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Dynamic paint simulations very slow on good hardware configuration
Have a question regarding dynamic simulations in blender 2.80 eevee.
I have a canvas from a plane 40x40m with 100 subdivisions, smooth sade and subdivision level of two.
My hardware:
CPU: AMD Threadripper 1950x 3.5 GB, 32 Threads
RAM: 64GB 3200
GPU: 2 X GPU 1080 TI 11GB
When I press play to simulate an dropping sphere in the water(the plane that has dynamic paint on it) is moving slower than a snail.
What could be the problem? Is there an workaround? Actually any simulations are going slow on my PC. What's wrong with my blender config, or hardware config?
Thx

I might be wrong, but Physics aren't multithreaded well, so doesn't utilize all CPU power. Might try to apply all modifiers before DP to save calculation time.

I hope you are not expecting a Houdini level performance from a free application.. Did the simulation in Blender work faster for you in 2.79 and in 2.8 got slower?

doesn't matter the version I'm using. Same results.
But, thx for the answer, I'll try the point with applying modifiers. And as far as Jaroslavsays, maybe I should stick with the idea that is an free software and I should wait for the developers to integrate multi-thred Physics or to forget about speed :))

You can check with system monitoring how much of your hw is being utilized. My quess is about 6% cpu and 0% gpu, Blender does not support OpenCL acceleration for simulations yet. There are some other alternatives: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/102156/7777. Also Houdini Apprentice is free so you can evaluate it, it can even import/export .obj meshes.

Yes, Jaroslav, something like that. 6-8% usage. I'll check the solution provided by you in the link above. Thx again for support.


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Eyeball loop select?
Blender Noob here. I am following alongside this tutorial and I am stuck. At the 4:40 mark he selects the front most vertex of the eyeball and then says he presses "Ctrl+" to make the face step selection. Ctrl+ however is just zooming me in like it should? Am I hearing him wrong in the video?
Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCuMiE91p-I&list=PL32001WLw6WG8glAk8LpFO1dbDbBGE8bI&index=3

He is referring to Ctrl numberpad +. Its the shortcut for "Select More".If you hit the space bar to open the Search tool and type in Select More you will see the the keyboard shortcut. also in the video at 4:40 In the Last Operator panel (bottom left below the Tools panel, you will see that is the tool he has just used to select the edge loop.

@3fing It'd be nice if you could post that as a proper answer, maybe even with information on how to change it in the user prefs and what to do if one doesn't have a numpad.

@Leander, Unfortunately its my bedtime.

@3fing Well anytime the next days would do.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Flatten faces for plywood sheet cutting
bit of a beginner here. I'm using Blender to design an electronic Cello. I want to flatten out the faces highlighted here so I can saw from a flat sheet of thin plywood which will then be wrapped to the 3D shape shown. I thought Mesh>Cleanup>MakePlanarFaces might work but sadly not. Any ideas?

flatten along which axis?

Thanks moonboots, but think I've answered it.

Thanks for that. I think the Papercraft add-on sounds to be what I want.

I think I've found the answer. U (UV mapping) > S (Smart UV Project). Then with a bit of adjustment I get this, which seems to be what I want. Plus can export to SVG, using UVs>Export UV layout, which can then be imported as a mesh too.

I don't think that this will work. Blender's UV algorithm is kinda inaccurate and a "close guess" at a good result at best. I'd try one of the papercraft add-ons for Blender, if I were you. They are way more accurate for your purpose. There's also bad geometry in your mesh that needs to be cleaned up.

Thanks very much for that advice, as I say I'm a bit of a beginner here and slowly feeling my way.

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


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Unable to use any of the shaders
Only one material node is shown and when I try to add a shader or something, "shaders" is gone. My material panel is also messed up, it used to look different but something happened.

You are inside Blender Render engine, switch it to Cycles

@SergeL Thanks so much, that fixed it


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Give transparent alpha images a flat colour
If i had a scene that included a transparent image mapped to a plane, let's say a leaf for example, and i wanted to remove all shading from that object and make it one flat colour, while also keeping the same alpha channel (transparency) on it, how would i go about doing that? I can nearly achieve the effect i want by using a principled shader with ONLY the alpha input of the transparent image and the diffuse input just set to one colour. the only problem is that its still shaded while i want a flat colour.
the reason i want to do this is since i do alot of post processing and having a render where every object is a unique flat color makes it easier to select various parts of it in photo editing programs.
i'm using Eevee for reference, and thanks in advance and please comment if there is anything i didn't make clear.

The closest you are going to get to flat rendered images requires:

No lights in your scene
Set the world shader's color to pure white.
Set the world shader to the same strength as you use with your emission shaders.
Use the above shader node group on all of your materials, leaving the strength at 1 but changing the emission color for each material.

as stated in the question this will not work as i require unshaded flat colour. but thanks anyways.

@Stagbeetle -- in the above Marty is using the image only for the alpha -- where to allow the coloring.   The BSDF is then using a single (flat?) color (purple in this case) for the flat color.

@Stagbeetle  The whole purpose of a render is to calculate the interaction of light with materials.  You can't accomplish your goal completely, but the above is as close as you will get.

this new method you showed works pretty well. Thanks! this'll work for my purposes.

@Stagbeetle You're welcome.  Sorry I didn't fully appreciate what you were trying to do when I wrote the first answer.


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Is Blender a fitting tool for creating batches of images
I am currently using 3ds max and I am not very happy with its performance (taking too much time), so I am wonderin if Blender will be a more fitting program for my problem:
I will have one object in the scene which will be moved randomly and then an image should be rendered, including the Z-Buffer image.
This procedure must be repeated roughly 2 million times.
Should I go to Blender for this problem, or is a different Rendering software better for this problem?

Without knowing more details as it stands this is subject to opinion. The good news is Blender is free so there is no cost (other than time) to just download it and give it a run to see if it fits your needs.

You can create an animation sequence where each frame has a different location for the object. Then use the compositor to generate 2 images - one for the rendering, the other for the z-map. To generate 2 million images, the total time required will be the time to render one frame in the animation times 2 million. By working with rendering settings, the process can be sped up. By running on multiple machines it can be sped up more.  You can also render using the internal render for more speed. If you can render 10 frames a second, it will take about 2 to 3 days.


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Sculpting with both Z and X axis symmetry?
Pretty simple question, i would really like to sculpt some pillars that are symmetrical on both the x and z axis, is there any way at all to enable this in blender? or is there a way to make a model symmetrical along both the x and z axis once modelled?
Thanks in advance!

Yes: 2.7:
or 2.8:

Also, once modeled, you can delete some parts and add a mirror modifier, which can work on X and Z (Pivot point of mirroring is the origin of the object).

You can use the mirror modifier after you sculpt.  Select X, Z, and Clipping.


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Need help with recreating organic microscopic material in blender
So i have been trying to recreate a specific material in blender for quite a while now, but i just can' seem to get it working. the picture attached shows what i am trying to recreate, basically what you would see if you were to put a mold capsule under a microscope, very translucent, but not reflective almost gelatineous, but more importantly i want to get the effect where it darkens as the material gets "thicker" around the edges and such. i would show my progress, but i really haven't done anything substantial other than messing with subsurface nodes and translucency nodes, i don't even know where to start as far as the darkened edges go.

Have you used available vectors and a dot product?

as atomicbezierslinger says in his answer, Input > Fresnel or LayerWeight nodes may help you

Dot Product and Fresnel

In your nodes you should consider the dot product node depicted in the image below or fresnel node

VectorA • VectorB

computes the strength of the parallel component for the two vectors as a scalar.

VectorA and  VectorB are normalized for ease of understanding.
A result of [1.0] would mean the vectors are parallel
A result of [0.0] would mean the vectors are orthogonal
A result of [-1.0] would mean the vectors are antiparallel

In the image provided in the question the color is different at the glancing angles and more transparent when looking directly at the faces of an imagined 3D model.
[viewing vector] dot product the [face geometric normal vector]
Using the result of VectorA • VectorB  can be used to determine the mix of two colors or transparency and et cetera.  When they are not so parallel use different color.  vector1 and vector2 can be normalized.  When the dot product is close to zero [0.0] then the vectors are at right angles.  You will be able to identify looking at the edge silhouette or directly at a face. Experimenting with this will be a start.
dot product and those vectors are  available in the nodes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_(geometry)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_product
This has been used in 3D CG long ago 40+ years

Image above with dot product calculations.  When your viewing vector is more orthogonal to the [face normal] the color will be more opaque.  When your viewing vector is more parallel to the [face normal] the color will be more transparent.  Transparent factor is the property that was designated to be affected by the calculation.

Please also secondarily search Fresnel which is related.
Depending on your models.  You could consider textures and the compositor.
At this moment this is not a tutorial.  I am trying to give you some quick action tips.

Hi, thank you very much for a good answer, these are great tips and just messing around a little with fresnel and dot product i have already gotten much more pleasing results!

Good.  The best way to convey that is to ... upvote this candidate answer or downvote it.

can't unfortunately :( my account is too new so it doesn't let me add an upvote, but thanks for the great tips.


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How to model neck ruff (clothing)?

So i have been trying to model a neck ruff similar to the one in the picture, but i'm not sure how to go about it at all, i need to create a neck ruff that can be used within a cloth simulation and appreciate any help i can get. though, if you know how to model a neck ruff, but are not sure if it would work in a cloth simulation i'd like to know anyways.
.

I think there are 2 different questions, modeling and cloth.
About modelling: You can create a basic profile, then give your object an Array modifier, then a Simple Deform modifier (Bend mode, Angle 360°). Extrude inwards, then give it a Solidify modifier. Add some edge loops to sharp the edges, it will also allow you to twist it a bit with Proportional Editing option enabled once you'll have the modifiers applied (but you can also keep the modifiers and deform it with a Mesh Deform modifier).

