i'm on mavericks here just because i did not see the need to upgrade (i prefer to just keep using the OS that came with the machine till it's replaced - OSX is fine already for my needs, i do download the updates though, in case i need them) so i might just have missed some more recent issues.
the mini is simply my backup machine, all my personal data is on OSX and i had my laptop fail on me once (cooked the GPU) so i wanted to be sure i would not have to migrate back to windows. the GPU failure is also why i definitely do not want a dedicated GPU in such a slim machine anymore - and especially not another model from AMD. but that's just my preference, burned once (literally...) and all. the 2015 model has other advantages for me too: speed is competitive with the 2016 model if you choose the big CPU option, still has all the ports (i use SD cards a lot), comes with the fast multi-lane SSDs already and it's cheaper to boot.
perhaps for your case getting a standalone render box really would be best if your laptop is sufficient already for interactive work. you could probably go for multi GPU rendering over CPU if cycles works well with that.
my laptop is faster (i7) than the mini (i5) so i have never looked into turning it into a processing slave but it would be an interesting experiment indeed.
Not really contrast, but using Cycles you can use different shaders for rays that go through that visor into the camera by using a Mix node and controlling the mix factor with a couple of outputs from a Light Path node. So every object that you want to light up when seen through the visor needs the stuff in the "Method" frame to have this effect:
You can make that "Method" frame into a node group and reuse the same group for all objects that you want this effect. It's easier to manage.
The big sphere (your visor) has a material with a 'mix' of Glossy BSDF and Transparent BSDF shaders.
Hi, i'm working on blender addon, Substance Bridge. It's a simple way to send your job into Substance Painter ; it's WIP but functional. You can download this addon on my Github.
Hello guys, How are you? Any of you know an Addon for Blender similar to 3Ds Max script's textools where I can Control the texel density for my models? Thanks!!
Hi, can anyone help me with a bit of a work flow niggle I'm experiencing in Blender? I've been unable to find anything about it by googling. When I'm in edit mode, using ctrl to do a shortest path selection of edges, verts or faces, sometimes another obect in the scene gets selected instead of the element I was trying to click on. Does anyone know why Blender does this and if I can disable it? My attempted work-around of putting things on different layers and restricting their viewport selection is a bit frustrating for something so simple.
For those who haven't bought it yet: The Pie Menu Editor does a lot more now than it did at release. Recently a capable-looking Macro Editor was added, and before that the developer added the ability to edit the tool-panel, either by hiding sections, or just creating your own. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4HhN4aHCxg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGs0de6ZYdw
It also allows you to set up some more complex hotkeys than Blender does out of the box.
For those already using it: share your stuff! I'd love to see how other have it set up. @Jakro Show off that stuff you shared on Slack the other day!
@mightypea Here's a macro I made using PME. Though it does utilise a function from HardOps. https://youtu.be/JBMTlIBlZfk I've attached the .json files if any of you would like the macro. Just change the .txt extension to .json.
Hello guys, How are you? Any of you know an Addon for Blender similar to 3Ds Max script's textools where I can Control the texel density for my models? Thanks!!
Ok I gotta ask cause this is bothering me, is there no way to repeat select a pattern of edge loops? I thought you used 'select next active' (cntrl shift +) but for some reason it doesn't select the whole edge loop.
@Fuiosg : Another way to get what you want would be to start by selecting the whole series of parallel edges then run "Checker Deselect". And then select loops from there.
It can be done with keyboard shortcuts as soon as you define the keyboard shortcuts that you need
There is no point relying on an unedited default keymap since it will obviously have shortcuts that you don't need, and some that are missing for your specific workflow.
I get that, but why have 'select/ next active' only choose a single edge and not the edge loop. If I wanted just one edge that's what I would have selected. Just wish blender had more smart selection tools like modo, or maybe it does and they're not readily apparent to me.
If I understand correctly Select next Active looks at the relationship between the Active component and the previously selected one and infers the next component to select from there. Therefore, the function is not designed to operate on loop input, and is not designed to output anything else than a new Active component (which is always single).
