@thomasp I think the volumetric effects are very heavy. And they dont really aim at being "realtime", more like an interactive renderer. Did not play around with it so far, but would be nice if it can be tweaked as a fast preview renderer as well
got annoyed by the two uv modes in blender, so I implemented a uv selection highlight for the viewport, and while at it I also added a preselection for the viewport and uv-view. Still missing a few bits, and not even tried on a dense mesh
@kio : oh ouiouiouiouioui ! Can't wait to see how it will develop. I love how it still shows the original selection in the viewport and then your highlight on top - very nice. (Hopefully preselection will be an option rather than always on )
@pior haha, yes that won't be much of a problem, also the colours need to be configurable as well.
I have something working for faces&islands as well now - but performance seems to be a problem on higher polycounts. Also i dont like that you cant select stuff in the viewport now - and the back and forth with the sync selection is really cumbersome. I still have to investigate things, but I might also need to add a "uv selection" mode for the viewport as well. I dont get why blender is structured this way, makes no sense to me. They just would have to drop selecting both sides of the uv seam on selecting in image editor, and then can completly let go of this dual mode thing.
bit of an update to my uv-addon. slowly reaching a usable state. drawing code might need some attention as it gets quite slow on higher poly counts. Preferences are needed as well, for things like.. colors. And then I really have to do some unwrapping and see how it works.
scripting question: i have hotkeys to read/write to a specific OBJ file that i use for data exchange between apps. trying to add NURBS curves to the features now and am a little confused by the results.
here's what i would set in the GUI to export from blender:
@kio thanks for the feedback. who doesn't like a dose of the good old 'works on my machine'. the curve isn't linked to anything as far as i can see. will try with a vanilla installation then to see if some other addon is causing the issue. good to know that it at least does not seem down to a bug on the OBJ side of things!
Does anybody have a good "instance" workflow in Blender for e.g. Game environments? Or is there maybe an add on that can make copies a little like instancing in Modo?
I have tried Group instancing but this really isn't a smooth solution. Especially that when u move your parent model in object mode all the children will move with it. Also, snapping doesn't really work like it should.
Does anybody have a good "instance" workflow in Blender for e.g. Game environments? Or is there maybe an add on that can make copies a little like instancing in Modo?
I have tried Group instancing but this really isn't a smooth solution. Especially that when u move your parent model in object mode all the children will move with it. Also, snapping doesn't really work like it should.
i am not familiar with instancing in modo, but in blender you can link files (file -> link) from other blend files and they will update when you edit the source file
also, if you duplicate an object with alt+d (instead of shift+d) it will create an instance of that model, you can scale, rotate.. etc this however you want in object mode
@SnowInChina : I was thinking about the linking solution. But the alt+d tip is great! Thanks !!! It is pretty close how it works in modo. The only things that is missing is some kind of visual feedback that it is an instance. Like a different outline or wire frame color.
@Belzzebozz the only visual feedback I know of is when you switch to edit mode all instances are displayed in edit, though not editable. You can as well create an instance by changing another objects mesh data in the data tab, but I would rather use this as a fix in case you lost the lnik for whatever reason, you can check it there. The modifier stack works per object, you can therefore use different modifiers on the same instance. Applying mesh changing modifiers is not possible however.
yes, of course. it has some other features also. I'am working on it right now. It's in alpha stage for now. Stay tuned for more features in my topic https://youtu.be/4ucXZfSmwuU
While there are lately quite a few very neat open source game engines, this one is super thight integrated into Blender, looks really really nice: https://youtu.be/2-xkLH5FjPw
That does look really nice, hopefully it will have legs. Wonder why something like this hasn't replaced blender's own lackluster internal game engine? (prob a dumb question).
Real quick question: is there a way to do an edgeloop selection from edges already selected? The select loop by clicking is nice but I don't necessarily want that behavior all the time. It does what I want when I go in the menu Select -> Edge Loop/Ring but not when I assign a shortcut to it.
Found it: Basically had Loop select and multiloop select assigneds to the same shortcut. Thanks!
Hi I made new addon - Render Bevel - is simple blender addon, for making variable bevel size for round corner cycles shader. Script requires blender 2.79 daily build, aka 2.79a from here Render Bevel panel is located in3d View -> Tool shelf -> Tools tab -> Render Bevel panel. Get it from here (gumroad) or here (dropbox link) Simple video with example of how this works
I started the first TexTools for #3DSMax in 2009, the blender version will have more fancy baking modes. TexTools will be free
I'm not so sure this is good. It can propagate a feeling that software is something "easily done" or "low valued" that you can just give it away at no cost. Why study your ass off and work on your skills to make good tools, if you're going to put it out there for no return? It's unsustainable. I'd rather it cost a symbolic price of $1 rather than being completely free.