You don't say a lot about how you want to animate it as a cloth, maybe you should give your object a Surface Deform modifier with a (bit) subdivided plane as object and give this plane a cloth physic. If you create a Pinning Group, the less the vertex will be part of the group the more it will be affected by the gravity. Then parent the collar to the plane. It will be much lighter than if you give the whole object a cloth simulation. Needs to be tested though.


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how to recreate microscopic diatom glass material
I have been trying to recreate the material seen in the picture without success, this picture is an electron microscope image of diatom shells, they have 2 important characteristics. first, since they are microscopic and photographed using electron microscopy they have quite a bit of fresnel around the edges, this can be achieved easily enough by connecting a layer weight nodes fresnel or layer weight factor into a colorramp for color.second, the shells are made of silica (basically glass) which has very high transmission and transparency. i haven't really been able to achieve a material combining these characteristics in any way that looks similar to the image. if you know of a good way to tackle this material, please answer, and thanks in advance]1

A Fresnel node can be used as factor for a Mix Shader between a Transparent BSDF and Emission Shader, in order to achieve the glow at grazing angles. The Facing socket from the Layer Weight node allows to add a slight glow for the angles in between. Finally the Is Camera Ray output from the Light Path node is used to only show the emissive material to the camera, meaning the object itself and objects near by won't be affected by the emitted light.

this material looks great, and is exactly what i was looking for! thanks.

The glass optical properties are not relevant to what you're seeing in those images because scanning electron microscopes don't use light. Instead they detect electron emission. I think the piece you're missing is that electron emission varies with how "pointy" each part of the model is. One could try to model that using a properties output in nodes (cycles literally has a properties output called "pointyness" - doesn't work in Eevee though) and use that to increase the brightness at edges and points. That is what's going on inside the scanning electron microscope, so it should be able to generate similar renders.


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Control transparency of image texture in nodes?
Here is my problem, i am trying to recreate a handrawn painted texture, and for that i have to mix a crosshatch texture with a watercolour texture using ambient occlusion as the factor in the mix shader. but the crosshatch texture has a white background and looks odd against my watercolour texture.  is there any way i could make my crosshatch texture transparent? i also have a transparent png of the crosshatch if that works better.
Thanks in advance.

how it looks isn't really important to the question. i only want to know how to control transparency in image textures, not looking for material critique. nodes can be added, but it's an incredibly simple node setup, only a mix node with 2 diffuse shaders being fed into it. and with ambient occlusion as the factor of the mix node.

@Stagbeetle When someone asks for more information, e.g. images, it's because they do think that information is important to the question.

Change it from opaque to alpha blend under the texture box in properties, Then apply any sort of color related node, connect it to a mix shader with a transparent node connected too. Make sure your wire is black and white, if not just change it whith a color ramp. The topmost image texture, I'm pretty sure can be changed to your image beneath it, that way you don't see through the cube.


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How do i convert 3d mesh detail into a 2d texture so it reduces load on my pc?
I have a model with really much detail, but I want to use it in a game without crashing my PC, so I want to convert the 3d detail into a texture which I can then apply to a simplified version of the model. Is there any way to do that?

This is standard practice.  Try search terms such as:  'Blender Normal Baking' I believe Blender Guru's 'Anvil' tutorial covers this quite well for beginners....


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How to Export every Action for Specific Armature as Separate FBX?
My goal is to export every action that has animation data on a specific armature into separate FBX files. This is what I have so far. But, it's not quite working right. It crashes if I do not have an armature with animation data selected when I start it. And it exports animation files for armatures that don't have the target prefix.
for action in bpy.data.actions:

            # Set the active action
            bpy.context.object.animation_data.action = action

            for obj in bpy.data.objects:

                if obj.type == 'ARMATURE':

                    prefix = obj.name[:9]

                    if prefix == "TRGExport" and obj.library == None:

                        title = bpy.path.basename(bpy.context.blend_data.filepath)[:-6]

                        current_visibility = obj.visible_get()
                        obj.hide_set(False)
                        bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
                        obj.select_set(True)

                        file_path = bpy.path.abspath("//")

                        obj_path = os.path.join(file_path, title + "-" + action.name + "." + "fbx")
                        bpy.ops.export_scene.fbx(filepath=obj_path, use_selection=True)
                        obj.hide_set(current_visibility == False)

Any ideas on how to adjust to make it work for my goal?


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Bake on Export doesn't work as expected when using Rigify
I have a simple 100 frame animation with the keyframes on the Rigify control rig.
I have a separate "target" armature that copies the locations/rotation of the Rigify ORG bones.
I can select the target armature and manually bake animation frames for it. That works and it exports fine. But, it is tedious and kind of messy in that I have to remove those frames if I want to work with the control rig to make adjustments.
I would like to simply include the baking process during export if possible and have the baked frames not stay. Is that possible?
I tried following the answer under this question: How to properly bake action for armature
Just by the description of these options it seems like it should work. But, it doesn't. The output with the "export baking" options is just an empty animation. Not sure if I somehow accidentally locked the target rig/bones or something?
Any help would be appreciated!


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Draw Curve tool missing "Normal/View" option in 4.0
I'm trying to draw curves that connect to the faces of a mesh in 4.0, but I can't find the setting that allows me to do that; my only three options are Normal to Surface, Tangent to Surface, and View. I'm really at a loss as to why the Normal/View option isn't available


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Cube texturing as a sphere in UV editor
I'm new to blender. I'm trying to texture a cube and when try to scale a single face, it scales all of them as if it was a sphere. I also selected all the faces and pressed U then selected cube projection, but I don't want that, I want to have those separate faces. I would appreciate a solution step by step. Thanks!

You need to deactivate the Proportional Editing option in the UV Editor (or press O), also if you want to have separate faces, mark the seam where you want to separate the faces (in the 3D view, in Edit mode, select the edges and press U > Mark Seam then unwrap)


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How do I make a bone active using Python?
How to make a selected bone active in POSE or EDIT mode? Thanks!

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/132630/how-to-make-a-bone-active   https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/134250/set-active-bone-in-pose-mode-from-python-script

bpy.context.object.data.bones.active = bpy.data.objects["rig"].pose.bones["spine_fk.003"].bone

This works in Blender 2.93 LTS, and a call to bpy.context.object.data.bones.active in pose mode will confirm that the bone you named is in there.
("rig" is the name of my armature, "Spine_fk.003" was the bone I happened to be using in a script).  However, it doesn't actually show the bone as being active on the screen.
If you select another bone on-screen, and then dump the code into the console, it will use whatever bone you dumped in there, but still show the other bone being active on-screen.
If you select a bone onscreen AFTER you put the code in, and then check the bpy.context.object.data.bones.active, it will list the one you clicked onscreen.
I honestly don't know if that's a bug, or what... I'm extremely new to this, but it seems to directly answer this question, at least for pose mode.

Understood how in edit mode.
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
arm = bpy.data.armatures['Armature']
bone = arm.edit_bones["Bone"]
arm.edit_bones.active = bone

'Object' object has no attribute 'edit_bones'


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What is the best way to create feathers for a model so that the model does not slow down game in Unreal Engine 5?
Please tell me the solution. I'm creating a bird-man model in Blender for a game that will be on Unreal Engine 5. It comes down to the feathers. What method should be used to create them so that the model does not load the game too much, while the feathers look realistic? Is it possible to do this using particles?
I was advised to create a feather and use an instance object to distribute the feathers across the surface of the model. However, I don't know how to create the feather itself? Should I do this with particles or use an image as a texture?
I would like to create a high-quality and optimized model for the game.

An image with transparency would be lighter than a mesh, do you have reference images of a birdman?

This example of a parrot shows how to create these image planes for the feathers. It's kinda particles baked into an image. They are similar to so-called hair cards.

I'd use an image texture. You could have several variations of feather in one 512/512 image aligned in a grid formation, cut them into separate plains that share the same material, seperate each one into separate objects with the origin at the base of the feather, add them all to a new collection, and make a particle system using the new collection on yout wing object.
You could even include several feathers in one square of your grid image to save on the number of planes in your particle system.
For realism, you can bake normal, roughness, and maybe shean maps from the base color image.


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How do I make a Minecraft render similar to the graphics from trailers/teasers for updates?
Actually, I want to make the appearance of my renders close to what I presented in the pictures, I will even attach those works that I have already been able to do and which look as close as possible to how it is done on professional renders. However, still the renders (not mine) look much better than my own. Please help me, give me ideas on how I can make the renders better, closer to what I want.

Next are my own renders:

One of the main differences that I see myself, but I can't do anything in my renderings is that the highlights are "made" mostly not from the brighter colors of the object, but rather from the contour light (rim lights, idk), or just the light in the scene. Is there any way I can apply the light in the frame to my highlights? If so, how?

If you're using flat white background, the lighting on the model will be even and not as dynamic as your examples.  You have to tell the background to only show to the camera, and then light your scene as desired.

I use a transparent background, not a white one. This is how the image was uploaded to the site.

Really nice work you did there!
I have also been craving a lot to achieve this shader. I got most of the inspiration from Hapico (a YouTube channel). This is what I achieved recently on Eevee engine.
I used bevel modifier and material indexing to form this brightly colored outline.
For most entities I have used inverted hull (solidify modifier).


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Adding IK to existing animations
I've been doing a character for a Unity game, kinda my first humanoid model/animation so I'm still learning a lot.
I tried IK at the start and gave up because of a bug, then made quite a few animations by hand, but I was having difficulty animating certain things, others took too long, so I decided to add IK properly now that I'm more used to the program.
But adding the IK now messes up the animations, as expected.
My question is, is there any way to make the animations I've already made work with the new IK, or do I have to start from scratch?

Keyframe the influence of the IK constraint to 0 on those animations?

I imagine a python script to take the FK rotation animations and apply the end-bone (has IK constraint) location to the IK bone for an approximation.   But I'm too lazy to try...

