text:
Hand model keeps bending finger when wrist is rotated
I made a rigged hand model from a tutorial that I found on youtube. I have a problem where if I rotate the wrist part of the bone the pinky also rotates. How can I fix this problem?
Here are some pics below of the issue.

file here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Q_BpDCNgg6b1BFVDFuQXhmODg/view?usp=sharing

The reason is that the last bones on that finger have a bone constraint with "world space" instead of "local space", as ll the others have


text:
How can I change a custom property value in python? AttributeError: Writing to ID classes in this context is not allowed
I have a simple panel that I've made. I have a bunch of checkboxes and I want to use them to change the value of a few custom properties e.g. when the checkbox is unchecked, the value should be 0, and when it is checked, the value is 1. I have done the logical thing:
being called from inside my Panel's draw function:
if "iSight_Camera_Indicator" == True:
    bpy.data.objects["Macbook_Gold"]["00_iSight Camera Indicator"] = 1
else:
    bpy.data.objects["Macbook_Gold"]["00_iSight Camera Indicator"] = 0

But it gives me this error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/MacBook/Documents/Blender/Blends/MacBook/MacBook.blend/macbook_controller.py", line 86, in draw
AttributeError: Writing to ID classes in this context is not allowed: Macbook_Gold, Object datablock, error setting Object.00_iSight Camera Indicator

location: <unknown location>:-1

The draw function of a panel is intended only for adjusting UI, it is essentially blocked from doing anything else by design. At first this limitation can be perceived as restrictive, but it's really there to prevent bad practice and unnecessary updates. When you interact with a Panel (or any element of UI) its draw function is called many times per second when your mouse moves.
As soon as you need to update objects or scene data via UI you should attach an update function to your properties or make dedicated operators (triggered by buttons).
Update Function

Please see this answer for why a ProperyGroup is a good idea to keep your properties organized. In the code below I've commented out where you would have an opportunity to react to the tickbox state. The update-response is part of the property not part of the draw function of a Panel.
import bpy

def common_update(self, context, origin):
    if origin == 'my_bool_one':
        print('button_one', getattr(self, origin))
        # bpy.data.objects["Macbook_Gold"]["00_iSight Camera Indicator"] = getattr(self, origin)
    if origin == 'my_bool_two':
        print('button_two', getattr(self, origin))

class IgnitProperties(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    my_bool_one = bpy.props.BoolProperty(
        update=lambda self, context: common_update(self, context, 'my_bool_one')
    )
    my_bool_two = bpy.props.BoolProperty(
        update=lambda self, context: common_update(self, context, 'my_bool_two')
    )

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

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        scene = context.scene
        col = layout.column()
        col.prop(scene.ignit_panel, "my_bool_one", text='option 1')
        col.prop(scene.ignit_panel, "my_bool_two", text='option 2')

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)
    bpy.types.Scene.ignit_panel = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=IgnitProperties)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)
    del bpy.types.Scene.ignit_panel

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Operators
See the TextEditor > Templates -> Python -> Operator Simple

as for the operators.. that's really a separate question, but enum should be fine to get a working protoype

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to set the default vertex count to added geometry?
I wanted to know whether there is a way to set the default amount of vertices of added geometry (Such as default circles and cylinders) ?
Changing the amount from 32 can get quite annoying as I am working quite a lot with subdivision modeling...

AFAIK it's already hardcoded into Blender, set as default value for each operators creating primitive objects like a circle. One way to get around this is to add new menu to access these operators, but with different default value. I made a sample code below, also downloadable here.
When this code is put to a file, opened in Blender's text area and executed, or installed as an addon (after uncommenting bl_info block), it will insert a new submenu to Add, containing some primitive operators but with different default value upon execution:

There might be simpler ways, but this is the only workaround I know.
import bpy

# bl_info = {
#     "name": "Low Vertex Count Objects",
#     "author": "",
#     "version": (1, 0),
#     "blender": (2, 63, 0),
#     "location": "View3D > Add",
#     "description": "Add primitive object with low initial vertex count",
#     "warning": "",
#     "wiki_url": "",
#     "tracker_url": "",
#     "category": "Add Mesh"}

def custom_object_add(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    layout.menu("INFO_MT_low_vertex_mesh_add", icon='PLUGIN')

class INFO_MT_low_vertex_mesh_add(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_idname = "INFO_MT_low_vertex_mesh_add"
    bl_label = "Low Vertex Mesh"

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

        prop = layout.operator("mesh.primitive_circle_add", icon='MESH_CIRCLE', text="Circle (12)")
        prop.vertices = 12

        prop = layout.operator("mesh.primitive_cone_add", icon='MESH_CONE', text="Cone (12)")
        prop.vertices = 12

        prop = layout.operator("mesh.primitive_cylinder_add", icon='MESH_CYLINDER', text="Cylinder (12)")
        prop.vertices = 12

        prop = layout.operator("mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add", icon='MESH_UVSPHERE', text="UV Sphere (8x4)")
        prop.segments = 8
        prop.ring_count = 4

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_add.append(custom_object_add)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_add.remove(custom_object_add)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    register()

It's possible to override the defaults like so:
from bpy.props import IntProperty
from bpy.types import (
    MESH_OT_primitive_circle_add,
    MESH_OT_primitive_cylinder_add,
    MESH_OT_primitive_uv_sphere_add,
)

MESH_OT_primitive_circle_add.vertices = IntProperty(name="Vertices", default=16)
MESH_OT_primitive_cylinder_add.vertices = IntProperty(name="Vertices", default=16)
MESH_OT_primitive_uv_sphere_add.segments = IntProperty(name="Segments", default=16)
MESH_OT_primitive_uv_sphere_add.ring_count = IntProperty(name="Rings", default=8)

Save in scripts/startup/ with a .py file extension.

You can use the CreaPrim addon to create a new (low poly) primitive for you (so you don't have to write the script yourself). To do so:

Enable the CreaPrim addon in your settings.

Create your circle mesh

Select your mesh and in the toolbar scroll down to the CreaPrim panel:

Name your circle.

Click CreaPrim.

The primitive is now an add-on which you can enable in your preferences (you may want to create a new file, enable the add-on and press CTRLU to update the default settings).

Note: If you get an error when trying to create the primitive (like I did) you may have to use a cylinder instead of a circle. I think there's a bug that doesn't allow you to create one vertex thick meshes

What is that Retopo button under Cell Fracture? (I haven't got one)

It's for grease pencil retopology (addon that you can enable in the settings).

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


text:
Why does Blender have the Z-axis up but is the depth-pass actually called a Z-pass?
I understand what it does, but it doesn't make sense. The terms used might be confusing for new users.

Because 3D space and image space are unrelated.

It makes sense that you have (X, Y) used for a 2D image, so then its logical that the depth be Z.
Which axis represents 'depth' in 3D space is undefined, there is no right answer and it's not consistent between applications, if you work with maps it may make sense that (X, Y) are for a 2D top-down view and Z is the land height. But you can rationalize this differently too, so what makes sense to you is probably based on the applications or use-cases you've previously been used to.

OP can also see Is it possible to make Blender a Y-up world? for a bit more info.


text:
Is there an easy way to align two objects on a specific axis?
Other than manually typing in locations, is there an easy way to align objects on an axis like you would in Visio?

You can use Align Objects available in the 3d view header under Object > Transform > Align Objects.

This will bring up a panel in the toolshelf and you can choose the axis to align the selected objects on. You can also choose to align relative to and the mode to align by.

shift + click x/y/z to align by multiple axes.

I like to use the Pivot Point Align feature in conjunction with zero-scaling.

Press Alt, (comma) to activate Pivot Point Align, or click the button next to the pivot center selector in the 3D View header.
Select your two objects.
Press S to activate scaling. Then, press the axis key (X, Y, or Z) corresponding to the axis on which you want the objects to be aligned.
Press the 0 (zero) key on your keyboard. This will scale the distance between the center points of the objects to zero (i.e., they will be on top of each other) but since Pivot Point Align is on, the scale of the objects is conserved.

I really like this method for a few reasons:

It's quick: it only takes me about five seconds to do RMBRMBAlt,SX0Enter.
It works in edit mode as well, to align vertices.
You can easily specify where they should be aligned to with the normal pivot point settings. For example, by default, they will align at the median, but you could also choose to do the 3D cursor, active object, etc.
You can select a local axis along which to transform. To do this, select the relevant object last (so it is the active object), and then press the axis key twice. For example, to align a cube and sphere on the sphere's local X axis, select the cube, then the sphere, then press SXX0. You can also do this with gimbal, normal, or view axes by selecting the appropriate axis type from the Transform Orientation dropdown menu.
You can use proportional editing to gradually scale nearby objects in as well.
Essentially, you can use all the editing features you normally use.

Unfortunately this method used as you just described moves both objects one toward the other to the median point of their distance. This means that it doesn't properly work if one obj is already where in the right position. To solve this inconvenient: before execute your procedure, just select the obj you need to stay in position then go to property panel > Transform > Position and click on the lock of the 3 axis to lock the object movements. Do the same on the rotation and scale lock accordingly on your needs. Then execute your procedure. Enjoy.

@willywonka: A beauty of this method is that it doesn't require such a complication. Instead, do either of these: (a) (1) make the object already in the correct position your active object, (2) set your pivot center (. dot) to "Active Element", (3) execute my procedure; or (b) (1) put the 3D cursor at the correct position (probably using Shift-S U), (2) set your pivot point center (. dot) to 3D Cursor, (3) execute my procedure. This is what I mean by "You can easily specify where they should be aligned to with the normal pivot point settings"!

I suggest to add this step to your main post because this makes it work: "(2) set your pivot center (. dot) to "Active Element""

@willywonka: This is in the main post: it's the third bullet point of the second list, as something that you can do optionally. (It's not something that you always want, so it's not in the main mechanics list.)

