable figure": Schroeder stairs. Which plane (whether A or B) is in front is subjective, unless you are told that these stairs are built on the floor rather than on the ceiling, then A prevails. )
Should it be the case, it's a perception phenomenon, not Blender's fault. You must just convince yourself that what you are seeing are actually the outside faces.
Moving the view around (hold   MMB and move the mouse) might help.


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Why is my mesh not smooth?
I am new to 3d modelling and blender and I am confused with why my mesh colour looks different to the one in DARRIN LILE's video.

This is mine, but it looks a bit metallic or something compared to his which looks smooth. Im not sure wats wrong.

He is using smooth shading.

Your model is showing faces and edges, called Flat Shading, while the video shows a Smooth Shaded geometry.
Go to Object Mode, look in the Tool Panel on the 3D window (left hand panel, press T if hidden) and find the Shading buttons. Press Smooth.
It will now look like the video.


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Replacing the "recover last session" button with a "recover auto save..." button
Okay, so not long ago, I experienced a crash with blender that made me lose serious progress on something I was working on.
When I booted up Blender again in a bit of what was a mix of frustration and panic, I noticed the "recover last session" button on the splash screen. Having very little experiences with crashes prior to this incident, this attractive little button made me think that this would recover my last auto save, when in fact it did NOT do such, and by the time I figured out how to actually recover my last auto save, it was too late as my auto save was written over by then, with this misleading button being a good chunk of why.
What I want to do is get rid of this button, as I feel it's a completely pointless button (If I'm not mistaken, clicking the top file in the "recent" column does literally the same thing), and replace it with the "recover auto save..." function that can be found in the "file" drop down menu, something that would have actually helped me in my time of need.
I feel it should be mentioned that I have no experience in interface editing, so I honestly don't know if this is something that's even possible to do. Additionally, if it helps, I am using the 2.75 version of Blender.

Also I apologize if this question is poorly formatted; between me still being tilted over this, being extreme tired, and still being rather new to stack exchange, it's possible that, despite the fact it looks fine to me, that it could be anything but

"clicking the top file in the "recent" column does literally the same thing" no it doesn't. Files in the "Recent" category are ones saved on disk and opened recently. You are mixing 2 different functions, Recover Auto Save and Recover Last Session do different things, albeit similar. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/14413/how-to-setup-auto-save. Note also so far your question is more a feature-request which is off-topic on this site, you could [edit] it

@MrZak I am fully aware that "recover auto save..." and "recover last session" are different, which, as per my question, was what screwed me over. Additionally, I really don't know how this came off as a feature request to you, as what I'm asking in this is not for Blender to change this (I honestly don't care if the Blender dev team changes this or not), but rather how I can change Blender to my preferences.


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Pointing a bone towards an axis (in pose mode)
So I just spent the better part of a day looking everywhere for a solution, to no avail.
Basically, I wanted to rotate a bone to where it points perfectly towards an axis (the global axis, not a local axis) in pose mode, preferably without using object constraints. Like "snapping" a bone's rotation towards one of the 6 axes, if you will.
Is this even possible to do?

could you not just set the rotation to be a multiple of 90 degrees via the properties panel?

@GiantCowFilms - that only works if the bone is created aligned to the axis. An arm bone in the t-pose may point down 36 degrees, making a zero pose mode rotation not aligned to any global axis. To get it horizontal you need to move it up 36 degrees in pose mode.

I think you will need to use a constraint. It would be position an empty, add a trackto constraint, apply the transform and delete the constraint. An addon could be made to do it, don't know if there are any existing.

Yeah, what sambler said is primarily why I can't simply set the rotation to  a multiple of 90 degrees.
I'll try the constraint thing later and see if that works for me.

@sambler When you say "apply the transform", what exactly do you mean? I positioned an empty, used a constraint and got the bone pointing upward, but I'm stuck at that. I assume you mean applying the constraint transformation, but I do not know how to do such; I know it's not like modifiers where you can simply apply the transformation with a click of a button.

Ctrl-A->Apply Visual Transform to Pose. You can also Insert Keyframe->Visual Rotation to add keyframes.