Generally speaking you have to redo the animation. With that said, you can always turn IK on before you use it and then turn it off when going back to the other animation. Depending on your existing animation as to which would be easier.
To turn off IK just set influence to 0 on the IK Constraint and with mouse cursor over it press I to keyframe. to turn on set influence to 1. It's a good idea to do a keyframe one frame before you keyframe the change. You can also add a custom property to the control bone and use it as a driver.
This way the option will show on the item tab of the sidebar when you select that bone without having to do python scripting.

I figured it woulnd't be easy, but needed to know if there was a method around my skill level.
Anyways, I might just re-do them since there arent so many yet, plus I wasn't satisfied with them for the most part.
Thanks everyone for the inputs!


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How do I change the name of an Armature using Python?
Please tell me how to change the name of an Armature using Python. For example, instead of changing Armature.001, change it to Armature, which would be without a point and without numbers. Thanks!

bpy.data.armatures["Armature.001"].name = "Armature" should do the trick, but keep in mind that the ".001" was added because of an existing data-block that already had the name "Armature".
If the command is executed and the original data-block with the name "Armature" still exists, then that one will get the suffix so that the names are still unique.

Thanks! And if for example the name Armature.004 or Armature.059. Is it possible to somehow check and if the name is not Armature, then change the name to Armature?

Yes, if arm.name != "Armature":\n    arm.name = "Armature" will  do that.

Found a way =)
for armature in bpy.data.armatures:
    armature.name = 'Armature'

As I mentioned in my answer, multiple armatures cannot have the same name. This solution could give unexpected results depending on what armatures are in the scene and what names they have.

I will have 1 Armature. Sometimes, during tests, when I remove the armature and add it again, the script stops working because of the armature name with numbers.


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How do i change the number of cuts of a subdivion?
So I created a plane and I subdivided it in 80 cuts to add grass texture. I want to change the cuts to 70 because my laptop is working slow. How can I do that? Where do i find the settings for the subdivion?

You can't go from 80 to 70 except if you use GeoNodes I guess


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How to get the total length light rays has travelled
I would like to get the total length light rays has travelled like in the following discussion.
How to calculate for every ray the total distance it has traveled from camera to emitter
Are there any updates on how to do it differently? Are there other open source Rendering engines that provides the total path length in Blender?


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Fill irregular area with grid
I want to fill a flat map of Europe with a grid. here is the map

I want it to look something like this but with the grid extended throughout. I tried to merge a plane into it and got this:

I was thinking a could maybe connect some vertices around the outside to make a square or hex shape and then grid fill on the simpler shape. Anyone know how to do this?

I think this might be a case where a simple boolean is your best bet. Just make a grid that's bigger than the continent. Then extrude the continent through it so it has some volume and boolean the continent out of the grid.

Yeah that's what I'm trying now. If I subdivide the plane too many times it messes up the boolean. I have to subdivide the plane only by 10 or a small number, and then do the boolean, and then I can subdivide the planes more

You can use this method https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/314048/strange-left-over-vertices-after-using-a-boolean-to-intersect-two-objects/319535#319535


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Animated cloth swirl
I'm trying to create an animated swirl of fabric, it can start a little swirled already, but needs to turn and collide with itself. I've tried using force fields such as a negative force to draw it in and a vortex to swirl, but can't quite get it working. Would adding bones be a better solution?

I remember a similar question... Yes, here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/165903/107598 Does this help?

@Blunder don't you think that answer is not well explained?

@Emir (uh, a question with double negation. Well, the answer is ....yes?) ... yes, I think the answer is well explained and I hope it helps.

@Blunder sorry, English is not my best

@Emir oh, don't worry it's fine. But why did you ask? I got distracted, so I just wrote my comment and didn't mark the question as a duplicate.... if that's what you're wondering.

Thanks @Blunder that previous post is very helpful. I had tried searching the post for it, but didn't find that - there are quite a few twisting cloth tutorials, but fewer swirling ones.


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Add two midi file to animation nodes
i am using animation nodes in blender for piano animation with this tutorial :
https://docs.animation-nodes.com/tutorials/midi/
my piano notes works but I have piano midi file with 2 tracks ... right hand and left hand
now i cant add this two midi file to nodes ... when I copy this nodes one of them is not works !

from the midi track info node, you can check the name.
In my case it's Piano RH.
By changing the index in get list element you can search for Piano LH.

If you found that, you can plug both into your loop like this:

In the loop, you just take the maximum of both values to play:

result:

Note: be aware that also the channel is changing in my case - maybe this is also true for yours. Sometimes the right hand might also be saved just on another channel - so you have to search for that and adapt that for your case.

thanks great again man


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Change the value of object field in driver editor with python script
I try to change the object name field of my driver with python script but I cant access to data path name of object name to change that with python
in this image I need to change object name from 1 to any other object

Here is an example code snippet, to set the target.id to the desired destination object dest which is changing variable pointing to an object, specific to your "World" custom property "prop1":
import bpy

dest = bpy.data.objects['Sphere']

d = bpy.data.worlds['World'].animation_data.drivers[0]
var = d.driver.variables[0]
var.targets[0].id = dest

I hope this helps.

the OP is a Blender beginner, so maybe it would be helpful to explain, how he can use that snippet in a driver ;) anyway +1 ;)

I am confused because this code is works in my demo file but not works in my main project ! .... where can i find any document for example the codes " .animation_data.drivers " in internet ? thanks

@jackon -- perhaps it's because I made the assumption that drivers[0] is the one your want to reverence, and the same for .variables[0].  You could look further by searching this site with "[python] drivers".  Also be sure that you have bpy.data.worlds['World'] containing something useful (your World might be labelled something else).


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parts of mesh not moving with bone
When i move the bone, parts of the mesh wont move with it. I have tried to assign the faces to the bones and that didn't work for some reason. I have weight painted it countless times and it still did not fix the problem. I have remodeled the finger and tried to reposition the bones and watched countless tutorials. here's the video to the problem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbx8RXMY6w8

Read up about Weight Painting in Blender. https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/sculpt_paint/weight_paint/index.html#weight-paint and specifically this section.

some vertices are probably not part of the correct vertex group, please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

https://blend-exchange.com/b/zq0l1eRS

It looks like some vertices are not correctly assigned. First thing put the Armature modifier at the top of the modifiers stack:

Now in the Armature modifier enable the 2 first options, they will allow you to see the mesh in Edit mode as deformed by the modifier:

Now select the buggy vertex and assign it to the correct vertex group (for this one it's probably Hand IK R):

Ah i see know, I forgot rearranging the modifiers changes the mesh or something like that. Thank you


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recreate electron microscope material
i realize a similar question has been asked before, but nothing specifically discussing the topic of recreating the materials seen in electron microscopy. the tutorials i have seen use fresnel as a factor to mix emission and diffuse, while this works i find the result is not entirely realistic, and shadows don't look good on this material as it has emission in it, therefore i'd like to ask, if you were to try to recreate a realistic electron microscopy material, how would you do it? the way i have tried is  simply adding the layer weight nodes fresnel output as a factor in a colorramp, and adding said color ramp to a diffuse node, but i feel like there must be a better. more realistic way. image is an example of what i want to achieve. tardigrade in 100 micrometer magnification.

I made the following observations from your reference image:

The lighting isn't uniform, there appears to be a light shining from the right side
Areas with little thickness appear brighter

Therefore I'd suggest to use a translucent material with volume absorption. Light may pass through thin areas of the mesh, while it gets absorbed by larger volumes. The benefits of this approach are:

Responds to the lights in your scene
The material doesn't emit light

Update:
The following material is an improved version. It now has the highlights along the contours of the mesh.

Old:

Alternative:
An alternative approach which uses emissive shader could look like the following node tree.

The bunny and dragon model are from the Stanford Computer Graphics Laboratory.

I think the Layer Weight gives rather good results, you use it as a factor between a black Diffuse and a white Emission. Put a bit of Bump into the Layer Weight if you need to give the surface some little details.


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Is there an alternative to grid fill if vertices are not equal
I’m working on a race car model i want to fill the nose and for it to round nicely but i don’t think the vertices are even i would grid fill but it is not an option because of that is there an alternative or do i painfully have to plot every vertex and reposition them


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Startup always crashing and very slow
I just updated to Blender 4.02 and am having crazy lag and crashes. Was hoping the update would fix the issue..
I'm using a Nvidea 4080 and 32gb RAM but for some reason I'm experiencing a lot of lag. when I start the file it takes about 20 - 40 seconds of not responding. I've never had this issue before.
Any ideas?
Thank you!


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uv unwrapping a tire for a game
is it possible to use cylinder project and instead of one continuous uv split it into even sections?
I could brute force it and do it manually with seams, but im pretty sure i got it to work automatically sometime before and forgot.
ive attached a gif to further explain what im trying to accomplish.

