text:
Child of Constraint creates strange glitch?
When I parent the weapon magazine with the hands, they follow , but the magazine rotates! The magazine also goes out of its desired position. How do I fix this?
No child.

With Child Added.

FIXED ! I had to use Copy transform

Feel free to add that as a proper answer and accept it :)

In "Child of" panel select the "set inverse" button. Most of the time, this resolves this sort of thing for me. I can't explain the mechanics of it. If this does't work and you want to go back to the original, click on the "clear inverse."

with I could upvote this so many times! Thank you! Saved my project

I just had to use the copy transform constraint, as it connects it in a way that it follows the magazine.

It would be nice if you could also add some more detail on how to use the constraint and why it works where the child of did not, to better help other users with the same issue.

hm , im still having the same issue with copy transform , except it follows the mag ... gandalf would you have any clue on how to keep the hands from chaning its position when the constraint is applied?

authors: Константин Власов


text:
Turn off Knife cut "auto complete" setting?
Everytime i use the knife tool, it wants to auto complete and i just want to make one line, non of the short cuts get rid of it either.

What is "to make one line" in this context? Resulting cut might depend on topology when Blender will automatically create supporting geometry holding that added one. If you mean you want to finish cutting at the green Knife tool dot to the right from the transform manipulator then where you expected supporting edge will go?

Pressing Esc or RMB at any time cancels the tool, and pressing LMB or Enter confirms the cut, with the following options:
Enter will leave selected every edge except the new edges created from the cut.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
how can I stop freestyle from drawing in mist?
I have a plane for the ground, but leaving a sharp edge between it and the camera looks odd. so I tried to use mist to help blur the edges and make it look somewhat natural(since I can't just make it huge, blender insists on clipping at a certain size)
however, I also want freestyle on some objects. when rendering, it draws lines even on things that shouldn't be visible, like things in dense fog. is there a way to constrain the effect to specific meshes or exclude it from others?

FYI, you can change the clipping distance of the camera in the camera settings.

Related - you can obscure the freestyle edges by the mist by using the compositor to mask them out based on the density of the mist or smoke - https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/105536/29586

You can avoid freestyle rendering in mist by setting a "distance from camera" modifier.

Goto "Render Layers"
Scroll down to "Freestyle Line Style" Panel
Click "Alpha"
Click "Add Modifier" and then select "Distance From Camera"
Select "Mix" for the blend type
Select "Curve" for mapping type
Add a point in the center of the curve ui
set the right most point x pos to 0.3 and y pos to 0.0
set the center point x pos to 0.25 and y pos to 0.5
set the left most point x pos to 0.0 and y pos to 1.0

EDIT:

set the Range Max to the depth of your mist.

PROTIP: Gain more control over falloff by adding points to your curve. Adjust shape until the "Distance From Camera" modifier falloff matches your mist.

Put your objects into groups, depending on the group freestyle can apply the linestile or not. Go to the Freestyle Lineset Options and hit the "Group"-button. Below there will be a new field "Group" and two buttons "Inclusive" and "Exclusive".

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


text:
can textures and bumpmaps be "baked" into a single texture?
In Blender it seems bump maps tend to take longer to render, so I was wondering if it was possible to merge those into an image such as a UV map.
is there a way to do this or a way to make bumpmaps render quicker?

You mean modify an image texture with the shading from a bump map?

yes- I want to keep the appearance, but reduce the need to constantly re-calculate the sides even if they don't change

You might be able to combine the baked images is some way, but I don't think it will work for animation.

This doesn't directly answer what you are asking, but you may want to check out this video on CG Cookie on speeding up bump map rendering.

Just make a full bake
Note: this does not work for animation


text:
non-video blender resources?
I am looking for blender tutorials, but most of the ones I've seen are videos. it's very hard to use a video because even the good ones are hard to follow, as some actions the speaker mumbles through, or does some fancy key combination that doesn't show up on screen nor is explained. is there any site that has text-and-picture tutorials?

Blenderguru usually has text versions under the videos.

For a general guide you might find http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro useful.

We also maintain a list of resources here: http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/40/beginners-reference

Our Python tutorials have detailed written descriptions and some of the tutorials are in Text form: www.blenderdiplom.com
Hope that helps.

This question appears to be off-topic because it is not about blender as defined in the help center


text:
how to render smoke from gunshots,rockets?
I want to make scenes with cannons and rockets firing, however I noticed for either of these particles systems just don't look right. either they look fluffy and cartoony, or if using the smoke sim the flame and smoke simply don't form the right shape and often fails to generate inexplicably. what settings should I consider when trying to simulated puffs and directed jets?

You might try this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKc8WNNV4Bw

Also, if you go to Andrew's site, he even has the finished blend file for that animation/tutorial for you to download! If you click on the About section under the YouTube video, Andrew always has a link to his tutorial on his site, and there you can download his finished blend file: http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/how-to-create-a-muzzle-flash

i would also say that you should make sure you have everything scaled properly. if the smoke or particles are being simulated on the wrong scale it could throw off the realism of the sim

This tutorial might also interest you


text:
Welded Iron bronze/silver material?
Ive made an exhaust manifold with welds in cycles, Im trying to acheieve a realistic material where the welds are a rusted bronze like in the image attached. How would I go about getting this result?

Theres nothing about materials, Just how to create the welds which I have done.

Nice model. Your materials question is a pretty broad one though. I'd suggest you do some research into applying materials. You might start with Blender Guru's Principled Shader video (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=blender+guru+principled&t=ffab&atb=v100-1&ia=videos).

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


text:
How do I create a solid object/cube
So I want to create a solid object or cube. My big problem is that when I create a cube, the cube is hollow - that is, I can create a cube, subdivide it, and then delete one of the faces, and it is just a hollow, empty cube.
How do I create a cube or fill a cube so that it is full? I want to have layer after internal layer.

What would be the point? 3D doesn't work that way because a computer can't calculate infinates. However, if the reason is because you want do be able to break it apart, there is tutorials for that. I would recommend http://cgcookie.com/blender/cgc-courses/breaking-objects-with-the-cell-fracture-add-on/

@AdamMasters There are programs that can handle real solid objects, blender is not one of them., but it is possible.

Without getting too technical, you cannot create a solid object as you describe in Blender. 3D is already a lie for the most part (basically points and surfaces in virtual space projected to give depth etc). OpenGL, the software interface to graphics hardware that Blender uses draws primitives — points, line segments, polygons etc. and primitives are defined by a group of one or more vertices. In most 3D applications, models are represented as shells or cases where only the surface matter, this makes it easy to edit them for one.
However, there are several ways to fake this in Blender such as using booleans or the bisect tool. These work in a way such that when a part of the mesh is subtracted, the surface(s) of the affected mesh(es) is closed and this gives an illusion of an object being truly solid.
Using booleans (dynamic if you use the modifier)

Using the bisect tool (takes multiple objects into account)

** Images from the Blender wiki.

Blender is the wrong type of software for this. Of course software exists for solid modeling, typically CAD software or simulation software.
With Blender and similar software you define the outside shape of objects (mesh modeling). When it comes to cutting them apart and make them look as if they are filled you would use boolean operators (either directly or as modifier) that simulate filled objects. They calculate new outside faces to make it look as if the inside of the object is filled. Or you would create the geometry and the faces by hand.
So what you want is not possible with Blender. It depends highly on your specific goal if you need to switch the software or if it is better to adapt your process to Blender.

I am trying to create a locking mechanism. What I was going to do was have two layers - the entry positioning and then the locking positioning deeper inside the layer.

Blender has no concept of a solid volume. Faces are a simplification.
If you are trying to remove the surface of a solid object what do you want to happen? I imagine you want a hole going into the object. This can be done with the extrude operator.
Select the faces you want your hole to be shaped like:

Hit E for Extrude. Move your mouse to change the depth of the effect. Or type in a numeric value with the keyboard. Finish with LMB or Enter.
The extrusion can go both in and out. If your extrusion go out, type in a negative value to make it go in.
Final result can be like:

Ah, that makes sense. That should probably work for my purposes. Is it possible to have layers on top of one another?

Do you mean like an eggshell and the egg inside?

However, you can use the POV-Ray renderer from within Blender and once it's activated, it's native primitives are available for you to create in the SHIFT+A > POV-Ray menu


text:
Locking an axis for a curve
How would I lock an axis for a curve? I don't want the curve to go in a certain direction until I unlock it. I'm frequently finding that when I created a beveled curve, what looks like everything is on the same level, is actually higher and lower on the Z-Axis.

You could try setting the curve shape to 2D in Curve > Shape until you want to adjust it in Z axis:

Note that you will still be able to rotate the curve in Object Mode, so you can use this to lock the curve in any direction.
Another option is to fix the curve afterwards:

Select all the control points (A):

Scale to 0 on the axis you want to lock. E.g. SZ0
This will scale everything to be on a plane with the Pivot point, so you can easily control this by using the 3D cursor:


text:
Exporting to Collada --> Loss of Transparency
I created an object with glass-like appearance upon rendering using raytracing in blender, but when I export to collada, the material's transparency doesn't seem to be transferred. Is there any way I can preserve the transparency of the material when I export?
My material properties are as shown below:

If i am not wrong.. transparency is not imported into any software(May be bug in libraries).
Transparency is exported as expected but cannot be imported back.
You could verify by opening the exported file in web browser, and search for

transparency

and see the value exported. you could also check by changing alpha value and re exporting..
Let me know if i am wrong..


text:
Is non-normalized bone weight possible?
I wand to model a 3D UI container that resize along the X and Y axes, with some border parts whose size remain constant (i.e. the 3D equivalent of the 2D 9-patch images). My target is Unity, which seems to only support bone animations.
In Blender, I made an armature with 2 disconnected bones, one for each axis X and Y. They are disconnected so I can move them freely on each X and Y axes. Then I assigned halves of my 3D model to each bone, horizontally and vertically. I was hoping that it would work as intended but I have a problem : the part of my 3D model which should have been translated by the 2 bones at the same time on X and Y are only influenced at 50% by each bone.

