text:
How to export metadata of the material data?
So I've been using a procedural planet generator for my game, and I've been trying to achieve exporting material attributes and values as json metadata each time I render a planet.

So I'd like to export all attributes (Seed, Noise Detail, Noise Scale ... Light Brightness) with their values as a individual json file after every render.
Seed: "2384523"
Noise_Detail: "0.047"
.
.
.

Should be easy with python. Do you have any Python skills?

So little that they can't help with this one


text:
Controlling Shapekey with Empty (Appear or Dissapear)
I'd like to control my expressions with empties.
So I'd like to have 4 empties:

Laugh
Sad
Suprised
Angry
These will be in expression collection.
And when I set the "expression empty" visibility on, it'll create the effect.
Is it possible to do so?

Is there a specific reason you're choosing not to do this with Shape Keys?

I'll be rendering my characters randomly, and my randomization script is working by toggling Render visiblity. But the character has different materials, I'd like to implement the expressions to this randomisation too.
So right now I can randomise the color, the hair with my rigged character.
I need to random the expressions on the way as well, if not, I'm stuck with assigning fixed expressions to certain materials, which I don't really want to.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Toggle "this == true" when "other thing == true", elif "other thing == false"
I'd like to control toggle of the shapekey visibility with empty object.
I have an "Empty" object in "Shapekey_1" collection which is under "Shapekeys" collection. I want the Empty object visibility to control "Key 1" shapekey visibility by toggling mute.
Here's what I've tried,
import bpy
if bpy.data.collections["Smile_1_10"].hide_render == True
    return bpy.data.shape_keys["Key"].key_blocks["Key 1"].mute == True
else return bpy.data.shape_keys["Key"].key_blocks["Key 1"].mute == False

and the error return as
Python:   File "\Text", line 2
    if bpy.data.collections["Smile_1_10"].hide_render == True
                                                             ^
SyntaxError: expected ':'

location: <unknown location>:-1

As the error suggested, you have an issue with your syntax.
if and else require an ":" at the end like so:
import bpy
if bpy.data.collections["Smile_1_10"].hide_render == True:
    bpy.data.shape_keys["Key"].key_blocks["Key 1"].mute = True
else:
    bpy.data.shape_keys["Key"].key_blocks["Key 1"].mute = False

I also removed your return statements because your code is not part of a function.

Additionally, if OP wants to set these properties to true or false then they would need to use "bpy.data.shape_keys["Key"].key_blocks["Key 1"].mute = True" not "...mute == True".
"==" tests for equality, not set a variable value.

Omg thank you, not knowing coding fundamentals sucks!

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


text:
Cut mesh in half with filled faces?
I would like to cut this mesh into two parts where the Plane is located and have the resulting openings filled. I've tried the knife tool and bisect but I can't figure out how to execute either of them. I did see a similar question here maybe a year ago but I can't find it. Thanks in advance!

EDIT:
Here is the result I am after (I did this by hand).

Previous answers will work, but two other options need to be given.
1. Booltool addon - add a Solidify modifier to the Plane object, and then shift-select your target object and choose Difference bool brush.
2. With all the faces selected, you can use Shift-K to draw the knife tool through the mesh in edit mode so that it creates a cut even through odd ngons. After, you can select this new loop and use V to rip and then select one side and separate like explained before.

Booltool isn't? I woudl think that it was, since the result is a closed mesh on each side. The knife tool means manual work, and that is going along with the other solutions presented.

If I understand your question right, you can create a loopcut on the mesh where the plane currently is, then select the loop and press V, and then drag the loop to the side. This will split the mesh and create an opening that you can fill.

Yeah you can press Crtl-R in Edit mode and select the loop direction you want and then the location of the knife cut. This will create a straight line made of edges around the the mesh. You can then select one half and press P, then separate by selected.

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


text:
Is there a way to control the axis that a force field applies force?
Is there a way to control the axis that a "Force Field" applies force? I'm specifically trying to constrict the force to the x & y axis not the z axis using the "Force Field" on a Cell Fractured Object. More force in the green and much less in the blue.

You can constrain the spherical force of a field into a cone or a tube, but these are directional.

To achieve the equatorial emission you require I recommend placing a
force field in the middle to distribute particles.
Then 2 more force fields above and below at the polar regions. They
will repel the vertical emitted particles.

Note that in this demonstration I have turned off the initial Normal emission speed.

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


text:
Is there a way to get back to renders that are in "Render Slots" without having to preform a render?
Is there a way to get back to the Render Slot Dropdown Menu (That already has renders in it) "without" having to make another render? This would be during a single session of Blender.

@MattTheWaffleCat - No. I mean if I render more than once to a Render Slot(s) potentially up to eight and then I leave the Render Slots to edit but then I want to check/reference the Render Slots again BEFORE another render so I can make additional edits.

@cegaton - I get it thank you for your patience!

It seems to me that the question might not really be about render slots but rather about where to find your renders if you can't see them. If so:
There are two ways to get back to your render.
Using the keyboard shortcut F11 Will bring up the render window without re-rendering (F12 does the same but also re-renders). You can then follow steps 4 to 6 below if you render isn't visible.
Or, referring to the picture below:

Using the button in the bottom left of an area to open:
The Editor menu you can select:
'UV/Image Editor' where you should see:
Your previous render. If not:
Select 'Render Result' from the Image menu and also, possibly:
The Slot you rendered into.

Thanks, but the question is about Render Slots.

This will save me SO much time.


text:
How to add some blur inside a glass sphere and keep the outside sharp & reflective?
How to add some blur inside a glass sphere and keep the outside sharp & reflective? Blur may not be the right descriptive because there is also some distortion. I'd like to keep it one mesh because I'm going to shatter it and the pieces need the same material.. Here's what I want.

Here's what I have.

Node set up.

Thanks!

@Duane Dibbley - I have but there is some distortion in there that I'm try to achieve as well.

Couldnt you give the glass material roughness but add some clear coat for sharp reflections?

@ Duane Dibbley - This really makes a difference. Thanks!

"Blur" is the right word for describing the effect, but the word for the cause of it is "roughness". Roughness simulates a surface that has microscopic bumps on it. Because of these bumps, light refracts with a little bit of randomness, causing a blur.
All you have to do is increase the roughness to about 0.1, in your case:

Roughness will also blur out the reflections. You said that you want the reflections to be sharp. But look carefully at the reference image. The reflections are slightly blurry, too!
Anyway, here is my result of a sphere with the principled shader and a bit of roughness:

Note that if you would actually need a sharp reflection, you would have to mix a rough refraction with a smooth glossy shader, controlling the proportion by the Fresnel node. (Or you could use the clearcoat feature in the principled shader). This would not be realistic, though, because usually the roughness for the reflection and refraction is the same – unless there are multiple layers in the material, which does not seem to be the case for a simple glass sphere.

The reason I I thought blur might not be accurate is that if you look at the reference image there is also some distortion. I'll update my question.

It looks to me like your example is a glass sphere with a bubble inside it--perhaps a bubble of air, perhaps a bubble of water or some other material with a different refractive index.
I'm not sure this is the effect you want to recreate, but by mixing two different glass shaders using the fresnel as a mix factor, you can create some cool procedural sphere-within-a-sphere effects:

Parameters to play with to vary the effects include the IORs of the two glass shaders, the colors of the two glass shaders, and the color ramp that controls the fresnel.
Top image: inner glass material has IOR of 3 (as shown in the node setup).
Middle image: inner glass material has IOR of 2.


text:
How to Read Timeline Seconds?
I feel pretty silly for asking, but I need to know. On the timeline sheet where it normally shows the keyframe numbers, when you go into to 'view' and you click 'show seconds' it gives you the seconds instead of keyframes.
It normally looks on the timeline like "0+00 0+03 0+06" and so on. My question is, how do you read that? Like for "0+03" is the first "0" minutes and the "03" the seconds? I just need a bit more clarification on the meaning. My frame rate is 30 FPS (in case you need to know).
I appreciate the help!

It's a combination of seconds and frames.
Format = [second] + [frame number]
It starts the count of frames again for every second.
A.K.A. the frame number is relative to the seconds.
You can see it changing when you change the frame-rate of the clip in the render tab.

No problem. Make sure to mark the thread as answered so it isn't marked as unanswered unnecessarily.

Press Ctrl + T  on the Timeline, to see actual frames


text:
Why can I not subtract objects from each other?
I have created two objects.
The second one was derived from the first one by selecting everything in edit modeAand then using Extrude Alt+E -> Region (Vertex Normals) with the value 1 to extrude it inwards.
Then I separated this object with P.
I then selected this new object, entered edit mode again, flipped normals with Ctrl+N -> check "Inside" and extruded the faces (Individual Faces) by -1.5.
Then I want to subtract this by picking a boolean modifier and selecting "subtract" - first I pick the extruded object, then in the modifier tab the old object.
It almost looks like it worked, however, the faces are still closed and there is no way to open them. Can anyone help me?

And one last question: some people upload some sort of gif or short video loops here. How and where can I do this?

See here for how to make .gifs for questions and answers.

If you have frames, there are all kinds of online services that will make a short GIF for you to download, if you provide the images. You can also make them (somewhat more compact) with GIMP.

Your problem is likely coinciding faces.
Boolean operations do not work well on mesh objects with overlapping, co-planar or almost parallel faces.
My advice is to make it so that the "wireframe object" is slightly bigger than the "solid one", making it protrude a little to the outside, while maintaining whatever precise measurement is indented, so that the outer faces are not exactly overlapping the larger ones.
Optionally go to the Properties Window > Object > Display > Maximum Draw Type and change it from Textured to Wire for the "edges object" you are trying to subtract, so that you can more clearly see the finished operation in the viewport.

I did this already: I extruded it inside by 1 unit and then extruded the faces outside by 1.5 units, making them definitely "stick out" of the outer shell.

