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how do i scale inflow stream

i am in the middles of working on my project, in which call for the person to be in the shower, as in bathroon shower, and in working to get the water strean to look like water coing out of a sjower head i can't seem to the the inflow to scale down right, i trie a sphere, plance,cone, and so far a cylinder i as close as i can get, my question is how do i scale it down from bif ( as seen in the picture) down to a small stream ? i know resolution plays a part in this picture i have the reolsution set low(32) because i know the smaller the resolution it becomes more difficult to reduce. what do i have to to get it smaller?
any help or advice is appreciated and i can send the . blend file, as this is a inflow set-up


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External Edit pathway on Mac
I'm having issues connecting Photoshop to Blender. My goal is to be able to paint image textures and have them update on my UV maps in real time. All of the tutorials I've seen are on Window Systems. It seems simple enough to just connect the EXE file to blender but I'm not finding that anywhere on my Mac interface. I'm wondering if anyone knows how to connect Photoshop to Blender on a Mac system?

EXE is app format for PC ... for Mac just navigate to your Photoshop folder and choose Adobe Photoshop 20??.app file ... any issue with that?

Go to preferences>paths>image editor.  Find the file path : /Applications/Photoshop.app.  Then in the image editor window go to image>open externally.  It doesn't work differently on a Mac system.  However, this isn't live painting, for that you need texture paint.

You can set it here: Edit > Preferences > File Paths > Applications > Image Editor

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Artifact and pixelation issue with baking vertex colors
I'm trying to bake the red and green channels of a shader material using vertex colors, but the resulting solid mesh shows a lot of artifacts and overall doesn't look correct.
First screenshot shows the correct shading in Material Preview Mode:

Second screenshot shows the issues with the baked version in Solid Mode:

Anyone know why it doesn't look similar to what's in Material Preview?

Make sure you disable rendering on any other objects you're not using in the scene, also, apply, the scale to your object just in case, it seems you have some negative scales

Not disabling other objects in the render was the issue! Disabled them and the bake looks good. Thanks!

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


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Multiple planes not visible during rendering
I am pretty new to blender so apologies in advance if this is a quick fix. I have created a book with animated pages. Each page is an individual plane with an image on both sides. I only needed the first 17 pages to animate, so the rest of the book is faked using a solid with page textures added to the sides etc. All animates fine and is visible in the viewport. However, when I come to render the animation, only the fake book solid is visible, none of the pages show up. I have gone through basic trouble shooting, but nothing works. Any help would be much appreciated!

Hello and welcome. Hard to tell wothout your settings and or blend file https://blend-exchange.com

Just an aside (not to solve your problem) but a 4096 sample size is huge; I normally use a max of 128 or so, for performance reasons.


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Using Windows 8, Blender v2.7 and can't seem to edit an object upon creation, what am I missing?
I only used blender years ago when I was in highschool. I still have the same desktop (and don't have access to anything more modern), it has Windows 8 and I remember back when I started using this program, it was fairly simple to use.
It still seems simple, but the one feature I was hoping would work just like before is this popup that allowed me to alter or modify or change some details about the objects I created. But instead, pressing F6 only shows a greyed out pop-up window I can't interact with and anything else I found asks me to press keys and macros that don't do anything whether it's related to my blender version, my keyboard or my OS.
I remember having to use a specific version of programs like 3DSMAX because they weren't compatible with my OS, so I'm assuming I have to get another version of Blender too.
It could also be me, that I'm just not doing something the way it's supposed to be done. I apologize English is not my native tongue.
Should I try and make blender work or am I better off using some other program?

I've never used Blender 2.7 and don’t have access to it. Since 2.7 is quite old, it maybe hard to  get answers. However, if you're open to it, you might consider upgrading to a newer version of Blender. You can follow this tutorial for installing a more recent version. While the tutorial is geared towards Windows 7, it might work for Windows 8 as well. It has worked for many others based on feedback, but please proceed with caution, as there’s a risk it could potentially affect your system, esp. with DLL installations. Proceed at your own risk.

Latest version of Blender can run on Windows 8.1, no special version needed. See recommended requirements https://www.blender.org/download/requirements/ 2.7 is quite old though, so why don't you describe what you are trying to do so we can recommend an equivalent workflows for current versions of Blender

You mean edit mode? (keyboard =tab)

If you mean the Adjust Last Operation panel where you can do things like change the number of vertices on a cylinder or the resolution of a UV sphere for example, I don't know if that was F6 back then but it's F9 for a long time now, maybe try this. Apart from that, it is not possible to bring up the settings anymore if you did any other action after adding the object. It only shows the parameters of whatever was the last action.


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Realize Instances solution still doesn't work when I tried applying my geometry nodes

I'm working on a project in Blender 4.1 where I'm trying to achieve a "point-cloud" effect on my object. My current node setup is: Distribute Points on Faces > Set Point Radius > Set Position > Group Output. Everything looks great in Blender, but I need to export the object with the geometry nodes function attached.
Whenever I try to apply my modifiers, I get the error: "Evaluated geometry from modifier does not contain a mesh." I've tried the common solutions like using "Realize Instances" before the group output and "Make Instances Real," but they either make the object disappear or still don't let me apply the modifier.
Has anyone else encountered this issue and found a workaround?

Have a look at the spread sheet in the GN editor. There you will see that you have a Point Cloud created by the Distribute Points On Faces node but no mesh data. You can create Instances with an Instance on Points node + an Ico Sphere node. Finally, use the Realize Instances node to create the mesh from the instances.

As @Blunder said, you have created no mesh with your setup. Applying the modifier will only result in a mesh. Even when you have for example a mixed geometry like curves and meshes, applying the modifier will only keep the meshes (if they are no instances). Another thing is if you start with a curve object as base to add a Geometry Nodes modifier. Then it doesn't even matter if the nodetree outputs a mesh, you cannot apply a Geometry Nodes modifier on a curve object - not even when the output would be a curve. Instead of applying you'd have to use Ctrl+A > Visual Geometry to Mesh.


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I cant see anything when i render my image
I'm a complete beginner to blender and I follow tutorials on YouTube so I don't understand what to do. I can't see anything, no light, no object (even though they're all there) just a shadow whenever I render my image. I've gone through a lot of posts but nothing is helping.
my object in the rendered mode is also really grainy and I don't understand what the cycles even are or where to find them to change them

Hello and welcome. I cannot see where the light object is in your viewport. Could it be that your monkey object is way very big and the light object is inside of it? Try a new file and render the default cube. Do you see the cube?

Sorry for the late reply. My light objects is there, its behind the camera actually. I tried it with the default cube but i got the same result when i rendered the image. there was still no light.

Have you tried resetting to factory settings, does the problem persist? If so then this is a bug and unfortunately off topic.


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How to make a Plane object on a 3D character always face the camera
rn im working on a retro N64/PSX/Dreamcast 3D character model for my fan JJBA Stand ability and I wanted to use a technique where plane objects always face the camera like the bob-ombs on SM64, does anyone knows how to achieve this?


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How can I import a pointcloud with vertex normals from .ply?
I am attempting to render a series of around 1 million cubes by using dupliverts with a point cloud and a 'base' cube. I am able to import the points using .ply format, but when I inspect the vertex normals in edit mode, it seems that Blender is ignoring the vertex normals and simply computing them relative to the origin.
Is Blender capable of importing a point cloud with associated normals from .ply format? If not, can anyone recommend a format which would make this possible? My initial point cloud comes from a VTK file format, but I'm able to convert to others quite easily. I already tried X3D but I think this can only assign normals to higher dimensional geometry.


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Baking vs texture image
I am trying to understand baking in cycles and was wondering if I use a texture image with emission as input for material output, isn't it the same as baking? DO I need to bake this setup as well and then use that image instead of using the original texture image? My understanding is that baking is for all the material shaders and effects, but if I use a texture image already, then baking is not going to speed up rendering? Sorry if this sounds stupid, but I can't get my head around it.

If you use an image texture alone for your object, plugged into a diffuse or emission shader - that is as simple as it can be already. Baking is done to get complex information from a shader tree and multiple textures summed up in a few textures that can then be plugged into a Principled Shader.
If you are only needing the color information from the image texture you already have, baking isn't necessary.


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Merge a rigified object with new armature for proxy linking
I used rigify to create a rig for my character. After that, I created a separate armatures with 4 bones and set them as shape keys for blinking and smiling for my character. This new armature I called facerig, while the rest of the body is called rig. Now, when i am trying to link it to a scene and make a proxy, I can select rig, but how do I join the facerig to that proxy?

You can simply join the two armatures (select the rig, shift select the facerig, press Ctrl J) and then make the proxy in the new scene.

if I'm selecting main rig first and then facerig, on ctrl+j, the main mesh disappears. And when i select facerig first and then main rig, the facerig armature disappears?

Before joining the two rigs Apply (Ctrl A) Loc Rot and Scale of both rigs and the mesh. If it still doesn't work you could upload your file.


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Setting up a linked rigged character
So, I have a best practice question. I created a few characters in their separate files. Rigged them using rigify, created a pose library for rubharb lip sync. Next, i linked that character to a separate blend file which will be my scene file, and created a proxy so as to be able to pose it. Now for initial setup, the characters are kind of different scales, so I need to scale them all to look same size with respect to the scene and also pose them initially for frame 1. So scaling, will of course be in object mode, but the transform location, should I do that in object mode or should I do it in pose mode using the root bone?
Also, when using rubharb lip sync, should I generate the lip sync actions before i link the character, or should I do it on the proxy itself in the scene?

Use only the root bone to scale and position character in the scene. In more complicated rigs there might be drivers that have root as input to react to it's position or scale, so it's the best practice. Having the drivers contained within the rig and also having all the actions on the root bone (scale and translation) is the most tidiest setup.