Even Blender developers get paid, it's called the "development fund".
@RN I disaggree. If you're not broke and want to repay the community, or even developers (some good addons make it to the blender trunk ) this is a great way to do so. Blender is free on its own, doesn't that make software feel cheap? Just support the guys who are making the addons, know that often those are made not to earn a salary, but to help out and share tools
This add-on let's you change the FOV angle of your camera while automatically moving it so that the perceived distance to the 3D cursor remains the same. Some people call this effect the "dolly zoom". You use this while you're looking through a camera.
It can be used for: - Aligning your scene with camera background images (i.e matching perspective, especially for organic meshes). - For animation and stills, trying out different FOVs without having to move the camera all the time.
Ok, can someone tell me how this is not a bug? It has annoyed me for ages and release after release it stays in. You should not be able to snap to vertices on the other side of your mesh-- That's what 'Limit selection to visible' is for. Surely this is a known issue? On dense meshes it's a struggle to even snap onto what you want.
Ok, can someone tell me how this is not a bug? It has annoyed me for ages and release after release it stays in. You should not be able to snap to vertices on the other side of your mesh-- That's what 'Limit selection to visible' is for. Surely this is a known issue? On dense meshes it's a struggle to even snap onto what you want.
Limit selection to visible is for selection and has nothing to do with snapping. If you think it's a bug (snapping snaps to other side of mesh) let the developers know by submitting a bug report.
Ok, can someone tell me how this is not a bug? It has annoyed me for ages and release after release it stays in. You should not be able to snap to vertices on the other side of your mesh-- That's what 'Limit selection to visible' is for. Surely this is a known issue? On dense meshes it's a struggle to even snap onto what you want.
Limit selection to visible is for selection and has nothing to do with snapping. If you think it's a bug (snapping snaps to other side of mesh) let the developers know by submitting a bug report.
Is snapping not reliant on selection? Whether it's a bug is precisely what I'm asking, before I go and wade through entries in the bug tracker. Though I can't see how this could be considered normal/desirable behavior.
@yursiv : If anything, my advice would be to *not* report it as a bug but rather as an annoying behavior that needs to be resolved. Software engineers take the word "bug" very literally, which often ends up in big misunderstandings.
(For instance : Photoshop changing the current layer after undoing a single stroke seems like a "bug" for the users, but for the Adobe engineers it is not a bug since the undo/history behaves as intended and there is no line of code to be fixed).
Instead, describe your problem in full detail in a very naive but straightforward manner. In a way you have to "play dumb" a little. If you go into too much technical detail you run the risk of ending up tangled in discussions that will not resolve the issue.
(BTW : I agree, this snapping behavior is plain dumb. Probably an old design oversight.)
Thanks
for the report, but this sounds more like a feature request than a bug
report, code is working as expected currently. If you think a new
behavior should be added (or current should be modified), please use
forums or bf-funboard ML.
I think that fits your case. If I were you, I'd make a right-click-select post (what you already wrote is perfect), share the link in here so we can vote for it and move on.
Ok, can someone tell me how this is not a bug? It has annoyed me for ages and release after release it stays in. You should not be able to snap to vertices on the other side of your mesh-- That's what 'Limit selection to visible' is for. Surely this is a known issue? On dense meshes it's a struggle to even snap onto what you want.
Limit selection to visible is for selection and has nothing to do with snapping. If you think it's a bug (snapping snaps to other side of mesh) let the developers know by submitting a bug report.
Is snapping not reliant on selection? Whether it's a bug is precisely what I'm asking, before I go and wade through entries in the bug tracker. Though I can't see how this could be considered normal/desirable behavior.
Well snapping uses the selected vertices, but the target can be anything, even on the other side of the mesh. Limit selection to visible will limit your original selection to the visible vertices, but the target part of the snapping has nothing to do with selections. Only the developers can tell you if something is a bug or not.
There are other ways to snap things like using Snap Cursor to Selection and Snap Selection to Cursor. Or snapping while pressing x/y/z to constrain the movement.
How did I miss this thread for so long, just checked the last 10 pages and it blew me away!
I have few questions...