I was hoping this part to be influenced by 100% of each bone in an additive fashion. It seems that there is an automatic normalization of the bones weights on each vertex. Is there a way to avoid this normalization in Blender?
Alternatively, is there another animation technique in Blender that allow for additive deformation whilst being exportable as bone-based animation?

Instead using bones, try to use hooks. It hasn't normalization at all.

Thank you for your answer. It works inside Blender, however it doesn't export as a bone-based animation in Unity.

I found a way to solve the problem using a workaround, therefore I am not going to tag it as the valid answer because it does not answer the question.
My solution is to use 3 bones, one for each moving part.


text:
Why does my objects look different when I enter the game engine?
Normal
In game engine
What is wrong and how can I fix this ?

My guess is your normals are inverted and the game engine does back face culling where the 3d viewport doesn't. Can you check that the normals are facing outward?


text:
Export modifier, not apply

I'm making an exporter for Blender to Metasequoia. (the import while come later)
Metasequoia 3d file are compatible with modifier like mirror and subdivision surface
I really don't want to apply them if it's possible
I found nothing about it in google or blender API
go see what I've done so far https://github.com/50thomatoes50/blender.io_mqo

It is up to the author of each exporter to support exporting a modified mesh.
Some exporters for example, could export without applying Subdivision-Surface, but use some option in the format that denotes the object as having it enabled (RenderMan RIB is one that can do this, Lightwave also supports).
But in most cases the format doesn't support Blender's modifiers natively, its typically good if the exporter can write the data you see in the viewport/render (WYSIWYG).
All Blender's bundled exporters support this, so there are enough examples of how to implement this.

I can't find what you're talking about. I'm working with blender 2.69. there isn't an exporter for Renderman (tryed RIB mosaic) and the lightwave exporter don't export the modifier

The bundled exporters provide an option to apply modifiers or not, but I don't know of any that exports meshes without modifiers applied + meta information about the modifier settings.

@user2030 My point is that some formats happen support features close enough to Blender's modifiers natively, so in that case it makes sense not to write the modified data. But these cases are not so common.
I double checked and LWO for 2.49 supported subsurf on import only (not export), corrected reply.


text:
Custom hotkey for selecting edit field
I saw a video with a useful tip, but can't find it again. The author defined a custom key to focus on the three transform vertex coordinates; x, y, and z. This is different from creating hotkeys to perform a function such as "subdivide" (RMB, select "create shortcut") as that doesn't work for me. The fields turned green and when pressed, the edit field was focused and the value was selected so he could instantly overwrite the value.

I'm not sure that they actually setup a shortcut to edit the values. A background colour of green indicates that the values are keyframed but not on the current frame, while a yellow background indicates a keyframe exists on the current frame.
See below, the location is keyframed on the current frame while rotation has a keyframe on another frame.

When the mouse is over the values pressing I will insert a keyframe for the values at the current frame. You can also right click and choose Insert Keyframes, you also have options to Delete (only current frame) or Clear (all frames)  Keyframes.
Clicking in the centre of a number field will enter edit mode allowing you to type in the value to use.

That's how the UI looked, so you're probably correct about the keyframe bit. I do remember the fields just getting focus without the mouse cursor being over them, so somehow he did it, but it seems it didn't have anything to do with the color.

This thread http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1273/how-to-input-location-of-selected-vertex-using-keyboard-only describes a patch solving the current issue I have. It lets you perform simple arithmetic during transitions. Does anyone know if there is an addon that does this?

@RobbieGee That patch is now a part of blender, you can use it in 2.70. You can keyframe all location (or rotation etc.) channels at once by pressing I in the 3D view.


text:
how to copy a rig to another mesh
I have two meshes in their own blend files, ones is a very muscular male and another one is a curvy female. I'm working on the rigging and animation of the female and I've managed to make some simple animations for testing. I want to transfer the rig of the female with its animations, shape keys and etc... to the male mesh.
how could I approach this?, I've already tried with shift-D but I think I did it wrong because
I couldn't transfer the rig to the other file.
I'm using blender 2.69.

you can use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to transfer data between two blend files.

i've tried doing that too, i open the two separate meshes in two separate windows and i Ctrl+C and then try to Ctrl+V to the other window but it says that theres no data copied into buffer or something like that

What OS are you using?

I'm using Windows 7

Duplicating an armature with ShiftD only works while in object mode and it will only create a duplicate armature in the same file. Also CtrlC only copies the armature object in object mode, in pose mode it will copy the bone locations allowing you to copy the pose.
In your case, with two models in a separate files, you could also open the second blend file then Select Append from the file menu. Link will use the same armature while append will copy the armature into the current file.

When you select a blend file it will show the following list -

First go into object and select the armature you want. Then append again and go into Action and select the actions you want to import into the new file.
As for shape keys, they are part of the mesh object data. If the two mesh objects have similar topology you may be able to copy the shape keys between models. You could append the first mesh object and then try to copy the shapekeys then delete the first object.
I think you may find it easier to append the second object to the same file as the first one, duplicate the armature, copy shapekeys etc. Then save a duplicate copy of the blend and remove one model from each file.

I am adding this answer because I had been looking to solve a similar problem, but I have solved it in a different way than what I think the asker had in mind. The problem I wanted to solve was that I wanted one complex master armature that would work on all my different models.
Instead of duplicating the armature, I linked it from the first rig. I then lined up the first model and new model and duplicated the vertex groups via Data Transfer modifier.
This makes it possible to keep adding to your main armature. After you've updated the armature, go to your other models' Data Transfer modifier and Generate Data Layers again.
I'm by no means an expert so if this is a poor way of doing things, please let myself and any future readers know.
See this answer for details.

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


text:
how do I make an object bend or break if hit with sufficient force?
How can I make a Ridged body simulation mesh so that it's solid under normal conditions, but if a heavy object collides with it, it bends as the force is transferred?
(i.e. like a ball through glass or a bullet through steel)

Unfortunately, dynamic fracturing/destruction is not truly possible yet. Though there are some interesting experiments:

Blender Demolition - Proxy Mesh Utilization (Demo 6)
Real-time Shattering Demolition physics in the BGE
BA thread with a patch developed by the author of the above videos

However, you can fake fracturing with the Cell Fracture addon (which is bundled with blender, you can enable it in CtrlAltU> Preferences > Addons > Cell Fracture) and rigid-body contraints:

It's not necessary, but you can get finer control over how an object is fractured by using the Grease Pencil:

Fracture the object into separate objects by pressing Cell Fracture in 3D view > Tool Shelf:

Make them rigid-body objects and constraint them using another addon called Bullet Constraints Tools:

Use the Calculate Mass tool to calculate and set the mass of all selected objects based on volume. I used the Glass (Broken) preset for the shards and the Bronze preset for the monkey:

Manually animate the render visibility of the original and fractured objects in the Outliner (camera icon), so that the original is used until it is fractured by an impact, or use post processing. (see related post)

You can simulate bending with soft-bodies, however tearing is not possible. (though again there are some tests)

where is the greasepencil panel by the way? I can find the draw buttons and such but I can't find the panel with the checkbox and options for it.

@ZCoder With your object selected, press N in the 3D view to open the properties region, then click new layer in 3D view > Properties region > Grease Pencil. The options should appear.

With the fracture modifier branch you can do dynamic fracture by now, but its still a bit WIP.
Would look like this for glass (and with fractal shards, which are optional).
You also could use regular voronoi shards for this.

Links to builds are here
https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?343637-Custom-Build-Blender-Fracture-Modifier
or here (latest windows build): http://graphicall.org/1148


text:
bpy/file browser: get selected file names
Is there a way in bpy to get a list of all selected files from the file browser?
I have this code, but it is only for the active file selection:
selectedFile = ''
for screenArea in bpy.context.window.screen.areas:
   if screenArea.type == 'FILE_BROWSER':
        params = screenArea.spaces[0].params
        selectedFile = os.path.join(params.directory, params.filename)
        break

possibly related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/6933/47

If you take the TextEditor Templates -> Python -> Operator File Import

add from bpy.props import CollectionProperty
and add this special property  in the ImportSomeData operator

inside the importer class
class ImportSomeData(Operator, ImportHelper):

    # edit for brevity

    filename_ext = ".txt"
    files = CollectionProperty(type=bpy.types.PropertyGroup)

Then self.files, with 3 files selected, gives you
... <bpy_collection[3], IMPORT_TEST_OT_some_data.files>
>>> self.files[0]
... <bpy_struct, PropertyGroup("filename_mine2.txt")>

Then to get the fullpath of those files you use the self.path dirname
import os
dirname = os.path.dirname(self.filepath)
for f in self.files:
    print(os.path.join(dirname, f.name))

.../home/zeffii/filename_mine2.txt
.../home/zeffii/record_label_ep2.txt
.../home/zeffii/splines.txt

I see, it's the ImportHelper that gives the functionality that I need. I'm not around my computer for now, I will try it when I get a chance. Thank you, that looks promising.

Can use directory in conjunction with files

It is also possible to use directory` for the invoked filebrowsers
current  directory path,

and there is a propertygroup type for this already defined as
bpy.types.OperatorFileListElement which is basically the same as
bpy.types.PropertyGroup by a different name and used the same.