A shortcut-based approach to what you need would be : first selecting a full ring ; then running CheckerDeselect with options fitting the pattern that you need ; and then selecting the loops from there.
I am of course not saying that Select next Active should or shouldn't be able to do that. Just saying that if the limitation you are facing was to be reported as a problem or a bug, it would be (justifiably) dismissed by the devs since the feature being referred to does exactly what it is designed to do in the first place However, if you feel like there is a strong need to be able to infer a selection of loops based on the two currently selected ones and their relative spacing, it would be worth bringing it up as a desired feature to add. That said it would probably be given low priority since the same can already be done through Checker Deselect
(FYI the "Active component" is the last selected component which acts a selection lead, shown in white. This is a separate concept from a selection of multiple components, shown in orange.)
I think it'd actually be interesting to see how everyone's customised their Blender. I think by and large, we're more customisation-minded than the people over at blenderartists.org, and stuff like Jakro's use of PME is really cool to see. For instance, I really like working in fullscreen with little to no UI, so I set up a modifier panel to be opened with a hotkey:
Which works in tandem with my RMB menu (very much work in progress):
The NW pie entry adds a subdivision modifier if none is present, and toggles it on or off if one already exists. The NE pie does the same, but for the mirror modifier. W toggles alls modifier's visibility on or off (so it's a duplication of a feature in the panel, but I'm still working on that.) N calls this panel for whichever action was last (so like F6, or the thing in the bottom right of the interface):
I'll post more if anyone's interested, but for now: share yours! I know @pior has got some cool custom stuff as well, like the bending script he had someone make, and @Jakro definitely has more...
Good idea, it's always cool seeing how others have blender setup
And I like it being so customizable, among the many included addons, open source once or making one from scratch,
That floating panel looks cool! I don't work with as little UI as you do, but even then it would save me time from switching tabs.
Here is how I have blender setup, I tried picking what shows best on gifs. I use maya at work, so I try and keep most of my hotkeys and functionallity in sync.
Just my layout first. Copy pasting between meshes Edge to curve Maya Style Quad View(I don't use this very often, and it has a rate of working at around 50%) Maya Merge(One thing I missed from maya was the merge tool) Duplicate along curve Mirroring(Wonder if this is similar to the auto mirror you got, but yours select the axis automatically?) And last but not least, for importing kitbash files, where it searches though a hardcoded folder listing the blend files, then importing a group that has the same name as the file. Next step on this one is having a script save out the selected files to the same folder with the right name, group and all that.
Automirror does what I wish the modifier did non-destructively: slices/bisects geometry at the mirror line, so you don't get overlapping geometry. If it isn't already included in the default plugins, I think you'll find it here: https://github.com/lapineige/Blender_add-ons/tree/master/AutoMirror
Have you looked into Asset Management for your kitbash files? It seems like a perfect solution for you.
Have you got links to your scripts? I'm particularly interested in the Edge to Curve script (it's coming to Speedflow, but for now requires some manual steps) and Duplicate Along Curve scripts!
Nice layout by the way, I considered doing it it like that as well. Here's what my UI looks like unmaximised: My Outliner has three parts as you can see, and they're layed out like this: -At the top, it only shows the selected objects. -Middle part is just a regular outliner, showing everything in the current layer -Bottom part is for groups.
I've also started adding some stuff to my 3D View header as you can see, which I think is a far more logical location for Display/View/Shading menus, which pop out like this:
The way you have setup the outliner seems like a good way to go about it, never thought about doing it like that, going to setup mine the same and see how it goes. Like I didn't use blenders groups, because they don't show up in the outliner but this will help with that
I did look at the Asset Management addon a while ago, now that you mention it I'll have another look and hopefully get rid of my own script
Do you got your scripts online?, would be nice looking at the code and pickup some tricks.
I don't have my scripts online just yet, I have been wanting to do it, they require some cleanup though, since know they mostly work to the degree that I can work with them, and not much further.
I'll take some time during the weekend to polish them up and put them on my github.
Wouldn't mind a polycount-blender discord/slack or a channel in the official groups, would like to talk to more blender polycounters.