Scaling:
If you plan on scaling the characters at different scales for different scenes then I would Follow Jaroslav's advice.
However if you just found out they were not scaled ideally and now that you see them together in a scene you want to adjust them permanently, you should go back to each characters rig file and make the adjustments there, this way you won't need to worry about factoring scale of your characters when you try to animate them in your scenes. Having to deal with scale factor of your character may complicate your animation process, or give unexpected results when running certain scripts if you use those...
LipSync:
You definitely want to set up the phonemes in the rig file of each character (think of them as the poses the face of your character can do always: A, E, I, O, U, BVF, smile, angry etc...).
In your scene file you should only worry about animating those existing face poses to match the dialog of that scene. If you find you need to add some expressions, go back to your rig and add it there, that way it will be available for any scene you want to do in the future. Your character rig will get more powerful as you add expressions to it.


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Linking a rig with actions and animating more
So I created a character, rigged it using rigify and created a simple walk action. Next I linked it to my scene blender file and created a proxy to work on it. In the scene, I saw the walk action and I added it to the NLA strip. Now, when I try to do anything else, like make him stand, bend, it replaces the walk strip. I tried changing the blend mode to add, but that completely messes up the mesh. How do i go about adding more actions to a linked character with an action of its own.

Near the blending "add" option, there's the extrapolation setting, did you set it to "nothing"? If not the last new animation pose will be added to the following frames, messing up things.


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In shading mode, how to make material slot object face selection remain permanent
First post... hi everyone, newbie to Blender here.
In shading mode, I am using 2 material slots to apply different colors to a building. One material is assigned to building walls... the other to window faces. When I have all window faces selected and select the other material slot, I lose selection to windows faces and then have to manually reselect all faces again, time consuming. I wonder if there is a way to link selected window faces to assigned material slot for the selection to remain permanent. Thanks

Do you mean selecting faces that had a Material? if yes here is how :

If this faces isn't assigned to a Material you can save a selection by :
Ctrl + G > Assign to a New Group

You can assign-remove-select-deselect a Vertex Group in the object mesh tab

Yes, that helped a lot. Thanks Faris!

No problem brother


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How do I make a mesh deform only due to collision and not movement?
I have a complex mesh, and my goal is to have certain parts of the mesh deform while the rest stay rigid, and I need those deformations to happen only on collision with another object.
I'm currently using softbody physics, and through vertex groups and weight painting, I have successfully made it so that only certain parts of the mesh deform. (I included this in case it has a big impact on the solution for the real question).
If I move the object in the scene, the parts I want to deform are jiggling. I would like for movement not to impact the mesh at all, so that it only deforms when something collides with it.
If I increase "Mass" by a whole lot, collision deformations look excellent! However, any time the object itself moves, a high mass makes the jiggle extremely pronounced and erratic. If I make "Mass" very small, it doesn't jiggle at all when the object moves which is great, but collisions look way too ripply and erratic

why don't you keyframe the mass? for moving low mass, for collision high mass?

Or maybe disable the *Softbody modifier with keyframes while the object moves...? (not sure if the momentum gets lost then)


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Is there a way to assign multiple meshes to an object and switch between them?
(Blender 4.0)
My goal is to create a city, not one that's too complex, maybe like 7 or 8 different buildings in total. I want to use this city in both close-up situations where only a street's worth of buildings are visible at once and details of a single building will matter, in situations where the camera is so far away that buildings don't need to look like more than just simple prisms (to reduce system strain), and a step in the middle too. I want there to be consistency between versions too, so all the buildings should stay in the exact same spots.
Is there a way for me to have all three versions of the mesh in the same object, where I can easily swap between the detailed mesh and the far-away mesh? I've experimented with Multires, but it seems to only let me subdivide a mesh, which isn't enough of a change; I'd want the higher-detailed model to straight-up add a new balcony, for example. Creating three separate collections seems very tedious, especially if I decide to change the locations of some buildings.
My current idea is to use Instancing and create a weird mesh with a vertex in each place that building should be, then change the child to one of the other meshes on the fly. Is there a better way? Is there a reason this wouldn't work?

Here is how it can be done in Geometry Nodes:

This setup is for 3 level of details, and shows 3 versions of mesh, depends on distance to active camera.
To get location, you can calculate the length (vector math node) of the relative coordinate of the camera.
Active camera may be gotten from the active camera node
Then you can switch between different geometry using Switch nodes

Nice one. Could you edit your post and rephrase it so the names of key nodes you used are mentioned in text. Just so they are indexed and we can find them in search later

Just a heads up that you need to make sure the origin of your LOD objects is somewhere near the center of their geometry, otherwise this will not work as expected. The distance is calculated relatively to the origin (yellow dot), not the actual geometry.

"Active Camera" node, nice, I missed that! I need to take a look if I haven't missed something more. BTW you can divide geometry into voxels and switch the level of detail based on voxel's distance, but then you need a stitching algorithm


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Blender file export fail to .stl to Cura for 3D printing
I got my Neptune 3D printer setup. I was able to print the test model Buddha and it looks great! Super excited.
I designed an object in Blender that has mesh layers and uses a couple of Boolean modifiers.
I exported the blender file using: Export < .stl < (name contains no spaces or special characters). When I attempt to open the file using the Cura software I get error messages and a grey shadow. Very frustrated because I spent a lot of time learning the blender controls and tools and this is not making me happy. Cube has hollowed out portion, 20mm x 20mm x 20mm.

Any suggestions?

Can you edit your post and attach your .blend file please. https://blend-exchange.com/
Also, activate the 3D Printing Toolbox addon (ships with Blender) and use it's tools to check the object for any problems.

Also... Cura has automatically scaled your STL. Meaning that it probably exported extremely small. This can happen when you think you are working in millimeters, but have the scene Unit Scale still set to 1.0, when it should be set to 0.001

I’m sorry if you’re disappointed in Blender. Aside from relay to you information we have collected from free documentations or paid courses, we can’t do any more about any problems you might encounter than you can: Most BStEx users are not Blender developers.

Right off the bat, I’m thinking that you set it to export selected objects only or something, and only a tiny component is selected. I’ve never heard of mesh layers, so I have no info on wether or not the STL exporter can handle them correctly. I might check that part of the component isn’t actually imported, but is very high up, outside the print volume, and is thus causing an error. The shadow looks wrong regardless, so it’s probably not exporting correctly, but to see what did export would help a lot I think.

Make sure the normals are facing the right way. In edit mode select everything then go Mesh > Normls > Recalculate Outside


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Alpha blend Materials on top of each other randomly disappearing
I have several Alpha Blend elements, layed on top of each other on three different levels.
My problem is that the elements on the middle level are disappearing sometimes, corresponding the the limit of the alpha of the further level.
It's a bit hard to explain, so here are some pictures to explain my issue:

So you can see the round element is visible from the front, but disappear as soon as I move the camera to the side,and only reappears when it's visually off the edge of the background element, if that makes sense. Same for the green text above, wich is on the second layer of elements as well.
I wanted to post GIFs as well, but for some reason I can't upload them directly, so here are the links: https://i.gyazo.com/156e65c4255a87fcc7448c869d9236fa.gif
https://i.gyazo.com/874016be4b586e749cdfe0db87d08f81.gif
I hope you guys understand what my issue is and will be able to help me on that matter!
I'm using Eevee render, and the problem is the same in the Viewport and the Render.

Without analyzing the question thoroughly: it's probably about how alpha blend is layered based on origin positions: https://i.imgur.com/LQzSi87.gif - you may want to use alpha hashed or alpha clip instead.

I tried that, but unfortunately, by changing the alpha mode, I lose transparency levels on my circular texture, which has several levels of opacity (several gray values) in its mask.
By doing alpha ashed, I get a pixellated effect whic I don't want, and alpha clip just makes everything either 100% transparent or 100% opaque, which I don't want either.

This is why you have 3 options to choose from, each with upsides and downsides... You could use a driver + geonodes to move the origins in such a way that objects remain ordered properly.


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How can I make an IK leg rig with a retractable foot part?

Hello.
I want to make an IK leg rig. The green part is hidden in the blue part. But I want to be able to come out. Normally the end of the blue part is the last chain of the IK and the part touching the ground, but when the green one came out I want to IK system to behave as the last chain is the green part and green part is touching the ground.
I hope this makes sense.
I tried to learn how to rig a telescopic piston thing but couldn't implement it to this one.
Also couldn't come up with any other thing that works.
Thanks for the help in advance.
Best...

I think found a solution that does the job.
Extruded:
Collapsed:
The idea is:

The leg consists of two bones. One dummy bone and one bone where the mesh is assigned to. The Dummy bone also does the job of the ik. Its extruded from the bone above and always has an IK bone onto it. Do dissable it, I scale it down, so its IK solving is being done at the end of the parent position, action like the IK would be on the parent. The One Problem with this, is that the mesh would be also scaled. For this we have the other bone (Not Dummy). This bone has a copy location constraint to dummy bone, so it doesn't get scaled and moves inside the parent bone. It also has two track two modifiers to get the correct rotation. The one Track to is linked to the parent and the other to the dummy.
The Scale and both of the track to constraints are controlled by a custom property and packed in a driver, so you can change all bones by one value.

Iv'e uploaded the blend file so it's maybe easier to understand.
https://www.file-upload.net/download-15018890/BonesTest.blend.html
Hope I could help (:

Hey. That's great. It's exactly the thing I am trying to achieve. I should learn more about drivers and constraints because I got confused trying to accomplish a similar rig.
You're great. Thank you very much for your contribution.
Best...