Used pathlib over os as another point of difference.
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/167527/15543

These changes applied to Fahads answer https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/183998/15543
import bpy
from pathlib import Path
from bpy_extras.io_utils import ImportHelper
from bpy.types import Operator, OperatorFileListElement
from bpy.props import CollectionProperty, StringProperty

class OT_TestOpenFilebrowser(Operator, ImportHelper):
    bl_idname = "test.open_filebrowser"
    bl_label = "Open the file browser"
    directory : StringProperty(subtype='DIR_PATH')
    files : CollectionProperty(type=OperatorFileListElement)

    def execute(self, context):

        """Do something with the selected file(s)."""
        base = Path(self.directory)
        for f in self.files:
            print(base / f.name)

        return {'FINISHED'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    bpy.ops.test.open_filebrowser('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

A simplified full code sample for better understanding:
import bpy
import os
from bpy_extras.io_utils import ImportHelper
from bpy.types import Operator
from bpy.props import CollectionProperty

class OT_TestOpenFilebrowser(Operator, ImportHelper):
    bl_idname = "test.open_filebrowser"
    bl_label = "Open the file browser"

    files : CollectionProperty(type=bpy.types.PropertyGroup) # Stores properties

    def execute(self, context):

        """Do something with the selected file(s)."""

        dirname = os.path.dirname(self.filepath)
        for f in self.files:
            print(os.path.join(dirname, f.name)) #get filepath properties from collection pointer

        return {'FINISHED'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

# test call
bpy.ops.test.open_filebrowser('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

brilliant. I learned to use CollectionProperty(type=bpy.types.PropertyGroup)
there is no such example in the blender help
print(f) gives <bpy_struct, PropertyGroup("Untitled-1.py")> where f.name is Untitled-1.py
(for noobs like me)

I used it in my addon so now this is possible to install/reload several addons at the same time. https://github.com/1C0D/Addon_Installer-Script_Runner-BlenderAddon/blob/master/Addon_Installer-Script_Runner_v1_1_0_.py


text:
How to get 3d view grid properties?
I am trying to store the grid scale, but keep getting an error for being in the text editor view.
I have tried
bpy.context.area.type = "VIEW_3D"
print(bpy.context.space_data.grid_scale)

but am getting an attribute error for "SpaceTextEditor" not having a "grid_scale". However, the space does change to the 3d view, so the first line is going through.
Any help is appreciated.

Your code works for me in 2.69, but there might be timing issues (grid_scale accessed but the view has not finished changing).
To get all 3D Views' grid_scale as a list, use:
grid_scales = [area.spaces[0].grid_scale for area in bpy.context.screen.areas if area.type == 'VIEW_3D']


text:
How to properly subdivide the grid?
How to properly subdivide the grid?
When I use bevel it forms a face with n-gon, how can I on a flat surface get rid of n-gon so that it fits subdivision surface?
modifier used: mirror

You must create enough loopcuts to connect your topology and make "all" faces have 4 vertices (not more, nor less)

@DanielMöller That's a common misconception. It's possible to use triangles and n-gons in subdivision modelling successfully. There is no absolute requirement for all quads. Sometimes deliberate use of triangles or n-gons may even be the best option. It's about how you use them and knowing what to expect. Subdivision result is always quads. It's a valid option here to use all quads like you advice, but certainly not a requirement or a must.

@MartynasŽiemys Yes exactly, that's what I always say. I'm always trying to explain that this "doctrine" of all quad topology is not a must, in some cases it does not matter and is probably less efficient if you're having a hard time figuring out how to get all quads and make a mesh more complex even though not necessary for that specific case and there are even a few times when tris or n-gons might even be the better solution.


text:
Blender does not interact with google sheets
Is it possible to create a simple warehouse layout that would interact with google sheets?
I need to to some sort of "digital twin" and blender striked me as sufficient. Basicaly i need to see current products, expiry dates and amounts on specific warehouse locations, that can change dynamically based on how the user change the data in the google sheet - final product should be a simple 3D program that would provide me with informatin just by clicking on the cube (representing the warehouse location).
Is it even possible with blender? I am looking forward to tips and tricks.


text:
How to make a rigid body and soft body object collide
I’m trying to make a ball which has the rigid body fall and crush a cube with the soft body.
I’ve already tried giving the cube a rigid body along with the soft body but the ball just freezes after it makes contact with the cube and the cube does nothing as well.

Well, the simple answer to this is: rigid body physics and soft body physics do not interact with each other. The soft bodies only react to collision objects, the rigid bodies only to other rigid bodies.

Yes but you can give a Collisions physic to a Rigid Body object, that said it seems hard to get something satisfying

i would try to do it with two softbodies + collision and try to tweak the settings for the one as "hard and rigid" as possible and the other more soft


text:
Why can't I add a modifier like Bevel to object?
This modifier doesn't work to me
Blend file
My problem in image

do you mean that it doesn't work? Probably because it makes the faces overlap and the Clamp Overlap is enabled? Hard to say without some screenshots or without the file: https://blend-exchange.com/

it didn't helped

See my edit, it looks like it helps

say me how i made all the same but it didn't work.....oh((((((

you need to select all in Edit mode and press M > Merge by Distance, I don't know where you fail

i don't know why it doesn't work

As John says, in the modifier try a low Amount value

You have overlapping vertices, it prevents the bevel, select all in Edit mode and M > Merge by Distance. In the modifier, use a low Amount value (here 0.8):
Result:

He also has a crazy setting for the bevel Amount in his image above (35.44 m). I used .01m and 3 segments and it works fine here.

oh yes you may be right


text:
Grease Lines appearing to "shimmer"
I just started using the grease pencil feature the other day and have run into an issue.
When I run the animation my lines/color layers seem to "shimmer" even though they aren't moving. It looks considerably worse when the camera is animated.
This scene has no animation, yet you'll see that there is movement in the lines and colors, seeming to sort of glitch out. I know there's something I must have missed in setting this up.
Better example of the "shimmering" effect.

Hello, are you using a noise modifier on the lines ? It resets every frame if you don't force a seed in the modifier options. Although the effect is very subtle in your example video so I can't say for sure.

Hi! It's pretty random with how bad it looks, that render didn't turn out as bad as it sometimes does. I didn't use a noise modifier, but i did use the 'Draw Noise' setting for the draw tool, could that be the cause of this? Thanks so much for responding!

I don't think so, the noise is baked into the stroke when you use draw noise, there is no reason it should change with frames. It might be Z-fighting ? Try moving the culprit lines or fills a tiny bit further away or closer to the camera and see if it improves

It may be some camera setting, so try a new camera.  I just had unwanted shimmering in  an eevee animation and replacing the camera helped identify the issue (clip length was too small).


text:
How to edit a rotated mesh in pose mode
I want to edit a mesh of a rotated object in pose mode.
But when I select a rotated object with edit mode, it is restored to its original condition.
I want to make an animation process of folding, so I could't press apply button after rotated armature.
Please give me an advice.

Select the armature, go to the Modifiers tab. I think you are looking for this:

Some operations (such as loop cut) may not work as expected on deformed edit mesh display, so, be careful when editing.

This problem was resolved thanks to your support!!!!


text:
How to clean up a mesh in order to export a freestyle vector for a 3D engraved lamp?
I'm trying to create meshes for a 3D illusion lamp that is made through laser engraving acrylic. Like the one on the below picture.

As I'm new to 3D modelling and I mostly do architecture stuff or furniture, I really struggle with organic shapes, which are most of the requests that I get now. As an example, I downloaded this model and as you can see below, the mesh is way too dense for my purpose.

I tried to decimate the mesh but the result I get is not what I'm after as it ends up being triangles rather than a tidy mesh like the shark above.

Is there a way to get a similar result cleaning up the mesh? Or is the only way modelling it from the scratch (in which case I would have to give up as I can't model such a complex shape).
All the freestyle  vector export I can handle. It's the mesh that's my problem. I would greatly appreciate any suggestion.
Thanks!

Go to the Object Data Properties tab, and under Remesh, set the mode to Quad and click Quadriflow Remesh

Set the target number of faces (I set 20,000 - eventually you will lose an undesired amount of mesh resolution, so don't go too low) and click the Ok button.

The result (at 20,000) looks like this:

The mesh looks even better at 10,000, but you will begin to get some artefacts if you get too low, so I suggest somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 for your final result.

Man, I can't thank you enough! Wish you knew how much this helps. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer the question, it matters a lot!
Thank you!

Hey no problem. I played around a bit more - 11,000 faces seems to be the lowest you can go without artefacts, although the ears begin to look bit lumpy at that level. I tried adding a decimate modifier afterwards set to "unsubdivide" level 2, which gets closer to a less dense mesh, but adds some strange connecting lines. Try for yourself, but I doubt you'll like the results.

I'll give it a try with the laser tomorrow but it's looking good! Thank you again!
Btw, cool theme ;)

Just to update, it worked amazing. I stayed up all night working on it and first thing today in the shop was making one in the laser; just awesome.
Can't thank you enough!

Hey, glad it worked for you. If I ever have questions about 3D laser engraving, I know who to ask now.


text:
How to curve only a side of a box
I made this box that I need to have some curved sides, only the ones highlighted in red. Applying a subsurf modifier curves everything though, and I need the side tabs to remain sharp. What would be the best way to do this?

Does this answer your question? How to do proportional move only on selection?

I'll give it a try.


text:
How come my skeleton no longer works after mirroring it's mesh?
I rigged a mesh human I'd made and it worked fine. I deleted the parenting and the armature modifier between the skeleton and human so I could edit the mesh more. While editing the human, I decided I'd change one side and mirror it to the other. I deleted one half and mirrored the changed half to where the one I'd just erased was. I connected the skeleton to the skin again, using automatic weights as I had the first time, however the weights were asymetrical. The right arm of the mesh works fine, but moving either arm on the skeleton causes the left arm of the mesh to freak out. Same goes for the legs.
So, how come the automatic weights got messed up? Why isn't it grabbing the skin symmetrically?