I've also spent some time replicating more basic maya shortcuts and navigation in blender. I'm always wondering if there was some plugin or in depth guide to getting as much functionality as possible shared between the two programs but haven't seen much past the "maya will it blend?" series of videos really trying to take on the subject til this last string of posts here.
Maybe I'm looking in all the wrong places, or maybe it doesn't exist yet, but I'm sure there are many people who use maya at work / blender at home who would be interested in more information to setting up as much overlap as makes sense between these two softwares.
We've discussed having software-specific groups on the Slack, but given Slacks limited history (text gets wiped out past x number of messages, regardless of channel), the downsides (splitting up the Slack, becoming a mess of channels) outweigh the benefits in our eyes. As far as I know, @Fingus started out with a bunch of application channels, but ended up getting rid of them. There is a Blender Discord with a sizable crowd, but I found it to be super unwelcoming, and it's ran by what turned out to be (in my limited time in there) the worst offenders themselves, so kind of a topdown shitshow.
My 'scripts', as far as you can call them that, are all set up in Pie Menu Editor (Which now does Macros, Tab editing, UI editing, Pies, advanced hotkeys... it's really evolved into a fantastic tool), aside from the odd script I managed to blag friends into making (like @kaptainkernals 's Rotate Around Cursor script, which is on his Github). Everything's kind of in flux at the moment, but I'll definitely share mine once they're not a mess.
@L0ckeness: There's only so far you can go with that type of thing, in my experience. Most programs, and especially those that do everything, work in subtly (or not) different enough ways that they warrant their own setup. It's hard to transport hotkeys wholesale from one to the other without the inevitable differences being a hassle, to the point where any muscle memory you can use for both ends up being a bit of a wash.
@Yamanote Pie Menu Editor has a Stack Key feature where you can stack multiple commands to the same key. You could simply have one command that activates mouse wheel up and then bind that to whatever keyboard shortcut you want. That way you can just activate bevel with while using your tablet and hit your keybinding that scrolls up once if you wanted more segments. then just bind another key with a version that does mouse wheel down.
Though you could also use the macro editor for this. Either would work
Hmm...curious as to why this 'Mega Thread' wasn't made a sticky after all this time, rather than relying on OP bumping every once-'n-awhile through interested eyeballs browsing for relevant info?
Oh well...anyways I'd gone back ten pages too check that I'm not doubling up linking this tidbit relating to Blender's much maligned UI. Basically a fully functional fork made available quite recently I've personally yet to test BTW, however just having a peek at the documentation online plus coupled with user reviews, so far seems to be just the thing to alleviate IMO the aforementioned disquiet, namely:
It's still Blender's 'much-maligned' UI, @Tiles just removed some things and added others. I can't speak to the actual result, but I applaud him for sticking to his guns and seeing this project through.
Visually, Bforartists's added icons don't fit in at all, but I think he knows that. On top of that, I disagree with the idea that icons are always the best way to represent tools. Compressing everything to a single square can help fit more on screen, but often at the expense of clarity.
Really, I just don't think he goes far enough to warant it being a fork.
Newbish rigging question, in this image I'm using a limit rotation constraint, but I don't understand the values at all. I had to give X a negative minimum value for it to do what I want; is this the way it should be or is there a problem with how my bones are setup? Trying not to dick something up early on.
@Fuiosg negative minimum value is fine. I usually limit the rotation visually and don't care what value is needed to achieve the result.
Since you're limiting the rotation in bone's local space, the result will depend on the roll of the bone (set in edit mode). In armature panel you can enable axes to see bones' orientations, which is useful at many stages of rigging.
Wow these look both great. Adding decals with the Blender given tools is already quite comfortable, but this is a new level... or looks like at least, haven't tested it
Hi all - is there a version of GoB that works between Blender 2.78 and Zbrush 4R7 ?