Well I'm out of ideas. Can you post a blend file we can look at? Have you tried recalculating normals?

There are a number of things that might be wrong, but it's hard to tell from here ;-)
The first thing I'd recommend is move the objects to separate layers. The modifier will still work, but you'll get just the result on one layer, instead of having the result WITH the original objects. This can help you see what's really going on.
The second thing to do is Apply the modifier. This will make the result of the boolean subtraction "real" so that you can go into edit mode and delete faces, move vertices, etc.
It's likely that the boolean modifier assumed that it should close some faces that you didn't want it to close. The other thing that might have happened is that you have coincident faces (faces right on top of each other). Keep in mind that what you're subtracting needs to BEYOND the edges of what you're subtracting FROM. Don't try to subtract right up to a face, just go overboard to make sure it gets cut all the way through.
Applying the modifier will give you a chance to change whatever went wrong.

Thank you. I already went beyond the surface. Also the image above shows the result after having applied the modifier.
I will try moving them to different layers momentarily.

I have the funny solution.
First, the hint to use different layers was great.
Second, while trying to record a gif I accidentally first added the object to subtract before selecting the modifyer and got the desired result - by using boolean "join". I still don't understand it, but I'm happy with the result.
It seems like in my install the boolean operators are swapped?


text:
yellow dotted line grab tool
I'm a beginner.  Everything was going along fine. I was using click, hold, grab to pull and push on vertices without striking the G key.  For some reason now it's not working and when I hit the G key a small dotted yellow line appears and extends and contracts with my mouse movement.  What did I do?

Maybe you grab along edge. Hitting G twice does that.

In Blender you can begin to grab either using the right mouse button or the G key.
After that you can move the wanted vertices, but if during this movement you hit G again, the movement is limited to the edges connected to the displaced vertex.

In complement, that can be used with more than one vertex, here are some behaviors :

I figured out what I did.  I accidentally hit the magnet icon in the header.  whoops
and.....I probably hit the g key twice too.  Having the best time. :-P


text:
How to bake HDRI into sphere?
I'd like to bake HDRI lighting to a sphere object, then with the emission shader I'd like to use it as light source. Is it possible to bake HDRI map to a sphere object?

It's not clear what you ask, if you're talking about projecting an HDRI image onto a shpere, you don't need to bake anything, the default UV sphere unwrap will correctly project an HDRI image onto it:

If you're talking about baking a 3D scene onto an HDRI image it is another question, put your camera at the center of the scene, go into the Camera panel and choose Lens > Panoramic, Type > Equirectangular, in the Output panel choose the dimension (the length must be twice the height), render, save as Radiance HDR format. If you want to project it onto a UV sphere, just plug the HDRI into the Emission node as explained before.

Sorry that I've made things complicated. I was just asking this. Thank you!


text:
Viewport shading and gizmos dissapeared after 4.0
In the layout tab, object mode and edit doesn't show the viewport shading, gizmo and overlays.

Sculpt mode works just fine.

I don't know what or why happened.
It started after i updated to 4.0, still going on in 4.0.1
No problems with previous 3.6.4 version.
Couldn't find and solution in windows tab, closed all the addons and i'm countering the same thing.

Can you try adding another Layout workspace by clicking the + icon at the right-hand end of the workspaces toolbar then selecting it from the General menu that pops up? If it brings them back you can then right-click on the original one and delete it then right-click the new one and select Reorder to Front.

Ty for the suggestion, I've tried this but nothing happens.
It's interesting as I don't have this on my laptop, i've updated them both but this issue is spesific to my desktop workstation.

Unfortunately you're not the only one to report this. It appears to be a bug but has only affected a few people. See this posting from today! :^(

Well i seem to find the solution, kind of.
It was retopoflow causing this issue for me, loading back to factory settings brought back everything.


text:
Rendering Objects one by one?
I'd like to render all objects on the blend file and render them one by one seperately.
I'd like it to:

Render the object on selected collection
Save it with the obj name as png to folder (if folder name can be the collection name, that'll be pretty life saver)
Render the next obj

And if i can keep the shadows, that'll be bonus!

You'd have to use python for this. Make sure the collection that you'd like to render is selected/active in the Outliner and run the following script:
import bpy
import os.path

C = bpy.context
scn = C.scene
output_path = scn.render.filepath
exclude_type = ('LIGHT', 'CAMERA', 'ARMATURE', 'LIGHT_PROBE', 'SPEAKER')

# Disable all relevant objects in renders
for ob in C.collection.objects:
    if ob.type not in exclude_type:
        ob.hide_render = True

for ob in C.collection.objects:
    if ob.type not in exclude_type:
        # Enable the object for rendering
        ob.hide_render = False
        # Assemble the path (.jpg is a placeholder)
        scn.render.filepath = os.path.join(output_path, "{}.jpg".format(ob.name))
        # Call the render operator
        bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)
        # Disable the object for rendering
        ob.hide_render = True

# Reset the output path
bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = output_path
# Reset hide_render state
for ob in C.collection.objects:
    if ob.type not in exclude_type:
        ob.hide_render = False

Render output of the default scene, added a Sphere and a Cylinder to the default Collection:
/tmp/
├── Cube.png
├── Sphere.png
├── Cylinder.png

To get the shadow just add a Plane to the Scene Collection, make it a Shadow Catcher (Object Properties > Visibility) and enable Transparent (Render Properties > Film):

Render output of the shadow catcher scene (Cube.png, Cylinder.png, Sphere.png):

If you'd like to have a subfolder with the actual name of the collection, just add it to the regular output path e.g. /tmp/Collection/.
Related:

Cycles: Shadeless "Shadow-catcher" Material for Rendering onto Footage
How to make a model cast shadows onto the world texture/background?
How can I batch render lots of objects individually?
Blender script import model and render it

Dude thank you, this literally saved me thousands of minutes!


text:
Microsoft Powertoys renders STL with color data on thumbnail, how can i bring it to blender?
I have my STL files on the folder and powertoys are installed on my PC so i can review STL files.
I noticed that Powertoys are actually rendering color to them, which is odd as i thought STL files don't contain color data.

Is it possible to get that information in blender so i can have renders of them?
No need to be PBR, it's just the color information i'm interested in.
I thought these were vertex color data, when i imported the STL, go to shader editor and add Color Attribute to the shader, nothing shows up unfortunately.

It'll be awesome if someone can help me out, it's interesting to see colors in the powertoys thumbnails!

There is no mention of colour at all in Blender's STL Export format so those files can't have been produced by blender.

Yeah that's not what i've actually meant. Ty for the efford though, figured it out.

So here's what i did, maybe it'll be usefull for someone.
I've imported the STL to ZBrush. Clicked "with color" after importing (it automaticly pops out)
Then i've exported it as fbx, then imported into blender.
Added color attribute to principled bsdf base color.
And it had.
STL can carry color/vertex color data, but some how, it doesn't display it.
So i had to make that transition. I try to export stl as fbx in blender but it didn't preserved the data.


text:
Displaying direction using python
I have created a room in blender using vertices from scratch. It is like a prototype that can be used by other users to build a different model using different vertices. For the convenience of other users I want to display direction (North, South, East, West) on output of any blender model they create. Is it possible to do so using python ?

How about creating arrow meshes (please note, the highest voted answer is not always the best answer), perhaps also with addition of Text objects, and disabling them from rendering by setting hide_render attribute to True?


text:
Trouble exporting blend to JSON Format
I have recently found a strange behaviour in Blender: sometimes when I delete certain objects in the scene, the JSON exporter becomes unavailable. For example in my actual scene, if I delete a specific plane it becomes unavailable, but not for any other meshes. Impossible to delete that plane.
However I can delete it with certain other specific objects, at the same time, and the exporter becomes available again. This as well only works with certain objects. Also, when the JSON exporter becomes unavailable, the same always happens for Motion Capture (.pvh) and Stanford (.ply) format export options. I have studied parent and material relationships but I haven't been able to find any logic in that behaviour.
What am I doing wrong ?
(This is a copy from this SO question)

When you start Blender from a terminal / command prompt, Do you get any printed messages when you're doing any of this? Does this only happen if the io_three addon (three.js) is enabled, and is the addon the most up to date?

Well i forgot to post the answer i found : the 'strange behaviour' was in cases i had no objects selected actually, that is why the exporter was not available. I dont know if this condition existed in the previous exporter too, maybe that was what lead me to ask.


text:
How do I get hair strands to curve in blender?

How do I get the hair strands in blender to curve? I tried the forcefield but that didn't work either...


text:
Remesh-Modifier in Sharp mode generates overlapping faces?
I found out that it's better that a mesh consists of quads than triangles (http://blog.digitaltutors.com/modeling-with-quads-or-triangles/). So I thought I will give it a try and use the remesh-modifier to make quads.
I created a icosphere and added the remesh-modifier (see screenshot). You can see some holes which in fact are overlapping faces. That's more or less ugly and I don't want that. I know I could delete the overlapping faces and create new correct faces, but I am writing a procedural mesh add-on and so the way of doing it manually is out of the scope.

When I am using Mode: Smooth the holes/overlapping faces disappear but I am not so sure if they could come back again.
Could someone explain to me why this is happeing?
The Smooth-Mode is working without sharp-feature detection. But what is a "sharp-feature" on a icosphere? And why is it a problem for the modifier?
Thanks!

I am writing a procedural mesh generator for a low poly game. The art style of the mesh will be defined over the mesh topology. A low poly mesh built out of triangles will look different than quads. I don't know why the base mesh depends. I thought the remesh modifier doesn't destroy the mesh but it rebuilds it. Additionally, the quad only mesh could help me creating seams automatically for uv mapping.