Hit  U  to call unwrap menu in 3d viewport, choose Cylinder Projection:

This operator is not the best design, since it doesn't let you specify how the cylinder is supposed to be rotated, so if you have random rotation of the mesh, it will not work. In that case, simple unwrapping is the way to go. You need a seam across the tire so  Ctrl  +  Click  on one edge at the start and another at the end to select the shortest path between them and hit  Ctrl  +  E   ->   M  to mark as seam:

Now you need to straighten the UVs. You could do that manually, but there is this UvSquares add-on that can do it for you in one click. You would need to install and enable it following the instructions in the link(installation is standard as with any other add-on). It requires quads, so you would need to convert tris to quads first in your case(select all hit  Alt  +  J ). With your geometry this should work perfectly. Then just select all UVs and hit To Grid by Shape in the Sidebar of the UV Editor, the add-on's tab:


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Is it possible to pass args in bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post?
Like the obj argument I want to send more arguments to the function. It is not working right-now.
Thanks in advance
import bpy

def new_(scene,obj):
    obj.location.x = scene.frame_current
handler = bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post
for l in [l for l in handler]:
    handler.remove(l)
handler.append(new_(bpy.context.scene,bpy.context.object))
```

import bpy

def my_handler(string, object):

    def handler(scene):

        object.data.body = string + ":" + str(scene.frame_current)

    return handler

object = bpy.context.object

bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(my_handler("frame is", object))

You can test my little script with a text object selected.
The handler always expects scene as first argument, you cannot change that.
But you can return a function with scene as first argument inside your own handler function and use the parameter you gave them.

That's really helpful. Thanks


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Implementing Raymarching via Shader Nodes
Recently I've been doing a experiment on implementing raymarching in Blender's shader editor. The result is way out of my expectation. A strange moiré-pattern-like noise artifact is being generated. I just can't figure out what is happening. Such artifact is seen when using both EEVEE and Cycles.
Modifying time parameter through driver makes the shader recompile every frame when I play animation, so I write a simple geometry nodes patch to store the Scene Time as an vertex attribute.
The following images are my shader codes. I pack all the iterations in a 1-4-16-64 way.
I can't keep the hit result except using a bunch of mix nodes since there is no bool or loop termination in shader nodes, sorry.

I think I've found the reason of this noise artifact. The key problem is believed to be the float comparison.
When the threshold is set to 0, the epsilon became to big, leading the output to become incorrect. (Be like, -0.001 treated as equal to 0, therefore output of 'Less Than' became 0)
So the radius should be directly compared with the distance, rather than distance subtracting radius then comparing with zero.

I post my solution here to provide a reference.


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How to rotate the local axis of an applied (weight-painted) bone without moving the mesh?
i want the local rotation axis of the bone to align with the mesh but its already applied and i dont want to re-weightpaint everything again. thank you

Make the change in edit mode.  If you want to change the Y axis, change the bone's roll on sidebar or use a recalculate roll operation.  Beware of the how this may affect whatever constraints the bone has.

thank u that worked !


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Are there any tutorials on adding new details to model textures?
I want to make part of the skin on my model more detailed so it looks more realistic but I'm not sure how to do it.
Can you use a bump map from somewhere and UV map that way? Or is there more to it.

Is this what you're looking for? - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/60644/how-do-i-add-a-bump-map-to-a-texture-i-made-in-blender

try using texture painting, and then also find some alpha textures of skin and use them for it, here are a lot for free http://pixologic.com/zbrush/downloadcenter/alpha/

@Galaxy nah he wants to paint it, but not through procedural textures

@galaxy thank you, I will try this option

@michael ben david thank you, these look like they might work


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Tank track rotation around itself without array modifier

Tank track rotation around itself without array modifier,I want this object to rotate around itself without using array?

What about a curve modifier?  Is that okay?

I tried it and it made the whole shape follow the curve

https://www.loom.com/share/af2b49cb383843708cdcfd79a472f7f9


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Topology Edge loop problem
How to solve this topology issue? I want the edge to be sharp but i dont want the sharpness on the surface.

You could try the following topology instead.....

If you use a Shrinkwrap to make the vertices stick to a cylinder, then move them a bit, you have almost no pinching. If it's still too much you need a cylinder with more vertices:

https://i.ibb.co/5k7nxG8/no2.png

https://i.ibb.co/Ptr4SPQ/no.png

You can see the problem is still kinda there, not entirely clean

use a shrinkwrap with another cylinder as target


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Blender 2.8 to Unity export problem
I recently created a tiny space ship, it looks like this in Blender:

but when I import it into Unity it looks weird and the animation is broken(no bones only scene graph):

Check if scale is applied - in object mode Object>apply>Rotation&Scale.  Make sure you select each separate mesh.
Check if any modifiers are applied - In properties Modifiers...apply any that are there.
Then check the bones are parented correctly.
Export as a fbx.  Select the space ship mesh and bones in the rig. Then check in export box the Selected Objects and check experimental apply transform.
Drag and drop the fbx in to unity assets or any file.


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How would you render backface culling with Eevee engine?
I'm using backface culling to make contours but it will not render with Eevee. The first image is with the hand in the view.

The second image is when I attempt to render.

I was thinking of using nodes to enable it but I am open to other ideas. The only solutions I found were either outdated or only cover Cycles.

It seems like you have to do it on a material level, using nodes. There is no way to activate backface culling on final render.

It was fixed a while ago. now just activate the backface culling on the material properties window.

For anyone wondering you have to do this :
1 For evee, you have to enable the backface culling option on the materials options,  and you have to set the Blend Mode and Shadow Mode to Alpha Clip or Alpha Hashed. and change the shader like here https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/160930/make-invisible-depending-on-point-of-view?noredirect=1&lq=1
2 If you want on Cycles. Just change the shaders.


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Snap transform pivot inside of selection
I'm a Modo user trying out Blender 2.8. This is what I am trying to achieve:

Make a selection and activate the Transform(Move) tool
Snap the transform pivot to one of the vertices in the selection
Make the the transform pivot to snap to grid(or other snapping options)

The following gif demonstrates this in Modo:

Here is a screenshot from Blender 2.8 where I've been trying with different snapping options and using the cursor. Unfortunately I've not been able to achieve the correct snapping.

Is this possible in Blender 2.8?
Thanks.

It is possible that you have Absolute Grid Snap enabled in the snapping options at the top of the 3D View.

This will snap the pivot point of any selected vertices to the closest grid increment when they're moved. To achieve the desired behaviour with this option turned on, you must select all of the vertices that you wish to move, then make the top on the active vertex (as I have done in my screenshot). Following this you can change the Pivot Point options to be around the Active Element using this menu:

Alternatively, I believe that you can disable Absolute Grid Snap and your selected vertices will always snap 1 increment away from their original locations, regardless of the pivot point (i.e. they won't always necessarily align to the grid).
Hope that helps!

I'm not at my computer right now, but I'm pretty sure I would...

Select vertices to move
Press G to grab them
Press X or Y once, to restrain movement to that axis
Hold down ctrl to snap to grids
Zoom in a bit to snap to smaller grid squares or out to snap to larger ones

Hi, thanks for your reply. I've tried this and it snaps the whole selection's center point to the grid. Which will make the first vertex overlap the grid(referring to the images I posted).


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How to make a Morph Object follow the surface of a model
I'm trying to create a character with admittedly unorthodox eyes and pupils.

What I'm attempting to do is make the pupils in 3D and them change their shape using morph targets, a little like the 3D Charlie Brown Movie does it.

What I'm trying to do is be able to move the pupils over the surface of the eye whilst constraining it inside the 'eye' shape I've made.

A rough example of the look I'm trying to achieve.
Altogether I want to be able to:

Change the shape of my pupils with morph targets
Constrain the movements to just inside the eye shape I've made (I have a rough idea already what to do but any tips would be amazing)
Have them basically hover over the surface of the model so they don't drift
off to mars every time I move where she's looking in a scene while I'm animating.

All at once.
Is there a specific combination of modifiers I can apply to make this work? I was pondering using bones to keep the pupils in place and make them 'look' where I wanted them to but I'm worried about them not conforming to the surface of the 'eyes' or having them sink below the surface of them.
Thank you for any help you can give!

You could do it this way:

Create a bone at about the center of the eye.
Put you pupil in front of the eye surface.
Create a plane at the same position, subdivide it a bit.
Parent the plane to the eye bone With Empty Groups then in Edit mode assign the vertices group to the plane.
Give your plane a Shrinkwrap modifier. Choose the eye as the Target, but don't display this modifier in the viewport yet (deactivate the eye icon).
Give your plane a Subsurf modifier.
Give your pupil a Surface Deform modifier, choose the plane as Target, click on Bind.
Give your pupil a Subsurf modifier.
Give your pupil a Copy Location constraint with the plane as Target.
Select the plane and activate the display option (eye icon) of the Shrinkwrap modifier. The plane should stick to the eye surface and the pupil should follow.
Make the plane invisible: Properties panel > Object > Cycles Settings, deactivate the display options.
To change the eye shape, select the plane and create some shapekeys.
Now maybe give your eye bone a Damped Track constraint to make it point to a target as explained in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OItHr4VRP7M the eyes targets will need to be children of a central bone, in front of the nose, that will be child of the head bone. If you want to give some constraints to your pupils position you should probably give this central bone a Limit Location constraint.

Thank you for the advice! I'm having some trouble though- I reach the 'activate the display option (eye icon)' part, but instead of sticking to the surface of my model it turns inside out? I can't paste an image of it here but it completely deforms it

perhaps you need to apply the rotation/scale of your plane or pupil, then unbind and rebind the pupil to the plane?


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Traceback Error
I am following a tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW_djQS_N8U by CG Geek for Create any City in Blender in 20 Minutes, He is advising to use Open street map by Gumroad (https://gumroad.com/l/blender-osm) and I did it, I downloaded and installed the addon, after selecting the coordinates and go to Blender and paste the coordinates and select Terrain and press import, then problem starts
Blender got hanged and later gave error -