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Mirroring to create a single polygon across the mirroring plane
I'd like to create a single triangle by mirroring one vertex exactly on the mirror plane and another vertex across the mirroring plane to create a single face. I've shown an example image. In this example, I've already applied the mirror modifier but it won't create a face across the mirror boundary.

I'm really hoping something like this is possible? I guess I could just leave this one triangle until the very end, then apply the mirror modifier and fill it in, but it would be nice if I could leave the mirror modifier in place and have it correctly construct this face. Is there a trick to doing this?

The mirror modifier in your illustration is working exactly as it is designed to do. In this case, it is mirroring an edge. To complete a face, you need to add one more vertex, located at the intersection of a line perpendicular to the y axis, and the y axis, which passes through the vertex furthest from the y axis, and create the face. The easiest way to create this vertex in the illustrated figure is to extrude from the vertex at the far right to the y axis, constraining the extrusion to the x direction. If you do this, the mirror modifier will work the way you wish.

But then it will create two triangles and I just want one.

There would also be an edge that ran along the Y axis, which I also don't want. I'm basically trying to mirror polygons across the boundary without having a seam along the mirrored axis, if that makes sense.

Then I think you're trying to use the mirror modifier to do something it can't do, in this case, creating something (an edge) from nothing.

So is there some better way to do what I'm wanting to do? I suppose it would just have to involve post-processing, eh? Apply the mirror modifier and then fill in any holes that it didn't connect?

I don't know enough about your project or workflow design to know exactly what you are trying to do.

I'm just trying to make a symmetrical model without an edge all along the mirroring axis. In my example, I've shown the single triangle I'd like to create. If I followed your instructions, I'd end up with two triangles and an edge along the mirroring axis. The model I'm making will be shown in wireframe, and I think aesthetically it would look a lot better without a seam running the length of the mirroring axis, so that's what I'm trying to accomplish. Looks like it may not be possible in any straightforward manner, however.

@aardvarkk I don't think it's possible. I think it would be easier to model with the extra edge in the middle, then apply the mirror modifier and delete it once finished.

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


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Is there an easier way to cut specifically shaped holes in moderately complex objects (particularly from inside them)?
I'm new to Blender, so I feel I must be missing something. I'm modelling something that's bound for a 3D printer and I need to cut some specifically shaped (and spaced) holes in it.
I've tried knife, knife project, bisect, and boolean modifiers, all with limited success. Knife (and knife project) were particularly infuriating, as they worked great on the outside of the object, but when I needed to cut the holes on the interior they failed miserably. It seemed my only options were to cut nothing or all the way through from the current view. I finally got the surface I want, but only after hacking the faces to death with the knife and merging edge loops a couple of times. It left the mesh rather a mess...
Is there any better way to do this? What about cleaning up the mesh a little?
Desired result finally:

Ugly, underlying topology:

The topology actually seems pretty okay to me (considering what you are trying to do). Most of the tris could probably be converted to quads with a quick Alt J (with everything  selected in edit mode). What happened when you tried boolean modifiers?

@gandalf3 I'm not sure I was doing it correctly, honestly. I fiddled with the options, trying to subtract an extruded version of the desired hole shape from the larger object. I think I may have gotten the right combo and just didn't know it. None of them looked quite right. I'll try it again next time around.

Maybe this question will help.

Check out this addon, it makes working with Booleans so much easier.

@user2926289 Holy crap... that looks great! Thanks for the link!

When using boolean modifiers, odd things can happen if you don't have the normals correct on both of the two objects. This may be why it didn't work as expected.

@GiantCowFilms this could use your comment as an answer , I can't find a duplicate !

@Chebhou Okay...!

No Knife!
In STL (the main 3d printing exchange format) everything gets triangulated, converting to quads is a waste of time.
BoolTool has been mentioned, it does add needed functionality to the Boolean Modifer (which can be unintuitive). If you have complicated geometry, curved surfaces with thickness into which you want to cut shapes, then that's a good way to go. But, if like in your image, you have a flat surface then modeling the negative space and snapping it into position and then reconnecting the faces might take the same amount of time.
Take your basic shape:

Then you model the negative space, in place. Learning how to use the snapping tools (vertex snaps in particular) will make modelling easier and speed it up.
I like to remove the object wall, place the negative space where it needs to be, then attach the wall again.

Then select an edge of the remaining opening by holding Alt and Right clicking, this selects the edgeloop if possible (usually it will). Then press F to fill this shape.

With the faces Filled you can press Ctrl+T to triangulate selected faces.

or tidier like yours

At first this may seem like a backwards approach, but when you have simple geometry to cut into the booleans are not the only approach.
Alt + F
docs: Meshes/Editing/Faces
Alt + F is like fill but acknowledges internal boundaries. Islands to exclude from the fill.
 .

I would try using the Bool Tool  addon. it makes the interface more elegant, and generally speeds up the workflow, as well as making better cuts.

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


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Height in Object mode does not match the height in edit mode?
I wanted to simply create a cylinder with height of 1cm and a radius of 10cm. So I set the corresponding scales in the toolbar:
After that I went into edit mode, I enabled the edge length overlay and selected an edge from the bottom to the top:

I expected that it would be 1cm long (which is what I typed in object mode), but it is 20 cm. I also noticed the "Scale" entries in the toolbar in object mode. If you multiply 20cm by 0.005 you would arrive at 0.1cm which does not make any sense.
What's going on? Is this a bug? I tried this in version 2.83.15 and 2.93.0 same behavior.

Hello, it looks right to me : It's 200cm, not 20cm. 200 * 0.005 = 1 cm. Go to object > Apply > Scale or CTRL A > Scale to get the same dimensions

Ah I was not aware of the fact that you have to apply transformations! That's the answer, thanks! Add it as answer and I will accept it.


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cycles orthographic render with gradient background
I created a basic rainbow gradient background in cycles with the colour ramp set to constant. With the standard camera this appears as expected.
But when I switch to orthographic camera I only get one colour.
I can tweak the Z location in a mapping node to move the gradient around and the changes are represented on a glossy Suzanne correctly. but the background is only one colour, at a time.
I change the position of the colour ramp stops and even using 6 decimals points of precision can not get more than one colour to appear on the background at a time.
I get that the orthographic camera is flattening the background and causing a greatly reduced angle of view but should I be able to set up the background to to be a very small colour ramp rainbow?
I also thought about using the compositor, but found the images in this answer to low-res to read. How to create a gradient backround in the compositor?

Orthographic camera means 0degree angle so the camera can only show one pixel (the smallest unit) of the background. Compositor seems the way to go for your desired effect

that makes perfect sense, now you have said it. Please post as the answer and I give you the vote. I did manage to muddle through the blurry screenshots to use a Texture gradient as the compositor background.

Glad it helped and glad to comply! Cheers

Orthographic camera means 0 degree angle, so, the camera can only show one pixel (the smallest unit) of the background. Compositor seems the way to go for your desired effect.


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Using handlers to play a sound after baking
Browsing other questions and the documentation, I've been able to create this simple script + run it in my project. However, nothing happens - I've tried baking a fluid sim's data/mesh multiple times, and the sound never plays. I have tested the sound separately and it plays fine. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Are the handlers I'm using not called for this type of bake?
import bpy
import winsound

def beep_when_done(dummy):
    winsound.PlaySound("Notification.IM", winsound.SND_ALIAS | winsound.SND_ASYNC)

bpy.app.handlers.object_bake_cancel.append(beep_when_done)
bpy.app.handlers.object_bake_complete.append(beep_when_done)

are you 100% sure, that your file path is ok? blender uses a different filepath than windows does. Maybe try opening a txt file and print it out - with the txt file at the same folder as your Notification.im. If this works, you can use the same filepath for your sound file. I had the same problem....and it was "just" the path ;)

Yes, the sound plays fine when run from a script in blender that only plays it with that exact line.


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Shortcuts stop working
So the shortcuts do work, but at some point they stop working. The only thing that helped was reopening a project over and over until they start working again. I have a MacBook Pro laptop and it's quite new, so I am pretty sure the problem is not with my laptop. Has anyone had the same problem? I am new to blender, so I have no idea how to fix this

i only can say - i don't have any problems with my Macbook. Maybe download another Blender version? I assume you have an M1? Did you downnload the apple silicone version?

All shortcuts stop working, or only a few? Are you sure you are not in a modal when this happens? Or that you are not trying to use shortcuts while in the wrong interaction mode or when your mouse cursor isn't on the right area?


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Activate a script on paint/drawing action
Here is a very simple rudimentary script that randomizes the color of the texture paint brush, however the script only randomizes when I run the scrip. Is it possible to instead have it randomize every time some paint placed, besides pairing the randomizing to the left click of my mouse??
import bpy
import random

brush = bpy.context.tool_settings.image_paint.brush

color= (random.uniform(0, 1), random.uniform(0, 1), random.uniform(0, 1))
brush.color = color


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Cant get face project to proporly work
I'm just trying to get this cylinder's face to snap to the box, but my efforts are futile, all setting lead to the same incorrect result. What am I doing wrong? All I yearn for is for these faces to align, but my day is in vain and pain. Every path I take leads me to this inevitable failure of an outcome, why is this world so cruel

Faces I want to align
The result I'm always getting
Outcome I'm trying to achieve

Just untick Align Rotation to Target in the snap options.

Edit: aligning the objects based on a specific face (rather than the whole object) takes more steps. This time Align Rotation to Target stays ticked.

Create an empty and snap (Face Project) it to the face of the cylinder you want to align. The empty adapts the face's orientation.

Make the empty the parent of the cylinder.

Flip the normal of the target face (enter face edit mode, select the target face and Mesh > Normals > Flip).