Oh... I see... I didn't notice because it is not much explicit as it is in the comment: "set your pivot center (. dot) to "Active Element"" seems to me more clear than "You can easily specify where they should be aligned to with the normal pivot point settings. For example, by default, they will align at the median, but you could also choose to do the 3D cursor, active object, etc.".... Perhaps IMHO it could be an idea to evaluate to add an explicit indication of that to first bullet list as first or second item with the indication that it is optional. IMO it could improve the answer clarity

Strictly speaking Alt+, just means..'in object mode, manipulate pivot points, taking everything else in their objects with them'.  Then you can do anything you like, not just align.

You can do this with Mesh Align Plus (my addon). After installing the addon, either watch the steps in the GIF or read the text version below:

The feature you're looking for is the Quick Align Lines operator in the 3D View > Tools Panel (T) > Mesh Align Plus Tab, in its own panel.
1. Pick a destination target (stationary edge that you're aligning to)

In edit mode (Tab), shift + right click to select the two edge verts you want to align your object with
Hit Grab Destination

2. Pick a source target (edge that will be aligned with the destination)

In edit mode (Tab), shift + right click to select the two edge verts that need to line up with the destination when the alignment is applied. Leave them selected.

3. Apply the operation

Make sure the object you want to move is selected, and (in object mode or edit mode) hit Apply to: Object

You can mark the spot with your cursor and, select your object and hit Shift + S then select
Selection to Cursor. This will snap your selected object to wherever your cursor is.

You can use Snapping with the rotation snapping option enabled:

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


text:
Cannot find SMD export buttons
I go into Blender, and under File > User preferences > Addons > Install from file and select io_smd_tools-1.8.5. Then I'm trying to find an Import/Export menu item but I can't find it. Please help.

This is an English language site. Could you please ask your question in English?

Can you please translate what you are asking as best as you can to English. We could try translating it but much of the meaning might be lost.

I tried a translation, please correct if it is not what you intended to ask.

According to this screenshot, the export buttons are located in the scene settings, not in the import/export menu.
Also, you should keep in mind that after installing the addon, you still have to activate it in the addons tab (check the button on the right).

See http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/1688/12 for some more information on installing addons.

@JulianHzg unfortunately the link to the screenshot is broken.

If you are using Blender 2.68, then there is a possibility that add-on is not loading correctly.
You need to copy both file and folder to
\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.68\scripts\addons.
Restart Blender after copy and enable the add-on from the user preferences. It will show up properly.


text:
Differences between dissolve and delete?
Does dissolve works the same way as the delete operator? And what does dissolve and limited dissolve mean?

Also see http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/149/what-is-the-difference-between-dissolve-and-limited-dissolve and http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2114/why-is-limited-dissolve-irregular

Did you try dissolving/deleting verts and see what happened?

Delete removes vertices/edges/faces and leaves nothing/a hole in their place.
Dissolve combines faces into one big face (ngon) or removes edges only as a separator between faces.
Dissolving an edge between two vertices can be reversed by re-connecting them by pressing J with both vertices selected.
Limited dissolve dissolves (combines into big NGons) all faces that have a certain angle between them (less than 5° by default). Limited dissolve therefore turns large areas filled with many faces into one large face.


text:
How to unlink a material only from a linked object?
I've created a second scene with a linked object but want to replace the materials on those objects only in the second scene.
Nothing happens if I choose the material in the outliner and choose unlink. Is there some other way to do this?

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1652/how-to-make-multi-user-objects-single-user

If it's a mesh object, it might be that your material is linked to the mesh (the data), not the object. Try this structure: Two different objects, both of which use the same mesh. The materials are linked to the objects instead of the mesh. Then you have an object identical in shape, but different in color.
You can set the type of link to the right of the material name.

Yes, this is what I needed. I set the Materials to link to the object rather than the data and then did Scene copy "Link Object Data" and I was able to change the material and leave the rest of the object alone.

One is glad to be of service.

So that's what that switch does! Very good to know, thanks.


text:
How do I snap one object into place with the opening of another object? (See picture)

As you can see, I'm trying to put this object into the opening below it. Is there a quick and easy way to do this? The top model is not rotated exactly correctly to match the opening, although the model is exactly the right size so if it were matching orientation it would fit. I'm looking for a way that I can sort of 'click' the top one into it and it will adjust accordingly.

I can't really see the problem very well in your screenshot.. Are you looking for something like this?

Basically, I am trying to take this and put it into this hole. The aren't aligned exactly via rotation but the opening is the same size as the edge of the model so it should fit if rotated correctly, which I'm looking for a way to do automatically.

AFAIK, this is not possible. Would to work to get it positioned as close as possible, and then join the objects and remove double vertices to connect them? (They could be separated again afterwards)

Huh, I hadn't thought of that. Getting them close together then merge close verticies. It wouldn't be perfect, but it won't really matter in the long run! I'll post back with results.

I think it is possible, if the only differences for the border are about rotation, position, and/or scale. Here for your reference.

If it's only about location and rotation around the Z axis, it should be as simple as:

Select the object you wanna align
Go to Editmode Tab
Select all A
Make sure you are in Vertex Select mode CtrlTab
Hold Shift and click a vertex twice, which you wanna use to align location(makes it the active vertex)
Enable Snapping ShiftTab
Make it snap to vertices CtrlShiftTab
Set Snap Target to Active
Grab your object G and snap it to the other model's corresponding vetex
Snap Cursor to Active ShiftS
Change Pivot Point to 3D Cursor .
Hold Shift and click a vertex twice, which you wanna use to lineup rotation(make it active)
Rotate the model R, constrain to Z axis and snap your vertex to the corresponding vertex of the other model(this can be really tricky, try to make the models a bit transparent to see what you are snapping to)

Not sure if the vertex in step 12 needs to have the same Z location as the first vertex... But even then, it should be possible to use any vertex with a bit more effort, to be able to constrain the right rotation axis in step 13 - using a custom transform orientation, which you would have to set up first...
If the models did not align originally, you might be able to snap to edge instead in step 13...

If the OP doesn't care about changing the position of origin, this would be fine.

Oh right, didn't think about that... but vertex snapping for active vert seems to work in editmode only. Maybe use a script to correct origin afterwards?

I would suggest to snap 3D cursor to one vertex first, then add a new empty; Select the object first, then the empty, thus it can work in object mode, since empty snapping can be treated like vertex.


text:
How to turn off pressure sensitivity for grease pencil with a tablet?
How to turn off pressure sensitivity for grease pencil with a tablet?

If no answer shows up try requesting this via http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-funboard   try to be descriptive so it's clear what the problem is.

In case you have a grease pencil drawing and want to normalize it (remove the pressure effect ) :

copy and paste in the text editor
click Run_Script ( all grease pencil drawings will have the same thickness )

import bpy

new_pressure = 1.0  # you can change this for different thickness  (always <1 )

for Gpencil in bpy.data.grease_pencil :
    for layer in Gpencil.layers:
        for frame in layer.frames:
            for stroke in frame.strokes:
                for p in stroke.points:
                    p.pressure = new_pressure

example :

An alternative is to draw with pressure then manually normalize the stokes' width.
The feeling of pressure on strokes is created through increasing or decreasing its vertices size (as strokes are actually vectors/curves).
So, the same way you "Shrink/Fatten" curves' control points/vertices/nodes, you can do it with GP strokes.

In the 3D View Editor, open the Toolshelf T, then select the
Grease Pencil Tab; push the Enable Editing button;
Under Edit Strokes, push the Select All button;
With the mouse cursor/pointer over the viewport, press Alt+S.
If you move your mouse it will scale the vertices. You can also press a numeric value. I suggest: press 0 (zero), then press Alt+S again and press some other numeric value (like 100) - this way all vertices will have the same size.


text:
Parenting an object to a bone displaces it
I'm trying to connect the arm (which is a separate object) to a bone.

Here's what I'm doing:

select the armature
go into [pose mode]
select the arm
select the bone
[make parent]
[bone]

it ends up looking like this (zoomed out a lot):

what am I doing wrong?

You need to post your .blend, but try resetting the location, by pressing Alt+G

Tested in a simple case and it works Ok without any offsets. this might be better as a bug report.

I didn't understand the way the hierarchy works and transforms etc... now I do. I had to "apply" the transformation of the objects.


text:
How to create a submenu especific shortcut?
I've recently been making my way into 2.8 and I've been wondering if there is a way to link keys exclusively to submenus. Let's say I want to shotcut "Clear Seams" to the "C" key in the UV menu, in the Edit Mode. Something similar to how you can double tap "U" to Unwrap a mesh.
Thanks.

Open any menu you would like to have assigned a shortcut to. Right click on the menu item to assign a shortcut.

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


text:
Does blender drain battery life when I'm not using it?
I used Avid Media Composer for a few weeks on my laptop, but it drained a lot of battery without me using it. Will blender do the same?
Thanks in advance.

Unless you are rendering or have an active process (like generating a simulation), blender won't run in the Background on your Computer, so it shouldn't drain any Battery


text:
Blender 2.8 and Animation Nodes build from Chris Prenninger
As Blender 2.8 has a new build everyday, is the Animation Nodes build from Chris Prenninger (made on May 5) still valid?
It does not work for me :(

Noted. Thanks for your comment. I am new on Blender (and Animation Nodes). It was my first question on this web site. I am going to update my question with what I have tried and what was not working.


text:
export fbx and obj problem materials
After I export an obj file the materials without "principled bsdf" disappear in the exported model, but in render preview I can see those materials. And in an exported fbx file, if i try to export also the "empty files", the exported model looks deformed.

and for the obj file?

and for the emtpy files?

those guides are not for my problem idk why u post those links here...


text:
How to thicken/enlarge certain areas of a model?
How can I enlargen the fins and ribcage of the fish below?
I need to 3D print the model but currently at the moment the peices are too small to print or they snap off after being printed!!!I just need to make them thicker so that this wont happen.

have you tried to fatten with alt S?

You might use Displace modifier with vertex group to enlarge the delicate part.