I understand from the last line that compressed file ended before EOS , then i checked from backend,I found one folder named Terrain was created and is having open-street-map.zip file, but that file while unzipping, not getting unzipped because of same error.. Can anyone help me on this.. thanks

How to take a ScreenShot

Sorry, PC got hanged,  thats why i raised question from my Mac. please excuse for this screenshot


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Collision not detecting while animating object
I am trying to animate the cylindrical rod on the towel from down to up animation and during that animation the collision is not detectable in my towel and rod.
Towel is going down, Rod is going up
Cloth simulation has been applied over plane and collision is applied on cylinder, self-collision is also selected over cloth , still nothing happened. Tried many ways, but nothing help, can you help me. thanks
Blend File Download

Your Blend file link is not working

its available..


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AttributeError: 'Mesh' object has no attribute 'view_frame'
I am trying to get the pixel coordinates of the object in the rendered image in blender using the How to find image coordinates of the rendered vertex?
But I get the error AttributeError: 'Mesh' object has no attribute 'view_frame'
# Test the function using the active object (which must be a camera)
# and the 3D cursor as the location to find.
import bpy
import bpy_extras

scene = bpy.context.scene
obj = bpy.context.object
co = bpy.context.scene.cursor_location

co_2d = bpy_extras.object_utils.world_to_camera_view(scene, obj, co)
print("2D Coords:", co_2d)

Camera object
the argument obj must be a camera
>>> bpy_extras.object_utils.world_to_camera_view(
world_to_camera_view(scene, obj, coord)
Returns the camera space coords for a 3d point.
(also known as: normalized device coordinates - NDC).
Where (0, 0) is the bottom left and (1, 1)
is the top right of the camera frame.
values outside 0-1 are also supported.
A negative 'z' value means the point is behind the camera.
Takes shift-x/y, lens angle and sensor size into account
as well as perspective/ortho projections.
:arg scene: Scene to use for frame size.
:type scene: :class:`bpy.types.Scene`
:arg obj: Camera object.
:type obj: :class:`bpy.types.Object`
:arg coord: World space location.
:type coord: :class:`mathutils.Vector`
:return: a vector where X and Y map to the view plane and
   Z is the depth on the view axis.
:rtype: :class:`mathutils.Vector`

Running your question script with a mesh object as context will produce the error shown.  Make sure obj.type == 'CAMERA'.


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Blender extrude problem
I'm currently learning blender as a beginner by Blender Guru. When I was making the mug, I had to extrude the top to form the interior of the mug. But as I was extruding the top part of the mug, the top part of the mug is seen and the interior is not shown. Here are the screenshots:

I was thinking the problem was the inset above the cup. But I tried to fix it many amount of times but it gives the same problem. The interior of the cup should be seen. Is there a way to solve this problem?

perhaps select all, press W > Remove Doubles and try again?

Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

following @moonboots It does look like (at least)  2 extrusions, earlier attempts left in place. Remember, right-click does not cancel an extrusion . It just cancels the movement of the extruded part. Ctrl-Z to revert to the state before the operation.

The issue there is that you are selecting the two innermost loops of the cup, but if you only select the innermost loop, it will extrude correctly. In the images below, I only select the innermost loop, and it extrudes correctly.

Result after extruding only the innermost loop instead of the two loops in your picture.

It doesn't work. It's still the same.

The only reason I can think of that you can't see the extrusion into the cup is if there is a larger face hiding it. I insist, you have some extra geometry on top that you created by accident. Select all vertices and "Merge by Distance" (formerly known as "remove doubles"). You may still have an overlapping face after this, so delete the inset edge ring and make it again. Now there should be no overlapping geometry when you extrude.  EDIT: It could be the modifier. Make sure you complete the extrude operation and see if it updates. If it does not, delete the modifier and apply it again.


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Automating mapping graphics onto object
I am currently a non-user of Blender, not having used it for about six years.
I have the need to wrap a number of large number of images around a sphere and produce a 3d render (poss with or without the sphere being rendered to help in composite work).
Can Blender be automated to iterate over a number of images, apply an image with the same mapping coords, and then produce a render?

If you have a scene set up with your camera in position, and a sphere that's been UV mapped, has a material applied with an Image Texture connected and setting the color, you can use this script to automate loading images and rendering the results:
import bpy
from os import listdir
from os.path import join, dirname

s = bpy.data.objects['Sphere']  # <-- REPLACE OBJECT NAME IF NEEDED
m = s.active_material
t = m.texture_slots[0].texture

img = t.image

imagesFolder = "C:/SomeFolderWithImges"  # <-- REPLACE THIS WITH ACTUAL PATH TO YOUR IMAGES

isImage = lambda fp: fp.endswith( tuple( bpy.path.extensions_image ) )

for f in listdir(imagesFolder):
    if isImage( f ):
        t.image.filepath = join( imagesFolder, f )
        bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = join( dirname( bpy.context.scene.render.filepath ), f )
        bpy.ops.render.render( write_still = True )

Just copy this into a new textfile in the text editor, replace the path to the images you want to map to your sphere on line 11, and press Run Script.
Sample scene initial setup:

Rendered results after running script:

Wow, great answer! As an aside, is it possible to composite in Blender as a single frame image. I'm thinking of setting up a scene and then changing textures, and this would save having to manually composite with other means.

Sure, you can create compositor node setups as well using the python API. Here's some places to start:
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23436/control-cycles-material-nodes-and-material-properties-in-python/23446#23446 and also: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5413/how-to-connect-nodes-to-node-group-inputs-and-outputs-in-python

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


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Why does mean crease not work properly?
So I want the back of the ship's mesh to be pulled to the mean crease (1) I have set. When I try to fix it, I am left with an ugly result.

I fear the question is not particularly clear...can you elaborate a bit more, maybe show some reference image of what you wish to achieve?

try removing duplicite vertices

Give those edges some fun ;) (understand Mean Crease):

(also the bottom ones respectively)

authors: Геннадий Горбач

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


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Hotkey for toggling between vertex/edge/face select modes in Edit Mode?
In Edit Mode, in the 3D View, is there a hotkey for toggling between vertex/edge/face editing?

I believe its Ctr + tab then choose from the menu that pops up.

In Blender 2.79 and before (not sure how long back), the Ctrl+Tab indeed opened a menu to choose the selection type, one had to be in edit mode first though.

From Blender 2.8 on wards, there are the following hot keys while in Edit Mode:
1 for Vertex select
2 for Edge select
3 for Face select
You can add multiple active modes by holding Shift while pressing one of the 3 keys, allowing to activate all 3 at once if so desired.
Holding Ctrl on the other hand, when pressing 2 for example would limit the selection mode to the edge selection again, regardless which selection mode(s) was/were selected before.
Other then the direct hotkeys (not sure why the specific hotkeys are not shown), the information regarding the use of Shift and Ctrl can also be found by hovering over the icon for the selection modes.

This is based on the default installation of Blender 2.8+ addons can and have changed those hotkeys.
Should there be an issue with the default hotkeys, it's recommended to first go in the Blender Preferences and look under Keymap and search for 1.
In the Mesh section we find the Edit Mode related hotkeys:

marked red the important parts for in this case the vertex selection key-bind

Thank you so much, this should be the accepted answer

@Xylvier's method works best if you have a numpad section on your keyboard.
However, as a corollary, for those who are 1) on laptop using the emulated numpad and 2) like single, but not mixed modes, you can just set the first three by pressing, say Ctrl-1, -2 or -3 for these (or Shift-1, etc) as he shows for the existing 1, 2, and 3.
Normally, for most software, as he points out, Ctrl is use for toggling a feature.  Shift is for adding. But, for those of us who like single mode (vertex, edge or face - but not more than one mode) you simple use one of these prefixes for making this a unique keystroke.
The reason you use the prefix is so you don't mess with the views (you probably emulated 1 is for X, 3 for Y, etc).  Also, you probably don't want to "fix" the ones farther down in the list if you don't like to have more than one edit mode selected - they work in the sense that the don't do anything, since you don't have a numpad. That is, the ones with the extended and expand check boxes are probably what you don't want - unless you really want to try using the mouse to do multiple modes.
Hopefully useful for those of us on Macbooks that like the old single mode method.


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Material not displaying as expected
I'm trying to make progress on a work project that needs completing as soon as possible. I'm new to blender (one week of solid tinkering/learning) and I need some help.
I've got a couple simple materials that are giving me trouble. See attached images for an example and material setup.
How do I get the rendered version of "white" to look more like it does in the 3D View: white with highlights, not the blown out white in the render?

The problem is because you are trying to use Cycles shaders with the Blender Internal render engine.
Each render engine has its own way of handling materials, and these ways are usually incompatible with one another. Because of this, designing a material in one render engine, and then trying to render it with a different render engine won't work.
You need to make materials in the same render engine that you are going to use.
Switch into Blender Render and create a new material there, and your problem should go away.

My apologies for the late reply.
Deleting and recreating the materials for the object do in-fact seem to have solved the problem. Thanks for your help with this!


text:
Where's the textures folder?
At 13:05 in this video tutorial, Steve adds an image texture in node wrangler from a textures folder. I searched my computer for 2 hours in the Blender Foundation folder, and could not find any "textures" folder. Where is it? He chose a Metalbare.jpg file from it.  Zero search results for that file also. Can anyone tell me where to find these?

These textures don't come with Blender, so you won't ever find them in your Blender installation.
The textures are linked to in the video's description (click "Show More" underneath the video):
MetalBare0154.jpg
Smoke0379.jpg


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Why is the Texture Paint layers manager not switching slots
I'm on Windows 8.1 (surface pro2), with Blender 2.73a. I reinstalled blender and tested again, uninstalled again and installed latest 2.73a, tested again...
I seem to have followed every step in order to paint textures on my model (plain standard cube).
I can paint! Technically everything is working, but I cannot switch between the layers by clicking the brush icon in the Texture Paint Manager (N - Sidepanel when in texture paint mode). I can even toggle their visibility via the eye icon.
But when I switch via the brush icon (bpy.ops.object.set_active_paint_layer(tex_index=1)), it selects the texture in the properties window, but it doesn't switch the Paint Slots and thus I keep painting on the first layer, no matter where the brush icon displays.
Everything is working when I directly click on another Paint Slot in the left panel, but that's tiring because I have to switch back and forth between "Tools" to select a brush and "Slots" to switch layers.
Does anyone have an idea what's going on or can anyone reproduce that?

UVs are unwrapped
GSLS active (when in solid mode also textured solid activated)
display method texture (next problem: i cannot get f.e. bump map to display in solid mode)
