Hide panels with python How to hide panels with python? I want to make quick hiding for better viewing.

Here is what I want to hide:

Currently the Python API can't handle opening and closing panels (it's not exposed).

Related: Is it possible to expand/collapes all panels in a region with a keystroke or shortcut?

The only thing you can do with python is to toggle by calling operators:

bpy.ops.view3d.properties()
bpy.ops.view3d.toolshelf()

They need the right context though, so they need to be called from the 3dview area or the context needs to be overwritten. This will toggle all panels in all 3d_views inside window:

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
        context_copy = bpy.context.copy()
        context_copy['area'] = area
        bpy.ops.view3d.properties(context_copy)
        bpy.ops.view3d.toolshelf(context_copy)

You don't need python to quickly hide. Just make sure your mouse is in 3D view zone and press N to hide/unhide right panel and T to hide/unhide left panel. But, if you need full 3D view, you can select that layout on the top...


Customized time stamp / clock Is it possible to create a customized time stamp on the video? By customized I mean an arbitrary hour:minute:second that would count up time (24 fps)? The Metadata stamp is useless for this purpose, since it will stamp current system time at the end of each frame render, which depends on render time anyway.

Metadata should give the following:

Time gives timecode as HH:MM:SS.FF (This will depend on the framerate you set in the render settings.)
Date gives the system date and time.
RenderTime gives the time taken to render the frame.
Frame gives the frame number.

You could affect the timecode by sliding your scene to the desired timepoint in the VSE and render from there.


Why do objects move around separately even after parenting? I was following the good ol' doughnut tutorial on Youtube and came across a quick problem.

After assigning Child & Parent connections from the 'Icing' and 'Bun' I found that when grabbing the object, the icing moves around on it's own even though the two are now connected.

Pressing Ctrl+J makes them both one shape, but in this instance I would like to keep the objects separate.

In the tutorial after setting the Child and Parent, he is able to move both around and fixed together. I will attach a link to the video.

https://youtu.be/ZTxBrjN1ugA?t=210

I have attached an image also detailing the problem, any help is appreciated!

Make sure proportional editing (hotkey O) is turned off.

You might consider applying scale and rotation to both, then using the world origin (where the 3D cursor is after pressing ⇧ Shift +  C as the origin of both objects (Object > Set Origin > Origin to 3D Cursor).
Then both objects should move in sync. You can always change object origin to edit.


Add the Same Modifier to Multiple Objects at Once? Is it possible to add a modifier to more than one mesh at once?

I have a lot of unique objects,  and I want to set a subdivide modifier to them, would I have to do each one individually?

I have tried selecting all the objects and then adding a modifier, but as I expected, it only added it to the active object.

You cannot use the modifier panel to apply a modifier to multiple objects, it only applies it to the one selected last. However, you can use Ctrl + L to copy the modifier on one mesh to all the other selected ones. You select the object(s) to apply the modifier to then the one that has the modifier.

Update:
Cool new trick thanks to Greg Zaal

If you Alt-Click on a property, it’ll work on all the selected objects at once, not just the active object. This works on most properties, including modifiers (as long as all the modifiers have the same name, which they do by default).

Download Smart Join Addon

Select the mesh (wheel) and click on smart join (it temporary join all the selected mesh). You can now move all the join mesh and add any modifier to all the join mesh.
If you want to separate the mesh just click the separate s. join

If you want to edit the join mesh click on the expand smart join and after finishing the editing click on collapse smart join.


Image sequence texture: no preview? I have a material assigned to a few test objects with an image sequence as a texture. If I view the scene in render preview, and scrub the timeline, (or render a sequence,) the texture behaves as expected.

However, with the viewport set to 'texture' or 'material' I only see the first frame of the sequence, wherever I am on the timeline. 'Auto Refresh' is set in the cycles texture node. Is this the expected behaviour?

Unfortunately yes, that is the expected behavior (or call it a limitation, or a missing feature, or a bug...). Images used as part of the material currently refresh only on rendered view in Cycles.

If you switch back to Material Shading or any of the other OpenGL shading views int he viewport, the material will only show last image displayed in rendered view.

Editing the material will also force a refresh, but only for the current frame.

As an alternative (or to use as reference) you use an empty as image and use an image sequence, or video file, it will refresh correctly regardless of shading mode in the viewport. (see this link: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/13897/1853)

Images used as background will also refresh fine.

Note that images used as background and empties used as images are meant for reference only, and will display in the 3D viewport but are not renderable.

Hey bro this question is 2 years old , blender 2.8 did not exist at that time and i have noticed that you latest post is like 1 hour ago which means that you are active sooo..probably this could help , if you are adding an image sequence to a plane changing repeat to clip , linear to closest checking auto refresh and increasing last frame to desired last frame , Now in blender 2.8 , it works!!!check that out , came to this question to find its solution but found it out myself in the process , videos wont work , image sequences are necessary


Color management affetcs video sequencer I try to match my scene to a reference video (which I have loaded into the Video sequence editor) by changing settings in the Color management tab such as contrast, exposure or gamma. However, this also affects the clip in the Sequencer. How can I prevent this or use another color management for the video sequencer?

Press N in the Sequencer and in the Side Panel Just head over to Modifiers and add any modifier you want to add to manage your look of the clip
Hope this may Solve your Problem


UV auto update not working I created my UV texture file and it is displaying fine in the UV/Image Editor window, but it is not showing up on the model.

In every tutorial and every where I've checked on the web it is supposed to auto update on the model and there is even an "Update Automatically" check box, which is ticked, but not working.

Any idea how to fix this? Thanks

Ignore the properties window, adding it as a texture should only be necessary for final renders, to my understanding.

I discovered my fault.
the auto update texture only works while selecting your model on the EDIT MODE of the 3d View window, then selecting the desired texture on the UV/Image Editor window.
i was selecting the texture without entering edit mode. :9


What are the technical differences between F12 render and viewport preview? What are the technical differences between F12 render and viewport preview render, if any?

This is all the documentation I could find about Cycles viewport rendering:

  interactive rendering can be started by setting a 3D view editor to draw mode Rendered. The render will keep updating as material and object modifications are done.

The differences between render operator and viewport render are that the viewport render has:

Blender Internal

No motion blur (sampled)
No panorama camera mode
No anti-aliasing

Eevee

Uses the Viewport sampling setting
No Overscan (see Objects, shadows and reflections not rendering in EEVEE)
Unlike Cycles, motion blur is previewed (only in camera view)

Cycles

No motion blur
No tiled rendering.
Uses preview progressive samples setting.
Render layer settings will be ignored.
Pause and resume
Uses dynamic BVH by default.See Why is rendered viewport faster than rendering individual frames? and What does static/dynamic BVH do?

All

No compositing.
Modifiers and objects preview settings are used:

Object render/preview visibility options.
modifier render/preview visibility options.
subsurf preview/render resolution.
multires preview/render resolution.
curve/metaball preview/render resolution

Particle display percentage is used.
A preview can be made from any view-port, a render can only be made from a camera object.
No way to save output (except for a screenshot).

Note: I'm not sure if this list is complete, these may not be the only differences.

The big difference is:

when use F12 Render, blender engine will render your scene using your settings(like motion blur,mist, complicated light and effects) ignoring your hardware limitation, blender engine will draw your scene(very slow ...very quick...not matter.. will draw it).

When use viewport rendering, blender is limited to hardware limitation and OpenGL abilities which blender uses it.

You can render your scene by blender engine or Viewport rendering, but to get same result, you need to use many tricks in viewport rendering mode to get same result of rendering by F12.

So:
F12: Easy Design, Slow Rendering(depends on your hardware and scene).

View port Render: Hard Design, Very fast rendering(it's big and wonderful challenge)

cute scenes BY viewport rendering


Whats problem with my model faces Whats problem with my model faces. I have tried all Normal faces, recalculated inside and some time outside yet to not get success. My file is attached and a screen shot i hope there is addon that can make everything clear

In places, where you see darker shading, inner faces are to close to outer faces. Try to get better geometry (similar to the other side of your object, with smooth curve in upper corners) and then use solidify modifier, but if you don't want to repeat this process, you can just set Transformation Orientation to Normal and pull inner faces in problematic areas a little more inside or outer a little more outside.

I found the good solution maybe ever body like it. After doing flip normal, recalculation inside and outside. Try this

select the model in edit model
press N to open the panel
go down in shading section ---
just check mark ------------- "Backface Culling"
.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thats it...............


2.79 vs. 2.8 F6 key to recall menu When I add a new shape a context window shows up with some useful settings to the new object, but as soon as I move or pan, or even accidentally, such additional menu disappears.

In the 2.79 Blender I used F6 key to recall it.
How about the new release?

The shortcut is F9 or you can access it through Edit > Adjust Last Operation.

Quoting from the Manual:

After an operation is complete you can tweak the parameters of the operation afterwards. In editors that support it, there is a “head-up display” panel in the bottom left based on the last performed operation; dependent on mode and context. Alternatively, you can create a pop-up with F9 which does the same thing.

I don't want to tell you something wrong but for what I found, it's like they removed this thing.

I found the proof here: https://cgcookie.com/t/1340-ended-bc1-1808-august-2018-class-homepage-getting-started-with-3d-modeling-blender-2-8?page=4

Saying:

  " When you start to use an operator, the appropriate floating Operator
  Panel - the one you used to have to call up by tapping F6 - now
  appears in the viewport automatically.  There is no docked panel in
  the Toolbar anymore. "

Hope that I didn't tell you something wrong


Rotate a cube to make it stand on one of its corners Kind of a theorical question here.
I would like to know how you would rotate a cube so it stands on one of its tops.
I finally managed to do it but probably not in a proper way, and as i'm curious to improve my workflow, I ask you.