Go back to object mode, snap (Face Project) the empty to the target face, the cylinder should now have done what you desire.

clean up: revert the normal flip, discard the empty

Note: i dont know why excactly, but if you don't flip the normals, the snap projection will be on the backside of the target faces.

thanks that does seem to fix the rotation problem I was having while aligning the faces with one another, however it doesn't seem to align the rotation of the object to the face Could you guide me on how to enable that feature as well?  https://imgur.com/CvmBK9A

@Dickhead_Jones Sry, i didnt realize you want to align the cylinder based on the specific face. I'll update my answer.


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Rotate Texture Based on Normal
Currently, I'm seeking a technique to adjust the rotation of a wave texture connected to a normal input. However, my attempt to rotate it using a mapping node results in the wave texture merely shifting rather than actually rotating it.
Current outcome

[nodes] geometry(normal)  -->  mapping(vector)  -->  wave texture(vector)
Wanted outcome

The normal near the top of the cylinder is the same as the normal near the bottom of the cylinder.  No use of raw normal coordinates is going to give us slanted lines-- given two identical inputs, you're going to get two identical outputs.
But other kinds of coordinates can differentiate between the top and bottom of the cylinder.  For instance, we could use generated coordinates to shear our normal coordinates:

Tweak the value in the math/multiply node to tweak the amount of shear.


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Is it possible to get a noise texture spilling out of the mesh borders?
So I have this base cylindrical mesh with a noise shader on it.

As you can see the noise is constrained because of the bounds of the mesh.
Is there any way that I can make the noise come out of the mesh so it doesn't look cut off.
Kind of like the mesh is radiating that noise texture.
Example below image.

No, you can't add textures to the absence of geometry. You always do the opposite, make the mesh bigger, then mask parts of the texture around the borders you don't want.

how can I mask the parts of the texture ? kind of a blender noobie here

Search is your friend Here is a technique for blurring edges https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/131184/how-to-make-the-edges-of-an-object-blur-to-alpha and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/55991/blurring-feathering-a-procedural-pointiness-mask

A mask is a black and white image that tells a mix shader "which parts go where" when mixing two other textures (or materials). Here is an example of one I made by warping a spherical gradient with a noise texture:

When using this as a mix factor between the colored noise you already have and a Transparent shader, only the desired part is shown, and the rest is transparent, or "masked off" if you will. Remember to switch to your blend mode alpha-blend if you are using EEVEE for the transparency to show properly.


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A.N.T. Landscape Interface
when I first open a landscape mesh, I can see the mesh interface (large yellow box), and I can minimize it (small yellow box), but when I click off the mesh, the interface disappears and I cannot find the menu anywhere! Any ideas how I can re-open the Landscape interface?! Many thanks!

F9 will bring it back at the position of the mouse cursor, but that's only as long as you haven't made any other changes in the interim.

Hi John, thanks for that. Is there any way to bring it back if I have made other changes or is it lost forever?

See the answer from @Foxtrot. Note that this doesn't just apply to the landscape interface. It applies to any object after you've created it.

Hey once you clicked anywhere you can bring back last operation menu by pressing F9
but if you do another operation after it (like scale,location,rotate) it will lost.

So after I do something else, I can never edit that landscape?!

You need to save the settings as operator presents to use that settings


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Texture artifacts on seams area
why am I having such strange artifacts on my seams area? What's wrong with the UV unwrap or something else? Thanks in advance for your help.

Some more info might be helpful, such as what version of Blender you're using, if you've checked that all normals are facing out, and if you've verified there's no duplicated geometry (that's what looks likely from the screenshot). Also, it's sometimes a good idea to post your blend file, or a truncated version of it that has the problem. The Blender StackExchange has its own service to share blend files: blend-exchange.com/help

Looks like a problem with amount of bleed compounded with the effect of Occlude blocking at an angle. Painting closer in to the seam area and increasing the Bleed from 2 pixels to 4 or even 6 might help a bit.


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Export procedural textures and animations
I followed this tutorial to make procedural water which I expect to export and use it in Unity.
Besides material system node it has an animation.
In Unity or is displayed as a blue plane without any noise/bump information. Animation is also not available from Unity
https://youtu.be/MtlSIRh5r_E
What am I doing wrong and is there any way to export procedural textures?
By the way, I tried to bake material nodes to image texture but it was also baked as a solid colour image
I'll be very grateful for the answer.

Baking is the answer - Blender's node graphs (shader systems) are not compatible with Unity's, so exported (bitmap) image textures are the way to go. I'm not sure why you're getting a solid color when you bake, but that's where I'd place my focus. My guess is that because procedural textures don't need UV maps to function in blender, you haven't UV unwrapped your model(s) yet. Make sure your models are appropriately unwrapped before baking.

What about animation? Will that gonna work in this approach considering the fact or l it's made of on the procedural basis?

Will the textures in your animation be in flux (changing constantly)? In that case, you may be better off to build the shader from scratch using Unity's shader graph.

Well,  water simulation is made with nodes and during the animation I change its xyz to make a waving simulation. I'm not sure if it's in the flux?


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Custom shape orientation for bones in Blender 2.93
I'm following Darin Lile's tutorial and I faced an issue with custom shape orientation for bones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miphUq4uwNM&list=PLyelx0TsmSpcgsINPt6fOh3yWjTjk2Nz9&index=9&t=50s
In the video he uses orient_custom_shape Python script. I searched the Internet and found couple more of them but they're all for 2.8 and lower versions.
Do you know the alternative way to orient shape to bone in Blender 2.93? Thanks in advance.

I found a solution here: Orient Custom Shape addon stopped working in versions above 2.9?
I put the folder containing init.py in Blender addons path and orient custom shape installed successfully for 2.93


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Baked normals applied incorrectly on final rendering
I had multiple texture images on one material. I baked them to 3 different maps: diffuse, normal and specular. Now I'm trying to make final rendering node system (Cycles engine). Here's what I have there.

When I plug my normal map into shader through Bump node I've got the whole kind of rough and shaggy. Could you please explain how to apply normal and further specular maps here?
Here is how the mesh looks like when normal map plugged in. I have bump information only on his clothes but not the face.

Thank you in advance.

A normal map isn't a bump map.  Use a normal map node instead of your bump node.  Specular map depends on exactly what the bake was, and what it was from (specular color?) but it can't go into the material you have shown, because that material has no specular component, only diffuse.

I tried to add Normal map node instead and the normal information doesn't display at all

As for the specular map, it was baked from Specular color exactly. For this one I'm gonna change shader to Principled. But anyway issue with normals is still unclear.


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Why is the viewport shading color : texture grey instead the base color of my texture?

According to Blender Guru's tutorial it should be more like this one:

Why no color for my viewport shading??

Most likely because you've selected the bump map in the shader editor. The solid mode displays the last selected texutre node in the shader editor

oh I didn't know, thanks @Gorgious


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How do I switch between two created brushes without pressing N?
like we have in Photoshop and other digital art tools, we can press alt or some keybindings to change between the various brushes we have, how to do that in blender

Shift Spacebar is a shortcut to the tools, then you can choose the brush or press a numpad key

if you don't like the default shortcuts for the brushes you can change them anytime in the context menu (right-click on the icon) or add the brush selection to the Quick Favorites menu and use then the Q key.


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How to slow down and optimize fluid animation for a collision animation
I have a scene where a fluid flow object(a plane) is emitting fluids which is then affecting the main object. I am trying to animate the entire scene, but the animation is so fast I can hardly catch it, here is a example:

Here are the settings for the domain, flow(plane), and effector(main object) for the fluid sim:

The tutorial is not precise in explaining all the small steps, but here is the result I am looking for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbewtqTrzgo&t=323s Here is the tutorial for reference

I think a lot of the animation frames and settings are missing in the tutorial where a smooth flow of fluids is observed, that might be the issue causing in my blend file


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Why is this Geometry Node setup not rotating around a central pivot point but around its own axis?

Currently working on this Geo nodes setup where the cards are supposed to fanout in this fashion:

Question where this answer was posted:
How do I make bunch of collection instances follow along a curve?
Link to blend file:

Hi, Atharava.. your file is quite confusing for a stranger to your project.. not sure what I can abandon. The GN effect here actually creates instances .. would it be OK to abandon your controller-parents, and animate the created instances themselves?

If you want to rotate instances around something there needs to be a thing to rotate them around.

I've added a Card Rotation Origin empty that they can rotate around. It is also important that the instanced objects has an origin in the place they should rotate around. Each of the objects in the Card Objects collection has their instance at the bottom of the object, where the curve should intersect with it. You can still animate the Geometry Nodes Modifier as you do in your file.


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How do I slide the objects away from each other on a axis?

I have these two columns that I want to slide away from the centre on the y axis. how do I achieve it?

You can't in Edit mode, unless you've already symmetrized on Y, in that case you can use the Y Mirror option on the top right.
Or make the changes, select all and Mesh > Symmetrize on Y.
Or use a Mirror modifier.


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How do I import materials, assets, textures to asset browser that are not .blend files?
I have a huge folder of materials I collected over the course of my blender journey and I want them to appear in the asset library so it's easy for me to pick them and apply. But they are not .blend files and are rather the entire material folder with all the maps in them. how do I make it so that they are and easily accessible from the library menu.
Reference Pics:

So the first pic is the folder I am trying to import in my asset library and the second pci is the only available materials I can see.. Is there a addon or something which can automate this process for me...
Many Thanks in Advance!

Hello ! Can you elaborate on the contents of the folders ? raster textures ? the asset browser can only display assets that have been marked in blend files, nothing else

These are textures we download from sites like polyhaven etc, with all the maps included... They are simply materials, and some assets too,. @Gorgious, do we have a ability to append them all to a blend file and have it in the asset browser?