I swear I didn't mean to create this shape.....


text:
Blushing animation
Can anyone tell me how to animate the face of a character looking at the camera and gradually getting a blush. I am amazed that I cannot find any answers on this and I have tried all the stuff about animating materials with AnimAll etc
All I want to do is make my model go red in the face over 10 seconds. No movement, just a change of colour.

Hi. You said you "tried all the stuff about animating materials", what happened when you tried this and what didn't work?

Thanks for the interest, Ray. Moonboots' answer did thre trick.

It depends how you want this to happen. If you want for example the cheek to blush, you could do it this way:

Unwrap your face with Smart UV Project mode.

Create a blank image in the UV Editor, it will be your mask. Create a material with this image uploaded in an Image Texture node.

In the 3D View, switch to Texture Paint mode, choose a black brush and begin to paint the area where the face is supposed to blush.

In the Node Editor, mix the skin color with the blush color, use the image you've created as a mask. Your character now has red cheek. To make the blush appear you need a second Mix Shader before the Material Output.

Now when you move the last Mix Shader factor it makes the blush appear gradually.

Thank you for scrapbook-worthy tips.

Thanks, Moonboots. This worked and I was able to keyframe the changes by hovering over the Fac: section in the Materials property panel and hitting " I " on the keyboard.


text:
Custom hotkey not working
I have been trying to create Control Alt Command 1 as a shortcut for Append from Libary in Blender 2.93 and it is not working. It is the same one I used in 2.79. Can anyone say why?

Works. Right-click the menu entry (File > Append) and choose Assign Shortcut, even assigning Ctrl+Option+1 is working for me on a mbp.

That worked. Thanks.


text:
Attaching one object to each hand of a Mixamo action
I have downloaded the Mixamo action Digging. I have modelled a shovel mesh (with no armature in it) and can parent one end to one hand. How do I parent the other end to the other hand to get the guy to dig the hole? Will I have to create bones for the shovel?

you can do the opposite: Give each hand a Child Of constraint with the shovel as Target (and click on the constraint Set Inverse button)

That does not work.

To be more precise you need to give the Child Of constraint to the lower arm IK controller

OK but all that does is let the shovel control the hands and arms. How do you get the Mixamo action to control the shovel?

I may be wrong but in my opinion it will be much easier to do the opposite, aka make the hands the children of the shovel, because you can't make the shovel the child of 2 different bones.
You could make the shovel child of one hand (the hand that holds the back of the shovel) and make it track to the other hand (the one in front of the shovel), but you'll constantly have to rotate the hands so that they fit with the shovel angle, while if you do the opposite, aka the shovel controlling the hands, they will always twist correctly.
In that case, and more precisely, make the hand contollers (aka the targets of your arms IK constraints) the children of the shovel. You just need to give a Child Of constraint to both the 2 hand controllers with the shovel as Target:

I see what you mean but remember that my question concerned a Mixamo action and your most significant point is that "you can't make the shovel the child of 2 different bones". What this means is that the otherwise excellent animation of the downloaded Mixamo Digging action (ranging over 117 frames) is in fact a mere mime because it can't operate the shovel. Thanks for the help.

is it possible for you to share the armature with its animation?

Do you mean can I let you have a look at the Mixamo download? It's in an .fbx file but I don't know how to get it to you!

I don't know mixamo but I can try to understand how it is made or maybe someone will tell, you can share here: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


text:
Assigning random material color
I am trying to script a basic grid of cubes with different colors for each cube. Does each cube need its own “material” or can the diffuse color for a single material be changed for each cube?
In any event, I’m not sure how to assign the materials or the colors.
The basic grid of cubes looks like this:
import bpy

for x in range(10):
    for y in range(10):
        location = (x*4, y*4, 0)
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(size=2, enter_editmode=False, align='WORLD', location = location, scale = (1, 1, 1))

if you want to use python, you can use this script:
Explanation:
newMat = bpy.data.materials.new(name = 'Material')

This just creates a new material with name "Material". Is is not used by an object right now.
object.data.materials.append(newMat)

This appends the materials to the object's data.
newMat.use_nodes = True

This tells the material to use nodes (instead of being a "pure" color).
nodes = newMat.node_tree.nodes

With this the variable nodes gets access to the nodeTree/nodes (this is basically what you see in the shader editor).
material_output = nodes.get("Material Output")

Here i get the material output node.

node_emission = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse')

Creates a new Diffuse node

node_emission.inputs[0].default_value = (random.uniform(0, 1),random.uniform(0, 1),random.uniform(0, 1),1)

Sets the color to the diffuse node. The inputs array represents all incoming values. Default value is the value/color in this case.
links = newMat.node_tree.links

Gets access to the links
newLink = links.new(node_emission.outputs[0], material_output.inputs[0])

Creates the link between your diffuse and material output
import bpy
import random

def createRandomMat(object):

    newMat = bpy.data.materials.new(name = 'Material')
    object.data.materials.append(newMat)

    newMat.use_nodes = True

    nodes = newMat.node_tree.nodes

    material_output = nodes.get("Material Output")

    node_emission = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse')

    node_emission.inputs[0].default_value = (random.uniform(0, 1),random.uniform(0, 1),random.uniform(0, 1),1)

    links = newMat.node_tree.links

    newLink = links.new(node_emission.outputs[0], material_output.inputs[0])

for x in range(10):
    for y in range(10):
        location = (x*4, y*4, 0)
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(size=2, enter_editmode=False, align='WORLD', location = location, scale = (1, 1, 1))

        object = bpy.context.active_object

        createRandomMat(object)

result:

material created:

You could use the object info node and connect the random output to a color ramp, as shown on this page

is this is in "cycles"? is there a way to do it as text?

@vpo text might need Geometry -> random per island


text:
Add vertices at the intersection of edges
This question was asked many times before, but the most suggested solution "Use Auto Merge" didn't seem to do the trick for me.
I have a grid of overlapping edges as in the attached picture and want to create a vertex at each intersection. The edges do not have any vertices at the intersection point yet. What is the best way to do this?

Hello :). There's a useful TinyCAD addon inside Blender which can do exactly what you're asking.

A would fill the hole with polygons and then deleted the faces to have a a result you want. Sadly I dont know if there is a possibility to create a vertex in intersection of two edges.

@JachymMichal Thanks, this is a solution indeed. It's a pity I can only use it for one vertex at a time and not select the entire grid and then use it, but I'll get there eventually.

@JachymMichal Nevermind, turns out I was just not using the right command. Using "XALL | Intersect selected edges" Did exactly what I was looking for.

Re "This question was asked many times before": Can you link to some of those?

You can indeed, select all the edges and  use the shipped add-on TinyCAD > XALL to put a vertex at the intersections of all the lines simultaneously. All those intersections have to be detected. This can get (Python) computationally expensive in more complex cases..
More Blenderish, here, IMO, would be to delete all those edges, start from a clean perimeter, and CtrlF Face Menu > Grid Fill the empty rectangle, (constructing the intersections instead; much cheaper,) before X deleting 'Only Faces', if you want the bare edges.


text:
How can I add multiple points on a circle without changing its shape?
I have created a circular curve and I'd like to add two points to it.

I know I can select two points and then hit subdivide to get a new point in between these two points, but that is not a very efficient way to create extra points as it will change the shape of the circle. I then have to move them to position, which requires quite a bit of work of adjusting all the handles and move the point itself.
Is there a way to create the desired point by clicking on the circle so it won't change the shape of the circle?

I have tried installing the Curve Tools add-on as suggested, but I still can't find a way to make it work for this purpose.

Perhaps the website which has a name that rhymes with noonoob has a tutorial on Curve Tools

There are a lot of super basic tools not present in Blender in version 1.0 (If that exsited)

OK, so I checked out the addon called Add Curves. It kinda works the way I wanted, but it still changes the shape of the circle after sliding out and placing the point in the specific position.

I have seen it work. Please see tutorial on youtube.  Bisecting  a bezier curve has been understood for probably 60+ years.  You should think .. I need a tutorial .. rather than the tool cannot do this.  Blender has a slide vertex ... for meshes which is quite convenient.  I do NOT know if the tool has a slide ... curve point.

https://github.com/LeanderSilur/Blender-Tools/tree/master/curve_edit_tools#curve-edit-tools - I grabbed it from here. As shown in the gif, it works perfectly for Beizier curve. The newly added point keeps the shape of the curve. But not for the circle. It just changes its shape by adding a new point.

On the tool menu .. panel .. you may need to [Filter] and select your desired choice ... I just had some .. unexpected and not delicious experience

if you select all, press V, switch to Aligned and subdivide, it won't deform the shape, is it what you're looking for? (but you can't create an additional vertex wherever you want, this is a limitation of bezier curve, you need to first subdivide and then move, which does change the shape)

@brockmann good find.

Set the handle type to Aligned
I should have read the question better, re subdividing, to have a new point remain on the circle to change the handle type.

After adding the Bézier circle, select all in edit mode and Control Points → Set Handle Type → Aligned (Or only the two handles being sub'd.) The default Bézier curve has handle type 'AUTO' (look for a link to the handle type.)
After which the result of subdividing produces handles on the tangent.

The active object is the default Bézier circle section subdivide, over the result above.
For a circle, after adding a point as above, can then "point slide" it in its two original handle quadrants by rotating about the circle center pivot point and adjust the handle points to make a sine, cosine ratio.
The left-to-right handle length will be constant. The alignment after rotate will be correct. To keep as a circle is a matter of sliding handles. For example, it would be all horizontal right handle if rotated back to the top, and all vertical left handle clockwise to right original point...
It is somewhat reminiscent of the position in a slot of
How to do Trammel Of Archimedes Animation?
About to add the handle fix to How to rotate bezier control point (viewport not updating) ...
However, for the answer to the question marked as a dupe has gone above and beyond - What is the fastest way to add vertices to a curve at a specific point?

Curve Tools is addon . Menu Edit/User preferences. You can search by text and click the enable checkbox.  Blender 2.91

Subdivide and Multisubdivide are depicted above.

You may need to use the filter panel depicted above.

