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Blender Mega Thread

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  • Frederico4d
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    Frederico4d polycounter lvl 9
    Hi guys, me working on multiple animations for the same (or different many similarly named rigs), this will be hundreds of animations soons, and what better way to go from an animation to the other than with  1 click, also having it change the timeline range automatically, zooming it in graph editor or dopesheet or timeline whatever you have open, and adding fake user (basically saving it). Was using max before, and had to use load and save animations to file, (because I was not using those fancy rigs, cat or bip) and it sucked.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQrfsufhyWw

  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    @RN , @GhostDetector  : I am happy to report that I got it to work.

    Line 36 of the code put me on the right path, and this thread https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/24766/zbrush-4r6-released (msorrel post) made it clear : for some reason GoZBrushFromApp.exe was simpky not on my system, its disappearance likely caused by the Zbrush updater. Thankfully enough there is an installer for it located in  C:\Program Files (x86)\Pixologic\ZBrush 4R7\Troubleshoot Help\GoZ_for_ZBrush_Installer_WIN.exe so it was just a matter of running that and from there everything worked. Definitely a convoluted process ... all because of Pixologic as usual :)

    @JoseConseco : I have been using your version, but what exactly does it do that is different from the original ?

    If that is of any interest to you I can mention that I do have to scale down my objects by a .1x factor in Blender before GoB-ing them out, because if not they end up too big for Zbrush to properly handle (the brush can hardly be made big enough for large Move brush operations, the Dynamesh slider requires very small values, and so on. My Blender scenes are set up in such a way that 1 generic unit = 1 real centimeter. So maybe adding a scale option to your fork could be valuable for people with similar settings ?

    Scaling things inside Zbrush to compensate is obviously not an option because it doesn't have accurate scale measurements, and would break on GoB reimport anyways. But ! oddly enough, I don't get the scaling issue if I GoB out a part and append it to a model that is displayed at a good working scale in Zbrush already, very odd (and again that's all probably be caused by the odd way Zbrush works internally).


  • JoseConseco
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    JoseConseco greentooth
    Stuff i fixed in my fork of gob (those are old fixes and I don't remember exactly what was broken):
    - works with instances (in past If I remember correctly object sent to zbrush would be uninstanced)
    - object transformations are not destroyed  (prevously I would apply rot,loc,scale on export to zbrush) - so eg. pivot of hat translated 2meters up in z axis, would be set to 0. Now it stays 2 meters up
    -  bug with empty texture fixed (would prevent object from being exported to zbrush)
    - catching closing file exception - blender could lock access to goz file, and you would no be able to send updated mesh through goz link- this would require blender (or pc restart) to unlock the file
    - bug with weights fixed - but I don't remember what it was about
    There is still some problems sometimes, but from zbrush side - eg. zbrush randomly changes name of subtool, and then blender can't recognize imported object, as one that is already on scene. I think I can't modify goz in zbrush cos pixologic don't give acces to it.
    Zbrush scaling is funky but for me it works ok - see 2 meters/blender units basemesh exported from blender - and then with default dynamesh settings:

    I'm not sure why you have the problem. 
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Awesome list of fixes !  I am glad to be using your version :D

    As for the scaling : I wouldn't really call that an issue or a bug - more like a side effect of the way Zbrush handle scale. I think you'd run into it too if your test character was 200 blender units as opposed to 2. But then again it's not really a big blocker at all, just something I thought I'd mention if that is of any interest to you.

    Regarding models updating on re-import : as far as I am concerned I personally feel like it is always best to never force update a model in the original scene but rather always bring it in as a new mesh. I am not exactly sure what GoZ/GoB does by default and I don't want to run the risk of overwriting my work, therefore I personally always duplicate my object before GoBing for safety.

    Anyways - thank you for your work !
  • derphouse
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    derphouse polycounter lvl 4
    Made a small script for gradient texturing. Intended for our env. artist and fresh out the oven, so it's quite specific and prone to errors, but thought I'd share the gist of the script here!