It seems deleting all the vertex groups and then rigging the skin back on worked, but I'd still like to know why this happened in the first place.

Further to sambler's answer - the Mirror modifier has the option to mirror vertex groups, which helps significantly in avoiding this problem in the first place. For this to work, however, your groups need to be named with a suffix indicating what side of the figure they're on.
Vertex groups for left-side should end in the suffix .L, vertex groups for right-side should end in the suffix .R. This is not configurable, which irritates me :)
Both sets of groups need to exist, even if you don't have any vertexes in one half of them before adding the mirror modifier. The modifier won't create needed groups. This would also be a good feature.
I do plan on trying to tackle both those irritants once I wrap my head around more of how the internals work.

By duplicating the mesh from one side to the other you are also copying the data that says "this vertex belongs to group arm.L". When the armature then links to vertices of group arm.L it moves vertices that exist on both sides of your model.
As you found removing the vertex groups allows the armature linking routines to create new groups that only include the desired vertices.
The vertices that didn't move would be the new vertices you added during the re-modelling.


text:
Script for simple finance calculations in blender?
I am working on an infographic-animation that features simple revenue cost profit finance projection tables. I would like to be able to enhance this complexity with larger tables for scenario variables that change as the animation moves forward without mass edits.
Is there a calculator table script?

Ben Simonds has an addon (based off work by Bassam Kurdali) that can animate text in a variety of ways. The script is available at github. There is also a short example video of what is possible.
Bassam's original script of a simple typewriter effect is somewhat simpler -
# ##### BEGIN GPL LICENSE BLOCK #####
#
#  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
#  modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
#  as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
#  of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
#  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#  GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
#  Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
#
# ##### END GPL LICENSE BLOCK #####

# <pep8-80 compliant>
import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

bl_info = {
    'name': 'Typewriter Text',
    'author': 'Bassam Kurdali',
    'version': (0, 1),
    'blender': (2, 65, 0),
    'location': 'Properties Editor, Text Context',
    'description': 'Typewriter Text effect',
    'url': 'http://urchn.org',
    'category': 'Text'}

"""
Typewriter Text Animation For Font Objects
"""

def uptext(text):
    '''
    slice the source text up to the character_count
    '''
    source = text.source_text
    if source in bpy.data.texts:
        text.body = bpy.data.texts[source].as_string()[:text.character_count]
    else:
        text.body = source[:text.character_count]

@persistent
def typewriter_text_update_frame(scene):
    '''
    sadly we need this for frame change updating
    '''
    for text in scene.objects:
        if text.type == 'FONT' and text.data.use_animated_text:
            uptext(text.data)

def update_func(self, context):
    '''
    updates when changing the value
    '''
    uptext(self)

class TEXT_PT_Typewriter(bpy.types.Panel):
    '''
    Typewriter Effect Panel
    '''
    bl_label = "Typewriter Effect"
    bl_idname = "TEXT_PT_Typewriter"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = 'data'

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object and context.active_object.type == 'FONT'

    def draw_header(self, context):
        text = context.active_object.data
        layout = self.layout
        layout.prop(text, 'use_animated_text', text="")

    def draw(self, context):
        st = context.space_data
        text = context.active_object.data
        layout = self.layout
        layout.prop(text,'character_count')
        layout.prop(text,'source_text')

def register():
    '''
    addon registration function
    '''
    # create properties
    bpy.types.TextCurve.character_count = bpy.props.IntProperty(
      name="character_count",update=update_func, min=0, options={'ANIMATABLE'})
    bpy.types.TextCurve.backup_text = bpy.props.StringProperty(
      name="backup_text")
    bpy.types.TextCurve.use_animated_text = bpy.props.BoolProperty(
      name="use_animated_text", default=False)
    bpy.types.TextCurve.source_text = bpy.props.StringProperty(
      name="source_text")
    # register the module:
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)
    # add the frame change handler
    bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(typewriter_text_update_frame)

def unregister():
    '''
    addon unregistration function
    '''
    # remove the frame change handler
    bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.remove(typewriter_text_update_frame)
    # remove the properties
    # XXX but how???
    # remove the panel
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


text:
Select a path inside an object with script
I'm writing a script where I need to rename the path493 in order to select and apply bevel_depth. I don't understand how to do it. Been reading the API documentation, but as I'm not a developer it's not clear why there's a difference between the Curve_1 object and the path493 when applying the bevel depth.
Could you point me in the right direction as to what should I read to understand how this works?

C.active_object.data.name = C.active_object.name Curve_1 is Object and path493 is Data inside an object.

Worked! I've been trying things for hours on this. Thank you!


text:
Color faces based on world space normal
I would like to be able to render a model/scene using the standard renderer (not game mode) where the color of each face/polygon is determined by its world-space normal. For example, looking at a cube from an angle where I can see the +x/+y/+z faces should render the faces with colours (255, 127, 127) / (127, 255, 127) / (127, 127, 255) respectively.
Importantly, moving the camera slightly should not change these colours (not screen-space normal based) and rotating the cube should change the colours (not object-space normals).
I've managed to create the effect by following this guide and writing my own fragment shader, but can't figure out how to use it during a standard render. Likewise I have found the normal output mode for material nodes but this only gives screen-space information.
I'm not too picky about the method as long as it can be used to generate animations and be reasonably automated.

You can do this in cycles using the Vector Transform node:

No matter how the object is rotated, the faces facing a particular direction are always the same color.
To map colors to the normals, you can use Separate and Combine RGB nodes to manipulate each channel individually:

Perfect - I had no idea cycles had so many more options. I wasn't able to use ColorRamp as it doesn't handle negatives, instead I used VectorMath->add (1,1,1) followed by VectorMap->scale(0.5). Full setup http://i.imgur.com/PYfkbZS.png

One way to solve this is to place different colored lights far away from the center of your scene, one at each axis. Depending on whether you want other objects in the scene, this could be a very quick and simple solution.
Another solution is to make a material with as many colors as you want. Each color should be mixed in with this as a factor:
dot product(world normal of mesh, vector where you want this color).

The 3 suns solution is ingenious haha.

+1'd for an interesting light solution - I think gandalf's is more correct though


text:
Clear Blender materials slots
I have a scene where a large number of redundant cycles materials have accumulated. I'd like to have them removed so that there's nothing left remaining in the materials slots at all.

I've tried all the methods I could find of deleting them so that they don't show up in the slots like this but none have worked so far.
That is selecting all objects w an active object as well and 'copy material to others', saving, closing re-opening, no luck. And the Ctrl L method as well.
Thanks in advance

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/5454/599

You can try using the follow script
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/3D_interaction/Materials_Utils
I hope that script be of help for you

I enabled the script, but how do I use it? What hotkey do I use to start it? I'm using Cycles.


text:
Complex Script help
Hello there I'm trying to learn how to python to help me automate parts of my workflow which take a long time and are repetetive (so i can go do the ironing while it does all that). But I thought I better ask if scripting can possibly do it first, as its the only real need I'll have for scripts, I believe. I have written down a list of what I want the script to do in quasi-programming terms. I know some of it is possible, but would like to know if it all is!
(I've also put in ITALICS how i would MANUALLY accomplish these operations, just in case descriptions dont work out well)
Run-script

//tex_directory is the hard disk location where blender will look for the texture to replace the one already on the object
tex_directory = "c:\mytextures\"

// Below command loads a list of "applicable" object names. The aim is that it will later scan through all objects in the scene, and if their name matches, it will perform the texture/optimization commands on them.
load_a_list_of_applicable_object_names

go_through_all_objects_in_scene

//compare names of scene objects with loaded list to see if we find an object we want to modify.
if object_name = any_applicable_object_name

// apply planar_decimation modifier to object to remove extra faces not needed.
remove_object_faces
modifiers > decimation > planar decimation > apply

// retexture object from a multi-texture file to a single texture image
retexture_object
MATERIALS > duplicate material (plus button) > rename new material to object name
TEXTURES > duplicate texture (plus button) > rename new material to object name+"_tex"
TEXTURES > texture's TYPE to "image or movie"
TEXTURES > image > open > TEX_Directory+object name+".jpg"
TEXTURES > MAPPING:
coordinates - "global"
projection "cubic"
SIZE X,Y and Z = "10"
TEXTURES > Influence > Diffuse > Alpha = 1
end if //return to comparing rest of scene objects to "applicable" objects list.
if end of scene objects - end script

Has anyone even the foggiest idea how to do this? I've managed to create a decimate modifier (with default values which I dont want) and thats about it!

You should use # for the comments. Also what exactly do you need help wit?

This question appears to be off-topic because it is asking others to write their code.

To help you to get started:
You already know how to do it manually, that is good because you find most of the actions in the   an area visible after moving the info header (main menu bar) down.

There you could select the lines of interest and copy and past them into the text editor.
bpy.context.space_data.context = 'MATERIAL'
bpy.context.space_data.context = 'TEXTURE'
bpy.ops.texture.new()
bpy.data.textures["Texture"].type = 'IMAGE'

Most of the python snippets you need are already in one of the posts here.
E.g. loop over all objects (Run an edit-mode operator on every object in the scene).
import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene
for ob in scene.objects:
    print( ob.name )

Reading a file: Mapping an algorithm to an animation
Also useful when exploring methods and data structures: Is it possible to dump an Objects Properties and Methods?


text:
Blender for Beginners
My nephew seems interested in doing 3d and all the great things Blender can do. I've done enough in Blender to love it.  But I can't afford a $4000  computer specified, especially not knowing if his interest is genuine.
 Is there an earlier version of blender that would run on Windows 7, just to see if he likes it?  The computer I'd like to give him is a Dell Optiplex 360, 4GB DDR2 Ram, 2.6 Ghz Dual Core Pentium. 250 GB hard drive. On board graphics card.  (I tried a slightly better graphics card, but couldn't get it to work.)