Thank you so much guys! I turned on Curve Tools under Addon tab but it doesn't seem to work at all as when I shift A under curve menu, I don't see a bunch of new curve objects in the menu. Don't know what's going wrong here. What's the common reason for an addon not showing up?

Press the N or T keys to see panels open up.  Be in [] mode.  I am one person .. so maybe I am one guy .. American English .. maybe Dude .. Bloke? ... Perhaps the website which has a name that rhymes with noonoob with lots of videos .... has a tutorial on Curve Tools

Sorry, I thought I'm replying to all the above posts including yours...Haven't got used to the structure of stackexchange. Yes I'm pretty sure I'm in edit mode. By toggling N and T, I don't see Curve tools showing up anywhere. I'll dig into why it wasn't activated even I turned it on already. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

Yeah I've got other addons turned on without a problem, but weirdly this Curve Tools simply doesn't work. According to what I see on several YTB tuts, I should have a bunch of new curve shapes available under the Curve menu when pressing shift A. Nope, still the same old 5 options.

@hiroober  ... please see edit

I really appreciate your help. I did it, but still no Curve Tools. Please see my screengrab in the edit above.

@hiroober Go into Edit Mode and in the N menu panel on the right go to Edit, there are some extra tools appearing when you enabled Curve Tools. When they are there, if you want to make sure that the shape of the circle is preserved you should use Multi Subdivide even if you only want a single subdivision and enter a value your liking. This way the shape is (mostly) preserved.

Thank you so much! I got the Multi Subdivide working though I still don't have more options under Curve menu...Googling around now.

@hiroober If you feel I have answered the question please mark it as the answer. You can also mark the question with negative points if you like.


text:
How can I sort vertex positions sequentially indices in a closed area?
I need to sort the vertices sequentially to make an effect, something like this video. I know I should draw them by hand, but sometimes when I subdivide edges, vertex indexes will change.
The vertices in the below image are correct.

For example, vertices in the below image are sorted randomly. Can you sort them sequentially?

I tried to sort them along the x-axis or z-axis, but it didn't work.

Please consider that your solution should work for complex shapes:

Do you have the python script of your attempt at sorting x and y axis. (I assume it did work, it's not the result you are after)

@batFINGER I used this script

The title is incomprehensible near "indices". Can you fix it?

Sorting vertex indices.
Answer here https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/36619/15543 shows how to sort vertex indices using bmesh.
Answer here How to order a list of vertices based upon position?  goes some way to show how to walk the edges for an order.
To be sure to be sure would walk the edges as shown above until the first vert is re-encountered (since its a loop) and use this for the order.  Will leave it up to you to piece together the script from what is here
As demonstrated in @Leander's answer
Shortest Path
Using the script from What is the bmesh equivalent to bpy.ops.mesh.shortest_path_select()? could select edge as link between first and last index vert, temporarily remove it, find the shortest remaining path (the only path) from edges two verts.  Reinstate the edge.
Face winding order
Instead for a closed loop like above, contend can fill with an ngon, use the ngon face verts as order (the winding order) re-sort the verts and remove the ngon face created.
import bpy
import bmesh

ob = bpy.context.object
assert ob.type == "MESH"
me = ob.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

f = bmesh.ops.contextual_create(
        bm,
        geom=bm.verts[:] + bm.edges[:],
        )["faces"][0]

for i, v in enumerate(f.verts):
    v.index = i
bm.verts.sort()
bm.faces.remove(f)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)

Select a first vert and clockwise or counter
To select the zeroth vert, and ensure anticlockwise (from top view) indexing
Run in edit mode, select the vert you wish to have index 0.  Assumes the shape lies in the XY plane.  If the normal of the created face points down the winding is flipped.

Random order, vert 22 selected, script below run
import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import Vector

ob = bpy.context.object
assert ob.type == "MESH"
me = ob.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
v0 = bm.select_history.active
f = bmesh.ops.contextual_create(
        bm,
        geom=bm.verts[:] + bm.edges[:],
        )["faces"][0]

fverts = f.verts[:]

if f.normal.dot((0, 0, 1)) < 0:
    fverts.reverse()

for i, v in enumerate(fverts):
    v.index = i
    if v is v0:
        iv0 = i

for v in fverts:
    v.index = (v.index - iv0) % len(fverts)

bm.verts.sort()

bm.faces.remove(f)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)

And here I was walking the edges >_>

@Leander yours is  a very clever "outside the box" solution.  Are you ripping the selected first vert?

Just deleted the edge to stop the extra edge from blocking the screencast.

@batFINGER your solution didn't work in complex shapes it just worked for simple shapes

@batFINGER I tested on several shapes and it works correctly! thank you, man! you're great!

Add a shapekey.
In that shapekey, place the vertices which are to be first and last far away from each other on the x axis.
Select all other (inbetween vertices).
Choose W > Smooth Vertices and set a high iteration count. The vertices will be smoothed.
Sort them by x-axis. Mesh > Sort Elements > X Axis
Delete the shapekey.

Oh my God, you are a legend! it's a nice solution without a line of code! I have a lot of shapes to sort can you write a python script? because I used the python tag in my question.

your solution didn't work for complex shapes it just worked for simple shapes

no sorry. I tried again and I have the same result. It didn't work for complex shapes.I also tried to move that two-point in infinity position along x axis but it didn't work correctly.

Upload your blend with the "complex shape", I don't know why it shouldn't work...

I uploaded the file and I attached It to my question.

Try the GStretch option from the Loop Tools Addon with "no simplification". That worked for me with your shape.

Using Python, you can walk the edges and assign them a new index.
import bpy
import bmesh

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

# index of the start vertex
initial = bm.verts[0]

vert = initial
prev = None
for i in range(len(bm.verts)):
    print(vert.index, i)
    vert.index = i
    next = None
    adjacent = []
    for v in [e.other_vert(vert) for e in vert.link_edges]:
        if (v != prev and v != initial):
            next = v
    if next == None: break
    prev, vert = vert, next

bm.verts.sort()

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)

nice! it works like a charm! I'm confused about what answer should I accept! @batFINGER answer or your answer!

@Leander there is also the BMEdge.other_vert(v) method that knowing one vert of edge v returns the other.

Thanks a lot for reading through all these answer and giving helpful suggestions!

"Python", not "python".

Without a script:

V split the mesh at the vertex you want to be first, if it's not already.
Header > Object Menu > Convert the mesh to a curve
Edit mode, right-click menu, switch the direction of the spline, if necessary
Object mode, right-click menu, Convert back to a mesh.

I don't know why Convert isn't in the Object mode right-click menu for a mesh, that's kind of annoying.
Barring refinements, as supplied by @Seyed, the script would be:
import bpy
bpy.ops.object.convert(target='CURVE', keep_original= False)
bpy.ops.object.convert(target='MESH', keep_original= False)

Or, to split a cyclic mesh at a selection:
import bpy

# in edit mode, select one vertex

bpy.ops.mesh.split()
bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
bpy.ops.object.convert(target='CURVE', keep_original= False)
bpy.ops.object.convert(target='MESH', keep_original= False)

Then merge the two loose ends.
Thanks to @Paul St George

you're genius! nice job! It works with three lines of code!!! import bpy bpy.ops.object.convert(target='CURVE', keep_original= False) bpy.ops.object.convert(target='MESH', keep_original= False)

@SeyedMortezaKamali thanks! I'll put that in.

The outcome of this looks random. Se meshes have vertices in clockwise order and some in counter clockwise order and i wonder if it would be possible to get the same direction or at least determine what meshes that have clockwise order.

@RobinBetts Great solution ('Without a script'). Please will you tell me what this means: "V split the mesh at the vertex you want to be first, if it's not already."
The rest I get.

Hi, @PaulStGeorge! The keyboard shortcut V will split the vertex, making the mesh acyclic, so the curve has well-defined start and end points. I guess nowadays, there would be a better solution than this, using Geometry Nodes .. ( Points to Curve ?).. and that should be able to fix user2404987's problem, too, which somehow I missed back then.

Ah, @RobinBetts. So is Mesh > Split > Selection (Y) even neater?
'import bpy
in edit mode, select one vertex
bpy.ops.mesh.split()
bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
bpy.ops.object.convert(target='CURVE', keep_original= False)
bpy.ops.object.convert(target='MESH', keep_original= False)'
Then merge the two loose ends???

@PaulStGeorge .. looks good! (Though I'm not exactly a refined .bpy coder, so can't honestly say whether it's perfect ). Edited in. When you have enough rep. feel free to edit my posts.. I can always stomp on edits I feel sniffy about :D


text:
How to scale the cameras view bounds?
The current issue is that I need more space to the right for my text, but scaling the camera to capture more of the area won't work. Why is this so?
This is what I wish to achieve:
But I am stuck with scaling the camera:
(what is shown in red is what I wish to achieve)
How can I capture more of the area? (I prefer not to do any compositing).

You can also change the Resolution in Render Settings > Dimensions:

For this you probably want to increase the X resolution.

Notice
Note that you can't scale the camera up by adjusting these values, you will need to move the camera and/or change the Focal Length to zoom/scale the camera.

Adjust the Focal Length in Properties > Camera > Lens
The easiest way to zoom in/out with the camera is:

Enter Camera view (Numpad 0) and select the camera
Press GZZ to move the camera along the local Z axis.

By using a combination of the above techniques, you can place and scale the camera however you want.

In the example you give, you only want to increase the size on one side of the camera. You would have to.

Increase the X resolution.
Adjust the X shift to only cover the right side of the image (otherwise both sides will be increased evenly).

If there is a reason why you can't move the camera to get the detail rendered you want you could change the Focal Length in the Camera Properties:

Another way is to change the Aspect Ratio note that changing these values will disort the image.