light in scene
textures are named
files saved
see them in properties
The Paint Slots on the left are also visible
blender newly re-installed

A video to look at: (But things seemed to change to this version because I can't get the same results in Object mode with GLSL and Textured Solid - as I said - no bump map rendered)
http://cgcookie.com/archive/using-the-texture-paint-layer-add-on/

Since 2.72 texture painting was streamlined and the API changed. Bug reports should go to the tracker. You could split 3D Views for the tool shelf and preview. Example.

Thank you very much for the advice and sorry for being off topic.. i didnt know wether it was a bug or me being stupid.

It is not a bug - but this is something to do with using the Texture Paint Layer addon at the same time as the new feature of Texture Paint Slots. The OP could have uninstalled the add on and then pinned the Slots panel in place in the tool bar and used that only and gotten along fine.


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How to select all the vertexes with border select?
Hi guys I'm new to Blender, and have this question about selecting vertexes.
I tried to select all vertexes within a rectangle region by drawing the rectangle with mouse after pressing B in Top View, but I actually ended up with only selecting the vertexes that are closer to me.
Here are my steps:

After pressing B I selected multiple vertexes with drawing a rectangle:

I deleted them with X, but I see some in that region actually still exist:

You can see I actually only selected the upper 2 which were closer to me:

So is there a way to really do this? I'm using Blender 2.71, but I saw Jonathan could do it in this video (but he must be using an older version): CGCookie tutorial: Modeling a Shipping Container

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/5004/599

If you were in wireframe view like your screenshots suggest, this should have worked..

@gandalf3 thanks it worked! I just turned Wireframe mode on in the Cube panel at the right hand side but didn't notice it sometimes changes back to Texture.

The per-object draw settings shouldn't affect the selection, only the global viewport shading settings in 3D view > header (next to the mode selection drop down).

That is the regular behaviour of Blender. By default "Limit selection to visible (clipped with depth buffer)" is enabled.
When you disable the button I marked in the screenshot, select the vertices again, all four vertices will be selected.

Though in wireframe view, blender always selects all vertices, regardless of that setting.. As a matter of fact, it's not even available in wireframe view.


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How to make the game engine render stereo on 2 monitors?
I am trying to use the game engine to display side-by-side stereo on two monitors. Does anyone know how to do this?
I have been successful using the standalone player to display side-by-side stereo on a single monitor, but I need each image to go to the corresponding monitor.
Also, when I disable 'fullscreen', I have been able to make a large window (2x 1600) display across both monitors. The problem is that the player starts on the right-most monitor, forcing me to drag the window onto the left-most monitor. The window border is not desirable either.

You need to setup your desktop to "span" across both screens.
This way both screen areas will be treated as a single desktop. How to accomplish that depends on your OS and graphic card. A good way to test if it's working is to take any application (not-Blender) and see if maximizing it takes over both screens or only one of them.

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, it appears since Windows Vista NVIDIA display no longer offer a 'span' display option, in the old sense. 'Extend' is similar, allowing applications to make windows that cover multiple displays. However, Blender was not defining its game engine window to cover this distance. I modified the source and discovered the changes needed to support span of the GE window across multiple displays. I will work with the developers to contribute this feature addition.

There is a patch being worked on for BGE (on Windows) that allows you to span BGE (both in blender and in player). It is not yet accepted into Blender yet, but I'm quite confident it'll be added at some point. At the time of writing Blender 2.68 release is being prepared, so no further patches are accepted, but I imagine that after this release I could work with @dfelinto on reviewing and committing the patch (I've worked already with the developer of the patch to test).
From the linked thread you'll find builds to test with.


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Appending an object brings duplicated objects
I have a scene with three sets of three bricks, nine in total. I created eight of them by duplicating the first one and modifying them. In another scene I append one of the bricks. I get the brick I want plus the brick(s) that were used to create it.
How can I correct this?
In the bricks file I have tried Make duplicates real and also Make single user.

possibly related. http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/81/how-can-i-reuse-existing-materials-objects-etc-from-an-existing-blend

Can you delete the original brick, or is it part of the same object as the other ones?

iKlsR  Thanks but not really. My wall will have doglegs and I will need to edit the mesh bricks.

CharlesL. Yes that is the way. When I delete the first three bricks (the simplest ones) the other six can be appended without dragging any others into the scene.

To summarize the answers in the comments, it looks like you can solve the problem by simply deleting the erroneously copied brick(s).
To avoid this problem entirely in the future, you can used an Array modifier on the bricks, then separate them into individually manipulatable meshes using the techniques outlined at How can I use an array modifier to create individually manipulatable objects?.
A third option, depending on the kind of manipulation you are doing to the brick meshes, would be to automate the randomness of the bricks using a Displace modifier (applied after applying an Array modifier). In order to make each one of the bricks have a different deformation, set the Displace modifier setting 'Texture Coordinates' to object and select any object in your scene (though preferably an empty).

Thanks @Gwenn.
Replying in order of your answers. It was actually better to delete the bricks that were used for copying as this broke the link to the bricks that were copied. Also it is easier to create three bricks without chamfers than six bricks with only some edges chamfered.
Array modifier: Thanks for that, it will be useful.
Displace modifier: This will be useful in the future for ordinary walls.
This is a training exercise for me and I really appreciate the help in not just what to do but how to do it and with alternatives.
Much appreciated.
Stephen


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How to mix mesh and real footage in compositor?
How can I mix real footage and a 3D model that I've animated? Can this be done with the Compositor?
See the orange rectangle in the picture below for an example of what I mean.

Ths question is not much clear... try elaborating a bit more on what you wish to achieve...

mix a real footage and 3D Animation Mesh.

It's not clear exactly what you're asking, but you might want to take a look at this question for some related advice.

a real footage , dissolve a 3d Mesh

Sure it can be done :-)
http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15355/resources-for-blender


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Background Images not showing up!
I'm new to blender, and I've already gone to many forums looking for a solution to this problem. Please help!

welcome @PastelPuff. Please take a few minutes to look through the Rleated Links to the right on this page. If none of those get to the heart of the problem please edit your question with more information, the steps you go through, and preferably a screenshot. As it stands there are many ways to interpret your seemingly simple question.


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Can I change the size of the camera view?
Please let me know how to change the size of the camera view. The red dotted line of the square is too small for me.

Have you tried moving the camera so it captures more of the scene?

I decided like this: right button on camera, then Camera lens scale. All of the other tips are not working with the orthograthic view.

When you are in camera view and you have Lock Camera to View enabled, you won't be able to change the size or position of the camera relative to the 3D View.
If you have this setting enabled and you want to change the size or position of the camera within your view, you just need to disable the setting, move the camera around as desired, then turn the setting back on.
The Lock Camera to View setting is in the Properties menu (N) on the right side of the 3D View.

Thank for quickly answer! I could change the size! Thanks again.

You can use the middle mouse wheel to change the size of the camera screen in the viewport. To move the camera screen around, hold shift and the middle mouse button and drag your mouse.
If you actually want to move the camera, press shift and "f"  to enable the manual motion. In this mode, you can use W, A, S, D, and, Q and E to move the camera around your scene.

This doesn't appear to do what the question is asking for, namely changing the size of the camera view rectangle while viewing through the camera

The top two answers are correct, but I don't have a 'home' key and the second answer confused me at first, so here's an attempt to explain it a bit more clearly. To change the size of the rectangle, do these steps:

Ensure that "lock camera to view" is turned off. This can be found in the 'view' tab on the right-hand edge of the viewport window, press N to reveal it.

Ensure you're looking through the camera. (press ~, select "view camera". But you're probably looking through the camera already.)

if using a Mac, hold CMD and use two-finger scrolling on trackpad; on Windows, use ctrl + mouse wheel.

If this just moves the viewpoint, it means either "lock camera to view" is turned on or you're not looking through the camera. This action moves the viewpoint unless you're both looking through the camera and have "lock camera to view" turned off, in which case it changes the size of the preview box.
To reposition the camera preview within the viewport, again make sure you're looking through the camera and 'lock camera to view' is turned off, then hold shift and two finger scroll. (I don't know the Windows equivalent, maybe it's drag with the right mouse button.)

To pan and zoom the size and position of the camera view rectangle while in camera view mode (which you can enter by pressing numpad 0), use:
shift + middle mouse  --- pan by dragging the mouse around
ctrl + middle mouse --- zoom by dragging the mouse up and down
scroll wheel --- zoom in and out by scrolling the mousewheel
Make sure "lock camera to view" is off when you do that; if it's on, you'll pan and zoom the view instead of the camera view rectangle within your view. That setting is in the 3D view properties pane under "view". You can open and close that pane with the "n" key while the mouse is hovered over the 3D view.
If you need to change the aspect ratio of that rectangle (width and height), you can do that by selecting the camera and going to the "render" properties (hand held camera icon, the left most icon in the properties icon tray, at least for me) and changing the x and y values under "aspect ratio" in the "dimensions" panel of those properties.

This doesn't appear to do what the question is asking for, namely changing the size of the camera view rectangle while viewing through the camera

Yes it does. If you press numpad+0, you'll see the camera view rectangle and you'll be viewing through the camera, and while in that mode, you can change the size of the
camera rectangle on the screen either with ctrl + middle mouse + drag, or with scroll wheel as long as "lock camera to view" is off. If this is not what the question is asking for, what is it asking for? To change what is being viewed by the camera? That seems like a completely different question to me. To do that, you have use one of the ways to change the position of the camera in the scene.

It is possible to change the size of the Camera View in the Output Settings.

This doesn't appear to do what the question is asking for, namely changing the size of the camera view rectangle while viewing through the camera


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Cracks in texture
I'm importing an .obj from Agisoft photoscan into Blender. For some reason you can see lines in the texture - it appears to be the joints in the texture map and is still visible after rendering.