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How to shrinkwrap a image texture on a cloth and make the texture 3D (coming out of the cloth)

I want to have any image texture that is a design (png format) and shrinkwrap it to a cloth and add in the wool material that I can see in the image below. I am not able to recreate the 3D part where the design sticks out. Thanks a lot for the help.

Hello, you could use a normal map to fake the 3D relief, have you tried that?

Hi @moonboots, can you let me know how to replicate that?

Here is the node setup for how you would 'fake' the effect. This doesn't affect any of the vertices of the object and only adds a slight bump look. This isn't a great way to do it as it only really looks passable from a front perspective. If you want to actually create a displacement on the model you would have to use a displacement setup like below:

To do this, you would first have to set your render engine to Cycles and either already have a lot of vertices on the model, or set the Cycles feature set to Experimental and use a subdivision surface modifier with adaptive subdivision like below:

If you use the displacement way of doing this then you also have to go to your material settings and change the displacement setting to either 'Displacement Only' or 'Displacement and Bump':


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Resolving Z-Fighting and Unequal Instances Along Curves in Blender Geometry Nodes

I'm currently experimenting with Blender's geometry nodes and curves to create arrays of instances along a curve, specifically using cubes as instances. However, I've run into two issues that I'm struggling to solve: Z-fighting between cube instances and uneven distribution of objects along the curve.
Z-Fighting Issue: When I create an array of cube instances along the curve, I'm noticing Z-fighting between the cubes. This seems to occur because the instances are very close to each other. How can I address this Z-fighting problem and ensure that the cube instances align perfectly along the curve without overlapping?
Unequal Instance Distribution: I've also observed that there are unequal numbers of cube instances between two vertices of the curve. This is causing an uneven distribution of cubes along the curve, which is not the desired outcome. How can I ensure that the instances are distributed uniformly along the curve, with a consistent gap between them?
I'm keen on finding a solution that combines both precise alignment of instances and an even distribution along the curve. Any advice, tips, or step-by-step instructions using Blender's geometry nodes would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help!
Node Setup:

Overlaps can be solved easily, by simply spawning less instances, that is, by increasing the "Length" of the "Curve to Points". If you don't want to rotate the instances to align to curve normal, you can set the "Length" based on ratio of segment length to the biggest component ($x$ or $y$ or $z$) of its bounding box. Of course you have to ask yourself a question: what if the segment can't be subdivided based on that length, because the result of dividing the segment length by "Length" is not an integer number?

As for distribution: split edges before converting them to curves and remove first instance on each spline.

Hey @MarkusvonBroady I am already instancing the cubes on a point curve object, I am new to Geonodes, so my answers might be a bit naive, but does it mean I should subdivide the edges more to have uniform distribution, also, how do you take out the first instance on each spline?

The problem of your non-uniform distribution is that when the curve is divided to subsegments (resampled), some segments go across corners (effectively 'filleting' those corners, but you don't see it, because you only see resulting points). If you split edges, after converting to curves you get separate splines, and so each resample is localized and separate. As for taking the first instance out, you can use "Endpoint selection", 1, 0 (1 starting point only), and inverse it using Boolean Math: NOT.


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How to extract mesh from a mesh object in sculpt mode?

Hey guys, I am trying to sculpt a panda model and while I know how to do the basic sculpting and adding different objects for parts I am not sure how to make the eyes for the sculpt (the black parts for the panda) I saw a video somewhere where a lasso tool to extract a part of mesh and then sculpting it on the body to get that 3D effect but I am quite unsure how to do that. Any help will do! Thanks!


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Render issue in Blender 2.8

this is my render image.

and this is viewport image. what i want to ask is to know what happend to this.
render image is pretty messy:(
is there some mistakes i did? i don't know exactly.. but one thing i would say is that it supposed to be rendered like viewport!
if anyone know about this issue, please help me. thanks:)

What does it look like in the viewport from camera view when you pres Numpad 0?

same like render image:)

Check camera clipping values in the Properties Edotor, Camera tab. Set near clipping to something low.

oh god.. it works after restart !!! thanks for your attention :)


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how do i remove the background in a transparent material

i am working on a water simulation i am using evee, and not cycles as the scene doesn't require that much refinement, i have trhe transparecny figued out i think, how do i get rid of theforest back ground thar seems to be attached to the water material? (this is mantaflows water material), but i get the same result when i create a transparent material, what am i missing??? please help as this is stopping me from completing my first animated short. thanking any hepl in advance

In your screenshot you are looking at the scene in Material Preview mode, so a temporarily HDR image is lighting the scene and gets reflected by the water material.
You can activate the Scene Lights and Scene World option to see the lighting that will be used in render.

If in Rendered mode there's still an unwanted reflection on the water material, open a shader editor window, switch from Object to World and disconnect the Output node, so to light the scene with light objects only.

I guess in Material Preview and maybe even in Render view (if EEVEE is used) there will also be the problem of reflection/refraction etc. not working as expected by default.

thank you so much, i think with the settiing recommended fro evee reflection i should be goos with this update.

thank you so much


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How is the Catmull Clark algorithm calculated mathematically in Blender?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catmull%E2%80%93Clark_subdivision_surface
When I tried to find the location of the 'new vertex point' using the algorithm in the link above, the results were not the same as the results I got in Blender when I applied the  subdivision modifier.
Is this because Blender uses opensubdiv to calculate the mesh division?
If so, what formula does opensubdiv use to get the 'new vertex point'?
I want to find the coordinates of the 'new vertex point' with a formula that only takes the coordinates of each vertex in the mesh as input.
This nagging question has been bothering me for weeks. Please help me out.


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(Animation) Setting source and target armature?
Sorry if it doesn't make sense (still kind of a newbie) but is there a way to set a source and target armature without using a plug-in? And a way to connect them? I tried ctrl+p (choosing 'object') but it didn't work for me.

I'm willing to spend $25 on the plug-in that the person who made the YT tut is selling but I wanted to know if there was a way to do this for free even if it takes more steps before I whip out my wallet. TIA :)

It might help if you added the link to the YT tutorial that you mention into your question!

sorry! tutorial is this one (https://youtu.be/KQpp0uBbe-g?t=267)

Sorry but that tutorial uses a third-party addon and models and armatures from an obscure external site. We can only help with questions about Blender and its built-in addons so your question is really off-topic here.


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How to delete duplicated brushes in paint mode
I'm trying to get my head around Blender, I do like it allot but it's a bit daunting.
I've had some issues in Texture Paint mode getting the brushes to work.  I finally got a brush to work but in the mean time I've created a bunch of duplicates that are non functional or as I like to say "empty brushes" that are just taking up space and confuse me a little.  Even the default brush doesn't work but brush #9 (duplicate) functions as it should.  I've searched hi and low for a simple explanation on how to delete unwanted brushes but every Blender forum I search on points me to unhelpful articles.
Thanks for the assist!
Richard

You can do it in the Outliner > Orphan Datas, but there should be a easier way

Don't know where to look in the Outliner for Orphan Data's I've right clicked all over that area and don't find that in any slide out menu.  I'm thinking this shouldn't be this hard but apparently it is.

In the Outliner, display the Orphan Data, then under Brush find the new brushes you've created and right click > Delete: https://zupimages.net/up/23/26/i5qm.jpg not convenient I agree but I don't know if there's another way

Put this together just now.  Hopefully this is more helpful!
Tool> Brush Manager>

I figured it out.  OK, after much sloothing I got it figured out.
Go to the side panel and under the Brush settings choose this menu, click on that and up comes all the brushes. Under the Operations drop down choose to Delete Brush Data. Brush goes away!

Hello, I can't find this panel, could you please be more specific or show a larger screenshot?


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Manipulating a Mesh with a selection of points
I'm trying to manipulate an object in blender to replicate an effect that I was able to create manually.  It's a 'noise' pattern on a surface.  See this puzzle picture:

I've been successful in applying random points to the surface of more complex shapes and extruding these points along the normal of the source geometry, but I'm having trouble using these points to create a new mesh with the desired effect.  I think I need to integrate the points with the mesh before I extrude these points, but extruding after a join has no effect.

Maybe it would make more sense to apply as a texture to the source model?  The desired output is a obj or stl file to eventually map CAM paths to the new texture.

I think for something like that you'd want to use a cloud texture and a displacement modifier

The Size parameter on the texture would control the amount of bumps and lows and the Strength on the Displacement modifier would make them more or less pronounced
On a cylinder you'd probably want to remesh it to have more even faces before the displacement modifier


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Animate wireframe slider Blender 2.8
Is it possible to animate the wireframe slider in the viewport overlays using Python?

Not with keyframes or drivers
The overlay is a member of the 3d view space. bpy.types.SpaceView3D  Each property in blender has an is_animatable property, declaring if it can be animated.  Visually if you right click and there is no add driver or insert keyframes
Step thru this in the python console where C = bpy.context
Find which area is the 3d view
>>> for i, a in enumerate(C.screen.areas):
...     i, a.type
...
(0, 'PROPERTIES')
(1, 'CONSOLE')
(2, 'VIEW_3D')
(3, 'TEXT_EDITOR')

>>> a = C.screen.areas[2]

Its 3d view space will be the active one
>>> s = a.spaces.active

And here is the overlay wireframe threshold
>>> s.overlay.wireframe_threshold
0.0

Let's see if the property def says it is animatable.
>>> p = s.overlay.bl_rna.properties['wireframe_threshold']
>>> p.is_animatable
False

Confirmed ... Nope.
There are some dodgy ways this could be achieved, but will wait for further details on animation required to elaborate.


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Product shots - Rendering shadows only below the object, not on the whole shadow catcher
Is there a way to render the shadow and the reflections only below the object? I'm rendering product shots and I want a shadow below them that isn't on a whole shadow catcher plane below the product. I've tried to edit the falloff of the shadow catcher but I get a lot of noise this way.
Here is the node setup:

And here is the result:

It's kinda close to the result I want but it's still not it. It's supposed to look good on a purely white background.