    It handles the unwrap and the export, so you really just need to focus on placing some neat gradients. It gets multiplied with another gradient meant to give more control of light and shadow. Exports .fbx and a 1x256 albedo map(We're working on mobile), but I might expose the map dimension parameters soonish.
  • Jakro
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    Jakro greentooth
    @derphouse That's pretty awesome! I'm guessing that UVs are generated via a side projection and then shrank to put into a pixel width atlas for a vertical gradient map. Do you think it would be possible to apply a gradient like this without having having squashed UVs? What I'm asking is whether or not you can project a gradient like this onto a mesh that's been UV'd for handpainting for example? The ability to quickly generate a vertical gradient to a mesh before or after handpainting would be really nice. Maybe this is out of the scope for your needs but I thought I'd ask :P Awesome work regardless!
  • Yadoob
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    Yadoob polycounter lvl 7
    You can use the material node editor for that (I think it's also what derphouse use) : 



    Then bake the result, it works with both Cycles and Blender Internal, the only trick is to tweak the multiply value to match the objects height
  • Jakro
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    Jakro greentooth
    @Yadoob
    oh nice! That's an awesome trick, I clearly need to delve into the material node editor! Thanks

  • derphouse
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    derphouse polycounter lvl 4
    @Jakro Thanks!

    You just need to change the width property in the script's function that generates the image. The UV is independent of that and is a simple view projection yes, so the UV will automatically fit any res.

    Edit: Oh I actually forgot to post the script
    https://github.com/martindur/gradient_texturing 
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    This is looking fantastic @derphouse ! Can't wait to give it a try.

  • L0ckeness
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    L0ckeness polycounter lvl 5
    Thank you derphouse~! This is really cool :)
  • derphouse
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    derphouse polycounter lvl 4
    Glad you guys like it! Been user tested a while by our env. artist, so I'll probably do some more work on it monday.

    Some of you might be interested in this as well:
    https://github.com/martindur/import_multiple_fbx 
  • jpthrash
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    jpthrash polycounter lvl 7
    This new addon by Yusuf Umar looks really cool, and well showcased too.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KSGgJYi-iw
  • Pedro Amorim
    Hi guys, I've been test driving blender, to see if i get used to it and whatnot.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/lh74bqjf07o9k55/2017-05-04_14-05-51.mp4?dl=0

    So, in this video I show a couple ways to align a bunch of verts together on a single axis.

    You can scale them and snap them afterwards to their new location.
    You can align them on z axis and snap them back.
    Or you can use miau script, Align Verts to Vert, where the last vert selected with act as the point of reference for where to move them.

    Is there a way to have the same in blender using a pie menu? Being able to move verts along the selected axis or axies?
    Also, is there a way to stop blender from doing a negative scale? That way i could also scale the verts on a single axis and then snap them to where I want. Always great to have lots of ways to do the same thing.
    Cheers!
  • kaptainkernals
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    kaptainkernals polycounter lvl 12
    @Pedro Amorim, you could in blender scale on any axis you want - I normally hit S(scale), Z(axis), then 0, to snap them to the same position on the Z axis, and then from there you can snap that group to a vert.

    You could also using the pie menu editor addon, assign that command macro to a custom button, or you can string the commands from the python window, and place it into a python script that calls the pie menu. There are many ways to achieve it, but all of what you've shown is doable in blender quite quickly with either existing shortcuts, pie menu editor, or a custom script.
  • GhostDetector
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    GhostDetector polycounter lvl 10
    @Pedro Amorim

    So, in this video I show a couple ways to align a bunch of verts together on a single axis.

    You can scale them and snap them afterwards to their new location.
    You can align them on z axis and snap them back.
    Or you can use miau script, Align Verts to Vert, where the last vert selected with act as the point of reference for where to move them.

    I think this addon is what you are looking for is the "Viewport Pies" addon (specifically the align menu, shortcut Alt X)
    Blender Wiki Link
    Blender Artist Link

    You can change align those verts by changing the pivot (active,median,individual origin, 3d cursor,bounding box)
     Pie menu shortcut is "."

    This is all the same addon.


    Also, is there a way to stop blender from doing a negative scale?" 


    If you want to align verts at an angle, use the flatten feature.