Maybe there is a "mathematical" way to compute the Y angle; or even better, would there be a "blender" way to do it even more quickly ? (with snapping or something)

Thanks !

Somewhat better non-mathematical solution:

Extrude one of the side edges along the 'Z axis' and split the extrusion with Y.
Set cursor location with Shift+S and pivot point with comma.
Enable vertex snapping, set 'Edge' snap element and 'Active' snap target.
Select the main object with L and make one vertex active with Shift-Click.
Rotate in front view and side view.

That's how it looks:

Fast---

In object mode ortho 1, rotate cube by eye so vetex is in line with axis. Zoom in if you want to be accurate.

Go to ortho 3 and repeat.

Good enough for me.

... or have I missed something?


How to add a sky in cycles? Im still taking baby steps with Blender (2.69)
I was hoping to add a sky to my scene using the settings mentioned in the help.

I have a sun lamp in my scene, but I cant spot where the options are for adding sky and atmosphere.

I know this is a basic question, but can someone point this out for me and provide some steps on how to add a sky to a scene?

In Cycles the settings for a background do not work the same as BI.
Add a Sky Texture in Properties > World if you want an automatically generated sky, or use an Environment texture for using an HDR image as the sky.
To "connect" a node to the backround color from the properties editor, click the little dot next to the color field, then select the type of node:

Note that you will have to manually align it to your sun lamp, or try this addon.
The best technique I have found for manually aligning the sky texture is:

Select your lamp and press . and then CtrlShiftNumpad 7 to align the view looking straight into the lamp:

Make sure you are in perspective view (Numpad 5 to toggle) and enable viewport rendering (ShiftZ)

Click and drag on the sphere in the sky texture node settings to rotate the sky texture until it is lined up with the view:

Make sure that the transparent checkbox is unchecked in properties editor > render settings > film section, too.

If it is checked, then an added sky can disappear! Well, its still there technically, but not visually.


Unable to export object to 3ds file I recently downloaded some models from the internet and I'm trying to export them to 3ds files. However, when I'm exporting them, I get an error saying:

object %r cannot be exported to a 3ds file

And, well, I'm a noob when it comes to blender, so I was wondering if somebody could fix this problem and get the two models exported to 3ds files.

This is one of the models. The other one I need exported to a 3ds file is included in the .zip file. (I need both of them exported to a 3ds file.)

You can download the models here.

Your models exceeded the max polygon limit for 3ds files, which is currently 65536. I've decimated the models for you to go below that number. You can download the zip here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mwxzr447792digb/Dragons.zip?dl=0

If you would like a more detailed explanation regarding 3ds exporting please visit this thread:

Export object to a 3ds file error

Have a nice day!

My solution is to apply Triangulate modifier before exporting.


Blender 2.8. Hotkey for selecting transform manipulators How to bind hotkeys to transform manipulator in Blender 2.80?

I want to customize them like in Maya, but i can't find them in input tab

This feature is not implemented in Blender 2.80 Alpha 2


Why does voronoi texture switch use intensity coloring when ramped? I am using a voronoi texture set to position coloring to drive a displacement modifier.  But I want to control the interpolation of the texture with a color ramp.  However when I go to the texture panel and check ramp the effect of the displacement modifier seems to switch to intensity coloring, even though the texture is still set to position.  Why does it do this and how can I ramp a position voronoi texture?

Here is the texture setup with no ramp, working as expected:

Here is the texture setup when I check ramp, the displacement now seems to be using intensity:

Also notice that the preview has gone blank, I have no idea why.

This is the kind of result I would like to achive:

This was made using the experimental cycles true displacement option, which is not an option for my final application.

The ramp color dominates the Voronoi [position] as we have witnessed.

Design or Defect? Why? Perhaps the Blender Foundation can be asked.

The Blender Render texture settings can desaturate the position Voronoi colors to gray.
Once a gray is achieved the Blender Render can change colors based on a mapping space such as UV with a ramp.

The texture settings ramp can NOT change a color randomly based on a previous color, that information is not present.  That is a feature of the node systems.

The visual similarity of the color ramp in the Cycles Material Nodes and the Blender internal material/texture ramp is deceiving.  The Cycles node color ramp produces a color based on an input.  The Blender internal Material/Node color ramp specifies a color in a texture coordinate space which can be used to blend.

You wrote

[ I want something like if I put a cells Voronoi texture through a color ramp in the cycles node editor].  The texture settings of the material/texture without nodes cannot do this.

Perhaps we are using Cycles nodes so much we forget the old lesser capabilities of Blender Internal Material Textures.

It appears we are looking for a feature in the wrong place.

The node system of Blender Render can recolor a Voronoi texture based purely on color.

The node system of Cycles Render can recolor a Voronoi texture based purely on color.

Of course stating the some feature is not present in some area of Blender is a dangerous act.


Bloom effect with a transparent background? I'm trying to use this render as an overlay on an image in Photoshop. I tested blend modes in photoshop, but didn't get the result I was looking for. When I set the alpha to transparency in the scene settings it just rendered the object but not the bloom.

This is the expected result but the black would be transparent:

When I do set the alpha to transparent I get this w/o the bloom:

Right now it isn't possible to render bloom on a transparent background, because the render results use premultiplied alpha.

So, what are some other methods of creating bloom on a transparent background that doesn't involve compositing in blender. I don't care what program I have to use to solve this problem.

Thanks.

I have tested many different combinations.
The best way to achieve it is to use post compositing.

With cycle follow the node setup with red arrows.
I also tried EEVEE, there is a BloomCol pass that you can check,
but this pass does not have tranparency, so using this or doing an alphaover node would kill your transparency. It does look fancier out of box.

but for transparency I think cycles is easier.
I am sorry if it looks messy, as I just figured it out, so I do not want to destroy my node setup.


Problem with rigging after object rotation I am making a simple door opening animation with door handles pulling down.  Everything worked fine

until I selected everything and tried to rotate the door around the Z axis.

How do i fix this?

I don't know, but I would try to use parenting to make a hierarchy. By doing this you need only to move one object, and the rest will follow.

Note the differences in the outliner:


Nvidia Quadro K1100M. No GPU listed There is no GPU listed in Compute Device section in my Blender 2.77a x64 under Windows 7 in order to render using Cycles. I have a notebook that is equipped with NVIDIA Quardo K1100M, with computing capability of 3.0. I downloaded the driver from NVIDIA website, 362.13-quadro-grid-desktop-notebook-win8-win7-64bit-international-whql.exe, and performed the update with no problem. How can I get Blender to detect my graphics card as it is listed as a supported device here and here.

From what I can find, that graphics card doesn't support CUDA or OpenGl... When you start Blender, does the Command Prompt display something like:

Buggy display driver! Disabling OpenCL!

If so, there is really nothing you can do.


Array Modifier creates something that exports as single mesh, how to create same through group/parent/etc? I'm using Blender for Unity3D game asset creation.  The Array Modifier does something great (see below) that I would love to be able to do for arbitrary collections of objects.  I'm hoping someone might provide instructions / pointers / plugin / ... to help achieve!  So...

An unapplied Array Modifier creates an entity that behaves like a single mesh during export but can still be modified easily (e.g. change the curve, parameters, etc).

I wish to 'group' arbitrary objects to export the same way (possibly sub-including the results of an Array Modifier).

A concrete example

A table comprises legs and top.

The legs are identical so array-ed or group instanced (depending upon layout).  (Those legs might internally use Curve Modifier which we want to tweak in the future and their spacing might also need tweaking (picture doing this with a long curving fence if you're thinking manual answers!)).
On export, the arrayed legs appear as a single mesh (which appears in Unity3D as a single GameObject).  Perfect!

The table top needs including (otherwise its separation degrades performance due to requiring an extra draw call).

Group-ing in Blender does nothing (that I can tell?).
Parent-ing them merely produces same parenting in Unity = same performance issue.
Join-ing them will make the single object but prevent easy future modification.

Potentials

My research found is-it-possible-to-group-several-objects-and-then-manipulate-them-scale-rotate which suggests both parenting and grouping but otherwise nothing.

The only potentials I see involves temporarily joining before / during export.  This seems annoying overhead.  'Before' requires keeping the blend files outside Unity losing the lovely auto-update.  IIUC Unity imports blend files through some magic Blender-invoking that does an FBX export.  'During' might involve some programming hooks that might join things during that export but not modify the original file?

All thoughts welcome! Thanks in advance!

It seems that joining (CtrlJ) is exactly what you are looking for.

Joining shouldn't prevent future modification.
Within the joined mesh, there will still be two disjoint islands (or five, if each leg is disjoint): the table top and the rest of the mesh.

If you want to separate it again to work with, you can use P → By Selection. You can even, immediately after joining, save the table top as a vertex group so you don't have to worry about selecting it again later, although the Select Linked function (L or Ctrl  L) should work for that anyway.

Are there any other concerns for joining? If so, perhaps there's a workaround.

The only answer I could offer would be to write a python script that will take your selected objects (the objects you are hoping to export as 1 game object), duplicate them, join them into one object, call the fbx export operator and then delete the duplicated object.

This has the benefit of automating the task for you, while leaving your original objects intact, but the disadvantage of not allowing unity to manage your files directly as you currently have.


How to cut the end of this cylinder flat? I want to generate a cylinder (which I apply some modifiers to) which goes to the centre of the mirror (which I then bool difference to get rid of the intersecting part), and then generate another cylinder from the centre of that mirrror that extends outwards. What's the quickest/neatest way to do it without having to manually drag the cylinders into alignment?
I have ended up extruding the same cylinder instead of generating another one.
I want to generate a cylinder at the centre of the mirror's position (OK, if the cursor is there):

Extrude a face of that cylinder so that it goes to the centre of the mirrors position (just send the cylinder there by setting the cursor to the centre of the mirror):

This is now the incoming beam:

I bool difference this with the mirror to give me this face which I can extrude along X/Y/Z, giving me the desired result:

I'd now like to make the end of this beam, 'flat' and not angled. How can I do this?
I'd also like the option to break the cylinder into multiple objects after it's reflected. Is this possible?