I've also achieved the effect above but without using the shadow catcher and by brightening the background in Photoshop, the background isn't transparent though. That's how I'd like it to look but with the transparent background.
Can anyone help me with finding a proper way to do it in Blender without making the background transparent in Photoshop? I've been trying to do it for a long time.

does https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/107757/how-to-make-material-like-shadow-catcher-but-for-reflectionnot-shadow help?

Well, not really.


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Animation Nodes - Blend distribution of objects on a curve into another curve
I've been trying to recreate the effect from the Cinema 4D tutorial below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPv2HVvQfGo
I'm stuck at 9:55 where he uses the inheritance effector to be able to morph instanced cubes from the first path into the other. Is it possible to do it in Animation Nodes? I've been trying for a few days and I couldn't find a way to do it.
Or maybe there's another way to achieve this effect in Blender? I've tried connecting splines and trimming the bottom one. It works kinda well but the connection is very sharp and I don't know how to smooth only the connection, not the whole shape.

Thank you in advance.

Yes, it is possible to achieve this with Animation Nodes. Just for clarification, do you only want to morph the distribution of objects from one path to another path (different shape) and/or also want to morph the curve?

I wanted to do it as in the Cinema 4D tutorial above, so to morph the distribution of objects from one path to another path and then trace the objects to create the final curve. Morphing curves would do the job as well, I think. Anyway, how can I do it? After that, I need a falloff to control the animation to look as in the tutorial.

First, I'll show how to morph objects distribution from one curve to another curve then we will use the same node-tree to morph a curve.
==========================================
Morphing Object-Distributions:
1) First, we have to sample the curves (A and B) which we will use to distribute the objects, both curve's sample-amount should be the same:

2) Now, we have to mix the locations or vector-lists of both the curves and the mix factor is controlled by the falloff. To do that, we can use the Mix Vector node but for vector-list, we also need a Loop node. However, for better performance, I have made a group-node which do the same job i.e., mix the two vector-lits (A and B):

3) Next step, mix the locations of both curves using the group-node (mentioned in step 2) then use the resultant locations to distribute the objects:

4) You can use any falloff to animate the object-distributions. Here, I have used the Delay Falloff node to animate the distributions:

5) And also use the same group-node to mix the other vector-lists, e.g., Tangents of both the curves:

Here is the final node-tree:

Blend File:

==========================================
Morphing Curves: We can also use the resultant locations from group-node to create a spline for curve morphing:

Blend File:

==========================================
Edit:
Morphing Object-Distributions on multi-splines:
We can easily morph the object-distributions on multi-splines use Loop Node. In this example, I use the above node-tree with a single spline (A) and loop/iterate over other splines (B list):

Final node-tree:

Blend File:

I started to go in this direction of thinking but it would take me at least another few days of studying Animation Nodes to finally make it. Thank you very much for speeding it up by providing such a complex description and the blend files. You're great!


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Mesh Deformer Modifier - Low poly mesh with softbody simulation deforming a high poly mesh
Is it possible in Blender to optimise the softbody simulation by using a low poly mesh for the simulation to deform a high poly mesh? Instead of simulating the high poly mesh itself which would take much longer.
Just as it is possible in Cinema4D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CykigKQwadU
I've tried to set it up in Blender but I can't parent the high poly mesh to low poly. Well, actually I can but it doesn't move with the low poly mesh due to the origin point of the low poly mesh staying in the same place during the softbody simulation. The result is kind of fancy but obviously it's not how it should look.

Any ideas how to make it work in the correct way?
Thank you all in advance.

Parenting only effects the origin and the transforms of the object, never the mesh. There are two ways to achieve this however.
1. Lattice: you can use a lattice modifier, which can be given a softbody component
2. More practical: Mesh deform modifier. It's a bit cumbersome to set it up, but I'm sure you'll find help with that online.

Well, as I've mentioned above, I've already set up the mesh deform modifier but the high poly mesh doesn't follow the low poly softbody mesh which results in the way shown in the picture above, which isn't satysfying at all. :)

I'm sorry, I didn't see anything about a modifier in your post. Anyways, from a quick look I would guess your cage did not envelop the entire object when you pressed bind.

Thank you, that was the case. I've forgotten that it doesn't work in a way like surface deform modifier.


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File size get too big when using array modifier
I have a basic geometric unit '1.1.1mm cube' with the minimum vertex count that I could reach. I would like to duplicate it using an array modifier to make a X7,Y40,Z25mm bigger cube, 0.8mm offset. Although I've checked the merge option, and used mesh clean to merge vertices, the vertex count and file size get inflated, and the computer freezes. Anyone have better design ideas or solutions? You can download the file from this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11KlTY1PrDhpRBqAkAs8UabRv6ehmPYul/view?usp=sharing

Your computer might be short of power for 5 million polygons, as I can make the array on mine OK.

You do have 211 unneeded vertices that you can get rid of by selecting one of them then Select -> Select Similar -> Amount of Connecting Edges, then press DEL and Dissolve Vertices
Also, your mesh doesn't look to be symmetrical so merging either creates holes, or, if the merge distance is set to 0.0, you get overlapping geometry. Here is a version of your cube that I have Mesh -> Bisected to produce the minimum unit. This can then be mirrored to generate your cube again.
PS here's an outline showing one way to make a grid of tubes with geometry nodes

Fantastic, Thank you so much paddyg for your help. Now I can run it much more smoothly on my computer.

Also, I don't know what your objective is overall here but you could probably make an array of intersecting pipes using geometry nodes, with bevelled curves.

Thank you for following up, my objectives is to build different shapes using this unit cube. However sometimes the outer struts have to be tapered from the first unit  upwards ⬆… still thinking how to solve it. Can you refer me to a video explaining your 2nd method.

Could you please explain more about using "intersecting pipes using geometry nodes, with beveled curves" Thank you

my target is a bigger cube so that I can do a Boolean modifier on it to make tunnels with different shapes. Now it gets freeze when I try to  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X84FT0VCDkWTY4zepHBbqfAb37T9XWn1/view?usp=share_link

Hi @AhmedSamir I've added a blend file using a grid of curves. There's an issue with doing the four diagonal sets of tube as they need to be truncated at different lengths. Also the corners need fixing. But you might be able to think of something!

Thank you @Paddyg for your time. I tried to do it by it looks like it needs much work to find out. Instead, I used the previous methods and did a boolean modifier to a thin layer before duplicating it to get the target shape. thank you again for your help.


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Subdivision Surface problem -
When I add a subdivision surface modifier to this mesh, the mesh seems to have holes in. Looks like the faces become rounded with emptiness towards the ends of the face.
Does anyone have any idea why this has happened?
Thank you!

Looks like the faces are not connected to each other. You can check it by going into edit mode, selecting one face and moving it, then you'll see if it's connected or loose.
If the faces are loose, you can try and select all vertices and merge by distance (set a distance that doesn't destroy any faces but will merge the vertices that are overlapping / almost overlapping.

if u provide blend file, we can check it out...

Hi, congrats on your first question here!  If Alexandre Marcati's above comment doesn't help then it'd probably be a good idea to post your blend file, or a truncated version of it that has the problem.  The Blender StackExchange has its own service to share blend files:  https://blend-exchange.com/help

Any chance you're also using an Edge-split modifier?

@AlexandreMarcati would you write your answer up as an actual answer?

@MartyFouts thanks, I just posted it as an answer.

Thanks everyone for your help!

It looks like the faces are not connected to each other.
You can check if they are by going into edit mode, selecting one face and moving it, then you'll see if it's connected or loose.
If the faces are loose, you can try and select all vertices and merge by distance (set a small enough distance that doesn't destroy any faces but will still merge the vertices that are overlapping / almost overlapping).


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Camera Perspective Not Working
The Problem: The camera viewport is not working when I switch to camera view using "Numpad 0". The camera outline guides do not show as they usually do, and the Camera Perspective viewport does not render in any setting except for the viewport shading "Rendered" setting of which the guides do not appear.

What I was doing when the issue developed: I was renaming the cameras and I may have caused a mismatch with the camera and it's label. I attempted to use illegal characters in the name, for example "C-Camera". I may have accidently hit a random key while attempting to label the cameras.
I have checked:

The camera is not clipping
The camera is the active camera for the scene
I have deleted all cameras and tried to re-add the cameras.
The Resolution X is 1920 px and the Resolution Y is 1080 px.

Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this and reset the camera guides?

Have you tried pressing Home button? Do you have this list checked? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/67490/why-does-my-object-not-show-up

Can you  provide the file without unnecessary meshes (characters, pants, etc…)?

Yes, the home button fixed it! Thank you very much. Do you know what might have caused it?

This can happen if you forget that you are in camera perspective, maybe you were in camera and you tried to move with shift (which keeps camera perspective but it moves your view), then you probably changed back to 3d view and your camera view was stuck outside of the camera perspective... maybe, or something else(maybe you scrolled with your mouse and zoomed too much..., just remember that home button will always restart your view to active


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Clear Custom Split Normals Data - Many Objects
I'm struggling with clearing custom split normals data from imported objects. I've found the following script to do it on many objects:
import bpy

selection = bpy.context.selected_objects

for o in selection:
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = o
    bpy.ops.mesh.customdata_custom_splitnormals_clear()

It works but only if the selection does not contain any objects with already cleared custom normals data. Can anyone help me with it? Does the code need some sort of "if" function in it?
That custom normals data often crashes some details in my renders and I would like to repair them all at once.
I have Hard Ops, Fluent and Speedflow addons but I've only found options to clean the mesh or to add autosmooth to selected objects. Am I missing something maybe?
I use Blender 2.8.
Thank you all in advance.