I'll see if there are any other answers. Thanks'

If the problem is after changing camera mode to orthographic from perspective the camera stops scaling, adjust the orthographic scale

In Blender 2.7 in "Display" settings.
Try Framing: Extend

how would this increase the camera render size? Can you elaborate a bit more on it, the answer is too vrief to clearly understand.


text:
How to composite in a background picture?
This is a diagram:

Look at the background carefully...
This background was made in compositing: http://www.filedropper.com/xtruder22
However, I wanted to know whether I could put a better background gradient from a .jpg or .png file? e.g.: http://www.shoutot.com/stockimage/black-gradient-background.jpg http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/042/c/3/gradient_toshiba_background_by_daproba-d5uo24e.png
Many thanks

I'll have a look at the answers tomorrow.

Also you don't have to use an image to get a nice gradient, you can use a gradient texture or colour ramp in blender to generate nice gradients, either as a material on a plane as part of the render or as another render layer or scene to composite into the final.

Yes, you can do that with the mix node.
Use the Input > Image node to load in the background image, then use the Mix node with alpha to put it behind.
Node setup:

Result:

I couldn't do gandalf3's method. So I chose yours.

Another option is an Alpha over node:

Add an Image node (ShiftA> Input > Image) and open your background image:

To crop or scale your background image to fit your render, add a Scale node (ShiftA> Distort > Scale).
Set the Coordinate Space to Render Size, and set the scale type. If your background image is larger than the render, you probably want to crop it. (select Crop) However, if it is smaller and you want to scale it up, select Fit:

Connect the nodes as shown above.

Wondering what version of Blender you're using. Our version 2.69 does not have so many menu items as in your snapshots!

I couldn't do your method. Thanks a lot anyway, I upvoted your answer.

@Developer I'm using 2.69 too.. Are your sure you were using composite nodes?

Well, not. Now we can find them :) Thanks. Compositing.

@gandalf3 You used Alpha over node when CharlesL used Mix. Which is better? Thanks

@TimTimmy, I'm not really sure that one is better than the other. However, the mix node allows you to mix it different ways, and I think the alphaover node gives you more control over premultiply.

@TimTimmy For just a simple operation like the one above, both will give an identical result.


text:
Python: Convert a point into camera-space (BGE)
For a particular object and a particular camera, I wish to convert each vertex into camera space, perform some maths on it and convert it back.
Specifically I need to convert the vertex first into world space, and then into camera space.
Something like:
v_world = obj.matrix_world * v.co
v_cam = cam.matrix_world.invert() * v_world

Which I could tidy up by doing:
# first create matrix that goes from object-space to camera-space
ob_to_cam = obj.matrix_world * cam.matrix_world.invert()

for v in ob.vertices:
    v_cam = ob_to_cam * v.co
    v_cam_out = my_maths_processing(v_cam)

    v.co = ob_to_cam.invert() * v_cam_out

Is this correct?  Is there a tidier way?
This link http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-246525.html gives:
M1 = Cam.worldTransform # camera 4x4 transform matrix
M2 = Obj.worldTransform # object matrix
M = M1.inverted()*M2 # conventions valid for blender 2.62

There is another suggestion on the same page, to use:
bge.types.KX_Camera
bge.types.KX_Camera.world_to_camera

http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_62_0/bge.types.html#bge.types.KX_Camera
http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_62_0/bge.types.html#bge.types.KX_Camera.world_to_camera
But I'm unfamiliar with 'bge' -- blender game object. Should I be using this object?

The camera_to_world and its inverse world_to_camera transform matrices provide the simplest way to convert between camera and world space. However, the more difficult part is accessing the vertices in the game engine.
Getting vertices in the game engine requires three nested loops. First, loop through a game object's meshes, then loop through each mesh's materials, and finally get a VertexProxy for each index in the material. With the XYZ property on the proxy, we can multiply the world to camera transformational matrix by the vertex position to get the vertex in camera space coordinates.
After processing the vertex, multiple the camera to world matrix by the vertex and assign it to the XYZ property on the proxy.
import bge

scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()

camera = scene.cameras["Camera"]
cube = scene.objects["Cube"]

for mesh in cube.meshes:
    for material in mesh.materials:
        for i in range(mesh.getVertexArrayLength(material.material_index)):
            proxy = mesh.getVertex(material.material_index, i)
            vertex = camera.world_to_camera * proxy.XYZ

            #process vertex in camera space

            proxy.XYZ = camera.camera_to_world * vertex


text:
Lofting between edges
zeffii recently provided a nice demonstration of using Sverchok to loft between edges (Sweep along a path through multiple cross-sections).
I was wondering whether it would be possible to extend this functionality to provide more control about how the loft interacts with each edge .
Here's an example of what I'm talking about...

Using a simple array of vertically-stacked, similar rectangles, I've constructed a series of loft objects (vases, I think), demonstrating some of the different ways the curve of the loft might meet each edge it comes across.
I trust the image is self explanatory, but I'm happy to (try to) elaborate if necessary.

We (Sverchok 2020, Feb) have no single node that encapsulates this behavior. But it touches a topic that I find interesting, the problem is only really; "How does one offer a convenient way to the user to tell that node how to interpolate between the various Quads". (Quad could be any Ngon ofcourse..) . We could initially offer a set of standard options as you list in the annotations to those images.

Looks like a job for curves, taper, or maybe re-written nurbs? Would be nice to generate a taper control object based upon the number and relative distances of the cross sections. You might even make a taper control for each side or vertex / edge through multiple cross sections? Can Sverchok handle curves and taper objects?

I'm learning that questions like that are like a red rag to a bull, so keep them coming (yes I'm aware that bulls are colour blind)

A current "lazy" approach to this. might be:

I use a few VD nodes here to emphasize the original Quad outlines (light blue), and the resulting interpolated outer edge (red). Note that the Plane (Mesh) Object has a Vertex order which is [0, 1, 3, 2], and we need both Verts and Edges to order the vertices (using Vector Sort) for the "connected" algorithm to get [0, 1, 2, 3].
The Smooth Lines node offers "Weights" input. When using the slider all verts are treated the same, but you can pass it a list of values (ranging from 0 to 1) to effect vertices uniquely.

I feel perhaps that this does not provide a full solution to your question, but sometimes even a partial answer can be useful.

Well that's basically genius.

You answered that one so quick, now I'm wondering whether to give you something else to ponder upon...


text:
Lofting along a path
TL; DR;
Using Sverchok, how might one construct a loft between edges that follows a defined path, as per figure 3 below?
Discussion
zeffii recently provided a nice demonstration of using Sverchok for Lofting between edges.
This was by way of augmenting an answer to a previous question (Sweep along a path through multiple cross-sections). However, I think that there was an aspect to that previous question that was glossed over in the answer, so I'd like to present it again here.
When constructing a loft object , it's sometimes useful to define a specific path that the loft is supposed to follow, and more convenient than defining edges all along that path - especially when the intermediate edges can be inferred from the start and end edge.
Once again, here's an example to illustrate the point...

Here, in each case, a circle morphs into a square. Figure 1. shows a simple transition from one shape to the other, and figure 2. shows a transformation that can be achieved using the solution zeffii provided in the link above.
The next challenge is figure 3. Constructing a loft between edges that follows a defined path.
Note that non-node-based solutions have been provided (e.g. Lofting between two different shapes along a path) but I'm all about those nodes.

for example: http://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/5/usersguide/en-us/html/ch-06_surfacefromcurve.htm  the Loft and Sweep are not issues we have nice succinct solutions for. Or this "modulated extrude" variation, it's a longstanding hole in our feature set.

Here's another solution using Sverchok's own Bevel a Curve node (2 times).
(courtesy of Vic Doval from Sverchok Issue tracker)

A similar preprocessing step is employed.

make the profiles match in vertex count and orientation
interpolate between the two using the Vector Lerp node; taking its factor from a Range node. Notice the range node will output n unique values, so each vertex is uniquely affected. In my example I use the List Repeat to make sure every set of profile verts is uniformly affected.

I'm all about the nodes too, but i'm also all about leveraging the power of Blender from inside Sverchok. (When it makes sense, and when it can offer perfomance boosts.) This also offloads the pesky "twist" Matrix calculations to Blender, and lets you use the Twist parameter on the Trajectory curves.
For now i started a discussion about this on our Issue tracker, because I think this technique can be wrapped into a single node and automated/parametrized.
What I did here was generate two Profiles using generator nodes (Ngon, and Circle) and output them using the PolyLine Viewer, i also made sure the profiles had the same vertex count and the vertex positions aligned to allow nice linear interpolation between the two shapes. Then I added a trajectory and copied it, and added the two bevel shapes to them individually

then the Objects In node imports both Curve Objects as Meshes, we separate the two meshes, and divide each mesh by the number of vertices of the Profile vertex count. This division results in a number which corresponds to the number of nodes/vertices in the original trajectory Curves. It also is the number of times we need to repeat each element of our interpolation range. so we go from
[0.0, 0.07, ....1.0]

to
[  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,  0.0,  ...
   0.07, 0.07, 0.07, 0.07, ...
   ...   ...   ...   ...   ...
   ...   1.0,  1.0,  1.0,  1.0  ]

We do that with the List Repeat node, and List "Delete Levels" (which is essentially a "Flatten List" node)
here's the blend


text:
I am using a Magic Mouse but am not able to select any vertices or faces
I am using a Magic Mouse but am not able to select any vertices or faces altought I have changed the use preference of the mouse to emulate 3 button mouse and select with right click in blender.
Can u help me with that.

Is this that same as your question?


text:
Interactive mirror (Ctrl + M) doesn't mirror object
I'm trying to simply mirror an object (maybe for the first time)
So I want to use the mirror command CtrlM for it.
When  use it, blender asks to select the axis I want to use for the mirror operation, then I type X, Y or Z, the axis is selected, I press enter or click anywhere, and nothing happens, the object just sits there the same way.

What could it be the problem? I can't find info about this problem.
Thanks for your help!

Could you upload some screenshots or a .blend?

OK, i edited the question, now it has screenshots. should i mention i'm using mac?

I think it's working, but as your object is symmetrical on all three axes it will look the same. Try it on a Suzanne.

But how does it need to be done to face in a different way?...and what's a Suzanne?