Ah, thank you. I'll give it a try later and see if it does the trick.

It worked! Thank you so much @sambler! Also, is there any way to close or lock a question since it's been indirectly answered? I'm entirely new to StackExchange in general...

While you ask for a way without constraints, I think you will need to use one, at least temporarily, to get the bone positioned.

Align an empty to the head of the bone.
Move the empty on the global axis you want to align to.
Add a TrackTo constraint to the bone and set the empty as the target.

Now that the bone is pointing the direction you want, you can use ⎈ CtrlA->Apply Visual Transform to Pose and delete the constraint.
You can also use I->Visual Rotation to keyframe the values used after constraints have been applied to the bone.


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Why are there still objects showing in layer after moving them to another layer?
In Blender 2.79 RC1, after space bar > move to new layer on all objects, I think the layer should be empty. However it still seems to contain objects in some sense. It still shows the dot in the layer indicating objects are present, and Blender says e.g. "0/9 Objects". If I select all with "A", it doesn't select any of the objects that are supposedly there. I also don't see any geometry. What is the issue?
Thanks!

I'm not quite sure what your issue is here. The heading says you have an object selected, the bottom corner of the 3d view does as well, and you have an object in the 3d view. The layer you are on also shows that there is at least one object on that layer, so all is normal here. From your question though, it sounds like you have a hidden object, so use Alt-H to show any hidden objects, then move those.

Also note that you are scrolled down partially in the outliner. Try scrolling to the top to see the other objects in your scene. Also try pressing "A" to select all of the objects instead of selecting them individually, if that is what you tried.

I tried selecting all with "A", and nothing gets selected. The object that is visible there is a test object I added after encountering the issue. With that object, "A" selects it and only it, even though Blender says there are more objects in the scene.


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How can I get physics objects to for a tight container?
Now in Blender Game Engine in 2.79, and previously in other components, I've frequently encountered situations where a seemingly closed container still lets other physics objects through. For example, in this model, I made a number of intersecting planes that are static physics objects. There are no gaps between the edges or at the corners. Indeed, with the overlap there is extra plane overhanging the edge of the box. I've also tried specifying collision bounds, including a larger margin. Nonetheless, other objects keep going right through the box.

How can I make a closed container in Blender?
Thank you!

The problem most likely doesn't lie in the geometry itself I guess. The issue is probably in the simulation speed/precision and how computer physics are calculated. Very fast or very small objects may pass the collision detection.

I suspect you're right. I seem to encounter these issues with quite fast or small objects. Maybe these problems could also be prevented by adding more physics steps?

Bullet (the physics engine) can't deal with small fast travelling objects very well. Unfortunately, it is a known issue.

Hehe, isn't a bullet a small fast traveling object? :)

Hehe, isn't a bullet a small fast traveling object? :)

At least in the Blender settings, you can increase the "Steps Per Second" rigid body world quality. That will make the physics engine to do the collisions more detailed.
I have not played with Blender game engine, so I don't know if this will take effect to it also or if there is some other similar setting to tweak.

Very fast or small objects seem to miss the collision detection. Keeping objects bigger and slower manages this issue.


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Help with combining objects
So for this particular project, I need the object to be 1 but the animation to not move the actual machine. When I combine them together in the way I know how to it does this https://gyazo.com/fde11d1cecff66a43fb5b2d403f3a755

What is your question, could you clarify?

In your case, I think you want to parent the smaller objects to the main objects.  This would be done by shift-selecting the smaller objects then finally selecting the larger object.  Finally, press Ctrl-P and select Object.  The objects with the red-orange outline will be parented to the object with the orange outline.  This means that their movement is now relative to their parent object.  You can find documentation of this behavior here in the blender manual.


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"No compatible GPUs found" - Arch Linux
When I open Blender through terminal it has no error messages, however when I open settings I am greeted by this message.

I am using an AMD Radeon R9 390X graphics card with the amdgpu driver. I know that my GPU is supported.
Is there anything that I can do?

Hey @BetoOrouke, would you mind marking my answer as accepted if it answered your question?