Try turning down the amount of sharpness. AFAIK the sharpness feature is more of a post-processing feature which deforms vertices close to sharp parts in an attempt to match the shape of the base mesh. With sharpness set to 1 this often results in rather extreme deformations of single vertices. That said, tris aren't inherently evil. There are some cases where they may be preferable or even desired, e.g. for an artistic "low poly" style.

There are still overlapping faces when sharpness is set to zero.

Hm.. Not for me?

Look here: http://oi61.tinypic.com/r7lsea.jpg


text:
How to change a python script which was distributed via blender?
I am having some problems with Smart UV Project (Smart UV project creates overlapping uv-coordinates).
The wiki says that Smart UV Project searches seams and uses them to unwrap the mesh (https://www.blender.org/manual/render/blender_render/textures/mapping/uv/unwrapping.html#smart-uv-project).
The script for that is written in python (why not in C/C++? That could be a lot  faster because the algorithm could be parallelized.) and is located here Blender\2.75\scripts\startup\bl_operators\uvcalc_smart_project.py. In Line 494 to 498 edge_seams is set. I also want to mark the edges as seams so that they are highlighted in the viewport.
But when I change something in the script (just a simple print("test")) I can't use Smart UV Project anymore because I get a lot of error messages when starting blender.
search for unknown operator 'OBJECT_OT_subdivision_set', 'OBJECT_OT_subdivision_
set'
search for unknown operator 'OBJECT_OT_subdivision_set', 'OBJECT_OT_subdivision_
set'
search for unknown operator 'OBJECT_OT_subdivision_set', 'OBJECT_OT_subdivision_
set'
search for unknown operator 'OBJECT_OT_subdivision_set', 'OBJECT_OT_subdivision_
set'
...
location: <unknown location>:-1
search for unknown operator 'RENDER_OT_preset_add', 'render.preset_add'
rna_uiItemO: operator missing srna 'render.preset_add'

C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.75\scripts\startup\bl_ui\propertie
s_render.py:136
search for unknown operator 'RENDER_OT_preset_add', 'render.preset_add'
rna_uiItemO: operator missing srna 'render.preset_add'

Why can't I edit these files? Are they locked or something like that?

They are definitely not locked, but not sure what's going on there. There was a recent change to the addon management, but if there's no error until you edit a script, then it can't be it. Maybe post the entire script after your modifications, could be some strange syntax / whitespace error. Otherwise, refer to the official bug tracker.

python can be picky about formatting, if you don't add your extra line with the right indentation it can break all following code, also make sure you use spaces to indent in python and not tabs. Also of note is that seams and creases are two different settings that work separately and can also be displayed separately.

Ups, you were right! I used notepad++ for that simple change (normally I use pycharm) and so the indention was wrong (tab instead of spaces). Thanks!


text:
Object throws itself across screen for no reason
I can't seem to get a simple cube to topple this single domino.
The domino is an active rigid body that is stood upright in frame 1. The cube is an active rigid body set to animated. The cube doesn't even move as I haven't set any keyframes, but the moment I push play on the timeline the domino hurls itself across the screen like it's been hit by a bullet!
Even when I set keyframes on the cube and have it move forward it makes no difference. Before it even makes contact with the domino the thing hurls itself across the screen.

maybe apply the scale of both your objects, or please share your file

Please indicate via Blender screen captures and words, which of the following best describes the domino ... The domino sits on top of the plane ... the domino intersects the plane.  Please show all, or the absence  of, keyframes on your objects.

I hadn't applied the scale. I tried now and the domino flies directly into the air.

Okay, I've changed the images above. Image 3 shows no keyframes on the small cube that I'm trying to animate.  Image 2 shows the domino intersecting the plane slightly. It refuses to sit on the plane because as soon as the animation starts it drops down slightly. I have applied the scale to all objects now. This has made it worse. The domino now leaps into the air and dances around the plane.


text:
Cannot get physics to work properly, everything goes mental
The pivot is set to rigid body passive. The see-saw is set to rigid body active.
The block is placed on the end of the see-saw and is set to rigid body active. I used the snapping to faces to place the block on the end so there are no gaps.
All transforms have been applied.
The moment I hit play the block flies up into air and shoots off screen!
All of my physics simulations seem to do this. Why on earth is this happening?

Hello please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

Unfortunately I cannot see the settings of the seesaw in the screenshot, but I would guess you have Collisions > Shape at the default Convex Hull, like the cube. A convex hull is not taking any concave shapes, cavities, holes, indentations into account.
So I presume you have placed the cube inside the convex hull of the seesaw, and whenever you place an active rigid body object inside the boundaries of a collision shape, it gets immediately thrown out when the simulation starts.

So what you have to do is set the shade to Mesh instead of Convex Hull, as you can see in the image below. This takes even complex meshes into account for simulation. The reason this is not default setting is simply, the more complex the collision shape, the more computational power is needed and the longer it takes to bake a simulation. So if a Convex Hull is sufficient, stick with it. For simple shapes likes cubes and spheres etc. you also have special collision settings: these primitive shapes get simulated even quicker and more accurate. For the cube you could use the shape Box for example.

Thank you. That made a radical change, but I'm still encountering problems. I set the see saw to mesh and pushed play. The cube still jumps up, but only slightly this time, before coming down and pushing the see-saw down. When I set the cube to the box setting the cube just passes directly through the see-saw. Changing the mass on either object has no effect. Any suggestions on what I need to change?

@smashingtuck Without your file or seeing your settings this is all blind guessing... when you've switched to Mesh, presumably the default Collision Margin of 0.04 m is set. This means, since you made sure there are no gaps as I've read in your question, that the cube is still inside the collision shape by 4 centimeters. For the cube... I don't know idk, it should work. As I said hard to tell without the chance to investigate it. Does the cube have its origin point in the center of the geometry?


text:
Why can't I stop these objects from falling down?
I have two sets of objects that I want to fall apart at different times. I used the "cell fracture" addon to divide them up. The FIGHT set works great. I set all the parts to "deactivation" and they will stand, as they should, until I knock them down with a moving object.
Now I want the ING to do the same. I want it to still be standing after the FIGHT set of objects have fallen. All the parts of ING are set to deactivation. However, as soon as FIGHT falls, it activates the ING to fall also.
No problem, I thought. Just change the "velocity linear" and "angular" settings of all the parts in ING to something high. Now the moving parts of FIGHT won't be enough to set them off. Nope. Makes no difference what I change those settings to, the ING series will fall every time.
I thought maybe it was all the parts of ING being set as convex hull. So I changed them all to MESH. But alas, the object just explodes instantly, every time. The blown apart objects then freeze halfway across the screen.

The rigid body simulation of Blender is great - for easy objects (which means non-concave). But there are some traps you can fall in.
One is overlapping geometry (this is often the case if two objects overlap or have too high collision margin) so that it looks like the objects "explode". Sometimes you can solve this by selecting all objects, change to "individual origins" and scale them all down a bit. Sometimes you have to play detective and find the overlapping objects.
In your special case you obviously have this "exploding" problem, but anyway if you move another object to "start" the animation with the "deactivated" mechanism, the second part of the text will fall anyway because all objects move and by the chain reaction they will move the later ones as well (except you move them more far away or fake it e.g. with a invisible passive plane). So one way to solve this would be to move the second part to another collection

so they won't interact with the first part of the text (fight). But of course then afterwards the simulation might look "weird" because the objects fall "in the same place", like this:

animation:

But lucky us - i just found out for myself - you can keyframe the collection ;)

so after the frame when all move anyway like this:

just add the first collection to all theses rigid bodies and keyframe again:

then you will get:

Note: i also needed some time to get this. You have to check always what Blender is doing. E.g. if you keyframe the selected collections for rigid body, it does keyframe it for multiple objects. But just holding alt to select them, does not select it for all objects. For this you have to right click on collections -> copy to all objects.


text:
How do I install settings from one version of Blender to another
I've installed 3.3 and opened it a number of times. I also added a plugin. This means that the 'Install settings from a previous version' option is now missing from the splash screen. I can't find an option to import settings in the preferences menu either.
I could just copy and drop the userpref.blend file from 3.0 to 3.3 but that doesn't seem wise, as there could be changes that might cause problems.
What should I do?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/228405/import-settings-shortcuts-from-an-old-version-to-the-latest-version-installed

Thanks but none of that is of use to me. I forgot to say that I'm using a Mac.

Always helps if you give all the details... I'm using Windows, but the folder details should be here. Anyhow I see that you're now sorted.

After searching every menu, it seems that there is no option for importing preference settings after it expires from the splash screen.
Instead I had to delete the userpref.blend file from my Mac.
This can be found by selecting GO from the finder and holding down the 'option' key so that 'Library' appears.
Under 'Library' goto 'Blender' (version) 'config' folder and delete the userpref.blend file.
Then restart Blender. This resets the splash screen so 'import settings from previous version' can now be selected.


text:
Dialing down the Bevel increment amount
Holding the shift key when adjusting the value on bevels dials down the increments suitably for most objects, but there are some occasions when this just isn't enough. I  sometimes find myself making adjustments on the 0.001 value.
Without changing the measurement settings, is there anything I can enter into the value box of the bevel modifier or any keys I can press, that will dial the increments down even further?


text:
Using AE2blend to import camera track from After Effects
I have recorded a very simple (I thought) bit of footage that I want to track and set as a floor plane.
I used After Effects to generate a 3D camera track, which looks like it works:

I installed AE2Blend in Blender.
In After Effects, I copied the camera's position and orientation keyframes from After Effects.
In Blender, using the Add-on, I click Create Camera.
Keyframes and a camera transform are created, and the scene is the same dimensions and fps as the footage (1920x1440 30fps).
Back in After Effects, I copy the position, orientation, anchor and scale data for the solid layer.
In Blender using the add-on, I click Create Plane.
In Blender, I enable Background Images on the Camera, and choose my footage.