Suzanne is the name of the monkey head (Add > Mesh > Monkey) ;). I'm not sure mirror does what you think it does (and I'm not sure what you want it to do)..

I think part of the problem is that the question (or answer) is so extrmely simple that is misleading.
It seems like Blender mirrors in the local axis by default and since the object was completly symmetrical i couldn't see any change. So just repeating the axis after the command did the trick. thanks!

@invicente It actually mirrors in global by default.

...well then i don't get it. how did i change this ?

@invicente It's nothing to worry about, most of the time you want to mirror in the global by default, this is where it mirrors the first axis you press.

When using Interactive mirror as with the mirror modifier, you need to mirror about a point else pertaining to the former, the object will just mirror/flip in place and if the object is symmetrical you won't see any changes. This point can be the object origin, another object or the 3d cursor depending on which mode you are using.
You can either change the object's origin or simply switch the pivot point to use the 3d cursor and then mirror.
It is also worth noting that mirroring basically just scales the object on the desired axis by -1 (so without applied rotation you might not get expected results). So as a cheap and quick alternative to CtrlM, you could just select the object and use SX -1.
Mirroring in place or right on the object origin or 3d cursor.

Mirroring about a point

What I did in the last example was to first translate the object over a bit on the X axis and then change the pivot mode to the 3d cursor as the mirror tool needs a point to work around. I then invoked interactive mirror and selected the axis I wanted to mirror on which in the example is the X axis. In the first one, I simply mirrored a single object and it flipped it to the opposite side, in the second, I duplicated the object and then mirrored so I had identical copies.

Also as a side note, maybe add that mirroring actually just scales by -1 (so without applied rotation you might not get expected results)?

@gandalf3 another side note: Better use it in Object mode. Scale by negative value will flip normals when in Edit mode.

It only works in edit mode:
As per the Blender documentation

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference.  Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review

@batFINGER: Thank you very much for guide line, I will do in future posts

Nothing in the page linked corresponds to that. The first sentense states otherwise (and it's actually how it works), pointing out Object or Mesh selection (to have object selection one needs to be in Object mode, mesh - Edit mode).

@batFINGER  what do you mean? I was mostly answering the statement in the answer, not sure what should be undone as the answer was reviewed correctly as I understand


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Rotate posed character around the Z axis without deformation
Hello Blender Stack Exchange, please be kind to an absolute newbie.
I've rigged a very basic character and managed to move him in pose mode and insert keyframes to make him walk along a scene, but I now want him to turn around. Rotating the armature deforms him horribly, making him really flat and wide. Switching into object mode and rotating him applies the rotation to every keyframe in the animation, grr.
How can I rotate my character around his own centre in pose mode or otherwise do a rotation in an animation?
EDIT:
Dropbox link to my .blend file - excuse the goofiness, it's a video I'm trying to make for my mate Haighstrom.

Hi Mr. Pie :). Welcome to the site. Can you upload the blend file so we can take a look at it to better assist you. From your description, there are several things that could be wrong here.

Thanks, I can't work out how to post the blend file directly, so I'm editing in a dropbox link to it. I'm sure I've done all sorts of things wrong, it's my first ever mesh.

Your object centers are all over the place. It would be best to isolate the character into a separate file or layer, clear all relationships and settings, reset the object centers to normal and then rig it again. It seems you moved the character and its rig in both edit and pose mode several times before you animated it. I will try and see if it can be fixed while keeping the animation.

The problem is that you have moved the center of the mesh and the rig several times (while in edit and pose mode). This is a big no no and would have brought about even more problems if you had continued on to do more complex transforms/animation etc.

TL;DR: Clear all your object's transforms, and update the origin points for the rig and the model.

To fix.

Select the character and the rig and hit ShiftH to hide the rest of the scene so as to work without any distractions.
Select the character HaighMan and clear all transforms, Rotation AltR, Location AltG and Scale AltS.
Select the entire rig, which is currently in pose mode with A and repeat the previous steps for clearing all transforms.
Still selecting the rig, use CtrlTab to go to object mode and repeat the steps again for clearing transforms.
Providing you followed the steps above, your scene should now look something like this.

Select the rig and Tab into edit mode and adjust it to fit the model, select the root bone and use ShiftS > Cursor to Selected and then use CtrlShiftAltC > Origin to 3D Cursor. You can then select the rig in object mode and rotate the character 90° on the Y axis to have it stand upright.

All should be well now, it is fixed but still broken as your previous animation keyframes are still on the armature. I would highly recommend clearing these and animating it again and also re-applying the model to the armature. If you now hit play, it will jump to the keyframed location and the character will start walking, you are now also able to rotate and scale each bone without any weird deformations.

More reading:

Weird Armature Deformation
How do I apply a simple armature that I made to a model?
How can I automatically generate vertex groups for an armature?


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How to inset a face?
I am trying to set up a Minecraft rig mouth that will have more controls and will be rounded, but I am having issues trying to figure out what this guy did here. First, he did what looked like a loop cut and slide, but instead of drawing a line it selected all the edges it passed through. He then cut to a new clip where the mouth was already set up like this.

The video is in 3 times speed but if you download a youtube plugin you can slow it down to 0.25 speed of the video and then if you do the spacebar trick you can slow it down so it shows 1 frame at a time and it is really slow. Here is the link if you want or need to see the video.
All I am asking is how can I create those 8 basic segments.

You do know that the linked video is not of blender, right?

Yeah and neither is picture but it is same concept. I have used some of this video to make other features. You can do most of the stuff in Maya in Blender, Cinema 4D, and 3DS Max. gandalf3 all I am asking is how can I draw those 6 basic segments.

Which segments? Just be aware that other softwares will have different tools and different workflows.

First I did my math wrong it is 8 segments my bad. LOL :) But the 4 diagonals and the rectangle in the middle.

You could use Inset (I)

Oh my god that might actually work thanks let me try it.

I edited your question to better reflect your comments, please rollback my edits if they are incorrect.

You could use the Inset tool (I):

This tool takes the currently selected faces and creates an inset of
  them, with adjustable thickness and depth. The tool is modal, such
  that when you activate it, you may adjust the thickness with your
  mouse position. You may also adjust the depth of the inset during the
  modal operation by holding Ctrl.

Select the faces to inset:

Press I to inset:

This worked great although the picture and video were of Maya, the answer was found. I feel stupid but thank you so much!

@GarrettLozano All I meant is that the tools for insetting in Maya may be different from the tools in blender.

Oh alright well I apologize for misunderstanding but no they don't seem to be because I got the same result and thank you so much it helped a ton.

@GarrettLozano Np. Glad it helped :)


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Change brush outline color
I am doing a simple texture paint. The problem is that, in the texture paint image, there are parts where it is completely white. This makes it pretty much impossible to see the brush outline unless I bring it out of the border. (I mean that little circle that shows how big your brush is). Is there a way to change its color so it is more visible?
Here is a gif for better understanding:

Sure! You can do it here (see below):


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How would I make the unpainted part of a texture paint image not affect object color when mixing?
I am trying to model a face in Blender.
I am having an issue where I am trying to use texture paint to make the lips red. I have already set up a procedural skin texture for the head, which works perfectly except it also makes the lips skin-colored.
In order to fix this problem, I tried to texture paint on a red color. Unfortunately, when I created the image for the texture paint, everything was black. This made it impossible for me to combine the procedural skin texture and the texture paint image into the base color of the face without severely darkening the rest of the head.
See if this image helps:

Use a math node set to "Less than" with a very low threshold, and use that in the factor input of the mix RGB.
Illustration :

How do you determine the value?

The value of a color is the highest of each of its three color components : Red, Green, Blue. So it depends on the mask color, but since the answer mentions a black color, its value should be 0, or around 0 if it is not pure black. If you want more information, you can take a look at my other answer on the subject : https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/176427/86891

Great solution! This worked perfectly. However, one thing that I would like to point out is that texture painting often requires the "less than" comparison value to a much larger number, like 0.3 as the texture paint brush leaves a gradient streak rather than a solid one.

@EricXue True ! You can use the math node set to "Compare" instead of "Less than" to tweak the threshold (more info in the link I provided higher up)


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How can I make a round pipe?
I am trying to make a roundish pipe for my project. I am not very experienced in Blender yet and this project is very ambitious for me.
Basically, I am trying to make Pathfinder from Apex Legends, and I am still at the head part. He has two pipes going around his eye (I will show the image below). To make a pipe, I followed this video tutorial:
The Fastest Way to Model Pipe In 5 minutes Blender 2.8

Maybe this can work as an alternative for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmu356AoAdw

You mean like with smooth curvature? Use a Subdivision Surface Modifier

Does this answer your question? How to aproach the modeling of duct work, piping, wiring?

You can just use a nurbs path (or any curve) with a curve circle as a bevel object...

Model the curve into place, and choose the circle as the bevel object in the curve>geometry properties and adjust from there.

It's going to be hard to properly correct your current pipe. If you bevel your angles, it won't give a good curve on the whole angle. Or you can simply try to apply a Subdivision Surface modifier.
Your current shape:

With a Subdivision Surface modifier:

If you apply the modifier (here with a subdivision level of 1):

A fun way to make pipes is first to create with simple vertex extrusions:

Then bevel the angles (Ctrl + B and tweak the parameters in the Operator box):

Convert your mesh to a Bézier curve (header menu → Object → Convert To → Curve):

Then bevel your curve to give it thickness (Properties panel → Object Data → Geometry → Bevel). After that, reconvert to mesh, give it a Subdivision Surface modifier, and a smooth shading...

It worked I made as many vertices as posible and later used Ctrl+Shift+B to add more of them after that I converted it and made it big enough. Its not perfect but i am happy with the result

The answer is patience, you follow the video by making a cube and deleting all but one vertice and then use that vertice to make a pipe/tube. The more vertices you add the rounder the pipe will be.


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How do I remove these bounding box outlines?
At some point these popped up and I’ve been unable to disable them. They are tied to the models as newly created objects don’t have them (see the sphere next to them).
I’ve looked for a physics visualization option as that was the problem for most similar problems I could find, but I found nothing and from what I've found I don’t think it’s a setting anymore, or just in a different mode or something.