I don't know what is purpose of the final model, but I think you can start with Curve object, type 2D. By adding Depth you can get tube shape ... easy to model and readjust laser ray direction, angle to hit surface.

You don't even need to create real "contact" face since tip of beam is hidden in "mirror" object.

To quickly align the cylinders, I would recommend deleting them all except for 1. Which cylinder, is your choice. Now you are left with one cylinder, now add an array modifier. In the modifier, enable Relative offset, next, set the relative offset displacement to anything you like. Here's a little something to help you:
First row (Z-axis): Positive integer upward, negative integer downward.
Second row (Y-axis): Positive integer left, negative integer right.
Third row (X-axis): seems to do nothing for some reason.
Note: If you increase the number in the second row, the distance between each cylinder will increase, and decreasing will result in the cylinders being closer. The opposite is true for negative integers.
Lastly, you can set the count to whatever you like depending on how many cylinders you want. Hope it helps.


Rendered image is different than Camera view I am new to Blender even to the world of animation.

I have 4 cameras and I have bind them with markers in the timeline. When I animate they change fine. When I open the Render view from the button side to the Object Mode button it shows perfect Camera view.

But when I Render it as png all the images are black, they are like a view from a camera just pointed towards ground but there is no other camera I have checked the Outliner list also.

I have also tried selecting the Border option in Render tab but when I click on Render or Animate, I get a message that border is not allowed for sequencer.

I have searched on google and all the solutions I am being told are not working.

Someone Please help me out.
Thanks a lot in advance.

Thanks for your help but I found what was wrong.

the Sequencer box was checked in Post Processing. So i just unchecked it and Checked the Border button and it is working fine now.


How do you change the default directory for saving/opening files? When saving my projects the default directory sometimes opens to C:\ but I have my blender projects saved in my D:\Blender Projects directory. Is there a way to make this directory the default so that I don't have to manually type it in every time I want to save something?

This would apply when opening files as well. My reference files are saved in a similar location D:\Blender Projects\References but to access them I have to type the D drive in manually because it default opens the C:\ drive every time.

You can't as Blender doesn't give us a way to do this. As gandalf3 says above in the comments it should use the last directory you accessed a file from in your current session. If you find yourself going to the same place several times, you can add a bookmark under Bookmarks or see your last visited folders under Recent in the sidebar. There should also be system bookmarks for your drives so no need to type if you can help it.

You can go to File -> User Preferences -> Files (tab).


blender 2.69: Texture is not shown correctly I have created two objects: plane and polygon. Then i joined them together to new mesh. For that new mesh i created a texture. Texture is shown in texture view, but not in cycles render completly. Only one object displays the texture but not the rest.

Picture is here:

Is that a bug? Perhaps i made something wrong.

This could happen if both objects already have a material before being joined. Blender will copy all materials assigned in the source object to the destination object, all faces still assigned to the same material prior to joining. When you're creating a new texture, it's only assigned to one material, so it doesn't show up on faces still assigned to other materials when rendered.

The object's UV image could still be shown as you intended in the viewport, because it's assigned through image attribute of the object's UV map. It doesn't rely on Texture data at all. But what's rendered, do rely on it.

If this is the case, remove the unwanted material's slot, assign faces from the other object to the intended material, or assign the same texture to all materials in the object.

Be sure to check these points:

Remove doubles.
Recalculate normals.
UV Unwrap mesh (both meshes).

I had some problems with scale, so try to apply scale (Ctrl + A)


How to acess and change solid OpenGL lights settings via python? I have interested in create an addon to help on viewing models.

the idea is the properties for solid OpenGL Ligths be found in tools panel so we can easily tweak the colors and light direction for better viewing.

But I need acess the properties in user preferences change it and save the props in the .blend and of couse automaticaly load it when a file is open.

If you hover the color boxes with the mouse cursor you will find that the responsible python struct is UserSolidLight with the following properties

  base class — bpy_struct

  class bpy.types.UserSolidLight(bpy_struct) Light used for OpenGL
  lighting in solid draw mode

  diffuse_color Diffuse color of the OpenGL light

  Type: float array of 3 items in [0, inf], default (0.0, 0.0, 0.0)

  direction Direction that the OpenGL light is shining

  Type: float array of 3 items in [-inf, inf], default (0.0, 1.0, 0.0)

  specular_color Color of the light’s specular highlight

  Type: float array of 3 items in [0, inf], default (0.0, 0.0, 0.0)

  use
  Enable this OpenGL light in solid draw mode

  Type: boolean, default False

According to the Python API Documentation


Exporting a rigged object to Unity (as FBX) produces massively distorted mesh, affecting normals I've just built my first rigged model in Blender. Everything looks okay inside Blender, but when I export it as an FBX and bring it into Unity - not so much.
If I drag the whole rigged model into the scene, it's the right shape (and bends in the right places) but the lighting on it is crazy. Dragging the raw mesh into the scene and rendering it without rigging shows why: the underlying mesh is HUGELY distorted from how it was built in Blender.
I'm sure there's an option in there somewhere, either on export or on the bones or on the model. But I don't know what it is. If there are multiple settings change, I am fine with that.
Can anyone help? Thanks.

EDIT: The video posted by Aster17 includes a step correcting for object scale prior to export, along with many other steps, so refer to that for your exporting needs. I'm only accepting this answer rather than Aster17's because this answer explains what happened in this specific case in more detail.
I tracked down the cause: in the very first edit I had made when sculpting the model (after adding and subdividing a cylinder primitive) I had accidentally scaled the object rather than the vertices to make the shape longer and narrower.
This obliged Blender to similarly apply an asymmetric scale to the bones of the armature when parenting the rig to the mesh, in order to preserve its appearance. However, it seems that at some stage in the Blender->FBX->Unity workflow, the ability to cope with asymmetrically scaled normals is lost.
In short, Blender hadn't distorted the mesh at all - I had, right at the start. All Blender did was bake that distortion into the bones.
The upshot is that if you asymmetrically scale an object (as opposed to its vertices) in Blender, then Blender and Unity will come to different conclusions about the normals that should accompany that shape.

I have seen your question. This is a very common problem faced by everyone while they export their project from a 3d software to a game engine. There are quite a lot of settings for this and not just a button that says "Please don't ruin my mesh when I send it to a game engine" (Even though we all wished for it to exist). Luckily, I have just the video for you. Keep in mind this video is for versions 2.8 and higher. It should work for 2.7 versions too though. After you follow these settings, re-export the model to Unity. Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysl0qYq5p9w
A small tip, please don't try to add jokes to your question. It seems unprofessional. I know you are new, so you don't know, so got this link for more help:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/conduct
Hope it helps.
Cheers,
Aster17


Grease pencil fill appears infront of glass, while in 3d space it is behind Trying to put a grease pencil layer behind and infront of a glass jar in Blender 2.8. But the part behind the jar appears to be infront of the jar. Is there some kind of Blend mode in grease pencil I can change?

Is it the same after rendering ?
What do you mean by 2 grease pencil ? are those strokes in the same object ? layer ? if not, did you try to put them in the same object and arrange the layer priority or stroke placement ?
I just Tried with a normal object with and without glass or transparent shader and it worked normally..


Whats the easiest way to animate a toy house being built from the ground up? I've modeled this toy house and now would like to animate it being built from the ground up brick by brick. Almost as if the pieces are raining down into place. I could animate each piece individually but I'm hoping there's a more efficient way. Maybe an add on? Any ideas would be of great help.

My suggestion would be to use python to animate the individual blocks.

I would pick a landing time based on the z coordinate of the block and a little bit of randomness (but not so much randomness that a block with a different Z coordinate could land before one below it).

http://web.purplefrog.com/~thoth/blender/python-cookbook/sweep-animate-size.html includes some examples of setting keyframes like

    fr = obj_to_frame_f(obj)

    obj.scale =(0,0,0)
    obj.keyframe_insert(data_path='scale', frame=fr-timescale-timescale2)
    obj.keyframe_insert(data_path='scale', frame=fr+timescale+timescale2)
    s = 0.9
    obj.scale=(s,s,s)
    obj.keyframe_insert(data_path='scale', frame=fr-timescale)
    obj.keyframe_insert(data_path='scale', frame=fr+timescale)

Although you'll be animating data_path='location' instead of scale.

Using a mesh deform modifier, you can play on the "object" of the modifier to displace your mesh.
And so make an animation with it (for instance a shape key on the cube object in the pictures below).

Not sure this is what you asked for... but...


GPU Rendering Only in Viewport (Cycles) I've enabled GPU rendering (CUDA) for my GTX 1060 and it's awesome. 3D viewport views render much faster than before. Monitoring my GPU shows it at 60-100% usage while Cycles samples.

However, when rendering still images or animations to file, my GPU usage is flat or at zero as CPU usage spikes.

I'm running blender 2.79b on a win 10 system with one GPU.

Yes, I have the latest driver from Nvdia. (399.07)

Yes, I have gone to the Nvdia control panel and set the OpenGL rendering GPU to my card.

*Update. I seem to have located a bottleneck in GPU usage. Looking at MS Process Explorer, it seems that blender is only using, or only has use for part of the GPU..? I'm uncertain if the types of scenes I create is a factor in creating this bottleneck, or if the problem is a solvable blender config issue.

MS Process Explorer does not accurately report GPU usage.