This questions is better suited to a forum, such as http://blenderartists.org

Welcome to Blender.SE! This is not a forum, so it works a little differently. You will get much better answers (to this kind of question) on a genuine forum, like BlenderArtists.com. The short answer, though, is that computer will run Blender just fine, especially for a beginner. It will probably not be able to use the GPU computer feature of Cycles, but it'll still be able to render both with Cycles and the Blender Internal renderer. Furthermore, just about any laptop in BestBuy that's more than $800 will run Blender REALLY well.

You don't need a \$4000 computer to run Blender, at home I have an HP pavillion laptop, core i7, intel graphic card with NVidia driver, so GPU render works, 8 GB ram, and it costs around \$550. I don't use it for final renders, I tried once 200% Full HD with 1024 samples, not surprisingly, Blender crashed, but for almost everything else, it is petfect, for a biginner he'll probably spend more time modeling and texturing, trying simple tasks, even when Blender crashes, it has one of the best recovery systems I've ever seen, and I worked for a long time with 3D "industry standard" software, and their recovery systems are not even close, I never lost significant amount of work using Blender "next to nothing".I advise you to download Blender on your Dell, give it a try to test it's limits, if it can handle a render of 512 samples Full HD with 3 mesh lights and half a million mesh object, I think you're fine, if not, invest in a mid range desktop, after all, you don't want him to start using a broken instrument, this will be a very bad start, and I don't advise using an older version of Blender, I believe a version that will make a difference in hardware consumption will be too old, if he likes it, this will make the learning curve looks like wasting time and effort, learning to do workarounds that he doesn't need for a newer version.

Blender is very well optimized for use on most computers. You don't necessarily need a fancy computer or fancy software to get started with CGI and other multimedia editors. There are ways to reduce the bottlenecks on the computer, and will allow the computer to utilize all of its cores (and its GPU if it has one!) Browse around in the User Preferences menu, in the "System" tab. There you'll find options to use more of computer's resources.
If you do choose to purchase a new computer, no computer will cost you \$4,000 unless you buy one of those AWFUL "premade" ones from the store. If you're after a high power or even average strength desktop computer, you can put one together yourself for anywhere from \$500 to \$1,500, assuming you purchase parts from Newegg or another site that specializes in getting the computer parts you need. Also, as suggested above, a standard laptop, purchased from best buy or an online store can easily run blender. I would recommend an Acer, Asus, or Dell laptop. Personally, I am running it on a Dell XPS 15, and it runs Blender flawlessly. The cheaper Dell laptops would work for a beginner, as the Acer and Asus laptops would.
Whatever option you choose to follow, kudos to your nephew for the interest in CGI! Just think about your various options and maybe see what he thinks as well, based on price limits and various software options (such as upgrades to Windows 10, if your computer allows it).

I started to use blender with dual core duo and 4GB ddr2. You can do ONLY basic stuff with it. Sculpting, subdivision surfaces, simulations ect, are either slow or they will crash your computer. Also rendering stuff takes forever with those specs. Recently i bought some newer USED parts for my computer, including motherboard, i5 processor and 8GB ddr3 ram and now i can do much more in a much less time. Price for used parts was like 300-400 euros total. So i'd say that getting bit better computer for KEEP him interested as with too low spec computer spark might fade away. What comes to version for windows 7, i still would recommend to use newest one as operation system ain't problem with Blender, hardware makes bottlenecks.


text:
Shortcut keys on mac
Transitioning from working on windows to Mac.  I can't figure out how how to make shortcut keys work for menu items.  Specifically, turning on Walk mode on the Navigation menu.
Thanks

[Shift F] to enter Fly Mode. Use WADS keys to control direction. Then [Tab] to turn on gravity so you will fall and collide with objects below you and walk on them. I use this on Macs, but as far as I know the shortcuts are not Mac-specific.

You can change the key bindings in the User Preferences Editor->Input


text:
Get a diff between two .blend files
Blender stores the session contents in a binary file format. But actually, much of that data is not really "binary" (like a e.g. a sound file), but structured data, similar to program code.
Are there any tools (either built-in or external), allowing to find out the precise difference between two blender files? And if so, when working with these tools, are spurious diffs an issue? (e.g. rounding errors in numbers, reordering of entries in collections).
Background information: I'm trying to build up a controlled work environment and workflow, as I know it from software development.

You would need to write an export script to dump all the data of the .blend files you want to compare into a text file.
From python you could use difflib to compare them like:
import difflib
import os

old_file = "C:\\Users\\user\Documents\\Blender\\dump1.txt"
new_file = "C:\\Users\\user\Documents\\Blender\\dump2.txt"
print(os.getcwd())
a = open(old_file).readlines()
b = open(new_file).readlines()
diff_string = difflib.unified_diff(a=a, b=b)

for line in diff_string:
    print(line)

While it makes almost no sense to compare the meshes between edited versions of a mesh (besides some stats like how the number of polygons has increased etc.)
In this BA thread you find more thoughts on that.
CoDEmanX linked his git project blend_stats there.
I started a script which is incomplete and has issues with links in objects.
You could use it as a starting point and improve it:
import bpy
import mathutils

map={}
debug = False

def dump(obj, name="", level=0):
    if level > 10:
        return
    if debug:
        print("call %d obj=%s type=%s" % (level, str(obj), str(type(obj))))
    if str(type(obj)) in ("<class 'builtin_function_or_method'>",):
        return
    if isinstance(obj, mathutils.Vector):
        print("%s=%s" % (name,str(obj.to_tuple())))
        return

    if str(type(obj)) == "<class 'bpy_prop_collection'>":
        for item in obj:
            dump( item, name , level+1)
            return

    if str(type(obj)) == "<class 'tuple'>":
        idx=0
        for item in obj:
            dump( item, name + "[" +str(idx) + "]", level+1)
            idx = idx+1
            return;

    for attr in dir(obj):
       if not hasattr(obj, attr ) or attr.startswith("__") or attr in ("bl_rna","base","rna_type"):
           continue
       if attr == "particle_edit":
           return # crashes otherwise
       if name+"."+attr in map:
           if debug  or True:
               print("already dumped=%s" % name+"."+attr )
           return
       map[name+"."+attr]=obj
       val = getattr(obj, attr)
       if isinstance(val, (int, float, str, bool)):
          print("%s.%s=%s" % (name,attr,val))
       else:
          dump( val, name + "." + attr, level+1)

print(60*"-")
dump(bpy.data,"bpy.data")

The link is dead, maybe it's supposed to be this


text:
2D tracking: problematic rotation stabilisation
Using Blender 2.70 to stabilise moving shots.
The shot in question has extended duration and the camera moved around a lot, but the image is fairly stable. Thus we need to get rid of small bumps, and a constant slight tilting.
Obviously, this is a tricky basic situation, because there is no single trackable feature present during the whole duration of the shot. For the vertical and horizontal stabilisation, tracking several features and "fading out" using the track weight did the trick and gave me surprisingly good results.
But I couldn't find out how to get rotation tracking to work. As far as I can see, I can only add a single track. As soon as I do so, the image is heavily rotated, sometimes even upside down. Also, the result is not stable and changes noticeable when during the shot, additional tracks start contributing or go away.
When I use a feature which is present more or less at the beginning of the shot, and when I additionally clip all other tracks present at this point to start at exactly the same frame, then I get an initially stable rotation, but this situation deteriorates as the shot goes on.
Question: what are the known approaches how to deal with this situation? Is this even possible right now? Existing add-ons? Coding up something myself would also be an option but I don't want to waste time on re-inventing the wheel.

after looking in the source code, I don't wonder anymore why I'm running into problems when using that in practice. Problems can be solved though

currently attempting to get my reworked version to be accepted into official blender...

Would splitting up your footage into smaller strips help where you just stabalize each strip on its own and blend it together again afterwards?

not, that would not help, since it is very hard to match the strips manually at the joint point, without creating a visual jerk.
Anyway, I wrote an extension for Blender, which somehow does the job. Just it was not yet accepted into official blender. Seems no one has time to do the review. See https://developer.blender.org/D583


text:
Group values for animation
I am looking for a flexible way to group some properties temporarily for animation work. Typically, for that kind of fine-tuning work, you'd have, say, 10 values scattered over various objects; you would then work through the timeline of the shot, tweaking values to make them play together suitably. Then, next you'd work through another aspect in yet another "pass". Maybe you want to come back to the fist "pass" later, and tweak and adjust some details to fit.
How can such work be accomplished efficiently with animation curves and dope sheet? I find myself most of the time just digging through the outliner; and when I then select one object, I see a dozen curves, while only one of them would be relevant at the moment.
It seems I am missing some very basic workflow feature of the UI. (I am fairly fluent with Blender, yet up do now, I have not done that much in-depth animation work).

Grouping of curves doesn't seem to be helpful; neither does it remove the clutter (i.e. hide everything else), nor does it work cross-cutting the object hierarchy, as is required to accomplish the task at hand

Hiding likewise does not feel like the right tool for the job; it is indispensable for basic selecting and working with keyframes, but seemingly we can only "hide all others" and "unhide all"

Drivers could get me close, by wiring the group of properties to a set of custom properties on some "controller object" (e.g. an Empty). However, setting up this wiring through Drivers is rather tedious, and most notably it is rigid and needs to stay in place for the automation to work. I can not use this for ad-hoc grouping as needed.