Why is it so far off?  What am I doing wrong?
(I'm using an M1 MacbookPro, with Blender 3.1.2, and AE CC 2022 22.3.0)

You need to set the correct camera focal length. In AE, select the camera and go to layers in top bar, camera settings (cntrl shift y) and it should say the focal length. Manually input the correct focal length in blender


text:
Why wireframe thickness changes in edge mode?
I didn't change standard theme
But in edge mode, wireframe changes it's thickness.
I don't want that to happen. I need one thickness for all modes. How can I do that?

Swapping between the different edit modes changes the look to show you what you're editing. Vertex select makes the points thicker, face select will highlight faces, and in your case, edge select makes the edges thicker.
It's purely UI based, the actual thickness of your edges is not changing. Renders won't look any different.
To display the same thickness, use the Viewport Overlays menu.


text:
Is It Possible To Create A Lens Flare In 3d Scene (Cycles)? Without Compositing?
I am trying to create a scene looking through a dirty window or Lens and I am wondering if it is possible to create Real time Lens flare with Cycles.
Shining the light directly at the camera with a dirty glass plane (lens) in front of it. Is there some kind of node set up to get the glass to refract a "lens flare" that the camera could pick up.
Doesn't have to be realistic.

I feel like it can be done, but I can't control it at all.

Something like the osl shader in the answer to this question maybe? http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/1864/15924

Awesome I will check that out, don't know much about OSL shaders though.  I will definitely check that out.


text:
Unable to generate Rigs from Meta-Rigs
I am new to Blender. I imported a third party 3D model and I added in a human meta-rig and formed it to fit the human model. But when I click "generate" button under rigify, the blender page gets shut down.
Here is the Dropbox link for my .blend file.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I checked your file, but couldn't recreate your problem. Rig certainly could use some more care, especially on hands area, but Rigify works and your file is not corrupted, so the cause of your issue must be somewhere else.

Could try opening a new file and appending rig / mesh etc into that.

Thanks for the help. I worked on both the advice and it worked. I opened it in new file and worked on finer detail of fingers. It worked like a charm. Thanks again.


text:
How to merge edge loops?
How do you merge edge loops? They say ALT +  M  but that merges the edge loops to the middle of it.
What I want to do is is like this, not bridge because bridge will make new faces. I just want merge.

select both edge and press space and type Bridge Edge Loops hit enter

But that will make new faces. I only need to merge them.

when u press Bridge Edge Loops press f6 and tick mark merge

Please add the answer as an actual answer and remove the "solved" from the question title.

Merging is the way to go, although differently.
First you want to select two vertices you want to merge to a single vertex of the final model.

After that hit ALT + M to merge and select At center.

Repeat this process for each vertex. Done.


text:
Meshes made from scratch will not texture
I have made a simple mesh from scratch, starting with one vertex and tracing from an empty then extruding.
I can not get it to texture, it will only put a solid colour in.
I then tried the steps with a default cube which worked, so I deleted one face and was left with a plane - still textured ok, then deleted two more vertices, and extruded (one at a time) back to a plane again, having to make a face, back to a cuboid and it is not textured, even though the nodes are still there.
What am I missing? It is still saying the model has a uv map.

Hello :). That's because such meshes don't have a proper UV map. You need to unwrap them first (UV > Smart UV Project)

To explain more - the current UV map is basically useles, because all mapped vertices have the same location :).

Also check if your mesh isn't inside out in overlays -> face oriantation


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Align viewport rotation to normal vector like Shift+7 in edit mode
I know this question has been asked and answered before but the behavior I want is what ⇧ Shift + Num 7 exactly does in edit mode which is to align the viewport to "face" the element selected (in my case a face or polygon) and "rotate" the viewport on its axis to match the orientation of the normal.
My code takes care of the first part which is to position the viewport to "face" the polygon and have no problem orienting itself on their normals except for faces that are rotated in multiple axis. e.g. the active face in the picture below, for the other faces which are angled only on a single axis the script has no problem orienting itself on their normals.

In my original code, the variables are delivered by raycast so I'd like to achieve this effect using only hit, normal plus the viewport and object properties. Face index is avoided since the target objects are using unapplied modifiers.
import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import *; from math import *

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
       rv3d = area.spaces[0].region_3d

obj = bpy.context.edit_object
mat = obj.matrix_world
me = obj.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
f = bm.select_history.active

start = f.calc_center_median()
normal = f.normal

stop  = start + normal
norm = start - stop
norm.normalize()

q = norm.to_track_quat('-Z', 'Y')
rv3d.view_rotation = q
rv3d.view_location = start

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)

rotateview_blend_file

I solved it. If the tangent picks the wrong direction and doesn't align to the viewport, the rotation matrix inverts and uses the negative value of the angle for correction. Keeping it here for prosperity and to help those seeking this kind of alignment behavior.
import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import *; from math import *

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
       rv3d = area.spaces[0].region_3d

obj = bpy.context.active_object
mat = obj.matrix_world
me = obj.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
f = bm.select_history.active

up = Vector((0,0,1))
up1 = Vector((0,-1,0))

center = f.calc_center_median()
normal = f.normal
tangent = f.calc_tangent_edge()

mw = mat.to_3x3()
quat = normal.rotation_difference(mw.inverted() @ up)
rot_mat = mw @ quat.to_matrix()

loc, rot, scale = rv3d.view_matrix.decompose()

mat_scale = Matrix()
for i in range(3):
    mat_scale[i][i] = scale[i]

rv3d.view_matrix = Matrix.Translation(loc) \
    @ rot_mat.to_4x4() \
    @ mat_scale

vrot = rv3d.view_rotation
rot_axis = vrot @ up
rot_dir = vrot @ up1

rotdiff = rot_dir.rotation_difference(tangent)
M = mw @ Matrix.Rotation(rotdiff.angle, 3, rot_axis)
rv3d.view_rotation.rotate(M)

if (rv3d.view_rotation @ up1).rotation_difference(tangent).angle != 0:
    rv3d.view_rotation.rotate(M.inverted())
    M = mw @ Matrix.Rotation(-rotdiff.angle, 3, rot_axis)
    rv3d.view_rotation.rotate(M)

rv3d.view_location = obj.matrix_world @ center
bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)

I've partly figured it out. The earlier code and this still has issues with unapplied rotation but that's another problem. There are two rotating mechanism: the first one aligns the viewport to the face by modifying the view matrix, the second one rotates the view rotation itself to match the normal alignment of the face. I ended up using the face's tangent information in the end.
import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import *; from math import *

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
       rv3d = area.spaces[0].region_3d

obj = bpy.context.edit_object
mat = obj.matrix_world
me = obj.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
f = bm.select_history.active

center = f.calc_center_median()
normal = f.normal
tangent = f.calc_tangent_edge()

up = Vector((0,0,1))
up1 = Vector((0,-1,0))

mw = obj.matrix_world.to_3x3()
mr = normal.rotation_difference(up)
mat = mw @ mr.to_matrix()

loc, rot, scale = rv3d.view_matrix.decompose()

mat_scale = Matrix()
for i in range(3):
    mat_scale[i][i] = scale[i]

rv3d.view_matrix = Matrix.Translation(rv3d.view_matrix.inverted().translation) \
    @ mat.to_4x4() \
    @ mat_scale \

vrot = rv3d.view_rotation
rotdiff = (vrot @ up1).rotation_difference(tangent)
M = Matrix.Rotation(rotdiff.angle, 4, vrot @ up)
rv3d.view_rotation.rotate(M)

rv3d.view_location = obj.matrix_world @ center
bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)

If you test this on faces in edit mode (single active selection only), it works on most of them but for some that fails, using "-rotdiff.angle" or "M.inverted()" seem to do the trick although I haven't figured out how to trigger this for those faces. It's so close.


text:
Can't scale this face uniformly no matter where I put the origin point
I'm trying to scale the inside face of this object evenly so I get a more sloping bevel at the edges. However it refuses to scale evenly. The top edge barely moves inward.
I've reset all transforms. Tried changing the pivot point. I have also tried adjusting the Transform Orientations to 3D cursor but the result is the same no matter where I place the cursor. I've also tried constraining the scale on every possible axis to see if it makes any difference. I always get the same result.

Insetting just created yet more edges. I found a workaround which was to simply to drag the top face slightly down on the y access and then scale on the x axis by the same amount.

Have you tried to inset the face ? It usually does the trick with complex faces.
Either that or Alt + S ?


text:
Cannot bind rig to character without error alerts
I'm having a lot of trouble with the armature for this model. I've been using Auto-Rig pro but I think it is the model itself that is causing problems. The first error I see is:
"Warning, armature scale will be set to 1 (Init Scale is enabled),Compensate scale in current actions to preserve animation?"
This is soon followed by:
"Binding may have partially or totally failed, because of low scale
Bind again with Scale Fix enabled?"
I'm not sure why I get these errors. I have reset the scale on every part of the character. I have even tried increasing the size of the character by 10, but the errors remain.
I can overcome these and get binding eventually, but each time it ignores the Jacket as part of the character and the hands and sleeves move right through it.
Joining all the parts together as one doesn't seem to make any difference either.

Problems with Auto-Rig Pro are outside the remit of this Q&A site, but it might help if you could share your Blend file here. You can share it via https://blend-exchange.com/ following the instructions there to copy the link to it and then edit your question and paste the link into it.

I assumed it was okay because there is an auto-rig-pro tag that specifically states: " Use this tag for questions about using Auto Rig Pro in Blender."

To be honest I didn't even know that tag existed. Most of the questions that used it seem to have other tags too.  If you can share your file as I suggested we would be able to look at your model and may be able to see what the problem is likely to be even if we don't have that addon ourselves.