Have you enable the CUDA options on "Cycles Compute Device" setting under the System tab on the Preference setting? If you didn't that may caused your problem


How can I use blender's python API from a Ipython terminal or Jupyter Notebook? I would like to have a python notebook running on my localhost:8000 that i can execute bpy scripts with... and see the resulting change in my other monitor which is running blender.

Normally, I would have to import a script into the "Scripting - TextEditor" view and hit "run script".  Is there a way to bypass this interface?

One of the most important things to be aware of is installing the correct version of the tools:
Using the current 2.91 Blender version we should use Python 3.7. We can install that using Anaconda3 2020.02 from exe, list of packages.
After that we need to install the blender kernel from here, using the following command in anaconda terminal:
python -m pip install blender_notebook
blender_notebook install --blender-exec="C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\blender.exe"

Now, when we start Jupyter Notebook we can select blender kernel.
First, you need to import the Blender specific library bpy:
# blender related imports
import bpy

After that, we are able to use many examples, already available out there.
I've made an example Jupyter Notebook on this topic, available here
See the discussion and plans on updating blender's python version here.

You can install fake-bpy:

fake-bpy-module is the collections of the fake Blender Python API modules for the code completion in commonly used IDEs.

pip install fake-bpy-module-<version>

for example:
pip install fake-bpy-module-2.83


Subdivision surface is different Hi guys I'm new to blender, I just following the tutorial。 and my modifier just show the different results after i enter edit mode. How to solve this problem? thanks !

Or Apply your Subdivision.

Until you hit "Apply", it's just a previz of the subdivision that you COULD get.

When rendering, it doesn't matter but the best practice would be to apply all your subdiv before final rendering...


Complex extrusion howto I want to extrude a profile (either a mesh or a curve) along a "guide" curve such that:

Its local Z axis is and remains parallel to the global Z axis at every point of the extrusion
Its X axis must always intersect the center axis, parallel to the global Z axis
The rotation of the profile matches that of the guide-curve, which may be non-linear

What are my options? I am looking for an automatic way of doing it, i.e. not by a vertex-by-vertex manipulation. Should the only way possible be via python programming and you can englight me, please do so!
Perhaps you might wonder why I would want such particular restrictions, so you might find it useful to know what I am trying to do. I am trying to model a vertical wind turbine (VAWT), such as the one in this picture:
I am modeling one of the blades. Note that the blades' profiles remain perpendicular to the radius of the turbine at all times (see top view), and also remain parallel to the horizontal plane (see side view).
Update
Well I had not thought it necessary to show exactly what I was trying to model. I thought that the sample image of a VAWT would suffice to have blenders out here provide the right answer to my question. However, to quit puzzling readers, here I post an animation of the paths I want the blade profiles to follow:

There's a lot of different ways to do this. I suggest using modifiers for a non-destructive workflow. You can get the specific result you're looking for by using a few different modifiers, but perhaps the most straight forward is the Simple Deform Modifier.

Add the mesh for the propellor blade, with the origin centered along the Z-axis, and the mesh offset along the Y-axis. The origin position is key for the modifiers to work right.

2.Add an Empty, and rotate it accordingly (you will likely need to adjust the rotation after Step 3, depending on your configuration).

Add a Simple Deform modifier. This will be used for the bending of the mesh. Set the Origin field to use the Empty you created in step 2. Set the mode to Bend and adjust the Deform Angle as desired.

Add another Simple Deform modifier. This second modifier will control the amount of twist. Set the modifier mode to Twist and once again adjust the Deform Angle as desired.

You could always model it manually: CTRLLEFTMOUSECLICK will extrude the selected faces to the cursor. If you decide to go along this path, you can easily duplicate the object using the spin tool or the array modifier.


Selecting vertices in solid mode selects random vertices? I've been having this issue since I started using Blender, but just kind of went along with it. Now its becoming a genuine issue though. Whenever I select vertices in Blender (Box select, Lasso, C, etc) While viewing the object in Solid mode, Blender also selects other random vertices.
I'm using 2.78. I do not feel a blend file would help as this problem has been reoccuring every time I use blender; it's not isolated to a specific file.

This issue does not occur when selecting vertices in wireframe mode;

This might do the trick:

Go to 'user preferences'
Under 'system' search for Window Draw Method
Change it to 'No Multisample'
(this disables the antialias in the 3D view).

This is the result of enabling the proportional falloff tool.

If you disable it the problem should be solved.

My guess is you accidentally pressed the shortcut 'O'


Blender for Chromebook How would I be able to run Blender on a Chromebook? The Rollapp is a farce that demands money for free software, and the whole reason I didn't buy a windows laptop is because I hate Windows 10, so is there another option?

If you hate Windows 10, there are other options. I know you asked about Blender on Chromebook, but you can find non-Windows 10 computers for very cheap or free. I got a desktop with Linux from my local library, and my tech teacher gave me a Windows 7 laptop for free. Try asking around.

instead of using windows or Chromebook you could use Mac especially because they are built to be able to render the product.


Extrude Faces along Local Normals I am trying to extrude faces of a cylinder along local normals. 3dsmax can do it easy, couldn't find how to do it in blender.

The extrude region option extrudes it as shown in the first example. I want it done like the 2nd example.

It looks like you want the Extrude menu (AltE).

For example 1:

There are several ways to activate the Extrude region operator:

Press E
Press AltE for the Extrude menu and select it
Press the button in 3D view > Tool shelf (N) > Tools > Mesh tools > Add > Extrude Region

For example 2:

There are two ways to get this result:

Press AltE and select Region (Vertex normals)
Select Extrude region (Vertex Normals) from the extrude drop down at the top of the Add section in the Tool Shelf

You can also two operators to get the same result:

Press E (Extrude), Esc (confirm extrude, cancel transform) and then Alt+S (Scale along normals).

For example 3:

There are a couple ways to activate the Extrude Individual operator:

Press Alt+E > Extrude individual faces.
Press the button in 3D view > Tool shelf (N) > Tools > Mesh tools > Add > Extrude Individual

Local orientation

Note that in blender, the Local orientation is based on the rotation of the object. The above methods use the normals of the extruded geometry, however if you want to extrude along the objects' local orientation you must do something slightly different:

Set the transform orientation to Local in 3D view > Header:

With the geometry you want to extrude selected, press E and then Esc to cancel the transform. If you are in face select mode you will notice you can see the indicators for faces where the new faces have been created:

Press SShiftZShiftZ and move the mouse:

Shift locks the axis that is specified, so if the other key pressed is Z, it will scale only on the X and Y axes.

Pressing ShiftZ twice ensures that the objects' local orientation is being used. Global orientation is always used by default (first keypress), and then the orientation specified in the header is used after the same axis constraints are specified again (second keypress).

Note that you can also use this technique for extruding along the Normals the same as the first methods, just select Normal as the orientation in the header instead of Local.

Thanks eobet!!!! Problem solved...I literally have no idea why you're not the number 1 solution

This is the top Google result on this question, but I don't see the best answer I've seen yet on this topic, which is to press space and enter "Extrude And Move On Individual Normals", as seen here:

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/63865/38603


How convert particle system to mesh blender 2.8 I tried convert my particle system to mesh but I don't have any convert button under modefier setup. What did I do wrong?

I have same problem with official 2.8 now It worked just once and now when I convert it all particles jump back to plane. I solve it just simply exported particles  as obj and all is fine

Edit: The convert button won't appear until you've set the render type to object and selected object to use from the sub menu. If you still don't have the option it could be 2.8 specific bug (it appears for me in 2.80.37)

One common setup to convert particles to mesh objects is to use metaball as the particle object. (Particle system, Render, object)

This way after you are done with your particle system you can convert it to mesh (because metaballs can be converted to mesh) This allows you to convert the particle system into continuous surface. The down side is that it gets pretty heavy on the pc if you want to have very granular definition (say for something like fluid)

Gleb Alexandrov did video on this titled
"Blender Tutorial: How to Create a Paint Splash in Blender"

You might also refer to this other post here:

How to convert particles to mesh

Which is basically the same thing but with just any object (but, for example, when using spheres every particle will create single sphere. Both methods have their uses)


Render Preview is Black but export / render is fine I added a video as texture and the video was not playing even though everything was correct, after a few tries I got into another (way worst) problem. When I render in the work-space (Shift + Z) everything is pure black, but if I render (f12) it renders well. I already deleted the video from the blender file in case it was causing a bug but still everything black. I am using Cycles. I tried with Blender render and everything was fine.

I've discovered the issue. If someone is facing the same problem, I solved by pressing the pause button at the bottom right of the 3d view window, it only appears when on render preview (shift + z)


Glass rendering black in Cycles Still very fresh to Blender. I need the glass window to be transparent in this scene, as I have a light source outside and the light should come through the window.
The window of the cupboard in the corner of the room uses the same material and it works, the glass is clear and transparent. But not with the main window.
Any idea on what the issue might be? I can provide you with any further information if needed.

my node set up for transparency in cycles. hope this helps


Add menu for primitives in Blender 2.8 Is there a way to bring back the add menu that pops up in the bottom in Blender 2.8 when adding primitive object to your scene to change vertices?

Just expand this little tab on the bottom left corner of the 3D window.

Simply put: No. You only can get back these options like in the answers above mentioned. Blender does not use the system of adjustable primitives like other 3D spftware. You can add a primitive of course, but after adding, it's just a simple mesh object. There are exceptions, like in the Archimesh addon, but the standard behavior is as mentioned.


Mesh with weird inverted light direction Sometimes while editing meshes I get stuck with a weird kind of behaviour. I know mostly it happens due to my fault as a newby, but I need find the way to fix it.

Step by step explanation appreciated.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/7pyhz1

The obj file has bad normal data for some reason, which gets imported into Blender. The way to fix it is to delete any custom normal data using the 'Clear Custom Split Normal' button from the object data panel.