Note: right now I am still confined to Blender 2.79 (however, if the newer versions > 2.80 offer something suitable, I'd appreciate if someone could point out where to look)

check out the Non Linear Action (NLA) editor. personally I still haven't gotten my head around it, but got the suspicion this is where the more sophisticated animation stuff happens


text:
hard self collision: make particles occupy space
By default, Blender's particles don't have any spatial extension. This is fine as long as particles are rendered as halos. But if you give them a size and an appearance as object, it becomes obvious that they're able to go through each other.
What tricks can be pulled off to fix that problem?
For example, if you want to fill an area with houses, toss some leaves onto the floor, or just want charged balls to stick to each other.
I'm aware that a precise solution of this problem is very challenging -- but already some kind of approximation would do in most cases.

If you want accuracy, you are probably better off using rigid body physics. See this related question

true and certainly an option -- downside is that I'd need to generate the objects rather by scripting, and that I'm loosing much of the other possibilities of particle systems...

You might be able to generate the objects as a particle system and then convert them.

but I can not combine both, correct? Either object's movement is governed by particle system, with forces, self forces, keying. Or I switch over to rigid body physics. For a seamless movement, we'd need a way to extract position, velocity and spin for each particle and assign it as start conditions to the corresponding object. But even then I'm afreaid to get a jerk in the movment, simply because the controling forces are different now.

Here is a script that converts particles to rigid bodies, maybe that can help.
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?279329-Copy-Particles-to-Rigid-Bodies

one partial and approximate solution is to use the harmonic forces as a self-effect on the particle system. Here, "harmonic forces" means to turn the particles into a set of oscillators, connected by virtual springs. The rest distance is the distance we want to keep between objects.
The key point to note is that this now adds an attraction for particles spaced wider than the rest distance, and that it might lead to wobbling. The latter can be controlled with a high damping factor (at or close to 1 gives us "acyclic damping"). To control the former, judicious use of the maximum distance and the strength and power of the force field is necessary. The result can be further improved by use of charged particles (so they repulse each other) and maybe combine that with invisible, charged objects as external attractors.
Downside of this approach is that the self effect on particles is limited to two forces and that getting the right behaviour can be tricky and insidious.
But the largest shortcoming is that there seems to be no way to tie the rest distance to the actual size of the particles, which might vary randomly

There is an add on called Molecular.  http://pyroevil.com/molecular-script-download/.  It makes the particles act as rigid bodies.  The particles can be linked to each other as well.
Here is a little teaser trailer the creator made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5QkPnPDcfc.  I hope this helps!


text:
How to make brick texture straight on dome?

How do I make the brick lines straight so it looks like this?:

With generated texture coordinates: In the texture tab of the properties panel you can set the mapping of the image texture to Sphere or Tube:

Sphere will cause the texture to be mapped so that the height of the bricks will cover a certain angle. This gives less streching, but the bricks near the top will cover less height. Tube will map it so that the bricks are all the same height, like the bricks should be, but will give you more distortion on the top of the sphere. But for your case tube is probably better.
For comparison: Sphere mapping (left) and Tube mapping (right) of a brick texture on a sphere.

With UV texture coordinates: if you press U to unwrap your object, select "Sphere Projection" to get the effect of the sphere mapping or "Cylinder Projection" to get the effect of Tube mapping. Note however that these mappings depend on the angle of the current view on the object. You should look on the side of the sphere, not on the poles.

Awesome!  I had no idea those UV mapping functions were based on the current 3D View.  I thought they were defective but now they are clearly awesome.


text:
Network animation with faces / simplicial complex using animation nodes
I am looking for a way to quickly and automatically construct an animation of a type of network (called a simplicial complex) wherein sections of the network structure have material on the faces in between the vertices.  I can construct the animation of a network using the 'animation nodes' package, here: https://animation-nodes.com/
This package allows the vertices to 'connect' or draw and edge between them whenever a certain criteria is met, such as the distance between them is below a threshold.
However, I have not figured out how to include a face on the triangle between nodes if the vertices are all connected to each other.
Here is an example of a snapshot in the animation of a simplicial complex (I would like for the vertices to move and faces to respond by appearing/disappearing with the edges in the animation):

This gif describes the type of motion:

Does anyone know how to achieve this?

This answer is based on Omar Emara's Answer
, so be sure to read it before you move on as I won't explain everything that have been answered there.
This is the loop to generate polygon

However, this loop doesn't take the distances between vertex points into account so I modify the loop to use the Distances output from Find Nearest Points node. As per documentation

Distances - The distances between the output points and the input point.

Input point is the inputs Vector, this outputs give you a list of floating point (the distances) with length same as Amount input where the first element is always zero as it is the distance to itself. With that we can compare each value with distance threshold.
not any(set(p) == polygon for p in polygons) and all(d < radius for d in distances)

radius is the distance threshold. all(d < radius for d in distances) will make sure that every value is inside the radius or below the threshold.
You can see where each node connecting to what node. Put that code on Expression node.

By adding this new condition input in generator, we only add polygon indices that met certain distance threshold. You can ignore the Distances List output of the loop for now. Here is the comparison side-by-side on Material Preview mode.

In this example I'm using Circle Mesh and scatter them using Vector Wiggle, however you can use particle system as well. The node setup is pretty much same as Omar's, use Combine Mesh to generate the polygons.

To generate edges we can use Find Close Points node (Mesh > Operators > Find Close Points), use mode Amount or Distance whichever that suit your need.
Here's the final result rendered using Viewport Render. https://i.sstatic.net/ZaAT3.jpg
. I use three Find Close Points nodes setup with different parameter and different material.


text:
Select multiple vertices around an edge in one click (Blender 4.2)
I am trying to select all vertices around a single edge of a circular object.
I am watching an old blender 4.0 tutorial which mentions Alt + Click to select all around but that isn't working for me. I can hold shift and select multiple but this is meaning I have to press every one individually. I have also discovered the circle selection which allows me to select them by "painting" over the ones I want.
I am using Blender 4.2 on a mac in case that is relevant. Can anyone help me?

4.0 is not that old, that Alt+ click to select loops existed before and still exists. However, just like the Loop Cut tool, it can only select loops where it can detect them. So I'm pretty sure it is not a matter of 4.2 and the Mac (at least I'm not aware if this feature doesn't exist on Mac, but it definitely still does on Windows in the latest version), but rather of your geometry. We could answer the question more easily if you would show the mesh and which loop you tried to select with this method.

There are conditions for alt+click to work:

You cannot be using the "emulate 3 mouse button" option (edit, preferences, input)

If you need to use that option because your mouse doesn't have the wheel to press, then you can select loops with double click (unfortunately this doesn't seem to work for faces, but works for edges)

Your topology must be good!! (That means your mesh must contain 4-sided faces, and only 4-sided faces)

Faces with a different number of vertices will not form a loop (even if those vertices aren't connected to anything)
Edges that go to an n-pole (vertex with more than 4 edged) don't form a loop, although n-poles are not a topology issye

The edges/faces must be connected (vertex duplications or disconnected faces interrupt the loop)


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Couldn't render a movie clip with a moving image in a composition layer
I couldn't render a movie clip with a tracked object on it.
I added Movie Clip and Render layers as inputs and Alpha Over as a node to combine images. But when pressing CTRL+F12 it seems like I see only Render layers in a view pane, no image from movie clip.
What could be the nature of the problem? I've tried disabling Sequencer in Post processing section of Output properties.
Here is a short video of the problem: https://i.imgur.com/eesgWvW.mp4
Any suggestions would be very helpful for me.
I used https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/188346/2980 as a guide.
I'm using Eevee render engine.

Does the Render Layer have a transparent background? It looks all grey, a transparent background is indicated by a checkerboard texture... have you enabled Render Properties > Film > Transparent? If not, the Alpha Over node will not work because there is no transparency in your render where the movie clip can be seen through.

@GordonBrinkmann that's the solution, much obliged! How could I accept your answer?

Wait for my answer to be posted ;) Comments cannot be accepted. But there it is, now you can accept the answer.

Your rendered image has no transparent background as you can see by the grey color. If it were transparent, this would be indicated by a checkerboard and your Render Layers node should look like this:

To use the Alpha Over node, the background of the overlaying image has to be transparent in order for the underlying movie clip to be visible. To change it, go to Render Properties > Film and enable the Transparent option:


text:
Can't see any image preview in Video Sequence Editor
I've added two strips of images after the video strip and converted their blend mode to Alpha Over. But there is still no preview image in VSE when pressing "Play". What should I do?
Filetype of images is PNG, version of Blender is 2.73, graphic card is gtx860, after rendering the part of video with images I see black screen.

Your trying to turn them into a video? you need a video format like AVI

@ARadish For some reasons I think it doesn't matter, what's the output format. It is just simple insert of image to show in video...

But what are you trying to achieve?

Check your PNG's alpha and the strip's opacity (and the eye icon) in N panel

@Bithur Hm, these PNG files were created by pressing Win+PrtSc and they were not processed correctly by Blender for unknown reasons. Recreating a PNG file by another standalone application solved my strange problem.

This was not a Blender issue.
My PNG files were created by pressing Win+PrtSc and they were not processed correctly by Blender for unknown reasons. Recreating the PNG file in another application solved my strange problem.


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Creating a custom permanent property in Blender 2.70 python script to access in GUI Panel
I was going through the "Getting started" API documentation for 2.68 since I'm guessing 2.70 is similar. I was testing out how to create my first script in 2.70 which I would like to save values which I will need later for future computations. I am using the Blender Panel UI for the user to modify the properties. Here is the basic code I'm stuck at from the HellowWorldPanel class. I was wondering why my property field isn't showing up in the Panel.
(Edit: I'm sorry just to clarify this, the panel is showing up with my "Hello world!" label but my property called "bl_mine1" isn't showing up in the newly created panel)
Here is the code I am testing it with:
import bpy

class HelloWorldPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label = "Hello World Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_hello"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "object"
    bl_mine1 = bpy.props.FloatProperty(name = "MyProperty")

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

        obj = context.object
        #Create New Row with text Hello World
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Hello world!", icon='WORLD_DATA')
        #Try showing a field box with MYProperty in it
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(obj, "bl_mine1")

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Thanks for any input.