I’ve searched pretty much the entire properties window, though it’s possible that I’ve somehow missed it after five passes of everything.
I’ve noticed turning off the overlays turns the boxes off, but if I turn off the individual options and leave the overlays overall on, it’s still visible. It’s also visible regardless of what object is selected and the current mode (object, edit, sculpt, etc.).
I’m on Blender 2.93.1.
Blend File

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

Object Properties -> Viewport Display -> Bounds?

Okay pasteall doesn't work cause it'll only accept 24 MB (which seems incredibly small for blend files) but here it is through Ufile. https://ufile.io/m97c278i
And unfortunately that isn't the problem Jan.

Under the object data properties for each object, un-check "Texture Space" for the viewport display:

Thank you so much!


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How can I create a perfect circular or elliptical motion without curves or addons?
I'm looking for an easy method to create a perfect circular or elliptical motion without using "Follow Path" modifier or curves, extra addons, or many keyframes.

This Q&A  looks suspiciously like a promotion for a tutorial video ;)

interesting, too bad this is a robot voice

@RobinBetts All Q&A in this site are tutorials :) I think the aim is to teach people. What do you think about the idea itself? Did you know it before?

@user2824371  Sure, no offence. The Q and A are good.. +1. I'm just in 2 minds about the danger of BSE becoming a promotional platform. So long as the answers on here are complete, it's not got out of hand, I guess. The idea? Interesting... if someone had asked the Q, looking for an A,  my first thought would have been sin and cos drivers, and this looks simpler.

Brave Sir @RobinBetts   one difference is the animation stops at the fcurve modifier. eg there's AFAIK, no animating modifier settings.

The question lacks details where it's not even clear what the problem is-- why not parent to empty for a perfect circle?  The answer that's presumably the promotional self-answer lacks details (assuming you don't watch the video, which I didn't, then what modifiers?)  This is part of the problem with asking a question just to answer it yourself: you know what you want to answer, you know what you're asking, but you end up with a Q/A useful only to yourself, and that's useless because you already knew.

@Nathan You cannot make a perfect circle by just parenting because the circle curve is not perfect. I think it has 32 vertices by default. If you zoom in, you can see its sides which makes it not perfect. To get around this, you have to increase the number of vertices to be very high. Also, for the elliptical shape, it is easier to set the two diameters of any ellipse setting the two amplitudes of  the two modifiers. Without having to scale anything. The method of parenting is a little bit harder and less accurate. It's harder because you get the settings in two different places.

@Nathan The first place is the settings of the follow path constraint where you need to click on the object. The second place is the "path animation" where you need  to click on the curve. The graph editor method is related to a single object, so why bother creating an empty?

@Nathan I respect your opinion that this method is not useful for you. At the same time, I feel like you speak in behalf of people :) Every method has cons and pros. Some people will find it useful, others not. I cannot even say how most people will perceive it. I share my info for whoever finds it useful. Even if they are two people only in this world XD

This method uses only a single keyframe and the graph editor modifiers. It can be done using those 4 easy steps:

If you want your object to orbit around a specific axis, you add the modifiers to the other two axes.

To get a perfect circular motion, both modifiers must have the same values for Amplitude & Phase Multiple.

Both modifiers are the built-in function but one of them has to be sine and the other is cosine.

If the two modifiers have different Amplitude values, this will create an elliptical motion.

For video tutorial:
https://youtu.be/lhag5CrSgUw

"you add the modifiers"-- what modifiers?  Not noise, right?  Is this an answer that exists solely to direct users to the video, or can it stand alone?

@Nathan In step 3, I already mentioned that they are built-in function modifiers. One of them is Sine and the other is Cosine. Why would people choose Noise after reading "Built-in" unless they want to play/try? I also mentioned at the beginning of the answer that these are the graph editor modifiers to prevent confusion with the regular modelling modifiers.

Pardon me.  There may be some language issues involved.

Drivers.
Another option is using drivers.
Drivers create an animation fcurve.  The name frame is the scene current frame.
To the icospere in gif am typing a driver expression into property field. If it's not purple (a driver already starting with a hash # indicates "make this a driver expression".
Most of the usual suspect math methods are available, including sin and cos
In the location x
sin(frame / 24)

and in z
cos(frame / 24)

The smaller icosphere has x location driven by
sin((frame - 8)  / 24) / 2

ie it is delayed by 8 frames and halved in amplitude._
In answer to How to do Trammel Of Archimedes Animation? I mention some other things to consider in expression eg sin(2 * pi * frame / fps) where fps is a driver variable with value of frame rate, this will rotate at 1 rev per second.
Any of phase, amplitude, offset etc can be taken from the value of another property, which itself could be animated.
Trammel Rig.
Added three empties, the first is displayed as a circle, which at default is a unit circle  Have chosen to use the $XZ$ plane to match this for demo purposes.  As stipulated in question it's not a path, although as in trammel link, do like to use fixed offest alternative
The next two are parented to first (or if you prefer, made children of first) and one given the X driver, the other the Z
The unit circle in local space.  Using object scale will change our world space,

Constraints.
the cubes in the GIF have copy location constraints, to get X from X empty and Y from Y empty. Using WORLD space
The parent empty circle displays the maximum path. Non uniformly Scaling the parent empty will  make path elliptical
Can also make a cube path elliptical by setting a different constraint influence between X and Y.
Smaller cube has half influence for both, same again on smaller cube.
A fun example is a spriral ellliptical path by animating the growing scale.

Phew! Narrowly missed putting in one of my own, and being run over by the batFINGER tarin of excellence... :D

Like the way the delayed ico follows the cube.  Playing around with phase, started getting oscilloscope deja vu. Gotta love the unit circle. Always brings CAST to mind. A Choo Choo Tarin? Phew from me too, Yours would be far better illustrated.


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Constraint controlled reflective mesh
Is there a way to use constraints such that a mesh with reflective material will be at the correct angle to reflect light from a point source to a target object?
Or if not with constraints, is there a way to do this at all?

Assuming your reflector's normal is along its local Z, the easiest way I can think of is to give it 2 consecutive Damped Track constraints:

One to the light, with influence 1, and then another to the target, with influence 0.5.
Then the normal of the reflector (middle ray, below)  will bisect the [light-reflector-target] angle:

thanks so much! working great! is there any way to show light paths in the viewport for more accurate tweaking?

Tank you! I guess a little GN setup might be good for that... another question, really?

I think you can accomplish this by using two track to constraints:

Select the light, then the reflector object, then F3 to do a search and select Track To Constraint, then do the same thing between the reflector object and the subject object.
Result:

I could be wrong. But don't you want the reflector to bisect  the angle between the light and the target?.. Maybe not, for a diffuse reflector...

You might be right. I am a high-school dropout who got straight D's in math class after all. :P

I just did some tests to check and you're definitely more right than I am.

I couldn't be sure, myself, for diffuse reflectors, without looking back at how the diffuse shader works. Thanks for the tests!

I think your intuition has more to do with the fundamental way light bounces work and less to do with the surface reflectivity. So it should apply to any Principled Shader.


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Geometry node - instantiating a cube only in the middle of another geometry edge
I would like to instantiate a cube in the middle of an edge of an ico sphere.

I'm thinking about converting to a curve, subdividing it and then make a mask between the primitive sphere and the subdivided sphere, but I'm stuck on how to do this.
I found the post How to create instances in the centers of faces or edges, instead of on verts?, but it was done with the legacy version of the geometry nodes.

What is an "ico sphere"?

Just a follow-up to the commentary on @possibly ferret's answer. You can instance directly on the edges of  a mesh, and set the rotation, too..

.. here, in 2 stages: 1. around 'Auto' to put Z on the normal, 2. around the (now good) 'Z' to put Y down the edge.

this is briliant

You could convert the mesh to curves, then subdivide, and with the node Endpoint Selection select the middle points and instantiate there.

If you also want to transfer the rotation from the edges to the instantiated cubes, you can capture the selection of the middle points with the node Capture Attribute.
In order to align the cubes correctly, you would first have to capture the normals of the faces and combine it with the rotation you get from the Curve to Points node.
You can then pass the resulting rotation directly to the Instance on Points node.

Perfect, thanks a lot for quick and detailled answer!

The simplest way to do it, is by using a mesh to points set to edges:

That's right, this is technically the easiest way to find the center point, but the rotation unfortunately makes no sense at all here because of the missing tangents/normals.

yes that's true, unfortunately you will still need to do the curve tangent method to achieve that


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How to make all faces flip to the right/consistent direction?
What's happening is that I have tried to flip the normals, inside and out, but there are always faces which have to be flipped!
Normals recalculated

Inside View

If I flip them again, all faces get flipped and end up horrible and, not working at all. So how can I make all of the faces flip to the right direction?

try creating a series of models that are saved as you progress in them/get them ready for other programs. for example, whenever you get to a certain point, such as manually correcting the normals. this way, if your normals mess up for whatever reason during a session, and it is only part of the model, you can find again that part of the model as correctly from a previous version/file. i wouldn't be afraid to be too generous in saving the files (sometimes i so something like example.1.2.5.2.blend at times if i am unsure as to the changes i am making but want to progress anyways). hope it helps.

TL;DR: Select all and press ShiftN to Recalculate Normals (CtrlN in 2.7x and earlier).

I think this is problem you are having: some of the normals are always facing the wrong direction.
If you have the whole mesh selected when you flip normals then you are just toggling between the backwards faces and the correct faces, what faces are backwards. You are flipping the whole mesh, the correct parts will become backwards.
Whilst in Edit Mode, with the whole mesh selected, Recalculate the normals. That should fix the problem.
If recalculating the normals does not fix it, then you will have to go through your mesh and select only the faces that are backwards then flip normals.
I think you want the inside of the scope to point towards the inside. That is a case where Recalculate will probably not work. If the inside cylinder is unconnected from the rest of the mesh, then just hover the mouse over the inner cilinder and press L.