    I'm not sure what you mean by  that You can type out the scale rather than adjusting using the mouse.  So you can scale selected verts and press "0" and constrain the operation to a specific axis by pressing x,y,z.
  • Yadoob
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    Yadoob polycounter lvl 7
    (both ghostdetector andkaptainkernals are right, I'm just adding the S+Z+0 on active pivot point example gif)


  • Michael Knubben
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p2CRIq-Aa0

    Modular building tool inside of Blender.
    It isn't final yet, but is looking wonderful! (link to the alpha in the description)
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Yama : that's interesting, since on my end I find the blender sculpting tools to be  way more controllable and working "just as expected" compared to Zbrush tools. Of course it is not able to push anywhere near the same amount of polygons on screen, but for medium density sculpting I find the tools to be excellent and providing very accurate control (for instance the tools don't do any of the weird "bleeding over" that Zbrush brushes do).

    Don't hesitate to let me know If there is a specific kind of model you are trying to achieve and it would be my pleasure to do a demo. I suppose something like a smooth, stylized character face ?

    Note that I use GoB a lot, and I still always do my final highres pass for organics in Mudbox if I need finely controlled details. But yeah Blender really is excellent (and in my opinion, the best out of all the solutions out there) for blockouts and medium res sculpting.
  • Yadoob
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    Yadoob polycounter lvl 7
    New real time viewport in action, still a lot to do :smile:  :

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HjPsGQKvqc
  • MmAaXx
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    MmAaXx polycounter lvl 10
    I suggest to think sculpting tools in Blender as an addition to polygon modeling, I often use it to fix up shapes without even adding multi resolution modifier.

    I use Blender sculpt as much I can before probably jumping in zbrush for final details addition. To be honest now days in the substance era, I add most of small details strainght in painter.. :D
  • Frankie
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    Frankie polycounter lvl 19
    Is there a way while sculpting to have the "hide selection box" hide everything outside the selection rather hide whats inside it?

    I like sculpting in blender too fwiw, not sure if its unique to my setup but I found that there were 2 sculpt brushes it would toggle between when I hit the hotkey and so change size/intensity without meaning to, might be worth checking that's not happening to you Yamanote.
  • thomasp
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    thomasp hero character
    just to state i'm not actually sculpting in blender, it's all zbrush for me. i do love sculpt/maks/mirror tools in there though for asset tweaking purposes but i only use them as a fancy replacement for what soft selection might have been used for in older software.

  • Prime8
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    Prime8 interpolator
    When it comes to scaling, I'm often in the situation were I cannot use Global or Local coordinates for transformation.
    In that cast I mainly use Normal as Transform Orientation and set Pivot Point to Active Element. Works for vertex, edge and face normals. As a keyboard shortcut you have to press S for scale and the axis button twice.
    Aligning the view to a certain element normal (e.g. Shift + Num-7) and use View as Transform Orientation works as well, but can make selection difficult.
    Of course the 3D cursor can be handy as well when scaling in some cases.
  • Yadoob
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    Yadoob polycounter lvl 7
    Sculpting in Dyntopo and Multi resolution are quite different in the brush feelings. Multi Res feels way more clean, dyntopo usually show little artefacts when the detail gap is too strong. It' a good idea to do a "detail flood fill" in a medium detail scale to avoid that.

    For dyntopo, I use Subdivide and collapse - Constant detail. You can also look at the "autosmooth" function of the brushes, it really helps in order to have clean result in Dyntopo. I still struggle with  not regular surface that are hard to solve, the smooth of blender seems to destroy the shape too much compare to ZBrush.

    Here's auto smooth result with 0 - 0.5 - 1. You have to tweak a bit the strength of the brush though.

  • derphouse
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    derphouse polycounter lvl 4
    Got some progress on my Gradient Painter addon: 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwe1tqVLd-A

    Not a ton more functionality, but a whole deal more stable. I'm very interested in any input/feedback if you think this could be useful. as @Jakro suggested, I will start adding some painting functionality layered on top of the gradient. It will probably be very basic and not support multiple layers to begin with, but really just focus around simple hand painted details etc.

    As I mentioned, I'm very open to inputs on what you think this addon could become!
  • Michael Knubben
  • Zarsky
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    Zarsky polycounter lvl 5
    Stellar looking short! I hope they get the funding to create a full-length version.

    In other news a solid looking texture painting plugin got released:
    https://youtu.be/ZzcP9EEro-0



  • jaスper
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    jaスper polycounter lvl 2
    Another update for the cloud engine I've been working on. As the results are slowly converging to more acceptable (still refining it though), I can soon start working on better cycles co-operation, i.e. let the objects rendered with cycles catch shadows from clouds. It already works the other way around, clouds themselves can catch shadows from objects. Basic depth compositing is fully functional.