When some faces look dark on a mirrored side of a mesh put your mouse in the 3D view and press 'n' to toggle the right side menu to appear and then 'tab' to edit mode.
Scroll down the properties column till you find the Mesh Display, you'll find
Normals: Click on the cube, that's for the faces.
The lines stick out of the facing faces. If some are facing the wrong way they are inverted and the back side will look dark. The normals indicator will help you determine that.

You have 2 choices:
1 try selecting the entire mesh then use the Recalculate in the Shading/UV tab in the left side menu, press  't' to toggle that menu to appear.
2 If that doesn't work select only the face that are inverted and choose Flip Direction.


How to prevent Blender from disabling dyntopo when exiting/entering sculpt mode? This is one of the most annoying things while sculpting with Dyntopo enabled - it switches itself off automatically for various reasons eg. going from sculpt mode into object mode and then back into sculpt mode or undoing too far, to the state of affairs where Dyntopo was disabled.

I had to redo so much sculpting when I realized that nothing suddenly went wrong with my mesh but that I forgot to re-enable Dyntopo that it becomes a major pain. I am aware of the Ctrl + D shortcut to quickly enable Dyntopo, but it just too easy to forget about re-enabling it.

Is there a way to keep Dyntopo enabled by default or prevent it from switching off, maybe at least with some clever Pythong scripting?

This problem has finally been noticed by Blender developers and included in 2.78 release.

"Enable dyntopo re-entering sculpt mode"
https://developer.blender.org/D2059

Dynamic topology will be re-enabled automatically when entering sculpt mode, but only if uv's, vertex colors or triangulating won't be affected.

You cannot because of the way the code is. When you are going out of Dyntopo, Blender has to synchronize you data, your Dyntopo sculpt, with the rest of Blender.

Or should I say you could change it if you were willing to code it?


How to give specific color in specific area? As shown below, the yellow color appears only on both edges, I have tried vertex color for the yellow, but I can't give another color in node editor.

Is it possible to give specific color on specific area?

You can assign any one material to a face at a time. However, you can apply a uv image to the object. This will allow you to paint freely on the object in as much detail as you wish.

Maybe someone coming here years later will actually find use to this answer as no one actually answered this question in a way for a new person to blender can understand.

In object mode select the object you want to color.
Click on 'Material Properties' in your tab menu.
Click plus sign to add new material (this is just a base material don't add color.
Click the New button to add the material to the list of materials for this object.
---click assign
Click tab to go into edit mode.
Select the faces you want to specifically color.
Under material properties click the plus sign again
Click the new button again
Pick whatever color you want to add to the object under base color.
---click assign


how to prevent arm from twisting with rig Right now I have a base mesh of a human with a basic rig structure, I am trying to have him point a finger gun but whenever I raise the characters arms the mesh
twists. (see below)

I don't know what is causing this but I have good topology and the rig vertex groups are all pretty good. any ideas?

Your issue is likely with blender's strange weighting system. Every vertex on a mesh is given a weight value (0-1, decimal based) of how much influence a particular bone has over that vertex. Your arm bone, of some farther down the arm, likely have weighting bleed over into the chest which is causing that twisting. Simply go into weight painting mode and adjust the weighting so anywhere not associated with the given bone is solid dark blue. This should take care of any unwanted twisting, unless you also have the same issue I do, where the armature seems to have applied it's self to the arms sideways, so they roll forwards and the elbow bends sideways. (I managed to get the IK and poll targets working too so this is really infuriating...)


Slowing down particles I've tried messing around with the settings, particularly under Velocity, but I can't seem to work out how you slow down the flow of particles. I want them to rise more slower/steadier and to fade just above the tree-tops.

EDIT: Figured out how to make them stop at a certain point, so it's just a case of slowing them down. They rise too fast.

Adjust the timestamp to .010 then lower the mass to .001 under particles physics. And Adjust the Brownian to whatever you desire... Then lower the gravity to 0... See if that helps...


Disable Material Duplication Anyone who has used Blender for a while has probably tried to duplicate a scene via Full Copy. They would have then found that in the duplicated scene, all of the materials were duplicated as well, receiving that infuriating .001 ending. Normally, one might be able to change all the materials back to the originals and then reload the file (as suggested here) to get rid of the duplicate materials. I can do this, but I have A LOT of material slots in my project, and the work is incredibly boring.

So basically, my question is...

Is there a button, script, feature, or anything else that would disable the duplication of materials when I duplicate my scene.

Note that if the answer is a script, I will need to be walked through how to use it as my Python skills are about a -52. :)

You can run this script to replace all duplicated materials in your file. Just paste it into the Text editor and click the Run Script button.

It searches all objects, and then compares the first part of the material name (the part before the .001 suffix) with any materials named the same, and if a match is found replaces the object material with the matched material.

The idea would be to do a Full Scene copy and then run this script to remove all material duplicates.

import bpy
mats = bpy.data.materials

for obj in bpy.data.objects:
    for slt in obj.material_slots:
        part = slt.name.rpartition('.')
        if part[2].isnumeric() and part[0] in mats:
            slt.material = mats.get(part[0])

Before running the script, make sure your materials are named properly. Any material that ends with .001, .002 or 003, will be replaced by its "original version".

Credit for script goes to user liero on  this BlenderArtist.org page

Ctrl + Shift + O finishes the job by reloading the file.

A very simple tip to clean a scene from all its materials and orphan chunks, is to export in wavefront format (.obj). As a result, you will get two files. Obj file contains your objects with very few differences from blender except you loose modifiers. For example, if a subsurf modifier is active while you export, the object will be saved with subsurf applied. Arrays, wireframe or lattice are definitely applied to .obj objects.

The other file (.mtl) contains all materials (with their dependant textures). Erase or remame it and re_import .obj in a blank blender environment. All undesired chunks are cleaned from the new blend file.

It may be usefull when migrating a scene to Cycles Render or if your blend is full of orphan chunks (memory leaks) that didn't be erased when their parent reference been suppressed.

Hope it helps


My mouse is moving very hardly and slow, just at the moment i am rendering an image As Title says, My mouse is pretty snaily when Im rendering, even when Im not inside blender, it just makes my mouse go superslow, and it ruins my everyday rendering life.

Go to the task manager and begin to render something. Right click on the blender task that is taking the most processing power and press "go to details". When you have done that you should see a lot of programs and one of them will be marked(blender will be marked). Right click on it and go to 'set priority'  and set the priority to something low.

Now its fixed(hopefully) but your renders might take longer. Though I'm not sure if it's a noticeable amount slower.

This isn't something you can fix really because rendering is a very large computing process you should either buy a computer with better specs or deal with the lag


How to bring the cross to the centre I am a beginner. Please tell me how do I bring where X and Y cross to the centre of screen. I can bring by zooming in but when i do that this is what happens. It is supposed to be a circle but missing in between (I found how to cure that problem, thanks to one of you)

in object mode click shift S and choose 3d cursor to centre


How to draw shapes in 2.8x from a script - does bgl still work? For an addon, I want to draw a rectangle next to the mouse cursor.  I tried using the gpu package, but it only works with draw handlers in a specific region or space.  Since the shape needs to stay with the cursor, it could be anywhere on the window.

That leads me to bgl, but in 2.8x it looks deprecated - most code samples online to draw shapes with bgl don't work since functions and keywords are no longer included.  Is there a way to draw a rectangle with bgl still in 2.8?  Or do I need to look somewhere else?

BGL still works. The old snippets used fixed function pipeline which is no longer available in Blender since it is running on OpenGL Core profile. Programmable pipeline for OpenGL is actually much easier, more understandable and a more streamlined way to do things. Just use regular modern tutorial for OpenGL to draw a rectangle, make sure that tutorial is using Core profile, and not FFP.

In order to draw outside the viewport, you need to hook your draw handler to multiple Space sub-types, and determine visibility on what you draw based on the cursor position.

You can use GPU module alongside with BGL (technically it is also an OpengGL wrapper. The only difference is that BGL is a direct 1:1 mapping of OpenGL function calls and GPU module provides a set of convenience classes to automate certain common tasks. But they are still using the same single OpenGL draw context.


Blender Sequencer speed is Extremely slow I have a video (720p) that is 37 minutes long, with a bitrate of ~3000kb/s.

This video is a game recording, so 37 minutes worth of this footage was written in 37 minutes, while other extremely CPU, GPU and hard-drive intensive operations were occurring.

If the recording program can record and output at the same rate as is being played, I don't understand why rendering with blender at the same exact settings, same codec, same container type, same bitrate and size, the only difference being that I removed about 4 seconds from the beginning, is going to take 5.3 hours to render.

I've disabled every feature under user preferences that are said to increase performance, I disabled rendering of the 3D scene (which is empty anyways). I set the sequencer memory cashe limit higher, I've increased the number of prefetch frame which is supposed to help with multicore rendering.

What else can I do to make the rendering faster? I've used blender for years for 3D, and I'm getting into recording videos for YouTube, all the good programs for video editing are very expensive. But those programs can render 37 minute videos in 10-20 minutes, not 5.3 hours. I don't understand why it's so slow, it's so slow to the point it's unusable.

Replies to Comments

@user277143: My guess: try increasing the cache of blender itself too (alongside the Sequencer's cache). Also, having meshes in the scene will cause them to be reloaded for every frame. That can cause problems. So, go to the 3D-view and delete everything. Also, off topic, check the resolution multiplier in the render settings. I have screwed up many sequence renders by having it at 50%.

I have already done the cache of Blender as well. I already have nothing in the 3D scene, and I even have that entire render layer disabled in the outliner.