I've never used Auto-Rig Pro. But have you applied the scale to the model and the armature? (Ctrl+A > Scale in Object mode). Also make sure the normals point into the right direction (keyword: flipped normals). IDK how the weights are calculated but it seems that it didn't work for the sleeves. This often happens if the mesh as multiple mesh parts. You can fix this problem as you would any other rig -> transfer the weights (https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/223782/107598)


text:
Why don't my materials reflect HDR images?
When I load a HDR into my scene and set rougness to 0 a material it don´t reflect the HDR image. It´s like it take the light info but don´t reflect the imagen.

The left material have metallic 1 and rougness 0. The right one have metallic 0 and rougness 0.
I tried with Eevee and Cycles.
Am I missing some settings?
Regards.

Can you add a closer image of the sphere?Are you using the default HDRi in the material preview?Try increasing the metallic value to 1

I downloaded the HDRi from https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?h=kiara_1_dawn

are you in material preview mode?That is not how a sphere with matallic 1 and roughness 0 should look like

Sorry I'm new in Blender ¿where is material preview mode? Thank you.

https://i.imgur.com/Ay5HH4d.jpg-Check this out .Area marked in blue is the material preview mode..and that's how the sphere must look like

In material preview mode and rendered mode the metallic material turns black.

That's weird. Sorry,I can't find a solution to your problem.Try sharing your file

It was a bug with Intel HD 4000 GPUs. It has been fixed in 2.90. Please try that.

https://developer.blender.org/T75943

https://builder.blender.org/download/

I test it with version 2.90 and the sphere now looks ok. Thanks a lot!


text:
How can I inc/dec diffuse_color or specular intensity values of selected object's materials simultaneously?
For example an appended object doesn't match current scene lighting or to adjust whole scene including lighting.
I've read ideas of using drivers but I am looking for something simpler and quick to use in any blend without setup.
Edit:

This is for Internal Render, not Cycles or nodes.
I'm looking to select one or more objects, then adjust in some way the Diffuse_Color_Value and Specular_Intensity for all Materials of selected Object(s) by an input amount. Instead of going through changing each setting by needed amount manually.

will you edit your question to make it more clear. As it is not I'm not sure what you are asking.

Do you mean that you are importing a model, that doesn't match and you want to do color grading? If so you can color grade post process in many ways, but the easiest is to learn how to use the compositor with render layers, as anything beyond this has some serious limitations within blender. However, you could possibly get a reasonable output from the 'Color Management' section of the Scene Tab (though it will require that you would have to change your original result). Primarily because I believe you have to change your render result as a whole (somebody correct me here if I'm wrong).

I hope I'm understanding I'm understanding correctly, you can set your material on one object as you need to and then select the objects that should have the same material and press Ctrl+L>material. Then all of then selected objects will share the same material data.

Not sure this is what you mean, but you can feed values to multiple nodes using the value node...
https://www.blender.org/manual/composite_nodes/types/input/value.html
... With additional nodes between Value and your output nodes, you could vary the factor between two materials, for example, or jack lighting up/down...  But I am not sure if this is what you mean... but it IS a handy "adjust everything here" tool.

authors: Антон Самофалов


text:
Material Menu in 2.79 with old model
I have a model from a previous version of Blender, and the more advanced material options are not available from the menu.  If I do a "Load Factory Settings" then the new material options show, but not with the old model loaded.  Can I get an old model to work with the new material options?
BTW: I'm looking to control the alpha channel.

This is how it looks after "Load Factory Setting"

Which options specifically are you missing? How are you trying to access them?

All of the transparency options are gone.

cegaton is correct.  Thanks.
Now I have to figure out how to get access to the alpha channel in Cycles.  Looks much harder.
-doby

if you are talking about the alpha of the overall material then all you need to do is add a Mix Shader and a Transparent Shader.


text:
Camera movement is not fluid
fellow blender users. I have encountered a problem which messes up a lot with my renders. You see, I'm trying to render this scene as a video, and I've got 3 cameras doing that. Thing is, my renders come out as laggy and choppy, I've tried recording in 60, 30 and 24 fps, but it's always like the camera was making some weird movement instead of following the path in the smooth motion I've set up. Got any ideas on what could be the cause of these choppy renders?
Here's the .blend if anyone wants to take a look. File so big can't even pasteall.org.

I'll suggest the obvious here - Cameras can do this when following paths.  Use an empty to follow each path and parent the camera to that. (Camera = child)  That will free up the cameras to pan etc as they're enjoying the ride.  I'm on an old version of Blender here so I can't d/load your file.

Suggest you use blend-exchange for Blend files. (How to add a blend file)  Meanwhile, I've looked at your animation F-curves and the camera motion on the F-curves (being tied to the empties) is just fine, so I'm not sure what "laggy and choppy" means. Are you saying that the rendered animation is choppy, or that playback in the 3D viewport is?

(I didn't know about blend-exchange, thanks.)The rendered animation. As Edgel pointed out, it's already connected to a empty which follows a single key frame at the end located in a certain position, so the movement itself should be smooth, but when rendered it definitely isn't. I've tried multiple media programs but they all look like that. As "laggy and choppy", I see it as the camera, in the rendered animation, is jumping into the position unevenly instead of one single smooth motion.

I've tried a render and it seems to work fine, here is the video file: https://we.tl/t-D2GtNjVndm

Could it be lagging because of all the things in scene when rendered in rendered view? (i.e with all lights and textures)


text:
Why did my materials become weird after I apllied the scale to my cup?
I'm following the donut tutorials and I made some scale modifications to my cup so it matches the real world scale. The coffee cup used to look like this (ignore the ugly spoon):

When I found a scale I was happy with, I applied the scale to all elements of the cofee cup group (coffe liquid, the cup, the plate, the inner part with the droplets and the spoon) and when I turned cycles shading on it looked like this:

Ctrl + z won't solve it because in my despair, I loaded the file on which this is being worked on and I had already saved the applying of the scale.
How do I solve this?

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

Check the direction of your normals (by enabling "face orientation" under overlays.)  2) Look for any use of object coordinates in your materials (usually, the object output of a texture coordinate node.)  Those are the two most common reasons for apparent material changes upon applying scale.

@Nathan Solved! The cup was red in the viewport when I enabled "face orientation", and I've seen in one of the guru's tutorials that it means the normals are inverted. I fiddled around with the Alt+N menu (the normals menu) and It all was solved with "Recalculate Outside".

@moonboots I should've included it in the post, shouldn't I? Sorry. I'll include the file in future posts, but it's no longer necesary since it is now solved.

@AllenSimpson yes, actually. It was the same problem. And it was fixed the same way.

Thank you guys very much for helping me with this!


text:
How can I show the X and Y axes over this plane?

Image 1: Plane somehow hiding the axes
I'm a newbie and I'm following the famous donut tutorials by Andrew Price aka Blender Guru. At part 6, Level 1 he instructs us to create a plane, but in his video the X/Y axes are shown over the plane, while in my re-creation they don't show up at all inside the plane. Why is this?

Image 2: Andrew's plane and axes

It could just have to do with position - it's just a visual thing with the axes. If an object (in this case, the plane) is flush with or "above" (higher on z) the X/Y axis intersection, it will block it and you won't see the lines, if it is below, you will see the axes over the plane. It's been a while since I watched the donut tutorial, but I'm guessing Andrew just moved the plane down a little.

Ooh, makes sense. I'm gonna move it a little bit, then. Thanks!

In the Object tab, 'Viewport Display' panel, there's an option to show the object's own (as opposed to the World's) axes, which can be quite useful.


text:
How to shrinkwrap a plane to form the shape of another object
I have a plane made up of hexagonal holes. I want to deform it in such a way it matches the tip of the microphone (marked in orange). I tried the shrinkwrap modifier but it deformed all the holes down the beveled sides of the object until they were crushed together. The mesh looked okay along the flat however.
I've tried other modifiers and I can't seem to find any tutorials that might help.
Will I have to use particles for the hexagonal holes and distribute them across the object that way?

Hello, could you add a screenshot explaining how it should look like ?

it seems complicated, maybe use a normal map to fake it?

I was hoping for a quick way of modelling a plane into a bevelled shape, but I just complicated the issue.
I used the proportional editing tool instead to turn the plane spherical and then to flatten the top. Worked like a charm!

i am pretty sure you could also just use the simple deform modifier, which has the advantage that it is non-destructive.


text:
How can I undo the Bool Tool?
I have the bool tool addon installed. I use it mostly for the difference function, to cut one shape out of another. Once the shape is cut I might need to duplicate the object that made the cut and use it again. However, the object remains with the cage around it and I can see no way of restoring it to the original object.
How do I remove the bool tool from the cutting object?
In object properties there are 2 entries in custom properties: Btool Brush, and BtoolFtransform. I tried deleting those but it has no effect and the cage remains around the object regardless of what I do.

Bool Tool will automatically change the display mode of the cutter object, to go back to its default mode, go into the Object panel > Viewport Display > Display As > switch to Textured for example:

Thanks! The mystery is finally solved!!


text:
Animating an arc reveal
I am trying to replicate the arc flying over the logo in this classic Disney intro.
How do I achieve this type of animation effect in blender?

Welcome @Raz, please take the [tour] and read [ask] to help you get the most out of your question.  It is worth that questions should show some research and effort on your part, remembering that you will receive more help when this is the case.

you could create the full curve and the animate a cube with the boolean modifier  set to Difference to create the reveal. Once you have that then add and animate the lead star. Feel free to edit your question, I suggest a screen shot from the video half way through the arc. and imagine that none of use have seen the Disney intro before when describing your requirements.


text:
Custom squash and stretch without spline length ratio
When I add a hook, calc_length() is calculated without modifiers.
I don't fully understand the purpose of calc_length() now, because it no longer appears to be functional.
Is there any other option to create custom squash for cartoon characters without spline_length?