Can anyone tell me how to remove these joints?

Can you upload a screenshot of the UV editor with the Texture? or a .blend file with a portion of the object + texture?. Could be the lack of "pixel bleeding" in the uv's edges, so the filtering blends whatever color is outside the UVs, but could be something else.

I had this issue or perhaps a similar one. With my UV Map I had to add more bleed to the texture as a crisp bleed left a trail of missed stuff in some other programs I imported too.
It appear you're having the same issue. Try increasing bleed and see what happens.

I had the same problem with my 3d scan. How I fixed it was by unchecking "Use Alpha" in the texture options panel.

I was having this issue because I was exporting the texture as a png--exporting as a jpg fixed the problem. This may be an option for you.

check for duplicate vertices : enter the edit mode, select all the mesh and click remove duplicate vertices in the left toolbar.
Still in edit mode on the property bar go material, select each material and see the UV image editor is the unfolding of the mesh is correct : Select the material and the corresponding image in the UV image editor. the banks of the consequences should match the edges of the image .


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How to precisely set position in edit mode by typing in numbers?
In Object Mode, I can type in xyz coordinates using this menu:

What is the equivalent in Edit Mode, so I can precisely position the parts of an object?

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/274/how-to-model-effectively-using-exact-measurements. I'd say it's better to use Transform scroll in the N panel on the right of 3D View because it allows entering values for Object mode when in Object mode and for Edit mode respectively.

This answer is also related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/21182/2217

Both in Object Mode and in Edit Mode, you can use the Transform menu of the Properties Panel on the right-hand side of the 3D View (shortcut N).
If you have only one vertex selected, it will position that vertex precisely. If you have more than one selected, it will affect the median position of all the selected vertices.
Edit Mode:

Object Mode:


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Sun lamp shadows too sharp
I have a small army of zombies, with a sun lamp behind them. I set the sun from "No shadow" to "Ray shadow" and now the zombies have shadows. But the shadows are much too sharp. I changed the world settings to give indirect lighting, and gave it 3 bounces, but it didn't seem to affect it.
Is there a way to make the shadows from the sun more blurred, less sharp?

Try adding another lamp, perhaps a hemi or area lamp - to simulate bounced lighting.

Use the Lamp > Shadow > Soft Size setting. By default for a sun lamp, it is set to 0.1, which produces sharp shadows. Increasing that number will make the shadows cast by that lamp softer.

Note: in order for you to see the softer shadows in your render, you need to increase the Lamp > Shadow > Samples value to something higher than 1.
Example: Soft Size = 0.1

Example: Soft Size = 5.0

I thought i tried that, and it did nothing, but I looked at it again and it wasn't touched, sooo...
Ah ha! It still did nothing, so I reread your answer, and I saw I had to mess with some other settings too (like sampling :P)

This approach simulates a penumbra, with each sample helping define an intermediate gradient within the penumbra.


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How can I lay down an object on a plane?
I am creating a scene with different objects scattered around, as if they were laid down on the floor, and I found that one of my objects it not touching the plane (the monkey head in the back).

So I have to move really up close to the object (then at some point the zoom strength slows down, not sure why), spin the scene around so as to be have my view aligned with the plane, then move it little by little.

But it's a Monkey head, so there's the jaw part, and there's the back of the head.
So after I align the jaw, I see that the back of the head isn't laid down on the plane, just the jaw is.

So I rotate, grab the object up on the Z axis... then the jaw isn't touching anymore...
And then I thought "wait, there's got to be a simpler way to do this".

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/8328/snap-face-to-grid , http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/22888/how-to-place-any-object-on-the-floor-of-a-scene

One solution is to use Blender's rigid body physics simulation. Basically, you simulate the object falling and settling on the floor from gravity.
In the Properties > Physics panel, turn on both Collision and Rigid Body for both your floor object and the object you want to lay down.

For the floor object, change the rigid body Type to Passive.

Press AltA to animate the physics simulation. You should see object fall down to the floor and eventually come to rest. Press AltA again to stop the animation. If you want to apply the final position to all frames, select the object and press CtrlA>Visual Transform, then turn off the physics for those objects in the Physics panel.

Depending on your object, you may need to use "Mesh" as a collision shape in the rigid body settings.

@Gwenn your answer is great, thanks a lot. Not only easy to do, but also fun to look at as it happens.


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How to adjust light's strength in LuxRender?
I have just installed LuxRender. I know how to do change the strength of lamps with Cycles but it seems that settings change for each render engine. Could someone please help me to adjust the light's strength in LuxRender?

Firstly, I'm not sure that LuxRender is within the scope of this forum. You might have better luck over at http://www.luxrender.net/forum
That being said, I might still be able to help. LuxRender is very much based on the way light works in the real world. Consequently, adjusting the intensity of the lights is not terribly straightforward.
Under emission settings, "Power" is the wattage of your light source: 40 = ~40 watt light bulb. For that reason, size matters. 40 watts spread over a large area won't be as bright.
Under emission settings, "Efficacy" is lumens per watt. Not sure exactly how this changes the light besides making it lighter or darker, but I have to believe it does something else, too.
Under emission settings, "Gain" is a multiplier for the "Power" setting. Setting gain to 2.0 will double the power of a light source. I have to believe that this isn't the same as just setting the power twice as high, but I don't know what it is.
In short, lowering any of these numbers will make your lightsource dimmer.
HOWEVER, LuxRender is VERY much based on the way light works in the real world. Consequently, your camera isn't just a viewport. It also has an exposure setting, tonemapping, white balance, and other things that will affect how bright the lights appear. If you watch animations done in LuxRender (like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVK7W0SXre4), many of them look like the exposure is being adjusted... because it is, automatically. LuxRender automatically chooses a sensible exposure level based on a number of factors, so you might have to tweak that to get the look you want.
Check these out:
http://www.luxrender.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7135
http://blenderdiplom.com/en/tutorials/385-tutorial-introduction-to-lighting-in-luxrender.html
Hope that helps!

Thank you Mattt. I am still grappling with the settings. It seems "GAIN" doesn't change the emission much ( I haven't noticed anything yet) the only thing I've noticed  is when i set it to zero. then luxredner doesn't even run.which I think is logical because there is no light to trace. I think "GAIN" acts like a binary setting. it turns light either on or off.

According to the documentation, that's not (or at least shouldn't be) the case. Gain is typically a relative setting, like the gain on a mic. If there's only one light in the scene, then there aren't any other lights for it to be "little brighter" than, so it'll just stay the same brightness.

LuxRender isn't the most intuitive renderer, but it's one of the fastest and most accurate renderers available.

That's exactly why I am trying to learn it. I was trying to do it through trial and error. I think I need to spend some time perusing the documentation and tutorials then I'll start over. Thank you.


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How can I make boids move along a path?
I'm making a flock of birds with boids.  I want them to move along a path.
I tried curve guide, but they always move away from the curve.  If I make the particles Newtonian, then they follow the curve, but not boids. I want to use boids because I need them to be separate and flock reaching a goal.

You could have them follow a "leader". You could create an Empty and have them follow that.  Your Empty could follow the curve.  "Follow Leader" is one of the rules in the Boid Brain section.

Where do you find and set these rules for boids? What is the complete list?


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Play 3 sounds with aud and wait between them
I want to play 3 audio files in the Blender Game Engine.

Play File 1
Wait 3 seconds
Play File 2
Wait 4 seconds
Play File 3

If I use time.sleep the blender game window doesn't update. There is another problem: I can only play one file with device.play(file1) and aud. After that the script doesn't continue. I want to start the script when the program is started. How can I do that?

You can play multiple files with the same device, what you need are multiple factories and handles. Use a class, put the device as a global variable or as a class attribute and the handle and factory as instance attributes.
To knwo when the file ends check in a low frquency loop (Always sensor with skip > 10) if the status of the handle is false, if it is, it means that the file has ended and that you can play the next one.


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Issue with Subdivide in 2.5
Having to use 2.5 for reasons I won't go into, I'm having an issue with subdivide affecting other unselected faces.  I wasn't having this issue before so I'm not sure what caused it to pop up.  Image:

I only want to subdivide the selected surface, not the others.  I'm not sure why it's cutting them into triangles, either.  Any tips?

As far as I remember in ngons were introduced in 2.63. When you say that you never experienced this issue before, were you referring to 2.5 or later builds?

2.5 can't handle N-gons
Subdividing a single face implies that each edge of its boundary is getting new edges and vertices too. This means that the faces in the neighborhood are increasing their edge count.
If the subdivision process brings the faces to have a number of edges, like in your case, greater than 4, you are creating an ngon.
N-gons has been supported only since 2.63 (see Release notes).
 Before that version only quads and triangles were handled. That's why you see the subdivision.

Wow, those release notes are like reading a stone age cave wall on the invention of the wheel!


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Delete "doubles" on different object
I have two objects, call them Object 1 and Object 2. The snap vertices threshold (min distance between vertices) is 0.001.
I want to delete all the vertices of Object 2 that:

have the same location with any vertices of Object 1,
or have the distance from any vertices of object 1 < threshold (=0.001)

This would be like removing doubles, but it would only compare vertices of Object 2 with vertices of Object 1 then only delete vertices from Object 2
What is a method for easily doing this?

Probably only possible with python, adding the tag

How tp deal with objects that share a mesh? Remove a vert from one and it's removed for all objects using that mesh.

thank you for your help, the 2 object i use should never share a mesh, so we don't have to worry about that, could you please tell me how to run a python script that have no user interface like this ? i searched google but i'm not sure ,thanks ) sorry because i have never use script that does not have user interface,

Here is a bit of a brute force approach, base object is context object, checks global vert positions against those of other mesh objects in the context.selected_objects collection.
import bpy
import bmesh
# tolerance to use
TOL = 0.001

context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene

base_obj = context.object
base_mesh = base_obj.data

bbm = bmesh.new()
bbm.from_mesh(base_mesh)

# a list of global locations of base_mesh_object verts
locs = [base_obj.matrix_world * v.co for v in bbm.verts]

#meshes of selected objecst that aren't base_mesh
mesh_objs = [o for o in context.selected_objects