@gandalf3: Related:

How to make VSE render faster?
VSE suddenly slow like hell
Poor performance with h.264 VSE
How to speed up Blender Video Sequence Editor rendering?
Is the VSE multi-threaded?

I've seen all of those, none of them provide any help that has altered the result. Those issues were due to bugs, or a settings issue. In the past I've been able to render at around 50-60 outputted frames per second, so rendering a 30 minute video in 15-18 minutes. Only in the last 3 weeks has this started to take this long, so there is a way somehow to speed it up, and I haven't touched any settings on the program.

Keep UI

render with "Keep UI" option in the Render properties panel under Display
(Just don't let blender display the rendering process in any window.) That was a noticeable speed up for me.

Multicore rendering

use one of the available scripts for multi-core rendering. Basically a script that opens as many instances of Blender as you have cpu cores or as many as you specify.
(Blender use for VSE render only one core of CPU by default. So even with a two core processor you get only half the render time. If you have an 8core CPU it would be great speed boost for you.)

Parallel Render - Addon, simple to use, but it generates separate movie files - one for each blender instance (that runs on each core separately).
After download, installation, enable ... you run this script with SPACEBAR search, type "parallel ..."

￼

video_editor_render_script - A python script whit it you need to arrange a few things first, but then it's a ONE-CLICK option with one animation file.
(Namely -download also ffmpeg and specify paths to blender and to ffmpeg in the script. Just follow instructions. In general it also generates separate files for each core first, but than use ffmpeg to merge them in one file.)

You can't do a straight comparison of a game to a Blender render,
because a lot of the procedures that Blender does,
have already been done before you get your game.

Essentially the game has had textures pre-baked with bump-mapping,
normals, levels-of-detail to reduce polygon count in the distance...

The game has optimized framerate by doing all those steps beforehand.


Setting the location of my object I have accidentally applied the location of my object in blender and my object has now zeroed out. How do i fix this?

If you know exactly what location you had your object at previously, you can go into edit mode, with your cursor on the origin, use Selection to Cursor (Keep Offset). Then, back in object mode, change the position again to the same place it was before.

If you don't know the coordinates of its original location, you could just estimate them, or you could, in edit mode, press N, and average the locations of the individual vertices to find the original position, but that would be a lot of work.

Go to the Transform Panel then type in the location or  Ctrl + Z (if you have closed it then Ctrl + Z won't work).


required amount of light is not coming inside the room I have a bedroom scene in which there are two doors and two windows. Even Using portals doesn't give me results what is in my mind. I need illuminated inside scene. When both of the windows are open and doors are closed light should come inside the room and illuminate the scene. but, It's not happening even using the portals. in fact portal is not affecting the scene pretty much. first one is without portals
this one is with portals..

hdri I have used is having 27EV. and I have set strength of 20 and still light is not coming inside the room. Link for hdri. and I am attaching screenshot of my blender screen where you can see strength as well you can see that outside wall is totally white.
EDIT :: By mentioning that outside wall is totally white I want to say that If I increase the strength It is lighting up the room but it makes outside wall totally white. In last I am going to make an animation in which outside walls will be there so If walls are total white there will be no meaning of that. I am attaching a screenshot of original color of my walls too. This one is with the HDRI strength 1. This one is having HDRI strength 20 where outside wall is complete white.  here is the link for my blender file click here...
EDIT :: One more thing if I am increasing exposure then It makes outside walls white too. This is a base model of my bedroom. SO In reality with these window enough light is coming inside. SO i am trying to achieve the look I see everyday in my bedroom.

You can use whatever strength value for the environment that works for you, so if 20 is too dark, you can use 200, if 200 is too dark, you can use 2000, so if there is not enough of light, just add more light.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you have glass windows, whatever light comes through them, becomes refractive caustics, and they are terribly slow to calculate and not accurate at all in Cycles. You should consider using fake glass shader with transparent shader mixed with glossy for reflections by amount determined by Fresnel node. It might be a good idea to avoid calculating shadows from the glass at all, because they practically do not contribute to the realism of the render at all in vast majority of cases, so you can have the glass of all the windows as a separate object and disable it's visibility for all rays except camera rays:

What's important in lighting is not the numerical values, you use, but their proportions compared to each other. The light of the sun on a clear day might illuminate the ground with 120 000 lux while artificial lighting on a desk in an office is required to be(and often is) around 200 lux(at least where I am). So that's the difference between a light bulb and the sun in reality... Keep that in mind. In a dark painted room like yours the difference between the inside and the outside would be huge as well. No need to be afraid of that. If you have the values their relationships in the scene set up the way it is not convenient for you to adjust the strength of the environment and keep the ratios, you can also adjust exposure here:

... or here:

Both are OK, the first multiplies the values in the rendered result, the second multiplies the values of all the lights in the scene if I am not mistaken.
You should use portals to speed up the render - the noise clears up faster if you use portals, but they should not have any influence on the looks of the render.
Note that you definitely do not need any add-ons whatsoever to have nice light in your scene. They might make it more convenient for you to set things up, but are completely optional.
Here is an example of how I usually set it all up(.blend file (134.03MB)). I hope that might be useful to have a look. Feel free to use all assets in the file under CC0 license if you wish.

I would try the real camera addon. It is free and gives you much more control over the camera settings. With it, you can change the exposure and other settings just like a real camera
Here is a link for it:
https://3d-wolf.com/products/camera.html


How can I render these edges more realistic? I would like to have a realistic rendering with this hard surface. These edges appear too soft to look realistic, so I applied a 'Mark Sharp' but they appear with the same rendering as if I didn't apply any Mark Sharp. What am I doing wrong?

I tried many things. On the middle crease of 0.44 and on the right, a bevel with two edges. Is there a better way or if not what is the more realistic option?

You can edit the edge sharpness by increasing the 'Mean Crease'

How to use lights is quiet important too. Try to play around with it a little bit. You should turn on indirect lightning too (Bounces:2)


Rigging - Sword like object influenced by 2 bones As in topic. How to attach a sword to have it be influenced by two bones. Not off course in the same time.
I was fighting with "child-of" constraint, but with no luck. Well it works, but if I was in need to change bone influence form pelvis to left hand, it just fly away somewhere, so the transition wasn't seamless as I was expecting. I really don't have any idea on how to do this. I was experimenting a lot.

Basically Sword bone must follow pelvis bone, when it's not used, and need to follow hand bone, when the animation need it. Anyone, because it's driving Me crazy. It can even be via payed addon, anything.

Regards! :)

If there's only to be one parent switch, the Child of Constraint should do that, but for multiple switches or just plain simplicity, I'd be looking at (as you mentioned) visually switching between two swords, or even easier - splitting the project up between two or more Blend files, each taking over from the previous and each with the correct parent assigned. (Ctrl+P)
The transition would be simple enough.  As the hand would firstly have to move to the sword's handle you'd need to animate that in the 1st file with the pelvis as the parent.  Once the sword handle is gripped, that would be where the next Blend file takes over and with that running, the hand is the parent.
A similar case is here:
How can I copy animation from an object while it was attached as a child and then paste that animation to it after detaching it?

I've not done much animation so take this recommendation with a grain of salt.

I think you want to keyframe the influence of one set (say Sword & Hand) to 1 when drawn. And 0 when stowed?

This tutorial may help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9FJOR_Q_MQ


Odd Vertices When Using The Knife Tool When I use the knife tool on my mesh, any face connected to the cut becomes "incorrect". (I don't know the true term)

The underside of my mesh was smooth before I cut the mesh. Now, there are odd triangles that even appear in the render.

Have you tried the J "join" tool instead?

Here is a link to the Blender Reference Manual on Vertex tools

https://www.blender.org/manual/modeling/meshes/editing/vertices.html


Can't find Spin Menu to create a rotational object I want to create a rotational solid. I've just created a bezier curve, and i saw many tutorials use the "SPIN" function in the left menu.
I tried looking at it but whitout success.
Where can i find it? I have to enable it in the add-ons menu?
I'm in edit mode with TOP ORTHO visual.
(Blender 2.75 RC1)
Thank you so much

The Spin function works on vertex, while the bezier curves are based on control points. You could transform the curve in mesh (Alt C, mesh from curve) and then use the spin function, but you would loose the interactivity of the modelling process; so the best way, with bezier curves, is to use a screw modifier, instead.
Choose the right axis (in my example z axis).

Be sure that you are selecting a Mesh not a curve

-If you have a curve, you can go to Object menu then Convert to, or use Alt + C

*Hint: you can then check the 'keep original' check box to the bottom left, if you need not to lose the curve


Camera in 3D view somehow not working I just finished an animation project, and suddenly my camera is looking really weird.

The camera has 2 child of modifiers, to two empties (circle and sphere)
I haven't animated the camera at all, only animated the empties

I believe I have pressed a shortcut (I'm a noob and I dont know all of them).
I've searched around the internet but unfortunately cant find a solution, I dont even know what this is called.

hit STRG-ALT-NUMPAD0 to set the selected object as the active camera. Currently you have an object as the active camera. The small triangle above the camera tells you whether it is active or not (filled triangle = active, triangle with just contours = currently not active)


Background image (movieclip) final render appears flipped my background movie-clip final render appears flipped. I have checked whether the camera is mirrored or in the background image options if the 'flip horizon' is checked - I've tried to render with the 'vertical flip' option checked but still the final result is the same, a horizon flipped. The video appears on the correct horizon on the 3d viewer, even on the render result preview. When i choose render active scene, blender renders out the background video flipped.

Please, some one help me out, thank you.

Thank you to the people that replied.

OK, so the issue was that i had an object made linked to my video, when I created it i had flipped the horizon. I worked on some other objects, worked on camera tracking as well(in other words forgot about that object). When I remembered I had this object i hide it and flipped the backdrop image to its original horizon. So, when I was rendering the hide element was showing.