Is the implication that bpy.types.Curve.calc_length()  produced different results on a per object basis in previous versions?  One way to estimate a curves length is with an arbitrarily small mesh given an  array modifier set to fit curve and use its dimension.

well, but I think it can be very slow for a complex rig. It is building stone of whole Ik spline rig, so an animator will not have real-time preview.

Thought it quicker to demonstrate with answer than to to and fro (and so)  re speed and real time previews in comments.

Array modifier fit to curve.
Am of the opinion that Spline.calc_length() would only return the length of the non deformed local coordinates of the curve. It is unaware of what of many objects it is the data part of... trying to bend it out of shape with modifiers and shapekeys etc.
Fortunately can estimate the length simply and quickly using method below.
Add an arbitrarily small "unit" object, could be single edge, or two verts,  to the scene at the location of start of curve and assign it an array modifier and fit to curve. Using defaults of array modifier, it is as long in X direction as the curve.  The smaller the size of unit object the better the precision of estimate.

A little cube set to fit the length of curve
Now at any time the estimated length of curve is given by the array modified "unit" object's x dimension.

Dragging a hook on curve changes dimension of cube.  UI update a bit sluggish, but you get the gist
This can be attached to rig and hidden.

Thank you, do you have some experience how fast is it ? 2 arms, 2 legs, and spine...Can the rig with it be animated in a previewed in real-time ? (25fps)

No couldn't say.  Doubt there is too much overhead, or a quicker way to estimate the modified curve length.  ob.dimensions.x can be used as driver variable target for example.  The example shown in question runs at scene fps on my old sh*tbox computer.

could we suggest to developers make it a default value for splines? What do you think about that? You are experienced maybe somebody tried it before, I don't know.  Or modifier for only 1 spline in data. But if it will be computed in the core, it could be very fast in every solution.

The array mods count for fit curve length is computed in the core.  Imagine the same code could be leveraged to get a curve objects length. (or an estimate given an input unit)  Does array mod code  calculate the modified curves "exact" length and then divide, or does it wind on the mesh down the curve till it hits the end to get the count... don't know.

Well then, thank you very much. An edge, 2 vertices, and anybody can set the accuracy of the measurement by the length of the edge. By the script, the length can be changed every time.


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Blender is only adding about half of a video?
The weirdest thing seems to be happening, I am trying to add 3 videos to blender VSE, for this sake we'll call them 1.mp4 2.mp4 and 3.mp4.
Each of these videos is exactly 14 seconds long and within 150 kB of each other in size. They are all the same frame rate.
No matter what I do 1.mp4 is only about half of the video when I add it to the video-sequence editor, the rest work fine.

I've tried messing with the start and end frames and the frame rate but changing these doesn't appear to affect anything with 1.mp4's length.
I have also simply tried extending 1.mp4's length in blender but obviously there's no video on the second half.
I have played all 3 videos in VLC and they play just fine so I know it's not a corrupted file.

Apologies, when I drag and drop from the file select window into the sequencer window only about 7.5 sec of 1.mp4 appears on the sequencing window. 2.mp4 and 3.mp4 when added the same way to the sequencer window have the full 14 seconds. Here's a screen cap of the issue for reference: https://ibb.co/2F0jK0G

I've updated your question to make it more appealing (that was a lot to swallow in one paragraph).  Just need to wait for it to be peer reviewed.  Can't help with the issue I'm adraid, the only thing might be that the channel might have some scaling on it.  Sometime worth closing blender, starting a new blend file and see if it does the same.

I appreciate the help, I have attempted restarting blender as I initially assumed it must have been a setting I tweaked but to no success!

I thought you probably had, just checking in case you got stuck into the rabbit-hole and hadn't pulled yourself out again.  Hopefully somebody will have an answer soon.

It looks to me like the lower file in your screenshot got imported at a different framerate. Can you post another shot with the short one selected and the options visible? Also: Do the first and last frames match the ones in VLC?
Make sure your project settings have the same framerate as the video files.

I can confirm that I get the same issue. Two different vids; the .mov imports fine, the .mp4 imports around 75% of the full movie. It must also be cutting frames because the 2/3rds movie still has the ending. In OS X preview it shows the full movie. Very odd.

Either there is something different in 1.mp4 or there something wrong in the Blender import of them.
Try to compare the metadata of the clips in MediaInfo if they are similar, if they're not, then that might be the reason.
If they are similar, try to make four copies of one of the good clips, and import them in Blender, if the problem is visible, then do a bug report: Menus > Help > Report a bug.


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Laptop won't follow an editing step in a tutorial I am doing
I am following a basic doughnut tutorial that I am doing on my laptop.
At some point, the guy in the video says while you have proportional editing mode on and have pressed the g key, 'scroll up or down' until a round circle appears that you use to model your shape with. However, When I try this, my laptop doesn't work.
I have emulated my middle mouse button and I am holding alt + left click while scrolling. Does anyone have any idea what is going on and what I might be doing wrong?

use page up and down to change proportional editing size when emulate middle mouse button is on (shift + page up/down to be more accurate) .

I do not use a mouse then I scroll it using page up and page down.

You do not have to hold down any mouse click to scroll or change the size of the proportional editing circle. Emulating middle mouse emulates a middle mouse CLICK (ie pressing the mouse wheel down like a button).
In proportional editing, begin the editing command (whatever it is, move, scale, rotate, etc.) then you are free to scroll to make the proportional editing circle larger or smaller by simply scrolling, usually 2 fingers up or down on the trackpad.
you can also use Page Up & Down, but some laptops won't have that.

First: when doing any 3D work, you must have a mouse. With a trackpad you are 5 times slower and some things will probably not work
Second: check that proportional editing is actually turned on (it's the button with the circles in the top bar)

Third: while moving your vertices, check in the top left corner the Proportional size: it should be a reasonable number. If it's hundreds of thousands or a a fraction of a millimeter, scroll up/down to fix it

Totally disagree about "With a trackpad you are 5 times slower".

I guess that with a bit of practise you can do it faster, but a mouse is by far the best solution, and even if you are on the go, a light, small and cheap one is still better than the trackpad IMO

Well, this is not a debate subject, but the reason is simple: with a touchpad, all your fingers stay closer to both touchpad and keyboard. That's why this is faster in my opinion.


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Holographic Material - Cycles
How would I create the following in Cycles:
Holographic Material - Video
In Blender there is no Mograph Alternative so not sure how to build the spatial animating sphere effect. Hopefully no volumetric or missing special shader nodes will be needed. The flashing effect is done by animating the displacement. How would I approach that in cycles?
I included plenty of sample so you get an idea of what I am going for.
P.S So gave it a thought. Since some of the materials seem similar to the other question I asked. Could particles be used instead of MoGraph and hide the base mesh afterwards to make the holographic objects? What about the atom arrays with connected lines?
Thank You

Seems more like a tutorial request

Uhm...All questions on this site are tutorial requests if you want it that way. Everyone who ask a question wants a tut on how he should solve an issue or make something.

Please see: http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1/what-questions-should-be-definitely-off-topic/6#6 and http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/62/regarding-questions-and-answers-as-tutorials

@00Ghz, you are much more likely to get satisfying answers if you do your own experiments and feel that you've hit a roadblock, that's when to seek advice. Incidentally there is content on the Tears of Steal DVD which will cover similar visual effects.

The last comment is definitely useful. Thanks.


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Problems with Extrusion
When a non-circular shape is extruded, the end vertices are not the specified distance from the beginning.

To the left is a circular mesh extruded with a duplicate circle on top.  It looks good.  To the right is a non-circular object with a duplicate moved to where the top should be.  It's wrong.
I believe this is a bug, but I would love to hear that I can get it working.
Using blender 3.6.1.

How are you defining the direction the extrusion is  made in? Maybe share this file on https://blend-exchange.com/ , to help clear this up quickly.

The extrusion is specified in global coordinates.  (1,1,1).  The one on the right also includes rotation, but it's not the problem.  The file has a sample without rotation.

Are you sure your Tool-Extrusion (Which sets the orientation to 'Normal') and the move of the duplicate are in the same orientation? Your .blend opens with  a 'Global' Transform orientation. So far, if I keep a close eye on my orientations, I can't reproduce this anomaly. I could, of course, be missing the point.

"The extrusion is specified in global coordinates." How exactly do you specify them? Because just like Robin I cannot reproduce your error. First of all the tool is set to Normal (showing in the top left of the viewport), but when you manually enter the values in the tool options on the bottom left (which are set to Global by default) it works as expected. But if you do not enter the values actually and instead drag the mouse with the tool: how do you specify global (1, 1, 1)? By the way not important for the issue, but the translation per axis is not the distance the vertices are moved.

The problem comes from using "normal" coordinates.  When I switch from normal to global, it works properly.  I am not sure why this object has misaligned normals and how to fix it.

After some trials, I found that the issue was the rotation, not the extrusion.  Blender changes the center of rotation and hence the misalignment.  If anybody is interested, I will provide more info.


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How to select faces/edges/vertices on one side of an object?
I would like to select one side of an object, like shown in the image below (this is a very simple object that I created for the purpose of demonstration).

I did it in this image by going around the edges of that face with Alt+Right-click and then Ctrl+E and select Loop Inner Region. This works fine when the object in question can easily have the border regions selected.
My problem is the objects I will be looking to do this for are fairly complex.