I'm a big fan of your work Wazou, so may I ask you if it's possible to have that fency merge-connect tool in a way that doesnt break UVS? That would be pretty neat as that's what makes it very special in Maya
Second question is a bit more tricky, I want to be able to cut holes trough a cylinder using a subdivided plane as start and then add a bend modifier to achive optimal result, as that gives freedom to work with also nasty geometry ( https://i.imgur.com/DNTVcQd.png )
Problem is, that on the other side of the cylinder since the vertecies are not welded, I get bad results.
I'm trying to figure this out and I hope you guys could come up with some solutions or workaround
What do you think is the best viewport lamp setup? (for the three lamps that you can change on User Preferences > System)
I've read more than once that matcaps are not the best shading to use when on a 3D viewport, and after trying the viewport lamps again after a long time using matcaps, they do give you a better sense of form!
I tried looking at how other programs do it. There doesn't seem to be a consensus: 3ds uses an over-the-shoulder lamp setup, with a secondary opposite lamp (3ds docs was the one that most explained about it):
Maya, just from screenshots (didn't find any docs on it) seems to use a frontal lamp? Notice the pillow shading (It's the default viewport, on the left)
Modo seems to use something similar to 3ds, an over-the-shoulder lamp. Maybe there's a second lamp serving as a fill light as well?
Having at least one frontal lamp like in Maya gives a nice Fresnel effect. The other lamps can give some more nuance.
I wanted to change the light direction based on rotation (instead of mouse-dragging the sphere widget), so I wrote this:
import bpy<br>import math<br>from mathutils import Vector, Euler<br><br># Usage: set the values of the upper-case variables and run this script.<br># =============================================<br># Set the index of one of the three lamps to change.<br>LIGHT = 0 # Use 0, 1 or 2.<br><br># Set the X and Y rotation of the light in DEGREES.<br>ROTATION_X = 0<br>ROTATION_Y = -90<br># =============================================<br><br>vec = Vector( ( 0.0, 0.0, 1.0 ) )<br>vec.rotate( Euler( ( math.radians( ROTATION_X ), math.radians( ROTATION_Y ), 0.0 ) ) )<br>bpy.context.user_preferences.system.solid_lights[ LIGHT ].direction = vec.normalized()
If you open a Text view in Blender, click New (to create a blank text object) and paste the above and press the Run Script button, it changes the direction of the viewport light that you specified on the script based on a XY rotation, with angles in degrees.
If you set X = 0 and Y = 0, you get plain a frontal lamp. If you use X = 0 and Y = -90, you get light coming in perfectly from the left. X pitches the light up and down (depending on a negative or positive angle). Y yaws the light left and right (also negative or positive). You need to test it with slight changes to get a feeling of what angle sign makes the light go in the direction you want.
Once you get something you like, save your user preferences. There's also this addon here with some presets.
3 DataTransfer mods. 1 for turning chamfers into fake flllets, 1 for hard edges(you can skip this one if you dont want hard egdes) and one for the surface fix. There's 2 source meshes one for the fake fillets and one for the uncut, undisturbed surface. DataTransfers are masked by vertex groups.
Suprisingly simple stuff. To make this into a killer tool you'd have to find a good way to manage and maintain various surface source meshes(they can be unlinked from the scene, so as to keep it all clean). Or maybe just repeatedly applying the DataTransfer, could also work. Doing the vertex group masking could possibly also be automated. Both would ideally be integrated into a boolean tool.
For now, personally, I just use it as a final step to clean up unwanted shading on my lowpoly geo.
I am improving my subd modeling skills, and only now notice that it is something wrong with Blender bevel. And i'm wonder, what more experienced people that i'am thinking about this (Here is proposal for devs: https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/10bbbc/bevel-edges-options) Here is blender bevel:
This kind of corners obviously beveled wrong way. Here is maya bevel with some options(looking good with "Radial" and "Auto"/"None" "mitering" option):
I am uncertain as to how much this has to do with the current state of 2.8 development, and how much can be chalked up to simple hardware performance bottlenecks.
for what it's worth i tested 2.8 just a few weeks ago on a 4ghz i7 + GTX1070 windows desktop and found the interaction in the majority of the demo scenes in fancy viewport mode to be rather unbearably slow and in the few that weren't the lag was still noticeable.
Replies
got annoyed by the two uv modes in blender, so I implemented a uv selection highlight for the viewport, and while at it I also added a preselection for the viewport and uv-view. Still missing a few bits, and not even tried on a dense mesh
Can't wait to see how it will develop. I love how it still shows the original selection in the viewport and then your highlight on top - very nice.