Yay!!

In compositing, Shift+A -> Distort -> Flip; It reflects the image over the desired axis. Hope this helps...


Rendering a dark scene in Blender 2.8 Cycles + glass shader with lettering After putting way too many hours into this scene, I'm finally ready to render. The problem is I get a ton of noise, no matter how many samples I choose, and denoising just makes the image look like garbage. I've searched and searched and searched for a good solution, but I can't seem to get it right. The image attached was rendered with 512 samples without denoising and took about 45 minutes. Please somebody help! Also, if someone has a better way to set up a glass shader with lettering on it that will allow light to pass through the glass and not the lettering (see the signage on the desk for example, the lettering should cast a shadow), I would be greatly appreciative!

[EDIT]: Added an updated render and a screenshot of my settings
[EDIT2]: I'm only seeing the updated render, but none of my other pictures are showing up for me. I hope you all can see them.

I increased my render output resolution to 4K and got rid of about half the amount of light sources and nearly all the noise disappeared! Also, I managed to solve my glass shader issue with a few extra hours playing with the shader editor and came up with a great solution for casting the shadows I was looking for. I've attached a screenshot of the shader node tree, I hope someone else can make some use of it as well.

Try decreasing the light bounces in the render settings. Anything above 3 or 4 looks very similar. Also try turning off reflective and refractive caustics (may affect your final result.) Both of these options are found under the "Light paths" section of the render settings tab.


Insert properties keyframe for multiple objects? I know it's possible to keyframe UI properties, and it's possible to animate many objects at once for Location, Rotation, and Scale.

But is it possible to insert a keyframe for a UI property for many objects at once?

e.g. Animating rigid body properties for shards of a cell-fractured object

How can I achieve this?

So the easy solution would be to write a script that creates keyframes for every selected object.

While the Rigid Body Tools will copy attributes from the active object to all selected, it doesn't copy keyframes. Copying keyframes could be something to add to the Rigid Body Tools. I would think that the animated checkbox is probably the only Rigid Body option that would normally be keyframed.

Within the 3DView, Insert Keyframes will keyframe the same properties for every selected object. Creating a keyingset with an interface property doesn't allow the property to be keyframed for all selected objects. Sounds like a deficiency in the create interface value keyframe operator.

EDIT: There are some options that can help under some circumstances -

CtrlL -> Animation data - can create keyframes for every object to match keyframes for the active object. This creates keyframes for the same properties in each object - it doesn't make the properties the same as the active object.

For rigid body options you can set and keyframe the active object, use rigid body tools to copy settings from active, re-do calculate mass, then CtrlL -> Animation data to create keyframes for each object.

This doesn't apply to non-rigid body values. The following script can easily be modified to set and keyframe a specific value on every selected object, adjusting to work on multiple values is also easy. I used rigid_body.kinematic as an example as I see this as the most likely value to be used in this scenario.

import bpy

set_kinematic = bpy.context.active_object.rigid_body.kinematic

for object in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    object.rigid_body.kinematic = set_kinematic
    object.keyframe_insert(data_path="rigid_body.kinematic")

Anything you've already keyframed will turn up in the Dope Sheet. So add one keyframe for each and then it should be easy.

Other than that - scripting.


Link obj files into blender? I normally use Octane render, both standalone and plugin version for Sketchup. I'm not at all an hardcore user. I'm trying out Blender in my freetime, just for fun.

When I use the standalone version of Octane, I normally export my sketchup model as obj, and link this file into Octane Render, with it's own node. When I make changes in Sketchup (or Gravity Sketch) I export again as obj and simply press a reload icon in Octane, and the model is updated.

I can't figure out how to do this in Blender. I have only found out how to import, but not link / refresh geometry.

Is it not possible or am I'm looking in the wrong part of Blender?

You can't do this with Blender and OBJ files. Using Alembic files referencing geometry is possible.

Yes, this is possible 1 of 2 ways:
1) Simple - When you import an obj file, you will get both an object, and a mesh - you can change which mesh the object is referencing.  So, importing Cube.obj you will have an object Cube referencing a mesh by the same name.  Importing the same obj file a second time, you will have an object Cube.001 referencing a mesh Cube.001.  You could then change the reference of the first object so that it is referencing the second imported mesh.
Below, I have the mesh selected, and can change which mesh is referenced:

2) A bit more work, but perhaps better in keeping your scene more organized.  Use a separate blend file for importing and changing which mesh an object is referencing, then using Linking to link the object to your scene.  How to update a linked object is nicely explained here.


Unable to delete keyframes I have looked all around with no avail. I opened blender today, and now am unable to delete any keyframes. When I hover over it in the timeline with the green line, then "delete keyframe" and confirm, it says "Successfully deleted 0 keyframes from camera." (for camera). How can I fix this? I have tried selecting on dope sheet, but for some reason nothing happens either. Thanks in advance!

To unlock or lock a keyframe, you can do three ways.

1) click on the icon symbol to unlock the keyframes for the entire object

2) hover over the keyframes for the selected object press tab once, if grayed out the keys are locked if not then the keys are not locked.

3) if your mouse cursor is outside the timeline boarders (gray part of the timeline) with this icon greyed then those keyframes are locked.

and including the dope sheet

If somehow you are still stuck, just go into the dope sheet then Shift + Right Click select the key(s) you want to delete

Next tap X while hovering over the dope sheet Select left click the "delete keyframes".

The timeline shows any and all keyframes. This includes keyframes that don't get removed when removing keyframes normally. Change one of you editor's window type (I suggest the timeline window, as it won't be needed) to the Dope Sheet Editor, and select any keyframes you want to remove, and press 'X' to delete them. I suggest you look further into the dope sheet editor, as it is very useful for advanced manipulation of keyframes like duplicating, moving, etc.


When I snap a curve's vertex to the 3D cursor the handles disappear I found out my handles disappear when I snap to cursor. How to add handles back to the curve vertex?

I've hooked the end of my curve to an existing empty, it moves with the empty but when I rotate or scale the empty it has no effect on the curve.
Is there an easy way to fix it that doesn't involve replacing that empty?

Blender treats a curve point as 3 separate elements: the central control point, the left handle and the right handle. This means that when you choose Selection to Cursor, each individual element will be snapped to the cursor, essentially putting the two handles and the control point into the exact same location.

As both the handles and the control point are at the same location the control point can no longer be rotated or scaled as it is the distance between the control point and the handles which determines the scale or rotation, and at the moment, there is none.

The handles are still there. If you click multiple times on the control point after it has been snapped to the location and press G you will eventually select a handle and be able to move it as normal.

As you mention, pressing V twice solves this as it tells blender to change the handle type of the point, which recalculates the handles at the new location.

To avoid this, in future you can choose Shift+S> Selection to Cursor (Offset), which will instead treat the selection as a single element and move the control point and handles but keep the distance (offset) between them.


How to transmit uv and texture when using Tissue When I create a mesh using a tissue, the material and texture are transferred from the source mesh, but the UV is not transmitted.

I can manually edit the UV because the result in the above image is simple.

However, if the density of the pattern becomes more complicated, UV editing becomes too difficult.

Let me know if you have a way to transmit UVs in the Tissue or easily edit complex UV patterns.

--(new image)

With the small part of the mesh selected apply scale and rotation and unwrap the image.

Take a mesh that tissue is going to apply (i have taken a cube and subdivide few times)

Select the small mesh and hold shift and click Cube and click on tessellate in tool shelf

Now we got the new shape of the mesh from the Addon with no material and no uv applied to it. Go to edit mode and select all faces and Press Ctrl+N (flip Normal)

In the Edit mode Press L key on one face which select the small part of the mesh.

With the small face selected Press Shift+G -> Area

And now the complete mesh is selected

Press U to unwrap

And apply material on to it.


How many CPU render tiles/buckets should I set in Cycles? Here is a link to my CPU specs

# of Cores = 4
# of Threads = 8

How much CPU render buckets (or tiles) should I have while rendering? 8 or 12?

Since you have 8 CPU threads in total, you can render 8 tiles simultaneously at max. You can also lower this number to reserve remaining threads to other tasks your computer might be doing. The setting is here:

Just another perspective...might be right or might be wrong. I've found that CPU Cores (processors) does not equal CPU Threads. On Windows 10, if you open up Task Manager and go to the Performance tab, you can see your computer has many, many threads running (mine showed 1800+). So I decided to try to increase the threads in Blender to beyond my CPU Cores (4). What I found was that Blender will render simultaneously the same number of tiles as you have threads. So for example, I set my tiles to 128 size and threads to 16, it will render 16 tiles at the same time even though I have only 4 CPU Cores. I have not found any optimum settings between tile size and number of threads. But play around and maybe you will find out there is a magic number


Domain boxes show up in cycles render So I recently made the switch to cycles rendering and smoke modifiers, but it's been giving me loads of problems already.

This is what the model looks like:

And then when I go to render it, this is the result I get.

Why is this happening?

It looks like you have a diffuse shader assigned to the surface of your domain.  Make sure that there is nothing (or a pure white transparent shader) plugged into the surface socket on your domain object, and that the smoke nodes are plugged into the volume socket.

VERY SIMPLE METHOD: Highlight the domain bounding box, then in the scene menu, top right, turn off the little camera icon and it will no longer appear in your render.