In the end, I want to use Python to select these edges, and then create new edges based on the positions of these faces/edges/vertices. I just don't really know where to start. I am not the greatest with blender, which right now is my biggest downfall. I think the best method would be to have the complex mesh become a simple like binary mesh, with as little faces as possible. Or something along those lines. I would be interested to know what you guys have to say. Let me know if you need more information.
EDIT:
I am trying to place cylinders a certain distance behind a certain "side" of an object. I plan on doing this (using python) by getting a coordinate of a point on that "side" and then generating a circle, extruding the edges of that circle upward a certain distance, then checking that the new circle is still the same distance away from the "side" that was chosen. So even if the side chosen is very complex and bendy, the cylinder that I create will be a set distance away from and follow that side. In the simple example, it would be something like:
. Note here, I have just manually placed a cylinder behind the "side" I show in the first image.
The best way to think of it, is I want to create tubes that go through the object, but just at a set distance from a side. Example of an end result, but done manually (would be nice to automate with python).

you could try using the faces' normals as they have a certain direction

have a look at the Decimate Modifier, it seems that's what you want to eventually do ..

I may be wrong but it seems like you are trying to do operation Y to achieve end result X, perhaps you should ask ' I'm trying to achieve X, what's the right way to go about this,i'm trying Y but it seems convoluted '

I tried to add some more info and more pictures to help explain.

Maybe try Select Similar or Grow Selection. Then find out how to call those using Python. I would first try to figure out what kind of editing needs to be done - then figure out how to make it happen in Python.

i think first of all you should use the decimate modifier, depending on how many details the mesh has to provide.
i guess the tubes shall have the same spacing, right?
i don't know if my approach is overly complicated, but you could try (referring to the last image) to get a center point from wich you can measure the distances. i don't really know how you would do that, but maybe someone can help you with that. form that point/vertical line you could define a segment of the mesh going left and right from the desired degree of the tubes location. now you let your script select all vertices within this segment and measure the distance from the line (0,0,Z from the selected vertex) for each of them. then you get the location of the tube as you add the farthest vertex distance from the center and your set distance from it.
i hope this helps as an approach to a workflow.

You might be able to do this with dynamic paint. Make a cylinder that is the brush, and your object as the canvas. Set the cylinder's center to be on the red line (0,0,Z in the example above). Just an idea.


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Texturing/UV wrap help
I need help with lining up some things for my model when using the UV wrap. I have attached what the model looks like and the texture I want to apply to it. Is there an way to do it that a beginner could understand or would it be a bit difficult?

First, some general UV unwrapping tips
If you want to make it easy on yourself, first fix the topology of your object to be all quads that flow together.

What this means is that you want the faces of your mesh to be squares instead of triangles where possible, because the subdivision will occur smoothly and predictably, and most importantly in this case - your UV unwraps will be much more clean and manageable.
More on quad topology here.
Addressing some problems specific to your model
There is an area with bad topology - faces are overlapping. Move these edge loops:

And here are the problems with your seams:

Here is what I suggest doing instead to fix it:

How I approached this
Now that you know a better way to place your seams, I should explain that for an unwrap as simple as this, you don't even need to use seams. You can simply select the faces you want and unwrap by section. Only selected faces will be unwrapped.
Select everything except the two end caps. Then do a UV unwrap using the 'Follow Active Quads' method. This method gives very clean results on topology consisting of long spans of quads.

'Length Average' is the way to go to minimize texture distortion in this case, since it curves around corners.

In the UV/Image Editor, scale your unwrap result down to fit within the square area.
Next, select only the two end cap faces, go into top view so you're looking at them straight-on, and UV unwrap again. This time choose 'Project From View'.

Place your two unwrapped cap faces on your UV Map.

Here is the result:

If your texture looks strange on the tips you can Extrude the end caps so that the texture will be pulled in to a tiny point.

You would want to do this if you were creating a candy cane, for example:

Being the beginner I am I don't understand all of what you said so if you could maybe break it down for me. Thanks

Sure, I can go into more detail. Which parts specifically do you have questions about?

Could you go into detail with the start? The stuff about fixing the topology to be all quads? I should be ok with the rest

I elaborated a little more and added a link. Let me know if that clears it up for you. Topology can be a complex topic, but for your mesh nothing fancy is required - just know that squares are good. ;-)

I don't understand entirely because there are no triangles apart from the pointed tip and rounded bit at the other end and in your example you only changed the arch but I don't understand what to change on my one really

Hmmm, it's kind of hard from the screenshot to figure out what's happening with your topology that caused your UV unwrap to end up like that. Could you upload your .blend?

I just used smart UV unwrap cause I knew I would need some sort of help with the texturing

Please see the updated answer with additional explanation and screen shots.

Do I size it down as it is made?

You probably want to scale it to the right size before UV unwrapping, if that's what you're asking.

I mean size the UV unwrap down as it is

You can scale the UV layout, yes. Just select all or part of the mesh, then go to the UV/Image Editor and press S to scale as usual. There are cases when you must, if the UV layout extends beyond the square texture range.

I have unwrapped the model and sized it to all fit within the image editor. Can any improvements be made and how will I go about adding the candy cane stripes?

http://i.imgur.com/S06ecPH.png

Yeah, you don't want the UV layout to be pinching to a triangular point like that. I'm not sure how it got that way, but if you unwrap using Follow Active Quads it shouldn't do that. Also, it looks like some faces may be overlapping in the UV layout. If you upload an updated .blend I'll take a look.

I think doing Follow Active Quads while tris are selected produces that triangular distortion. Make sure only quads are selected when you unwrap. 2. You still haven't fixed your overlapping faces. 3. Continuity in your seam that spans the shaft remains broken as a result (examine it closely). 4. Your topology has poles where it hooks around, which is why you can't get a clean cylindrical unwrap and Follow Active Quads isn't working as you want it to - topologically it isn't forming a cylinder. Study the first screen shot in my answer to see what your topology should look like.

Im not understanding most of what your saying. Remember I just started Blender recently


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Blender shape keys aren't animating properly
I am trying to animate a hinged lid so that the hinge will not poke through the bottom, and that it will also properly show itself. I followed many tutorials word-for-word, but when I do what they do, the animation doesn't play properly. I added a keyframe to the hinge called "Stretched", and then edited it by stretching part of it. It checks out, because when I click the pin after clicking "stretched", the object morphs instantly to the stretched shape key. However, when I set the slider to 0 and create a keyframe at frame 0, then set the slider to 1 and create a keyframe at frame 70 (end of animation), nothing happens. The hinge doesn't stretch. I've made sure to turn off all pins and such, but nothing helps. Here are pics:

File:

This might be a case where you have to post the .blend file to http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ so we can experiment with it to figure out what is going on.

Done. I uploaded the .blend

In your screenshot you can see that your "stretched" shape key was relative to the "stretched" shape key instead of the Basis shape key.  Since it was relative to itself, it represented no deltas.  If you change "stretched"'s Blend: relative_key from "stretched" to "Basis", then the shape key works.

Ohhhh. I did eventually delete the shape key and try again a while ago, and it worked. I'll bet it worked because it reset the relation object to basis. I must have changed the relation object without noticing it or while becoming frustrated. Thanks for helping show me what the problem was.

I fixed it. It turns out that all I needed to do was delete the shape keys and try again. I can't believe the fix was so simple.

Well, that's a brutal solution.  I'm still a little curious how the internal data became corrupted.  I hope to get around to exploring it using python.

Turns out it was my fault. As user Mutant Bob pointed out, I had set the "stretched" shape key relative to "stretched" instead of the basis shape key by accident.


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Model turns Brown instead of a Texture
I'm following a tutorial on YouTube but my model (and many others') turn brown when rendering (cycles render) instead of a wood texture. Here's what it looks like:

Interestingly, the text does have the texture:

EDIT Starts now: Here's the shader nodes:

And here's the .blend file!

I think I found the problem: instead of the texture - the same colour as the rendered model in the 'Render Layers' node, how do I fix this? This also happened after I started added the animation.

Try selecting your model and applying it's scale (ctrl-A). It might be the proper wood texture, but it's scaled up so big that you can't see the details.

Is your box UV mapped?

I did use compositing. I edited the shader nodes so there was a connection from Colour in Image Texture to Displacement in Material Output. This was supposed to add some 'depth' to the texture. By the way, here is the tutorial video.

@MarineBiologist What type of mapping coordinates are you using?  It looks like you don't have any.

@PGmath I used a material to texture it. In the 'color' section, I put 'Image Texture' and loaded up the image that I was going to use. There is a reason why are tagged my question as 'cycles'.

But, as the post I liked above describes, an image texture has to have some type of mapping coordinates that tell Cycles what parts of the texture go where.

@TLousky I did do 'project from view (bounds)'.

OK, so now the question is whether your image texture uses this UV map. You can add a screenshot of your material node setup to your question which could help, and/or upload the blend file to http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ and add that link to your question as well.

It turns out the answer is quite simple. All I needed to do is just go to the modifiers tab, scroll down to the 'Explode' section (I used a 'Quick Explode' animation, don't even ask me why it caused such a problem) and uncheck 'Cut Edges'. Thanks for the support and ideas, though, as this wouldn't be here for people who would need it in the future without all of your support.

Source:

You didn't UV unwrap your object. I run into this as well. Just go into Edit Mode, select everything and hit 'U' to unwrap. That should fix everything.

Does this take into account that I'm using a quick explode animation?


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How do I tile a texture to soften out the joins?
The gold texture and the scratch texture I am using on this gold bar are creating obvious lines where the edge of the texture is. Is there a way of graduating or feathering them so the joins are not so noticeable, simply by using texture nodes? I know I have seen it done on a number of tutorials but I cannot seem to locate them.

In a photo editing application like Photoshop or maybe Gimp (Free) you need to mirror a portion of one of the sides of the texture image to the other and then mirror a portion of the top or bottom. Hope that makes sense. Because the lighting is uneven it will be difficult but not impossible.

In your 3D view, you can switch to Texture Paint, choose the Clone brush:

then Ctrl left click on the part that you want to sample, and paint on the seams that you want to dissolve:

Excellent. Thank you!