I came across this question when I was googling about the same problem. This worked for me.
import bpy

selection = bpy.context.selected_objects

for o in selection:
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = o
    try:
        bpy.ops.mesh.customdata_custom_splitnormals_clear()
    except RuntimeError:
        pass


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Indirect Only check for collections - Full Data path
Why is there no option to copy full data path of the indirect only check in collections? It's possible for "selectable", "disable in renders" but not for "holdout" and "indirect only".

bpy.data.collections["Collection name"].hide_select - this is a full data path for "selectable"
When you hover your mouse over "indirect only" it shows this:

So the full data path would be:
bpy.data.collections["Collection name"].indirect_only

but it isn't as it doesn't work.
I need it for using in this addon: https://blendermarket.com/products/renderstacknode to set it as a property:

Set collection as Indirect Only (ie. = Shadowcatcher) through python? - in this thread someone proposed using the code below:
bpy.context.view_layer.active_layer_collection.indirect_only

And it works but it doesn't take into account the name of the collection, it just uses the active collection which doesn't satisfy me as it would add much manual work to the process.

I think the way it's presented in the outliner is a bit confusing. What you have to understand is Collections have global properties :

hide_select
hide_viewport
hide_render

And view layer properties, which are accessed with a LayerCollection object :

exclude
hide_viewport  (I know, it's presented as the same path as the monitor icon one, but bear with me)
holdout
indirect_only

Global properties are accessed in a straightforward way, ie bpy.data.collections["Collection"].hide_select = True for instance. This will make the collection unselectable across ALL view layers. Same goes for viewport and render visibility.
View layer- related properties are accessed by their relative layer_collection which is a property of one and only one view_layer. Each collection has a related layer_collection object for each view_layer in the current scene. This object is responsible for holding and modifying its view layer properties.
The tricky part is collections don't hold a direct reference to their (theoretically infinite number of) layer_collection counterparts. You have to traverse the entire view layer's layer collections to test against the current collection, and only then can you change its properties. (I'd love to be corrected if there is an easier way).
Note that LayerCollection does have a direct reference to its unique collection object. (layer_coll.collection)
It then becomes really similar to this question.
import bpy

def traverse_tree(t):
    yield t
    for child in t.children:
        yield from traverse_tree(child)

coll_name = "Collection"
layer_coll_master = bpy.context.view_layer.layer_collection

for layer_coll in traverse_tree(layer_coll_master):
    if layer_coll.collection.name == coll_name:
        layer_coll.indirect_only = False
        break

I guess the short answer to your question is, no, you can't change this property with a one-liner expression in python. (Again, please correct me if I'm wrong)

OK, I understand it, though it's still not very logical to me from a user's point of view.
I'm looking for a perfect workflow in my projects and every time I'm close there's a problem but now I'm the closest to the perfect solution. I think I'll create different view layers and access them with the addon, which is also possible and it's not that much more work in my case.

Another solution which I didn't mention is temporarily change the active collection and use bpy.context.view_layer.active_layer_collection.indirect_only as you found out at first, then reverting the active collection back after. But it may have unintended consequences...

Yeah, I though about it but I think I'll stick with a simpler solution for now :). Thank you anyway.


text:
Why is this displacement not creating a perfectly square cube?
I'm attempting to use micropolygon displacement to displace a cube into a larger cube, in an attempt to wrap my head around this feature. As near as I can tell, the following should work. Take a cube with each face having UVs in the range -1 to 1, so that 0 is in the center of the face. Calculate the length of the UV, which should be in the range 0 to sqrt(2), and map that to 1 to sqrt(3). Use that as the displacement height. The cube is of course set to smooth shading.
The result is close to a cube, but off.

I would like to point out :

I think your math is off
You can get the length of a vector with a Vector Math node set to "Length"
The UV map vector Z coordinate is 0 (I think)

The resulting node tree would be :

But since the "Displacement" node pushes geometry along the normals, you can get rid of your UV map setup like so :

Maybe should point out, unless I'm up the creek, (which I often am), that  the displacement is along vertex normals, and the same for all, so these solutions rely on there being no vertex at the center of the faces.

You are right, my answer doesn't work if the cube is subdivided. But then if you manage to use the face normal, you get a cube that looks like it was beveled because there is a separation between where the vertex should go according to the different face normals it is attached to

A solution would be to use a Vector Displacement node to add the corresponding delta but honestly it seems too complicated for the expected result and wouldn't even be usable on other meshes

Well, you were right about my math being off, but you solution is also incorrect which is why it only works for a cube with 4 vertices. The displacement value should have been sqrt(1+u^2+v^2)

After sleeping on it I realized my mistake. The displacement factor should be sqrt(1+u^2+v^2).

And, if you use a  Normal Edit modifier set to radial, (so the displacement is spherical from the center)  it still works with an arbitrarily subdivided cube.. (it doesn't, otherwise)

I'll add another method suggested by this video.
You need to plug the "Object" coordinates from the "Texture Coordinate" node into a "Vector Displacement" node set to "Object Space", not tangent with a midlevel of 0.
This will scale each point along its base coordinates, thus scaling the geometry uniformly.
Also, it works with a subdivided cube, and really any mesh geometry.

Phew! .. that's a bit simpler.

Yup :) There seems to be a slight deformation along the Z axis though on Suzanne... Couldn't figure why, the cube deformation looks uniform though.

Every shading point is displaced by [its own coordinate in the given space] with the origin  set to (Midlevel,Midlevel,Midlevel). The displacement, here, actually takes place in Object space. Because the given Generated space is 0-1 along the sides of the object's bounding box, (with its origin at min XYZ,) and a monkey is not a cube, the given Generated space, from which the original coordinates are taken, is  non-uniformly scaled with respect to the Object space in which the displacement takes place. Use Object texture coordinates, and a midlevel of 0.

Oh, right ! That makes perfect sense :)


text:
How do i flip vertices onto the other side of a mirrored object
I'm need the vertices on the other side so I can connect them to the bangs

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

To mirror geometry:

Select the bangs in edit mode.
Place the 3D Cursor at the pivot, over which you want to mirror. If this is the World origin you can snap it with ShiftS > World Origin. If it is the object origin snap it to the object's origin ShiftS > Active Object.
Use the 3D Cursor as the pivot. . > 3D Cursor
Mirror in edit mode with CtrlM.


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Inconsistent Lighting Across Objects
Sort of odd lighting here..
Not sure what is causing this weird lighting.  My workflow is to copy the edge of the door frame, duplicate, separate it to a new object, and translate in the edges a bit to get a bit of a panel gap. The geometry is therefore exactly the same, I checked my shade flat/smooth areas and they are the same. Any ideas what causes this weird lighting?

It is not that easy to understand what weird part you are referring to  ... Anyway try to check Face Normal Orientation ...

Try to Clear Custom Normal Data in the Mesh Properties

Reseting the normal vectors worked. Thanks for the idea!


text:
Create a non-manifold assembly
I realize this seems strange, but I WANT to create a non-manifold assembly from multiple parts. I want all of the parts in my completed model to have shared surfaces with other parts. Does anyone know of a way to do this in Blender?

maybe add example images/skeches, so we can understand what you mean?

Nothing in Blender prevents you from doing this? Can you cite an example where this has been a problem?


text:
Delete edges with no faces
There are edges in my object that are connected to a vertex, but have no face connected to them. I've tried to select "loose parts", but it doesn't find these edges. I've also tried "similar traits" with no luck. These edges are creating trouble, and there are hundreds of them. How can I select and delete them?

In 2 Edge Selection Mode, select one such edge, then ⬆ ShiftG Select Similar, by A Amount of Faces Around an Edge, then X Delete E Edges.

Yep, that's probably the better less unnecessarily complicated way to do this compared to the way I do it. :D I always assumed this wouldn't work in cases like this, but never tested it until now. Apparently it works fine. I guess I had different understanding of what is "faces around an edge".

@MartynasŽiemys This behavior is consistent with Edge Neighbors node and the number of unique faces when traversing using Bmesh loop's link_loop_radial_next.

Go to edit mode, select all (a), switch to face selection mode with 3, switch to edge selection mode with 2, invert selection with Ctrl+i, hit x followed by e to delete edges.
This works because you are converting selection to faces and since those loose edges do not belong to faces, when selection of all faces is converted back to edge selection, the loose edges remain unselected.

Another possible solution, although in your question you said you already tried "similar traits" (I guess you mean Select All by Trait):
Make sure you are in Edge Select mode by pressing 2 in the viewport (or Vertex Select with 1, just not Face Select). Then choose Select > Select All by Trait > Non-Manifold. Now you can press X then E to delete the edges.

We need more answers :D One thing worries me, though, 3 people decided the question is worth an answer, and yet the question has only one upvote…

@MarkusvonBroady Yeah, I'm sorry, I seldomly vote on questions, neither up nor down. But I think this question leaves room for speculation and also draws opinion-based answers. For example, I would prefer my solution over yours, since I do not have to select anything beforehand. However, in the case which Martynas mentions in the comments under your answer, my solution would not work because the single faces would be selected as non-manifold as well. And we don't know how the rest of the mesh in question looks like. Martynas' answer is probably the one working best in most cases.

:D That's true. Python and Geometry Nodes answers are still missing.


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Rig Shoulder Cape
Trying to rig a shoulder cape, how can I do this? I'd rather use a skeleton/bone rig.

Hello have you considered using cloth simulation?