Confused with chained Python script when creating data block I recently dived into Python Blender scripting, while reading the Blender API some Python script got me stuck, I couldn't understand it, I can make it work though, here is the code from Blender API,
# Create new object with our light datablock.
light_object = bpy.data.objects.new(name="New Light", object_data=light_data)

The line bpy.data.objects.new(), Why 'data' can be chained after bpy? I'm sure 'bpy' is the module name, is '.data' and '.object' a method returning 'self' or is it a class name?
The menu said the 'bpy.data' is type of 'bpy.types.BlendData', I can not wrap my head around for this Python syntax, can you shed some light on what type of each section of the code really is so I can use the right term to search the syntax

Although I don't understand what you're doing, I know that the approach you're doing throws an error. If you go to the default scripting widow, at the bottom left it shows all the API calls you have done so if you shift+a>light>point, it will show
bpy.ops.object.light_add(type='POINT', radius=1, align='WORLD', location=(0, 0, 0))

And sure enough, if we run it it will create a light.


How to create physically accurate boat moving through water I am am making a short realistic animation of a sailboat going through the ocean.  I have an ocean modifier with the time animated. I have a plane shrink wrapped to the ocean and the sailboat model has a copy location and rotation to the plane to simulate the “floating” on the ocean.  The issue I am having is making realistic waves trail the boat and the water splashing and pushing on the front of the boat.  I tried the ubiquitous dynamic paint, but for some reason no matter what I do with that it work work.  I want to make it similar to this Houdini made video.  https://vimeo.com/72879742. I know blender just added FLIP fluid sim.  If possible, it there any way with the answer you may provide to make it seamless loop?  Such as to make the sailboat look likes it keeps sailing for ever with no visibility video seams.  If not, it is not a big deal.
Sorry I cant upload the blend file because it is too big.
Thanks for the help!

Well for the animation and the simulation you are looking for, I don't think blender is capable of doing it alone. I am not saying you can't do it in blender, you can but with the help of an add-on. You technically have 2 options. You can go with Flip fluids add-on but I won't say it is good for a project like this. It is good for water simulations, but for foam-like effects, not so much. I would say go with the advanced ocean modifier. It was created for these kinds of projects. It is the master at simulating foam and wave-like effects in water. Even though it is developed by just a handful of developers, it will defeat any other water simulation add-on for projects like these. Nevertheless, It is your choice but I would recommend Advanced Ocean Modifier, and it is nearly half the price of flip fluids add-on. Here's the link to both sites:
Advanced Ocean Modifier:
https://blendermarket.com/products/advanced-ocean-modifier?ref=247
Flip fluids Add-on:
https://blendermarket.com/products/flipfluids?ref=247
Hope it helps.


About anvil modelling problem caused by mirror modifier In this model, I have used extrude, loop cut, inset for creating the model and the modifiers that I used was boolean, mirror modifier along the y axis and the subsurf modifier. The problem is why there seems to be a line between the mirror and the object where I lined  it blue? Is there anyway to solve this ? At first, I think maybe there is a face between the model and the mirror but I have deleted it so I think the problem lies somewhere else.

I have made the vertices along the center and scale their 'y' location to 0.
And I have found some problem that some parts of the  meshes would go beyond the center even if I have already clipping turned on. I cannot find any face that is between the mirror and the model so I don't think that is the problem and I also have removed the doubles

my blender file

Here's the answer to the problem.  First, grab the center loop and move it towards the center till the clipping does not allow it to go any further.  This makes sure that all of the vertices on the center loop are at the center of the model.  Next, you must move the mirror modifier up above the subdivision surface modifier.  This is a general rule of thumb that will remove the seam problem.
Glad to be of help!


Will increasing samples reduce fireflies? Will increasing the samples eliminate fireflies? I know that the question of reducing fireflies has been already asked, but i want a straight answer on whether it will help or not.

Just posting for empirical data:

These renders are at 2000 samples with a Sun Lamp pointed at an Icosphere with 100% glossy shader... just to demonstrate differences between firefly reduction techniques:

For noise reduction, see this answer: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/84326/38953

I am a beginner in Blender, and what I found to reduce noise has nothing to do with the number of samples, blurring, or clamp setting.

Below is an image with only 50 samples. You reduce noise by using mesh objects as emitters.

Here, I consider the 'size of the mesh emitter[4*4]' and 'strength of li8' which is 5, based on the room size, and I enclose the emitter with a diffuse object in order to reduce the bounces on the ceiling i.e to reduce the fireflies.

If you want the emitters on the ceiling, follow the above method with only 50 samples.

Another way to reduce fireflies is to move the emitter away from the ceiling and reduce the size of the emitter by double[2*2], with the same strength of li8 from above case which is 5. No enclosing is needed and only 50 samples.

If you want the emitters a little bit under the ceiling, follow the 2nd method.

Here, my uploaded image is based on the 1st method.

I hope my suggestion might help you.

If you have found out a good method to remove fireflies better than mine, please let me know.


Is There A Way To Make Reflections Act Similar To Cycles In EEVEE? I have a low-poly glossy character in my scene, and when I render with cycles, each face is sliced into reflective triangles which looks very good.
But, when I try to render the scene in eevee, the faces reflect without being cut. Is there a way to make the character look similar to cycles in eevee?
Blend File:

EEVEE

Cycles

Creating a Light Probe > Reflection Cubemap and a Light Probe > Irradiance Volume brings you close to the Cycles result. If you need any explanation on light probes, please ask.

If it's literally the quads to triangles part that you want... have you tried the Triangulate modifier?  You would not want keep normals (since you actually want the normals to differ across two triangles), and may need to experiment with the quad method to get the best results.


How to get the collection an object belongs to? I can access objects belonging to a collection like so:

objects_in_collection = bpy.data.collections["My_Collection"].objects

How can I access the collection a specific object belongs to?

Object.users_collection property returns a tuple containing all linked collections:

>>> obj = bpy.context.object
>>> obj.users_collection
(bpy.data.collections['Collection'],)

Select this object by name and it should take you to the right collection. Selection by name is described in this section.


Blender Blendshape meshes, UVs, and textures Here is what I want to achieve

Input: Three face models that are correctly UV mapped different textures.

Goal: Create a blendshape and animate between them.

Say A is a face with mouth and eyes closed, B is a face with eyes open, and C is a face with mouth open.

Then for, A(0%), B(50%), C(50%), I want eyes and mouth half open, and this can be achieved by simply using shape key. Morphing 3 textures are also possible by changing the balance of diffuse of 3 materials.

But the problem here is that it uses the UV coordinates of A, not blending of B and C, so now the morphed texture doesn't make sense.

Is there any way to solve this? eg. something like shape key for UVs?

You already have the MESH part covered in your setup (standard) shapes. Good.

Now you also need to setup drivers to the SHADER aspect of this.

And it´s due with a simple FACTOR setup (greater than) Evaluation. If it returns a number above ZERO, expression is true, it SHOWS the texture. If it´s false, return TRANSPARENT (or default texture).
You may thank me enough to have searched for you this jewel, and thank you for voting me up as the answer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0glf-acMvcw


How should I handle a split in a retopology? What's the best way to handle a "split" in retopology? Consider the case of a torso splitting into legs:

In this case, each leg ring is made up of 16 vertices, as is the torso ring. What is the best way to attach these together with clean topology to create a good retopo?

This also applies to standard mesh modeling: what's the best way to create such a split with polygon manipulation?

First step. Make flaps bending down between the legs.

Make a strip between them and make several loop cuts. You may have to experiment to find the correct number of loop cuts. This is important if you want to have an all quad model. The total number of edges around the opening must match the leg.

Round out the strip to match the correct shape.

Select the two loops and bridge them. If you have the correct number of loop cuts in the strip between the flaps, this should be all quads. Else you will get triangles.

Further adjust the geometry to make the bridged area more even.

Final result:

This is how I would do it to maintain Quads, and hence good edge flow.
As you see I did it in half first, always easier than repeating yourself.


Bodies linked with a Rigid Body Joint are detaching by itself in simulation I have two rigid bodies (they both are small hierarchies actually) and attached them to each other using a 6dof joint with all limits locked to zeroes.

One of the bodies is controllable with left-right keys, there is a motion actuator that does simple rotation.

I start a simulation, do the rotation, wait 5-10 seconds, and the joint detaches by itself. The second body stands still in the air.

The scene file is here download blender scene

Ok, I found it. I had to set "No Sleeping" flag in the Physics properties for each of the rigid bodies.


Rigid body activates, before it interacts with another object I want the pitcher on character's hand get hit by a plate and fall and then I want other plates to destroy the rest of the character but everything falls apart even before plate hits anything.

yes learn how here:
1-3 // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEo_9AopfoQ

2-3 // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY7iJmqsJf8

3-3 // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0VJmmPPvwA

Enjoy!


How important is a GPU for modeling? I don't plan to be doing much cycles rendering, but I wanted to know if a GPU is still important if I'm doing high-poly modeling.

I will assume you are talking about an external GPU in this case, say a Nvidia GTX 660 etc..
Excerpt from the Manual

...GPU rendering makes it possible to use your graphics card for
rendering, instead of the CPU. This can speed up rendering, because
modern GPUs are quite designed to do a lot of number crunching...

In short, No, you do not need an external GPU. Not to get too technical but except for drawing and viewport stuff amongst some other things, much of Blender's core functionality relies very little on a fully fledged GPU.
For modeling in your case, you are perfectly fine with just a decent CPU and an onboard graphics card that supports OpenGL (which in these modern times is pretty much every one of them).
Having one would be nice though as this can greatly improve the viewport performance among other things but it is not a major requirement unless you are going to be doing very heavy or demanding production work.

Graphics card note: Blender runs on all OpenGL compliant cards,
although there are some issues with cheap onboard cards (Intel, Via).
We therefore can't officially support and guarantee that Blender works
fine on those systems.

You can see the system requirements for Blender here.

On-board Graphic cards are not much powerful.Its just one simple fact,if you want fast renders you will need a good graphic card.
Rendering time also depends on material. Suppose if you use SSS, you "will" need a graphic card.