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Why won't the join tool cut through these edges?
I've been trying to find a way to add faces to the top of this mesh so that there are no double edges. Every attempt I have tried has failed. The Grid fill creates a maze of criss crossed lines. Bridge edge loops creates crossed faces. The knife tool refuses to cut through the top of the mesh and cuts down the side, (and I cannot make head nor tail of the constraints options for the knife tool at the bottom of the prompt bar).
So I thought just joining 2 vertices would cut through any existing edges. It doesn't, it refuses to cut through. Only the Face tool 'F' works and of course, creates edges crossing over edges with no additional vertices.
So how do I properly add faces to the top of this mesh so it is divided up with squares in each corner, a square in the middle and rectangles filling in the gaps, with no crossed over edges? I'm lost.

Fill the faces and use the knife tool to create a clean topology?

Damnit! I hate it when it's something so bloody obvious. Thanks once again moonbot. This is the quickets question answer response I've ever received.
How do I turn your comment into the answer?

@smashingtuck if you like you can just post his comment as the answer and attribute it to moonboots :)

@HarryMcKenzie what's the point of posting a single-sentence answer now that Gordon posted a full answer? It's basically the same, except Gordon replaced knife with the join operator (in this case, straight lines, so no difference)

@MarkusvonBroady yes i agree but maybe the solution of moonboots is what worked for him?

This might be a dumb question, but is there a reason you keep these two edges?

Because I cannot see a reason to keep them if you want to close the top, just select them and hit X > Delete > Edges:

Then select the top edge loop by holding Alt and clicking on one of the top edges:

Now just hit F and the top is completely filled with an n-gon. Afterwards you can select whatever vertices you want and join them with J to split the n-gon into multiple faces.


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How can I recreate this dirt in grooves effect?
I cannot seem to find any tutorials for grunge specifically inside grooves. I have tried methods using the ambient occlusion node but it just ends up looking like rust or imperfections in the metal.
It is specifically the dirt in the grooves of the knurled handle I'm trying to replicate. I don't have substance painter, so I was hoping I could do it procedurally in Blender.

You could paint a b&w image with a dirt texture, that you'll use as a factor between 2 shaders

I'm up for that. Should I create a grunge texture in Photoshop?

Maybe mix the AO with a Noise Texture through a Mix Color in Lighten mode, plug the Mix Color into the Base Color and the Specular input of the Principled BSDF, or use the Mix Color as a factor in a Mix Shader between 2 different Principled BSDF, one being set to create the dirt.

Thank you. Looks just the solution!


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How do I extract a mesh from just one frame of a physics simulation?
If I simulate 50 boxes falling onto a plane using physics rigid body, how do I get a mesh from just one of those frames? I want all 50 boxes as they have landed, joined together as 1 object that I can use as a single mesh.

select your objects, then object -> rigid body->"bake to keyframes". Then go to your keyframe, select all objects you want to join and press "ctrl-j".

Thank you. Have to delete all keyframes from the final object at the end otherwise it will keep animating itself as a giant lump.


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Rounded Dice - Why do the simplest things seem so difficult
I always have trouble with bevels on top of bevels. To create this rounded dice I first bevelled the vertices of a cube at every corner and adjusted it until I got a rounded cube.
I then added a subdivision and cast modifier.
But it still doesn't seem right.
I can't bevel the edges properly unless I harden the normals. If I more segments, I just end up with odd, sharp looking front faces on the dice.
This is my sixth attempt and my best attempt so far. Does anyone have any suggestions how to improve?
I'm aiming for the photograph at the bottom. It appears that dice can be quite heavily rounded, but this seems to be moderately rounded.

That can be:

Inset individual faces
Add a subdivision of 3
Shade smooth

Once done, keeping the insets selected, you can sharpen the inner faces using crease:

Surprisingly simple! :)

Infuriatingly simple!!! Thank you.

Here's an approach which considers the die to be a clamped sphere, and implements that with Geometry Nodes:

The interface provides settings for the radius of the underlying round cube, its resolution, and the XYZ planes against which it is clamped.

The result is quite tweakable. Shown here with a Subdivision Surface modifier, outside the GN group, as an option.

simple nodes too!

@lemon the next challenge is to produce the right topology to model the dimples without Booleans .. :)

with GN, really?

No, I don't think GN. not general enough to be useful. Cost-benefit no good. I would go with hand-work after applying. But you want a decent base to work on.

Brilliant. But way too clever for me!

I like Mine de Sel's method:
Create a cube, subdivide 5 or more, put the Smoothness at 1, select the 6 faces like this:

Right click > LoopTools > Flatten:

Right click > LoopTools > Circle:

Enable Individual Origins pivot point and scale up:

Invert the selection and scale up:

Invert again, inset:

Give it a Subdivision Surface modifier:

Interesting challenge. I just modelled it in around 20 mins, it's not perfect but close, started with circles, duplicated them six times, arranged them into a six sided shape with vertex snapping turned on so they could be arranged perfectly in relation to neighbouring vertices (leaving the curved edges between each circle blank), bridge filled the edges, selected each circle face separately and scaled each face down to 0.95 in XYZ, on the now filled curved faces I selected all the edge rings (so all of the edges connecting the edges of all the circles) then subdivided with 3 cuts with smoothing set to 1, smooth shaded all making sure all normals were recalculated as outside:

I believe your complaint is that the original, cubical faces aren't flat.  C-C subdivision makes flat subdivisions only when the subdivided face is planar with all of its neighbors.  And bevel doesn't make co-planar neighbors without using custom bevels.

Let's skip the bevel and do simple subdivision modelling.  We'll use the concept of "control loops" to control the curvature of the edges.  Add two loop cuts in our three axes, give it a couple levels of subdivision, and smooth shade:

Let's tweak it in shapekeys to find the exact shape we want.  Loop slide the interior loops to the original cube's edges, and it hardens; we can determine exactly how hard we want by controlling the shapekey:

What if we slide back the corner verts toward the center?  We'll still have flat faces, but we'll accentuate the curvature of the corners:


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Blurry texture in 3D view
I unwrapped the faces and added a texture too them. They appear blurry. I unchecked Mipmaps and Interpolation and changed the filter to box. The 3D view still looks blurry. In my user preferences, Mipmaps is also unchecked.
The render is fine, still sharp. Even though, there are some white outlines on some of the arms and body, might be caused by the blurred 3D texture view.
Could this also be a bug? I recently installed it on Fedora 23.

Here's an updated better pic:

I fixed the white outlines, but the image is still blurry.

Try rendering it. If it is not blurry, it may just be that it appears blurry in the view-port because it is trying to save memory. I don't you Blender internal much though. I would recommend using cycles. You can get about all the same effects in real-time (if you know how) in cycles viewport open GL render that you can in Blender Internal.

Maybe. Is there a way to change that? I have some thing I have to do that need me to get down to sharp edges.

Could you upload your .blend file somewhere so I can take a look at it and see if I can find what's wrong? (at the top center of the interface is where you change to cycles from internal. Where it says "Blender Render". If you do change to cycles,  you will need to adjust your materials.)

Does this work: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y585wvh81yn4srb/Me.blend1?dl=0
It's the same rig that I'm using for my other question.

I could download, but I need you to pack the textures if you want me to be able to help, because this is a texture related problem. Click "file", "external data", "pack all into .blend", then save, then upload so I can download. Also, you should use the same file as you are asking the question about. There can be many variables, and it is more likely I can find the problem if you upload the real file, for this project.

This should work:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/7n626wdbyvwhnk8/Me.blend?dl=0

I tried it on my computer, and with the scene you sent me, when I unchecked mipmaps that fixed the problem. Perhaps you need to change the window draw method.  I'm running Mint 17.2, and I found that using Triple Buffer gets it to look the way I want. It may not help though. You may also try scrolling down to the texture draw mode.

The problem is simply the viewport.
If you render the image it comes out right.

The problem has to do with the way Blender scales images to fit textures. It could scale them so a tiny pixel would look like a box, but it uses the more conventional method, which is to scale them so that they blur. (zooming in on the texture in the image viewer scales the first way though.) (Blender scales like Gimp does, which works best for most things. Put the texture in Gimp and scale to see what I mean.)
To really fix this problem, you must simply scale the texture in a program that doesn't blur it, and use the larger texture instead. I would just zoom in on the image in Blender, take a screenshot, then cut out the texture.
You then get this.

You can use that image in Blender Internal or cycles and it won't be blurry.
Keep in mind, with Blender internal, you must switch to material viewport to make the blurring go away, because the solid viewport will not show the texture correctly.
You may have to change the texture, then save and close Blender then re-open to see the change take effect in the viewport.
It should look like this now. (your background will be grey, the white is my theme).

I hope this fixes it.

Could I use that image? Also, how should I scale it? I have Paint.NET and RealWorld Paint

Yes, you may use that image. :) I scaled it with a screen shot after zooming in on Blender (which is "simple scale"), but you can scale it yourself if you want. I think using normal Microsoft Paint would work, but I'm not sure, and I don't know about the applications you mentioned. (also, if this fixes your problem, please accept the answer so others know it has been answered, and if not, please communicate your further problems. I encourage you to try it yourself before you accept the answer though.)


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How do I make a shape key using a rig menu?
I have a minecraft character rig, and it uses a menu, where you can edit the face expressions. You move the little box around, and it edits the mesh. How can I use this with creating shape keys for my lip-sync? Is there a way to do this, without editing the mesh slowly in edit mode, using the rig?

I am not completely sure what you want, but if you want to know how to make the menu, then you add a shape key to the mesh, go into edit mode, pull some points to edit it how you want to, then go out of edit mode. Then add a driver to the shape key to hook it up to a bone, then add a custom shape to the bone. or you could hook it up to a object instead of a bone.

Thanks, I'll upload a picture, because I cant edit the menu thing in edit mode.