Since your example panel is in the object context I assume you want to use the data on objects.
If you want to store and retrieve properties on a per object basis you can append a property to objects like this:
bpy.types.Object.obj_property = bpy.props.FloatProperty(name = "ObjectProperty")

and access the value in the UI like this:
row.prop(context.object, "obj_property")

Or if you need your property for all objects in a scene you could store it inside the scene like this:
bpy.types.Scene.scn_property = bpy.props.FloatProperty(name = "SceneProperty")

and access the value in the UI like this:
row.prop(context.scene, "scn_property")

To access the property values in your script you can also use the bpy.data module.
Note that operators and panels are conceptually different. Panels are not supposed to store properties or change them on their own. They are just for user access to internal data and properties. Operators on the other hand have builtin access to properties and are better suited to manipulate data. Note also that properties are automatically stored in the .blend file while saving. If you want to share data between scenes you could use other ID blocks like Text or use a simple operator to copy data between scenes e.g. like this:
import bpy

class UIPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
  bl_label = "My Panel"
  bl_space_type = "PROPERTIES"
  bl_region_type = "WINDOW"
  bl_context = "object"
  bpy.types.Scene.scn_property = bpy.props.FloatProperty(name = "SceneProperty")

  def draw(self, context):
    self.layout.operator("prop.propcopy", text='Update Scenes')
    self.layout.prop(context.scene,"scn_property")

class OBJECT_OT_PropCopyButton(bpy.types.Operator):
  bl_idname = "prop.propcopy"
  bl_label = "Propcopy"

  def execute(self, context):
    sc0 = context.scene
    for sc in bpy.data.scenes:
        sc.scn_property = sc0.scn_property
    return{'FINISHED'}

bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)


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When Blender model is exported, it looks completely different
When exporting this coin into Roblox Studio, all of its faces seem to be crazy. (No, its not the lighting). Is there a way to fix this?

This is an inverted normals problem. Go into edit mode, select all, and Mesh -> Normals -> Recalculate Outside, and I hope that’ll fix it.

Thank you so much @ZargulTheWizard !! This fixed my problem perfectly


text:
When selecting, it is this weird select tool and I dont know how to make it select with a click
When selecting, it is this weird select tool and I don't know how to make it select with a click. How would I fix this?

You are on Lasoo select. Press W to toggle through select modes until the cursor in the top left of the viewport is an arrow with a dotted box around it again (box select is default).

Thank you so much @ChristopherBennett !!

You are on Lasoo select. Press W to toggle through select modes until the cursor in the top left of the viewport is an arrow with a dotted box around it again (box select is default). – Christopher Bennett


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why are there so many crazy lines on my model's head when sculpting while using the mirror modifier?
I am trying to sculpt a cute little goblin and for some reason my mirror modifier seems to be making life harder for me.

There are these crazy lines on the goblin's head:

Why does the goblin's nose have a weird line running through it even when I try to draw over it?

Am I using the modifier wrong because all my issues seem to be deriving from it:

it's the Mirror modifier axis I guess, apply the modifier and use the sculpt symmetry option instead

Those "weird lines" are evidence of Z-fighting (faces overlapping). Blender can't tell which one to display in "front" so it shows that buzzy artifact instead. Whenever you see those lines, it means you have 2 faces occupying the same space, in your case, likely due to the mirror modifier. Make sure you are mirroring on only the axis you need, and make sure not to cross the "center line" unless you have clipping and/or merge enabled. You may have some luck by selecting the whole mesh in edit mode then pressing M (merge) and selecting "by distance".

@ChristopherBennett Thanks, the craziness went away!! Do you recommend using the mirror modifier for sculpting or is there something easier that can help me reach symmetry with the rest of my character?

I generally use the mirror modifier to get the base model (the part that is symmetrical), then I apply the modifier and use sculpting for the finer details and the asymmetric parts. For example, I would model a whole head using the mirror modifier (because both sides are roughly the same), and then when I gave the general look, I would apply the modifier and use sculpting to detail it (like making the sides slightly uneven, and adding wrinkles and such).


text:
why are there weird shadows when shading smooth?
I'm trying to make a chopping board, and so far I've added a hole using a bool, and then added a bevel using a mod. However, when I try to shade it smooth, these unneeded shadows are formed. How do I fix it so that the shadow isnt cutting across a flat surface like it would a normal cutting board?

Blender is trying to smooth between faces that are perpendicular and it gives this bad result, if the Auto Smooth option doesn't work, try the Weighted Normal modifier, see here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/258043/visual-artifacts-showing-up-on-decimated-model-set-to-shade-smooth/258055#258055

I'm either not doing it right, or its not working- Here is the file:

the Weighted Normal modifier needs the Auto Smooth to be activated

The top and bottom faces of your object are giant N'Gon's (faces with more than 4 vertices). Blender's shading system is based on quads (which then get triangulated for shading purposes). The shading artifact you are seeing is the result of a failed triangulation. Re-topologize your mesh so that all faces are quads. Or for a "cheaper" solution, try selecting the top and bottom faces and insetting them slightly.


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Problem on my texture
Blender 2.8 version. I have a grey line on the Earth. Why and how can I remove it? Thank you!

Hello, I guess it depends on how your UV is laying over the image in the UV Editor?

How to take a screenshot Please don't post photos of your monitor, these are hard to diagnose because we can't tell if we are looking at a physical issue like reflection or smudge, a hardware issue like a malfunctioning display, a software level issue, or an or actual artifact or issue with the model itself.


text:
How do I assign an image to an Image Node by script?
So I've been making a system that needs a lot of masks, and I need a script/addon to automatically make blank mask images at a set resolution, named appropriately, and put into the proper Image Node.
This is Blender 2.93 BTW if that makes any different to syntax.
I found some blocks of code to do different bits of this, and I have it mostly working, but for some reason it doesn't put it in the Image Node.
size = 1024, 1024

import bpy
# blank image
image = bpy.data.images.new("NipRough", width=size[0], height=size[1])

## For white image
# pixels = [1.0] * (4 * size[0] * size[1])

pixels = [None] * size[0] * size[1]
for x in range(size[0]):
    for y in range(size[1]):
        # assign RGBA to something useful
        r = 0
        g = 0
        b = 0
        a = 1.0

        pixels[(y * size[0]) + x] = [r, g, b, a]

# flatten list
pixels = [chan for px in pixels for chan in px]

# assign pixels
image.pixels = pixels

# write image
image.filepath_raw = "//NipRough.png"
image.file_format = 'PNG'
image.save()

# **works fine up to here**

# find node and assign the texture to it
bpy.data.images.load("//NipRough.png", check_existing=True)
mat = bpy.data.materials["Skin"]
node = bpy.data.materials["Skin"].node_tree.nodes["NipRough"].name
tex = ('//NipRough.png')
node.image = tex

It keeps telling me:

line 39, in "< module >"
AttributeError: 'str' object has no attribute 'image'

The image object is returned by bpy.data.images.load(). Assuming that "NipRough" is an existing image texture node, meaning its type is ShaderNodeTexImage, then the texture can be assigned as follows:
img = bpy.data.images.load("//NipRough.png", check_existing=True)
bpy.data.materials["Skin"].node_tree.nodes["NipRough"].image = img

Halleluja! It works! Thank you Robert. Man I was really overthinking that.
Shows how little I know about code. I feel like Lisa Simpson in the Australia episode.
"I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense."
Anyway, thank you so much. Now I need to scale this out to all the masks, and set up an interface for the addon.
I should be able to piece that together at least.


text:
How do I get an RGBCurves value in an addon menu?
I'm sure you've all had enough of me by now, but I need to get this working, so I'm just going to power through.
Is there a way to get this:

into my addon menu?
Ideally it should be hidden by default, and activate with this bool:
mat = bpy.data.materials["Skin"]
nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes
curve = bpy.data.materials["Skin"].node_tree.nodes["DarkCurve"]
BSDF = bpy.data.materials["Skin"].node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"]
mainmix = bpy.data.materials["Skin"].node_tree.nodes["MainMix"]

def dark_switch(self, context):
    for tex in bpy.data.materials:
        if (self.my_bool == True):
            #print ("Property Enabled")
            mat.node_tree.links.new(curve.outputs[0], BSDF.inputs[0])
            bpy.data.materials["Skin"].node_tree.nodes["DarkLight"].blend_type = 'LIGHTEN'
        else:
            #print ("Property Disabled")
            mat.node_tree.links.new(mainmix.outputs[0], BSDF.inputs[0])
            bpy.data.materials["Skin"].node_tree.nodes["DarkLight"].blend_type = 'DARKEN'

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Scene Properties
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------

class MyProperties(PropertyGroup):

    my_bool: BoolProperty(
        name="DarkSkin",
        description="Tick for Dark Skin",
        default = False,
        update = dark_switch
        )

Which I figured out yesterday, and works perfectly for what it currently does.

The widget, I suppose. You know when you select a node in the editor it shows up on the side bar in that window? As in my example pic. I need that.
I also need the same for some colorramp nodes eventually, I'm hoping if I get one working I'll be able to figure out both.