    Test render result and tone mapping:


    Obligatory screenshot:
  • MmAaXx
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    MmAaXx polycounter lvl 10
    this cloud generator looks promising!
  • Michael Knubben
    Yeah, impressive stuff!
  • derphouse
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    derphouse polycounter lvl 4
    That looks fantastic!
  • jaスper
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    jaスper polycounter lvl 2
    Thanks all! Always nice to have some positive reactions :) .

    Here's another from the same scene:


    And the obligatory Stanford bunny. The ground illumination might be a bit too prominent on this one. Probably have to find a way to separate that from the sky lighting.


  • Stromberg90
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    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    @jaスper Looking good :)

    Uploaded my maya style merge tool to github: https://github.com/Stromberg90/Scripts/tree/master/Blender

  • melviso
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    melviso polycounter lvl 10


    Uploaded my maya style merge tool to github: https://github.com/Stromberg90/Scripts/tree/master/Blender

    Excellent scripts, mate. Makes modeling way easier.
  • ironbearxl
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    ironbearxl polycounter lvl 18
    Everything on this page is insane right now.
  • wazou
  • armagon
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    armagon polycounter lvl 11
    That cloud thing is fantastic! AMAZING work dude.
  • Michael Knubben
    @wazou: think you could give us the option to turn each pie on or off in the settings? I use your previous two radial menu addons, but I have to go in and delete keymap entries for the ones that conflict with my own!
  • wazou
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    wazou polycounter lvl 5
    @wazou: think you could give us the option to turn each pie on or off in the settings? I use your previous two radial menu addons, but I have to go in and delete keymap entries for the ones that conflict with my own!
    Witch previous addon ? The first rmb pie menu to have the sculpt pie ?
    I will update my wazou pie menus with it.
  • Michael Knubben
    Your rmb menu (v1) and your pie menus.
    I don't use them all, so I'd like to be able to turn some of them off in the addon preferences, as you can in more addons now. Currently I turn them off in keymap, but it's less convenient (and everytime you update the addon it's reset)
  • wazou
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    wazou polycounter lvl 5
    I will do this in the next version.

    Update of the rmb pie
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlJyIOCRTak

    Smart Cursor Addon.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbWrdoeHlEs
  • Peris
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    Peris polycounter lvl 17
    @jaスper Looking good :)

    Uploaded my maya style merge tool to github: https://github.com/Stromberg90/Scripts/tree/master/Blender

    Fantastic, was waiting for you to release this :). Merge at target has the same function, but this "feels" so much nicer.
  • shogunato
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    shogunato polycounter lvl 12
    yep, i love it too !! Many thanks Stromberg90


  • wazou
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    wazou polycounter lvl 5
    shogunato said:
    yep, i love it too !! Many thanks Stromberg90

    wazou : Can we use and move the cursor without snapping ? it would be really useful.
    yes, don't use snap ^^
  • Stromberg90
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    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    @Peris @shogunato Really happy you like it :)
  • shogunato
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    shogunato polycounter lvl 12
    Thanks Wazou
    Stromberg90 : it would be super handy to have the possibily to merge 2 vertices at center by hoding shift :):)
  • RN
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    RN sublime tool
    @shogunato open the .py file with Notepad or similar and look at line #74:
    https://github.com/Stromberg90/Scripts/blob/master/Blender/MergeTool.py#L74

    The line is this:
                    bpy.ops.mesh.merge(type='LAST')

    Overwrite it with this (make sure to copy even the leading blank spaces):
                    if event.shift:
                        bpy.ops.mesh.merge(type='CENTER') #Note that CENTER is the default type anyway.
    		else:
                        bpy.ops.mesh.merge(type='LAST')
    And reinstall that .py file. Hopefully it should work.


    edit: This is another way to do the same:

    my_type = 'CENTER' if event.shift else 'LAST'<br> bpy.ops.mesh.merge(type=my_type)
  • wazou
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    wazou polycounter lvl 5
    It's what I did, this is nice !


    I used the same code to make a connect tool.



    We can also combine join and connect !



  • Stromberg90
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    Stromberg90 polycounter lvl 11
    @wazou Hah, that is awesome, cool to see it extended like that :)
    If you like you can add a push request on my github, I really like the connect + merge combo.
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