Either GoB, or any other addon that would let one send a model to Zbrush in one click, and bring it back in one click. Even a Autohotkey script automatically writing/reading a dummy .obj file on the desktop would be fine. Best would be for such a tool to not try to be "clever" (that is to say, no need for the tool to monitor changes and update objects on the fly. The dumber the better - like a regular import)
For the record GoB for 2.72 errors out as follows in 2.78 :
Can anyone recommend settings that improve the flatten/polish brush for sculpting? I've figured out most of blender's brushes except this one, it seems to bulge the surface out more often than polish it.
Pior -try my fork, it made some fixes to original script. But I remember making gob work for the first time was always problematic, so I'm not sure it will work for you (just follow the instruction in txt file, and try restarting blender zbrush ): https://github.com/JoseConseco/GoB
Hi Jose, thank you for your help ! Unfortunately this version is giving me the same result/error. The configuration on the Zbrush side works as intended (I just have to manually point to blender.exe because I run Blender directly from a folder as opposed to using a regular install) ; but clicking on the blue/green button doesn't seem to do much, and clicking on the beige button brings up the previous error message.
Is there any other solution out there to transfer data between the two programs ? This would most definitely make my life easier !
Piot - maybe try runing blender in admin mode -just for the first time, so that you have owner right to create ObjectList.txt file. After that you should be able to run blender in normal mode, and get access to ObjectList.txt. Maybe it helps. I don't know other way.
From the source of JoseCanseco's fork and the error you posted, it seems that the hardcoded path to the GoZ app that the script uses doesn't exist in your system (it doesn't point to that file).
If you can, try to find where GoZBrushFromApp.exe actually is in your hd, and then replace the path to it at this highlighted line (as well as the line immediately below it, the path to the Pixologic folder): https://github.com/JoseConseco/GoB/blob/master/GoB_2-72.py#L36
Then save the script and reinstall it.
A way to improve this process would be for someone to add an addon preference like LuxRender does with its addon, where on the addon info itself you'd have a field to set the path to the GoZBrushFromApp from your computer so you don't have to go into the script and change it.
Replies
i'm on mavericks here just because i did not see the need to upgrade (i prefer to just keep using the OS that came with the machine till it's replaced - OSX is fine already for my needs, i do download the updates though, in case i need them) so i might just have missed some more recent issues.
the mini is simply my backup machine, all my personal data is on OSX and i had my laptop fail on me once (cooked the GPU) so i wanted to be sure i would not have to migrate back to windows. the GPU failure is also why i definitely do not want a dedicated GPU in such a slim machine anymore - and especially not another model from AMD.
but that's just my preference, burned once (literally...) and all. the 2015 model has other advantages for me too: speed is competitive with the 2016 model if you choose the big CPU option, still has all the ports (i use SD cards a lot), comes with the fast multi-lane SSDs already and it's cheaper to boot.
perhaps for your case getting a standalone render box really would be best if your laptop is sufficient already for interactive work. you could probably go for multi GPU rendering over CPU if cycles works well with that.
my laptop is faster (i7) than the mini (i5) so i have never looked into turning it into a processing slave but it would be an interesting experiment indeed.
So every object that you want to light up when seen through the visor needs the stuff in the "Method" frame to have this effect:
You can make that "Method" frame into a node group and reuse the same group for all objects that you want this effect. It's easier to manage.
The big sphere (your visor) has a material with a 'mix' of Glossy BSDF and Transparent BSDF shaders.
i'm working on blender addon, Substance Bridge. It's a simple way to send your job into Substance Painter ; it's WIP but functional. You can download this addon on my Github.
To unterstand this use, i make a gif.
Any of you know an Addon for Blender similar to 3Ds Max script's textools where I can Control the texel density for my models? Thanks!!
When I'm in edit mode, using ctrl to do a shortest path selection of edges, verts or faces, sometimes another obect in the scene gets selected instead of the element I was trying to click on. Does anyone know why Blender does this and if I can disable it? My attempted work-around of putting things on different layers and restricting their viewport selection is a bit frustrating for something so simple.
Recently a capable-looking Macro Editor was added, and before that the developer added the ability to edit the tool-panel, either by hiding sections, or just creating your own.
It also allows you to set up some more complex hotkeys than Blender does out of the box.