               if o.type == 'MESH'
               and o != base_obj and o.data != base_mesh]
# their meshes
meshes = [o.data for o in mesh_objs]

for o in mesh_objs:
    def tol(v1, v2):
        return (v1 - v2).length < TOL

    # are there other objects sharing this mesh?
    if meshes.count(o.data) > 1:
        # what to do?
        print("passing on ", o.name)
        continue

    bm = bmesh.new()
    #bm.from_object(o, scene)
    bm.from_mesh(o.data)
    update = False
    for v in bm.verts:
        # find if any global v pos match our list
        rem = [l for l in locs if tol(o.matrix_world * v.co, l)]
        # if so remove
        if len(rem):
            update = True
            bm.verts.remove(v)

    if update:
        bm.to_mesh(o.data)

    bm.free()

A bounding_box search to eliminate objects that can't have  corresponding verts.  Would make an interesting live edit operator.
Somewhat related https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/40979/15543

Thank you very much , I did not expect an answer so soon , i'll try it

could you please tell me how to run a python script that have no user interface like this ? i searched google but i'm not sure it's the correct way ,thanks, sorry because i have never use script that does not have user interface , i have to rename "context" object to "object1" right ? (object1 is the object that vertices are not deleted)

text editor, make a new text, paste script in.  Right click and choose run script.  Always save before running scripts, just in case.

Python for blender is installed with blender.  You don't need to install python on your system to run the script.  By text editor I mean the blender text editor area.

Thank you i found the text editor :D but please tell me how i let the script know which object is object1, which is object2 (i guess object2 is the selected object ,right ?) sorry for asking too much because i tried rename object but it still not work

It works on selected mesh objects (outlined in red (default theme) , the last selected is the context.object (outlined in orange)  The context object is the base object (object1).  Will remove corresponding verts from the other selected mesh objects.

Thank you so much, i 'll try it :) i really appreicate your efforts


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How do I make a 2D image move smoothly across the screen in a video?
I am trying to make it so a 2D image simply slides across the screen in a video I am trying to make.  This isn't just one video, but many, as I have not yet found a solution to this problem... perhaps because I don't use Blender for a 3D Editor, I don't know.
If I try and take an image larger than my video output, regardless of the options I pick, the image is always cropped to the size of the video output.  So, if I have something that's 3k by 4k on a 1920*1080 video, the usable space is always 1920*1080.  Either the image is smooshed into the screen's resolution, or only a portion of the image can be used with Blender simply cropping off everything outside of the video resolution.
Quite separately, I tried to get around this issue by making multiple instances of 1920*1080 sections of the picture and having them move at the same rate next to each other as two or more different images.  For example, altering the X or Y on a Transform Strip for either of them and simply having them move at the same frames from their own Point A to Point B.  But, no matter what I do, the two images each seem to have their own "momentum", speeding up and slowing down as relating to something I can't wrap my head around.  They seem to build up to speed and then slow down when getting to their destination.  They do not move at a constant rate from Point A to Point B and so they create either a gap or overlap between them, usually both across the movement of the images.
So, if someone could help me, I'm looking for one of two solutions to do the same thing visually: 1) Have one large 2D image than I can pan around as no big deal which would be ideal, or 2) Instruct me how to make images moving across the screen move and a constant and even rate to achieve the same effect, rather than having them speed up and slow down.  Honestly, I have uses for both of those answers.
I'm new to Blender, at least for a year now, and essentially only know of it as a free Video Editor... so if the only way to do this is by using the 3D aspects of the program, I guess I would ask for links to a resource?  I'd like to keep myself in 2D if possible as my background is in drawing and video...
Thanks for your time.

For the second question, go to a graph editor and change the animation curves interpolation type to constant (I think via "T"), it's a Bezier curve by default which has this speed up and slow down.


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Raytraced transparency not showing other transparent materials beneath?
I've tried and tried to figure out what setting I'm missing, and I'm starting to believe that maybe it just doesn't work. I'm using the internal Blender Render. I have a subtle blend transparency for my eyelashes on this model, and a "wet" transparent sphere around the eyeballs (separate from the eyes). When the lens of the glasses, with raytraced transparency for refraction, are in front of the eyelashes and eyespheres they don't render at all. If I change from raytraced to z-transparency, they render properly, but I don't have that nice refraction to make the lenses look more realistic. Any idea on how to solve this? I'll upload the .blend if requested.
Here's a render of each uploaded to imgur for reference.
Z-Transparency:

Raytraced:

Is "Receive Transparent" checked under the Shadow properties of the wet eyeball material? It might need to be checked so that a light can shine through the glass.

Thanks Spencer. I believe it is enabled, but I'm away from my computer at the moment and can't check until I get off work tonight. I tried different combinations of enabling receive transparent with the lenses, eyelashes, and eyeballs and doesn't get the right result. Is there anything else that might be the issue?

Not that I can think of... I do most of my renders with Cycles which would handle this case correctly.

My computer isn't the best, so Cycles takes a ridiculously long time to render anything decent compared to Blender Render.

Are you absolutely sure that, if not rendered across the lenses, those details are actually rendered in raytraced mode? any further investigation requires the file (or at least a sample which behaves in the same way)...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lzz7xm11omc6bcl/Face_Hairadditions_112415.blend?dl=0
There you go. If you don't have a dropbox account, just click "no thanks, continue" or the X when it asks you to sign in. I'm not sure what is a good site to upload .blends to. Hopefully it works, I don't think I packed the textures or whatever I'm supposed to do. Thanks.

Whoops, I believe that file is with the lenses using Z transparency, because it's the only one I could get to work. You'll need to switch it to raytraced.

You should check the Traceable property on the Eye_transparent material. This allows the material to be evaluated during raytracing calculations and will therefore let the specular highlight on the Eye_transparent geometry be seen through the raytraced glass.
This isn't strictly related to your original question, but I'd also recommend enabling mirror raytracing on your lens material to increase their realism. I recommend setting reflectivity to 1, fresnel to 3.5 and blend to 1.15. Fresnel reflectivity is really important to capture accurately for a realistic render, particularly for glass and water materials. I also think that your skin material could benefit from lowering the subsurface scattering radius a little bit. This is just my two cents and of course for a glass material to look really good it has to have an environment to reflect.

Oh I absolutely appreciate it. The only thing I'm decent at is modeling so I'll take any tips on rendering, texturing, everything. Thank you, I'll try that when I get home.


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Unable to GPU render with Mac
I keep getting an error when trying to render Cycles using GPU:

error: CUDA error: Out of memory in cuLaunchKernel (cuPathTrace, xblocks , yblocks, 1, xthreads, ythreads, 1, 0, 0, args, 0)

I am using the latest version of Blender, but have experienced this problem in every version so far.
I am on an iMac (from late 2012) with 8GB Ram, using Nvidia GeForce GTX 675MX 1024MB.
Even the simplest of scenes seems to produce this error.
According to the documentation my card should work for GPU rendering.
How can I fix this error?

How much memory does the render take on cpu? If it's more than 900mb there might not be enough memory left in your GPU given the OS is using some of the memory as well.

Thanks guys, I guessed I was stuck on cpu, but thanks for confirming that

i had the same problem. Same mac and 2.77 blender version.
I found the tips in this post https://developer.blender.org/T42287 Now i'm rendering in blender cycles with blender 2.71a on GPU. sometime my imac has a crash and need to restart..


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Problem with two displace (bottom of the sea and continents)
I need mountains on land, but how? I already have one displace (bottom of the sea). Some advice, please?

Sorry for maybe stupid question. I am beginner and Czech, this is deadly combination.

Did you render this image or is this a reference? Please also describe the problem in more detail. Do you have both displacement maps but they aren't providing you with the result you want, or are you looking for textures... what is the nature of your problem?

You can add a second displacement modifier for the land, though I really doubt you need it. Mountains aren't that high compared to the earth. For example, the height of the Mount Everest is less than 0.1% of the diameter of the earth. So if you would have an image of the earth where the earth has a diameter of 1000 pixels, the mount everest would be less than a pixel high.

I know that, I dont want realism. :-)

TLousky: Thanks for interest, I already know, what to do. Its about do my own displacement map to get what i want. :-)

If I get your question right, since displacement can have many levels...(positive and negative, it depend on the "midlevel" you choose), you could displace with an image that could displace both sea depth and land height (mountains): in the image below, with midlevel 0.5, white is above Z=0, black is below Z=0, gray is in the middle (to get Z=0 you need a perfect middle grey, so RGB(0.5,0.5,0.5))

Can this concept work in your setup?
Since you unaccepted this answer, I guess it doesn't help you really. It's ok.
To the benefit of other readers, too, looking for similar results, I'll add a more "realistic" example with a plane (I know a globe is not as simple, but a plane is simpler to understand), though, to better visualize how it can be done: it is just matter to have at least a very good gradient.
Let's build an "Island"...
I took a height map from http://www.reallusion.com/iclone/Help/EarthSculptor/Image/Utilizing_Height_Map_05.jpg
this:

and then

used it as is to create displacement on a plane
made a colored copy to texture the displacement

UV map of the texture:

then you could also paint over the UV texture to "adapt" it to your land/seascape

Now I get it! :-) Many thanks. It was silly question from me. I must do my own displacement map.

the only silly question is the question not asked, if you ask me :) about the map, of course your job will be hard, a whole planet with that detail is going to crunch your pc...

Less detail, understand :-)


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Execute script after change in particle count?
I have the active object's particle count property laying out as it's own toolbar panel.
I'd like to have a script execute every time the user changes the particle count. Is it possible? I've heard of handlers, but can't seem to figure it out.
Here's the script I want to execute every time the particle count changes.
if bpy.context.scene.frame_current == 1:
    bpy.context.scene.frame_set(0)
    bpy.context.scene.frame_set(1)

Maybe add a custom property? Use modal operators?

try creating your own var with a setter and getter , when the user change this var you execute your code and change the particle count

Can you please provide an example. I can tweak it up after. Much thanks.


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Video stitching Blending in real time
I went through some blending techniques like alpha blending, weighted blending, pyramid blending and Poisson blending and mixture gradient blending.
I have come to a conclusion that pyramid blending cannot be used in real time but don't know whether there are more blending techniques available than these as they are somewhat old?