I figured it out, after a lot of poking around in the API docs.
curve = bpy.data.materials["Skin"].node_tree.nodes["RGBCurve"]
layout.template_curve_mapping(curve, "mapping", type='COLOR')

It shows up perfectly, and updates live.
The only thing I don't have it doing is hiding until the tick box is activated.
I'd appreciate any advice on that.


text:
How can I make a custom math node?
I'm continuing to work on a procedural skin system, and it's got so complex that my PC is having trouble running it. My workaround so far has been to just turn parts of it off while I work on other parts, but eventually I have to turn them all on to see the results anyway, so I end up with the same problem.
So I've decided it's time to try simplifying the actual math. My idea was to use the Truncate node, but the way it's coded I lose all the fine data. That's because Truncate limits to Integer values, but my fine details are all calculated in the decimal spaces. The reason these values are bogging down my PC are they go down into many many decimal places.
I tried making a node group which multiplied the values, fed that into a Truncate node, then divided that result to get the decimal points truncated, but it didn't work.
So what I need is a way to make a Truncate node with the ability to choose the decimal place that it truncates to.

"The reason these values are bogging down my PC are they go down into many many decimal places." Are you sure about that? I'd almost swear floatpoints operations always take the same fixed amount of digits into account, whether they are significant or not.

I am afraid the answer is: this is pointless.
You will still have 32bit floats, but way more calculations. Binary numbers have little to do with how many digits decimal numbers have as far as I know. They are also stored in a specific floating point format. So this is no way to speed things up. You should choose another path. Try making the shader less complex and more efficient. Don't process data that you don't need. For example, don't use color that is composed of 3 channels if you need only one, don't use 3d procedural textures when you can use 2D, try to replace complex nodes with simpler ones like for example people tend to overuse Color Ramp, when they can often get away with Map Range and so on, some other nodes can be replaced with math as well. Do tests though, to find out what is more efficient.

Also just show us the nodes in question if you want advice on how to make them faster.

At this point if I tried to do that, I would have to flood this page with screenies, cause there's no way I could show them in one.
On the subject of 32-bit floats, at what decimal point is it cutting them off, because I have some values being divided multiple times before being combined and then fed into the shader groups.

It doesn't change the fact that what you are trying to do here has absolutely no chance to help you achieve desired result. You need to look for another solution in any case. Maybe ask a new question about your specific nodes and share the .blend file if possible. Or maybe look for other ways to achieve what your shader does.

"at what decimal point is it cutting them off" - at none. They are not decimal, they are binary when calculations happen. The precision is limited by storing binary values and converting between decimal and binary.

Well that sucks. I guess I'll just have to keep trying to save for a new workstation. I've already optimized this system as much as I can by being choosey about my nodes and having my colorramps doing as much double-duty as possible already. My goal is photorealism so there's only so many corners you can cut.

It's uncommon for complex procedural materials to become unusable for rendering. You should consider baking them/parts of them to image textures. Procedural textures can increase render times dramatically even when not so complex.

Well yeah once you've made the skin, you bake it to use it, but you have to actually make the skin first.

I wouldn't give up on baking so fast. It might be worth trying. You mentioned you turn parts of the node tree off while working. You could bake the parts to textures instead and keep the nodes in case you want to adjust something. I know this is not perfect, but it has some additional benefits as well. Once it's an image it can further be manipulated in various ways - I find it very useful to mix in some detail from photographs when making wood veneer textures procedurally and other software like Krita and Photoshop is convenient for that at least for me personally. Might be worth exploring.

That's not what I meant by turning off. I mute a procedural group so it doesn't weigh down the others while I'm working on them, but the texture at the end doesn't look right until you turn them all back on. Besides, doing any post work in photoshop would defeat the purpose of this system. The baked textures are the final texture.

This is exactly what I mean. Instead of muting some procedural group of nodes, you could bake their output to texture and connect it to whatever the group was connected this way avoiding part of calculations while still working on other parts. As far as defeating the purpose goes... I thought you said the goal was photorealism. Anyway, I cannot advise precisely without seeing the nodes.

Baking the groups' outputs individually and then mashing them together in photoshop would not produce a usable skin texture. And the whole point of this system is to achieve photorealism entirely procedurally. That's why it's so complex, and that's why I was hoping I could simplify the math for the masking phase, then turn the detail back up for fine tuning and then baking.
But since that's apparently not an option, I'll just push ahead and keep trying to save up to buy a new workstation.


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Enabling collection unhides all objects
Whenever I enable a collection in Blender, it unhides all objects that I've selectively hidden. This is very irritating as it means I needs to rehide the objects I want hidden, or keep objects in separate collections.

unfortunately that's how it works right now

I've noticed that and I made a request in the Right Click Select site ( https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/XSgbbc/ ), but if you do it through the Extrude From Layer option it works the way you want, it keeps hidding the collections that are hidden, but you may want to use the Hide In Viewport option for some reason

Does my Blender 2.92 work differently or is there a misunderstanding on my behalf? I've got two collections. Both of them have visible and hidden objects. If I disable one collection, all objects disappear. If I enable it again, only the before visible objects reappear, the hidden objects stay hidden.

You are supposed to use the "monitor icon" visibility setting instead of the "eye icon" one in order to ensure objects stay hidden. If you hover over the eye icon it says "Temporarily hide in Viewport".

Oh I see, you're right... the "eye" icon gets enabled with the collection. Didn't realize that because almost always I only use "monitor" or "camera" icons since the benefit of the "eye" wasn't clear to me. The "monitor" helps me keep things invisible while I don't wish to see them - but not accidentally render the image without them. And the "camera" is useful if I explicitly want to render without certain objects for test renders etc. I know Hide (H) and Unhide (Alt+H) uses this "eye" icon, but since I use those shortcuts almost exclusively in Edit Mode that's not important either.

The eye icon hides objects temporarily. To hide objects globally, use the screen icon.
You can enable it from the outliner "funnel" menu.
Temporarily Hide objects (Eye icon)
Resets when a collection is enabled, duplicated or linked to another scene
Globally disable objects (Screen icon  )
Stays on when collection is enabled, duplicated or linked


text:
Doing the opposite of baking normals
I am trying to model a helmet from Doom Eternal, and I have a model from the game as well as textures and Normal maps. My ultimate goal is to 3D print, so I need the detail in the mesh itself. What I want to do is change the vertices of the model I have using the normal map so I can have higher detail. I want to avoid starting from scratch by using the things I already have.

You said you have textures and normal maps, do those textures include height maps? If not, you will have to find some way to convert the Normal Map to a Height Map (maybe use AwesomeBump?), and then use the height map as a basis for displacement.

Yeah what Bennett said. You can subdivide your model by a lot, then add a displacement modifier. Set coordinates to UV and add your texture to it.

@ChristopherBennett Displace modifier can use Normals too ... So why convert to Bump? Did I miss something? Thank you

Normal maps store information about surface angles, but no depth information. Blender lacks the ability to properly "assume" height information from a normal map because it's shader system is evaluated in such a way that each pixel is "unaware" of the state of the adjacent pixels (or any other in the texture map for that matter), and therefore cannot calculate to what extent an angled edge, for example, represents a height difference between two different flat sections. Thus, displacement from a Normal map will always be lacking compared to displacement from a true height map.

Ha ... sorry ... right ... I was sitting on my brain :)

The edges created by the displacement modifier are all very blunt. Is there any way I can sharpen them up?

Increase the number of subdivisions, maybe?

I'm already at 6 subdivisions and Blender crashes if I try and go any further


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Toon Shading Errors
I'm trying to create an outline effect for my seagull, but the outline seems to be glitching. It is creating a weird outline along the outside of the wing. I'm not sure why.

Hi, thanks for the post.  Can you [edit] your question to include a picture of your node setup and anything else that might help you get a good answer?

You're dealing with Occlusion:
There's a gap between the reversed 'outline' mesh and the natural mesh.
The natural mesh of the body is appearing over the outline of the wing between that outline is digging into the mesh.
I am unsure of how to fix this. You may need to manually add a strip of black between your wing and your body as a part of the natural mesh


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Blender UVs are unwrapped with (an unwanted) -90 degree rotation
I ran into a new problem that I have never experienced before.  My UVs are automatically rotated -90 degrees when unwrapped.  This is also happening to default meshes such as the cube.  I understand that I can manually rotate the UVs after the unwrap but I flat out do not want to do this every time I am working with UVs. I want them to unwrap as they should.  Thank you for any help you may provide.


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Composite nodes being ignored when rendering from command line
I am trying to render an animation using cycles from the command line but my composite nodes are being ignored. The images look ok, just the denoising and glare are missing. In blender on my other machine when hitting f12 the nodes are being applied correctly.
I am running the command blender -b file.blend -t 8 -o renders/frame_### -a
This is my node setup for compositing

They do work when not using the command line, you’ve tested?

you you provide your blend file?

Have you taken a look at the command prompt when you hit f12? Not sure if that would display more info.

@ZargulTheWizard Yes, when I am in blender normally they work fine and are being applied when I hit f12 to render a frame.

@Hendriks3D I am trying to use different machines, one is a linux server which I am trying to run the command line version of blender on, the other is my workstation pc. I don't know if any debugging locally with my pc will help the issue.

The same thing happened to me. Can someone answer this question? Both Use Nodes and Use for Rendering options are turned on and will work normally when rendered in the GUI, but will be ignored in the command line.


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Armature with multiple root pivots
I am currently trying to rig a skateboard as realistically as possible. I want to be able to move and rotate everything with the Root bone (the object / "skateboard" in the picture is parented to the Root bone), but at the same time, the whole rig should also be able to rotate around the two pivot points left and right.
I know of the workaround to manually move the 3d cursor to the desired point and pivoting the object around it, but I need the solution to be based on the armature.
I tried to use the Child Of constraint fot the Root bone with the Pivot Bones as the target bones, but then either the opposite pivot point won't move with the Root or I get double deformations, when I also try to parent the Pivot Bones to the Root.