Yes , I had to flip the normals which werent flipped correctly because no other solution wasnt working! , It was quick though ( i used ALT P to select the circle of faces )

ctrl N for me seems to want to make a new document.

@Trejkaz you have to be in edit mode.

In case anyone is having an especially coffee deprived day, ctrl N is ctrl + shift + n.

@Shane I think you are mistaken. In 2.79, it is Ctrl N and in 2.8 it is Shift N.

Agreed shift + N for me too.  See notAnkur's https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/153695/83475 answer

2.7.6 should be also ctlr + N.

2.8.2 here, right here its alt - N will bring up Normal menu , ctrl + N will popup create new document

I guess you ticked backface culling in the Options Panel N in section Shading.

Check your normals again with the Normals display option ticked.
This image shows a cube with a single face removed, the normals should all point outwards. due to the deleted face all the faces with normals pointing backward are hidden. The faces with normal pointing in to the viewers direction are displayed.
The materials also have a backface culling option (in game mode).

Nope , that doesnt fix it :l

@Knuckles209cp add more details if this doesn't help consider to upload the file.

While the question is rather old and solved, it's still an important and underestimated topic leading to other questions coming up, so i would like to add one approach i did not see in the available answers here, for completeness sake.
Normals (or the orientation of the faces) in Blender can be made visible in 2 ways, one way would be with little lines pointing outward from the middle of a face, specifically the face-normals, while it gives us the information we may need, it can be hard to see wrong directed normals on complex geometry and long stretched faces, if you are a bit zoomed out.

Here i would suggest the Face Orientation to help get an easier overview on where there are faces in the wrong direction. Front and back of the face become blue and red respectively to have a strong contrast and allow better visual identification.

While it is easier to spot with the Face Orientation it does not replace the Normals as those i compared were only the Face-Normals.
But something that happens often is that we work on geometry and apply subdivision surface modifiers to name one that makes most obvious problems with wrong Normals, just to then have to find out that a face got turned for whatever reason.
So i would like to suggest to switch on Face Orientation at least once before giving up on surface problems, most likely if it turns out to be the Normals, the solution is underestimated easy.
Be it with recalculating Shift+N to let Blender figure out what's in- and outside, or by selecting the wrong ones manually and flipping them with Alt+N selecting "Flip". One thing to keep in mind though, both functions need you to select the faces you want to affect!

Go to Edit Mode > Face Select then press A Select all > Recalculate Normals Shift + N

To recalculate normals
and change face orientation

Go to edit mode
select the faces,
Shift + N (in blender 2.8 and above)
Ctrl + N (in blender 2.79 and below)

To that victor steve guy:
You have no idea how much your answer helped me, you deserve all the gratitude i have for you, thank you.

I was not getting any Function in Blender to conform normals, but you can use this and it will conform normals in some cases, but not consistent at all.
Just inverting normals of calculating the outside never worked in my case.
I think it only work in some cases, if you really want to have all normals conform outwards there must be another way.
If any user can show a way please post it as video so user can see how it works, would be very useful.
One Idea:
import bpy

bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')

for obj in bpy.data.objects:
    if obj.type == 'MESH':

        obj.select_set(True)
        bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj

        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

        bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')

        bpy.ops.mesh.normals_make_consistent(inside=False)

        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

        obj.select_set(False)

Select the entire model by pressing, A then Ctrl+N to change the normals to face out.

Essentially the same answers as before but 0 explanation.


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How to display different layers in each 3D View?
How can I show different layers in separate windows? For example, show layer 1 and 2 in one window, and show layer 3 and 4 in another window?
I need this so I can see everything I am doing correctly since I do have a messy rig.

Disable lock layers to scene in 3D view > Header to use local layers:

Then each 3D view can have it's own visible layers.

Wow! This is a very useful trick. I wish I knew it earlier. Thanks!

Thank you heaps :) Seems like i asked a great question :P


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How to render cartoon style with completely flat colors?
How to render perfect cartoons in blender? Whatever the engine is (internal or cycles) I always get that shading transition somewhere on the model.

The first picture is in blender internal render engine with the toon shading material and the second picture is in cycles render engine with the toon shader.

How can I get completely flat colors with no fancy shading variation?

have you tried to add another lamp (Hemi) to your scene I don't get these pronounced shadows?

to stacker - I lowered the light bounces in cycles - min-1, max-2

I tried Light BWK's explanation, but I still get the same results.
Basically, I want to make a cartoon animation in cycles with completely flat colors.

Well.. okay. I thought your original example image kind of implied that this was part of your other question, but if it's not, then I guess this works as a separate question.

These are the settings you need to change to set flat toon/cel shading. To get rid of aliasing with constant interpolation, in options panel, turn on Full Oversampling. There are limitations, noted them in the graphic.

In BI this can be done by using toon shading and setting the smooth value to 0, then feeding it into a color ramp:

I also disabled specular highlights by setting the specular intensity to 0.

You can do something similar to cegaton's solution in Cycles by feeding the same type of ramp he used through the color input of a toon bsdf shader.

EDIT: This is a solution you do in the material, not the compositor.

This isn't even Freestyle! It's just the material node editor. (But you can definitely add that on top of this for better lines.) Freestyle is applied after everything is rendered, then added. I'm not sure if Freestyle is done before compositing, or not.

Thanks for the tip ;). I meant to type "cell shading". I often mistype it 'cause they often go hand at hand in cartoons. Yeah, it is a compositing effect

After some trial and error I created my BI toon shading setup in Cycles. This is a very simple and useful setup. You can easily decide light and shadow direction with lamp in scene and object shading with ColorRamp node. If you use this setup with Freestyle it can be nice looking cell shaded objects. And if you don't want to change shadow position while animating objects (which is I recommend it) parent your lamp the object.
Here is the my setup.

I like this.  Your node setup didn't work for me because in the Texture Coordinates node I was using a real lamp.  When I changed it to some non-lamp object (e.g., a sphere) then it worked.

I use the internal blender engine for cartoon style render all the time. if you don't want shadows on it in the material tab down in the shading section check the button beside shadeless and it takes away the shading and shadowing. also if you want a outline like a line drawing outline in the render tab check edge and adjust to the way you like it.

I use this setup for EEVEE only.

When rendering turn on Freestyle to get outlines.

You can Experiment with Ambient Occlusion and External lighting under the World Settings Panel for more toon like effects AND the Stroke & Freestyle (1 px is more than enough) settings under the Render Section for edge strokes and outlines on objects.


text:
How to render parts of the camera view and merge afterwards?
I watched a video on youtube (I lost it) that shows rendering parts of the screen to combine them in a single image. I followed it to the point where I couldn't adjust the dimensions under the "set render border", but in the video he had dimensions and I have nothing.
I need it for 4K and 8K renders (without anti-aliasing), but my laptop can't handle it all at once and I don't have time for a 4 hour waiting so this feature will work perfectly.
I'm using version 2.76 so is it moved to another place or removed.
Maybe a bug?

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/44504/possible-to-set-render-border-exactly ?

@Mr Zak Thanks a lot :). Just installed the add-on and it's awesome

Nearly the same question - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5292

Using python is probably the best way to split up the image into exact tiles, as mentioned by Campbell Barton:

If you do some operation that requires precision (splitting the render into exact tiles for eg), you would be best to use Python for this anyway

At the moment you can try the Render Border Add-on. Although it's built to (re-)render an exact area of the image in order to save render time. For a single image you can animate 'Center X' and 'Center Y' properties to get the desired tiles:

To get 4 Tiles for instance:

Hit 'Reset the Render Border' to get the full frame
Divide 'R' and 'T' by 2 to get the first tile
Multiply 'Center X' by 3 to get the tile in the lower right corner
Then multiply 'Center Y' by 3 to get the upper right tile
Finally divide 'Center X' by 3 to get the tile in the upper left corner

Note: Unfortunately you cannot render this as animation, since Blender checks the size of the render border only once per render execution. So you'll need to render single frames and stitch it afterwards (by hand or using image tools such as ImageMagick):

Result

Also I'd highly recommend Brecht's instructions on how to render large image resolutions: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/16261/3710

Thank for the answer. I'm currently learning Python, but in order to slice it in separate peaces its not that hard without the use of python - I'll put an answer explaining it.

@Vladimir You're welcome. Great, I'm looking forward to your answer :)

I tried many solutions for this and IMO the best working solution for me was this,
Camera Cropper & Splitter : [Update] https://gitlab.com/ChameleonScales/Camera-Cropper-Splitter
You should really give it a try, its just one click and voila, you got a nice animation. Save it as separate images and then stitch it with any image editing software you like.
Step 1: Setup the scene as you require.
Step 2: Go to Render Tab > Camera Cropper & Splitter , select Number of Tiles and Tiling order accordingly
Note : If the required Frame resolution is larger than 3840x2160, choose higher number of tiles.
Step 3: Press Split Button. You`ll see keyframes are added, in the timeline. Adjust "End Frame" till the last keyframe. And start rendering the animation.
Tip: If you don't want hassle, try MS Powerpoint, grouping and saving as image just works fine and saves time.

Can you make it a direct link to the addon source and a brief description of how it works, We prefer not to rely too heavily on links here in case they go down.

Lets say you're rendering a 4000x4000 resolution image by using the above mentioned "Render Border" addon. You can animate the border to render each border block of your scene, lets say - 1/16th of the full camera. Then, apply the image sequence you just rendered to a plane and with the camera option "fit camera to plane" fit the camera boundress to the first frame, then, animate it along with image sequence to the last frame

 Parent the camera to an empty object. And now just animate the camera from the horizontal line of blocks, then duplicate the key frames depending on the vertical rows you have and for the vertical once - if you have 16 rows, then create 16 key-frames for the empty vertically and them scale them up to be in sync with the horizontal rows of the camera.

Anybody let me know if it's confusing, I'll edit it (English problems)

I guess I skipped the facts that the add-on is "unanimateble", but I hope it helps to some :)