I,m trying to make some similar stuff creating bones in the character armature. When yo create your new bones you can later delete the influence of them in the armature, removing some vertex groups, and you should do the same thing for the body bones influences on the cape. I rather recomend to make some FK deformation bones for the cape, and then duplicate and deselect the deformation option to prepare and IK system. If you don,t now about this cuestions i recomend you this videotutorial. enter link description here

I do not know how to use cloth simulation. Can you pose the simulation for a single shot render? I'll gladly take a few tips.

Create your cape, parent it to the top spine bone (select the cape, shift select the armature, switch it to Pose mode, select the bone, and CtrlP Set Parent To > Bone):

Select the cape, switch it to Edit mode, select the top edge loop and CtrlG to assign it to a new vertex group:

Give a Cloth physics to the cape, choose the vertex group you've just created as Pin Group, enable Self Collisions:

Give Collision physics to the body, animate:


text:
Modeling clothes creases/wrinkles
How would I go about modeling random wrinkles/creases like in the two photos below?

I would like to avoid using sculpt mode but if I have to I will, any help or addon recommendations will be greatly appreciated :)

You say that you want to avoid sculpting but you probably can't, at least create the folds in Sculpt mode then bake the normals? In this tutorial, PixelicaCG explains how to do this kind of folds. He mainly uses the Pose brush with Deformation Target > Cloth Simulation, Deformation > Squash & Stretch, and he uses Face Sets to preserve some areas from the brush effect (you can use the Mask brush as well). Press ShiftLMB to smooth the folds, etc:


text:
Link empties together using rigid body constraint
How would one "Link empties together using a rigid body constraint" ? I am following the instructions someone gave me and having trouble understanding what they meant. All help is appreciated ^_^

In the Scene tab you have to create a Rigid body World and select the collection where your objects are.

Then on the Physics tab you can add a Rigid body constraint and change the type to hinge. I assume that's what they meant


text:
Color I pick in Texture Paint mode is different from the actual paint color
What should I do to make the color I pick for texturing match the actual color?
Don't really know how to say it any more specific :)

You mean that color in the top pick is what you want and that yellow down right is what you get? Or is it different on model in 3d viewport?

Yes, the yellow color on the bottom of the screen shot is what I see when I draw with the color on the top of screenshot


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Saving OpenEXR image with python
Good morning everybody!
I'm here to understand how to save OpenEXR images using python in order to maintain settings from Color Management in Blender. I implemented a scene with a very low exposure, but when I save OpenEXR images the result is extremely over-exposed. I read about the save-as-render setting, but i cannot understand how to include it in my python blender file.
Thanks in advance for your help.

Due to the nature of OpenEXR, all color management settings are ignored and the image is saved in linear color space, no matter what you do. If you want to maintain the view transforms (IE filmic), you have to store the image in another file format like jpg, tiff, or tga.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/color_management.html#color-management

The color space of the image file on a drive. This depends on the file format, for example, PNG or JPEG images are often stored in sRGB, while OpenEXR images are stored in a linear color space.

import bpy

image_settings = bpy.context.scene.render.image_settings
image_settings.file_format = "OPEN_EXR"
image_settings.color_depth = '32'

JPG (Filmic View Transform + sRGB Display Transform)

EXR (Linear, no Display Transform)

EXR (Linear + sRGB Display Transform)

Worth reading:
Render with a wider dynamic range in cycles to produce photorealistic looking images
https://www.openexr.com/


text:
Create a new Modifier Type
I'm discovering the wonder of this software and i'm kinda stuck with modifiers. I seems impossible to create you own Modifier with our options / action.
Every doc i find on this suggest to modify C++ code or blender at his core. Is it still the case today ? :)
Have wonderful day !

Hello ! You're right, it isn't possible to create custom modifiers with the python API. You can however explore the new Geometry Nodes workflow which aims to supersede the modifier workflow in the future. Could you elaborate on what are your goals in creating a new modifier ?

Oh multiple Reason, i'm working with Python and trying to create varieties of tools. I'm kind of new in Blender so i'm looking into possibilities. I'm more familiar with Houdini and his non destructive ways but Blender has lots of possibilities and it's Artists friendly :)
For a tool i needed to update a list of vertex based on position. So even if you're editing the mesh you will end up with a list of pt. I'm gonna create a button with code more than a Modifier.
But maybe you're right, with Geonode i could possibly do something ! i'm gonna take a look :) Thank you !


text:
Scaling object moves it away from pivot point
I've been following step by step the following tutorial: https://youtu.be/sgBbnF3r60U?t=201
As seen in the video he scales the plane from the pivot making the origin of the plane remain the same. For some reason that is not happening to me, I must be doing something wrong
After setting the pivot point to 3d cursor and scaling this is what happens:
Before scaling it:

After scaling it:

There is a gap between the origin and that right-most edge. Move the origin to the edge by...
Go to the Tool Settings and check Origins under Options > Transform > Affect only.

Turn on snapping by clicking the Snap button or with Shift+Tab. Set it to Edge Center.

Select the object. Use G to Grab the Origin and hover over the edge to snap the origin to the edge.
Uncheck Affect Only Origins in the tool settings panel. Now you can scale the object and the edge will stay in place.

Another way of moving the origin is to go into Edit Mode. Select the edge. Snap the 3D cursor to the edge with Shift+S then 2 OR Mesh >  Snap > Cursor to Selected. Exit Edit Mode into Object Mode, then right click > Set Origin > Origin to 3D Cursor.


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Bevel tool not working on cylinder

hi, i'm trying to make a bullet shaped object to look like bolts on a wall but for some reason the bevel tool is being weird with the loop i selected on the cylinder

can you show us how your topology looks like before you want to use bevel?

Three things to take into account: normals, object size, and topology (duplicated vertices and stuff like that)

instead of selecting all vertices, just select the top vertices, and you will get:


text:
Why does such a simple boolean operation result in hollow mesh?
Create a default cube. Create default cylinder.Rotate cylinder 90 degrees and scale length. Place cylinder's origin at the surface of the cube. Use difference boolean.
This is about as simple of a boolean operation as you can get, using two of the simplest default shapes, and it just randomly does not work. Sure, if you tweak the rotation of the cylinder or offset its position ever so slightly, tada it works. This is beyond frustrating.

Might be related to this bug: https://developer.blender.org/T37659   You mention it resolves if you move one of the objects slightly, which sounds like the workaround in the bug report.
Related: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/5140/49532

@zippy According to this Blender no longer uses that library. Maybe the information is incorrect. https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/100713/74766

This mentions that the current BMesh boolean code has a limitation with touching edges, which appears to be the issue with my example. How annoying. https://developer.blender.org/D3050

Yeah, boolean has always been a disappointment for me too.

I seem to recall encountering the "touching edges" issue even when using booleans in other 3D programs. I'm not sure this is a Blender specific thing.


text:
Is there a solution to combining bevel with subdiv?
The scenario is I have an object that needs beveled edges, but simultaneously I want to use micropolygon displacement, which requires adaptive subdiv. The problem is that bevels and subdiv surfaces do not get along well, because subdiv likes neat quad geometry, but beveling tends to create a mess. This leads to frequent artifacts.
It seems to me like Blender should have a bevel node that works with displacement (no, not talking about the one that bends normal). Since the mesh is already being subdivided to pixel sized polygons, it would be ideal to just calculate the bevel as a vector displacement, rather than through a mesh modifier. It doesn't seem like this functionality exists in Blender and I can find no discussion of such a method.

can you post a pic of the issue? and have you tried the harden normals option?

@FrederikSteinmetz This isn't a problem with a specific model. This is a fundamental problem that I believe exists, and a tool that is missing.

It might not be a specific model, but when I tell you about artefacts, it can mean a number of things, a screenshot  would help. Also you can bake the bevel map and maybe overlay it with your bump / displacement map


text:
Why does glass diffuse shadows unrealistically in cycles?
I've got a really simple scene here. It consists of a sun light, a sphere, a plane, and the sun is projecting the shadow of the sphere onto the plane through a pane of glass. The shadow of the sphere should have a hard edge to it, but cycles is somehow diffusing the shadow and making it blurry. I've tried this in both 3.0 and 2.93.

@AllenSimpson If the answer is to set Filter Glossy to 0 and indirect clamping to 0 then it's not a particularly helpful answer. Even at 128,000 samples per pixel my basic scene with a pane of glass is unusable, in fact, Blender's denoiser actually somehow makes it look significantly worse.

So I guess it does answer the question indirectly. The answer is "Blender can't do this kind of thing well with its current path tracer renderer."

Check out luxcorerender, although it only officially supports versions up to 2.92.  A phrase to look into is Metropolis Light Transport


text:
Square artifacts when shining light through material
I am shining a light through a principled bsdf with transmission and getting weird square artifacts. Any ideas as to the cause?
blend file: https://filebin.net/yhpnzpuic4lvree1/

These are denoising artifacts - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/98510/how-to-properly-denoise-renderings?noredirect=1&lq=1

You are running into one of the challenges of rendering glass in blender.  The default settings make it so that glass casts a shadow and the light is slowly reconstituted by way of refractive and reflective caustics.  If you hide the glass bulb in your scene I'm sure you'll see that the light from your filament should be much brighter than what is shown with the glass active.

I have a more exhaustive answer on glass here - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/219303/glass-casting-shadows-and-not-looking-real/219957#219957


text:
Removing the rotation data from an Instance in Geometry Nodes

Hi there, I am trying to remove this rotation data of a selected Instance to bring it back to 0deg,0deg,0deg. What can I do for that with the Rotate Instances node?
I am doing this to re-align it with something else, because it's current rotation hinders what I am trying to do

You can use this setup, I don't think it's correct way of doing it, but it will cancel instances rotation

Hi thanks for the answer, and BTW that was really complicated.
I finally found an answer, I had posted it if you wanna check out

Found the answer, you have to apply the negative values in the Opposite order, ie, ZYX