For those already using it: share your stuff! I'd love to see how other have it set up.
@Jakro Show off that stuff you shared on Slack the other day!
Also is it possible to hold a hotkey to snap to ortho views while orbiting like in ZBrush?
About the clipping, only rectangular.
Magic UV has tools for setting the texel density as well, but this plugin (that I haven't had the chance to test) looks like it's more ocnvenient.
The Roadmap : https://code.blender.org/2017/03/eevee-roadmap/
And also an explanation of what happened during the workflow workshop :
There is no point relying on an unedited default keymap since it will obviously have shortcuts that you don't need, and some that are missing for your specific workflow.
A shortcut-based approach to what you need would be : first selecting a full ring ; then running CheckerDeselect with options fitting the pattern that you need ; and then selecting the loops from there.
I am of course not saying that Select next Active should or shouldn't be able to do that. Just saying that if the limitation you are facing was to be reported as a problem or a bug, it would be (justifiably) dismissed by the devs since the feature being referred to does exactly what it is designed to do in the first place
(FYI the "Active component" is the last selected component which acts a selection lead, shown in white. This is a separate concept from a selection of multiple components, shown in orange.)
For instance, I really like working in fullscreen with little to no UI, so I set up a modifier panel to be opened with a hotkey:
Which works in tandem with my RMB menu (very much work in progress):
The NW pie entry adds a subdivision modifier if none is present, and toggles it on or off if one already exists.
The NE pie does the same, but for the mirror modifier.
W toggles alls modifier's visibility on or off (so it's a duplication of a feature in the panel, but I'm still working on that.)
N calls this panel for whichever action was last (so like F6, or the thing in the bottom right of the interface):
I'll post more if anyone's interested, but for now: share yours!
I know @pior has got some cool custom stuff as well, like the bending script he had someone make, and @Jakro definitely has more...
I don't work with as little UI as you do, but even then it would save me time from switching tabs.
Here is how I have blender setup, I tried picking what shows best on gifs.
I use maya at work, so I try and keep most of my hotkeys and functionallity in sync.
Just my layout first.
Copy pasting between meshes
Edge to curve
Maya Style Quad View(I don't use this very often, and it has a rate of working at around 50%)
Maya Merge(One thing I missed from maya was the merge tool)
Duplicate along curve
Mirroring(Wonder if this is similar to the auto mirror you got, but yours select the axis automatically?)
And last but not least, for importing kitbash files, where it searches though a hardcoded folder listing the blend files, then importing a group that has the same name as the file.
Next step on this one is having a script save out the selected files to the same folder with the right name, group and all that.
If it isn't already included in the default plugins, I think you'll find it here: https://github.com/lapineige/Blender_add-ons/tree/master/AutoMirror
Have you looked into Asset Management for your kitbash files? It seems like a perfect solution for you.
Have you got links to your scripts? I'm particularly interested in the Edge to Curve script (it's coming to Speedflow, but for now requires some manual steps) and Duplicate Along Curve scripts!
Nice layout by the way, I considered doing it it like that as well.
Here's what my UI looks like unmaximised:
My Outliner has three parts as you can see, and they're layed out like this:
-At the top, it only shows the selected objects.
-Middle part is just a regular outliner, showing everything in the current layer
-Bottom part is for groups.
I've also started adding some stuff to my 3D View header as you can see, which I think is a far more logical location for Display/View/Shading menus, which pop out like this:
The way you have setup the outliner seems like a good way to go about it, never thought about doing it like that, going to setup mine the same and see how it goes.
Like I didn't use blenders groups, because they don't show up in the outliner but this will help with that
I did look at the Asset Management addon a while ago, now that you mention it I'll have another look and hopefully get rid of my own script
Do you got your scripts online?, would be nice looking at the code and pickup some tricks.
I don't have my scripts online just yet, I have been wanting to do it, they require some cleanup though, since know they mostly work to the degree that I can work with them, and not much further.
I'll take some time during the weekend to polish them up and put them on my github.
Wouldn't mind a polycount-blender discord/slack or a channel in the official groups, would like to talk to more blender polycounters.