You might need to install the proprietary AMDGPU-PRO drivers, or at least the OpenCL part of it. The quick fix is to install opencl-amd from AUR:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/opencl-amd.git
cd opencl-amd
makepkg -s
sudo pacman -U opencl-amd-*-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

(You might have to downgrade libdrm for opencl-amd to work, see here.)
Note that Arch Linux is not officially supported by AMDGPU-PRO.
Resources

Arch Wiki: "Blender does not show the AMD card as an OpenCL rendering device"
Arch Wiki: AMDGPU PRO


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How to track a point with axis
I want an object's axis always to face an empty while subject to a clamp constrain. Any suggestions on how to do that?

The "Clamp To" constraint and the "Track to" constraint can co-exist on the Object Constraints panel.  Place the "Clamp To" above the "Track To", so that the track targeting happens from the newly clamped location.
In this example, the object's location is clamped along a path defined by a Bezier Curve, and its X axis targets an Empty.


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Create a curve from intersecting plane and mesh
I have the next problem. I need to create a curve from the intersection of this mesh (the slide) and the plane to make a path for a sphere to follow in an animation. Can you give me a guide on how to make this?

Isn't it just a semicircle? Why not add a circle and remove half?

Yes it is, but I plan to make it more complex and a simple semicircle won't do the job.

If it is always with a plane then Knife project > Edit Mode > Duplicate intersection edges > Separate them > Convert to Curve


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How to undo a camera binding to a marker?
I am doing an animation, and I require to take several shots from multiple angles, and I'm doing it by binding cameras to markers in the timeline. I accidentally binded a camera to an incorrect marker and I don't want to delete the camera. How could I undo this?

You can bind another camera to this marker, its data will be automatically rewritten

Just select the marker from the timeline and press X to delete the marker.
Note: Your cursor must be on the timeline to delete from timeline.

I just ran into this problem. Here's a fix I just did. I created a new camera, bound it to that marker in order to release the existing bounded camera, and then I deleted that new camera aftetwards.


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Arrange selected vertices in a curved shape
I have a cube and by subdividing faces, now I have a bunch of vertices in each face.
How can I arrange some selected vertices in a curved shape (they are now in a straight line shape)?
Then I want to extrude those curved shape vertices.

This question is still ambiguous, as phrased.. could you illustrate a desired end-result?

Please show your work as a Blender screen capture for your question above and all future questions.

Another option is:

removing the row of vertices you want to make curved
adding a Bezier curve in its place.
"Resolution Preview U" should be set to exactly $N-1$ where $N$ is the number of vertices making a side of your cube.
Also, you might want to make sure that the Bezier curve lays completely on the XY plane
converting the curve to mesh
joining the curve and the cube
reconstructing the faces by selecting the two adjacent rows and doing "Bridge Edge Loops" (must be done once per side)

Consider Proportional Editing/  Edit Mode Proportional Editing (keyboard shortcut O).

Consider Loop Tools

There is an Add-On called "Bezier Mesh Shaper" which I use for this exact purpose. Not free, but in terms of usability well worth its asking price.
https://gumroad.com/l/bezier_mesh_shaper

You can enable "Loop tools" add-on, and use its relax, curve commands for example (loop tools menu is accessible with W key menu). Or you can use the proportional editing mode ("O" key) to move verts smoothly. Also smooth command (W menu) may be handy to round some edges.
Tip: to isolate selected verts for proportional editing, just hide all other verts by (Shift + H). Then after editing, unhide them back (Alt + H).


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Why does Blender Game Engine sometimes not render texture?
In Blender 2.79 RC1, I have several scenes. With viewport set to show texture, I start the game in standalone player. If I start the game from certain scenes, it shows textures as expected. If I start the game from one scene in particular, however, it loads as if in solid mode. Why does this vary from scene to scene? Are there any other settings relevant to how BGE renders scenes?
Thank you!

It looks like I had set the scene that was loading differently to use GLSL shading instead of Multitexture shading.

Indeed the BGE will use the settings from the scene you start the session from.