Maybe I'm looking in all the wrong places, or maybe it doesn't exist yet, but I'm sure there are many people who use maya at work / blender at home who would be interested in more information to setting up as much overlap as makes sense between these two softwares.
Mod edit: moved this in here, let me know if you'd prefer to keep it in a separate thread @headclot
There is a Blender Discord with a sizable crowd, but I found it to be super unwelcoming, and it's ran by what turned out to be (in my limited time in there) the worst offenders themselves, so kind of a topdown shitshow.
My 'scripts', as far as you can call them that, are all set up in Pie Menu Editor (Which now does Macros, Tab editing, UI editing, Pies, advanced hotkeys... it's really evolved into a fantastic tool), aside from the odd script I managed to blag friends into making (like @kaptainkernals 's Rotate Around Cursor script, which is on his Github).
Everything's kind of in flux at the moment, but I'll definitely share mine once they're not a mess.
@L0ckeness: There's only so far you can go with that type of thing, in my experience. Most programs, and especially those that do everything, work in subtly (or not) different enough ways that they warrant their own setup. It's hard to transport hotkeys wholesale from one to the other without the inevitable differences being a hassle, to the point where any muscle memory you can use for both ends up being a bit of a wash.
I've added the two scripts you requested to my github, I'll add the rest during time.
https://github.com/Stromberg90/Scripts/tree/master/Blender
Any of you know if it's possible to have shade smooth and auto smooth activated by default?
Though you could also use the macro editor for this. Either would work
Hmm...curious as to why this 'Mega Thread' wasn't made a sticky after all this time, rather than relying on OP bumping every once-'n-awhile through interested eyeballs browsing for relevant info?
Oh well...anyways I'd gone back ten pages too check that I'm not doubling up linking this tidbit relating to Blender's much maligned UI. Basically a fully functional fork made available quite recently I've personally yet to test BTW, however just having a peek at the documentation online plus coupled with user reviews, so far seems to be just the thing to alleviate IMO the aforementioned disquiet, namely:
Bforartists
http://www.bforartists.de/
Visually, Bforartists's added icons don't fit in at all, but I think he knows that.
On top of that, I disagree with the idea that icons are always the best way to represent tools. Compressing everything to a single square can help fit more on screen, but often at the expense of clarity.
Really, I just don't think he goes far enough to warant it being a fork.
Since you're limiting the rotation in bone's local space, the result will depend on the roll of the bone (set in edit mode). In armature panel you can enable axes to see bones' orientations, which is useful at many stages of rigging.
Sprytile : Modeling from texture
And DECAL machine
Adding decals with the Blender given tools is already quite comfortable, but this is a new level... or looks like at least, haven't tested it
Either GoB, or any other addon that would let one send a model to Zbrush in one click, and bring it back in one click. Even a Autohotkey script automatically writing/reading a dummy .obj file on the desktop would be fine. Best would be for such a tool to not try to be "clever" (that is to say, no need for the tool to monitor changes and update objects on the fly. The dumber the better - like a regular import)
For the record GoB for 2.72 errors out as follows in 2.78 :
Thanks !
https://github.com/JoseConseco/GoB
Is there any other solution out there to transfer data between the two programs ? This would most definitely make my life easier !
If you can, try to find where GoZBrushFromApp.exe actually is in your hd, and then replace the path to it at this highlighted line (as well as the line immediately below it, the path to the Pixologic folder):
https://github.com/JoseConseco/GoB/blob/master/GoB_2-72.py#L36
Then save the script and reinstall it.
A way to improve this process would be for someone to add an addon preference like LuxRender does with its addon, where on the addon info itself you'd have a field to set the path to the GoZBrushFromApp from your computer so you don't have to go into the script and change it.
I have encountered error once but I don't really remember how I fixed it exactly.
All I remember doing, that may have fixed it, was:
- Update Blender to the newest version
- Removing the add-on then adding it back
- Windows Update
- Clean computer's registry
Try seeing if the GoB addon works on an earlier version of Blender on your computer.The GoB v2.72 does work with Blender 2.78