(Hopefully preselection will be an option rather than always on
I have something working for faces&islands as well now - but performance seems to be a problem on higher polycounts. Also i dont like that you cant select stuff in the viewport now - and the back and forth with the sync selection is really cumbersome. I still have to investigate things, but I might also need to add a "uv selection" mode for the viewport as well.
I dont get why blender is structured this way, makes no sense to me. They just would have to drop selecting both sides of the uv seam on selecting in image editor, and then can completly let go of this dual mode thing.
here's what i would set in the GUI to export from blender:
and this is the command I use in my script:
leads to:
(i've offset the imports to distinguish from the original curve)
with the options i set via script the curve reimports as a bunch of vertices. i'm using the identical import process to reimport both times though so the difference must be in the export.
going by the definitions found at https://docs.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_74_release/bpy.ops.export_scene.html
bug, oversight on my part? what is that?
the curve isn't linked to anything as far as i can see. will try with a vanilla installation then to see if some other addon is causing the issue. good to know that it at least does not seem down to a bug on the OBJ side of things!
For Blender?
If you want child to not be influenced by parent, u can use make unique option. But it is paid addon (u can get discount if you have HardOps)
also, if you duplicate an object with alt+d (instead of shift+d) it will create an instance of that model, you can scale, rotate.. etc this however you want in object mode
You can as well create an instance by changing another objects mesh data in the data tab, but I would rather use this as a fix in case you lost the lnik for whatever reason, you can check it there.
The modifier stack works per object, you can therefore use different modifiers on the same instance. Applying mesh changing modifiers is not possible however.
their website http://armory3d.org
It does what I want when I go in the menu Select -> Edge Loop/Ring but not when I assign a shortcut to it.
Found it: Basically had Loop select and multiloop select assigneds to the same shortcut. Thanks!
Hi I made new addon - Render Bevel - is simple blender addon, for making variable bevel size for round corner cycles shader.
Script requires blender 2.79 daily build, aka 2.79a from here
Render Bevel panel is located in3d View -> Tool shelf -> Tools tab -> Render Bevel panel.
Get it from here (gumroad)
or here (dropbox link)
Simple video with example of how this works
Why study your ass off and work on your skills to make good tools, if you're going to put it out there for no return? It's unsustainable.
I'd rather it cost a symbolic price of $1 rather than being completely free.
Even Blender developers get paid, it's called the "development fund".
Blender is free on its own, doesn't that make software feel cheap?
Just support the guys who are making the addons, know that often those are made not to earn a salary, but to help out and share tools
This is nice.
This add-on let's you change the FOV angle of your camera while automatically moving it so that the perceived distance to the 3D cursor remains the same. Some people call this effect the "dolly zoom".
You use this while you're looking through a camera.
It can be used for:
- Aligning your scene with camera background images (i.e matching perspective, especially for organic meshes).
- For animation and stills, trying out different FOVs without having to move the camera all the time.
You can get it on Gumroad: https://gum.co/zxZtr
Thanks!
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Contact#Requesting_Features
(For instance : Photoshop changing the current layer after undoing a single stroke seems like a "bug" for the users, but for the Adobe engineers it is not a bug since the undo/history behaves as intended and there is no line of code to be fixed).
Instead, describe your problem in full detail in a very naive but straightforward manner. In a way you have to "play dumb" a little. If you go into too much technical detail you run the risk of ending up tangled in discussions that will not resolve the issue.
(BTW : I agree, this snapping behavior is plain dumb. Probably an old design oversight.)
Good luck !
I think that fits your case.
If I were you, I'd make a right-click-select post (what you already wrote is perfect), share the link in here so we can vote for it and move on.
There are other ways to snap things like using Snap Cursor to Selection and Snap Selection to Cursor. Or snapping while pressing x/y/z to constrain the movement.
I have few questions...
I'm a big fan of your work Wazou, so may I ask you if it's possible to have that fency merge-connect tool in a way that doesnt break UVS? That would be pretty neat as that's what makes it very special in Maya
Second question is a bit more tricky, I want to be able to cut holes trough a cylinder using a subdivided plane as start and then add a bend modifier to achive optimal result, as that gives freedom to work with also nasty geometry ( https://i.imgur.com/DNTVcQd.png )
Problem is, that on the other side of the cylinder since the vertecies are not welded, I get bad results.
I'm trying to figure this out and I hope you guys could come up with some solutions or workaround
Ok, did it, come on the discord (link on addon page on gumroad), I will give you the .py I edited.
For the second question, you cannot do this in blender saddly, we need a merge modifier for that.
Thanks.
https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/Qzbbbc/prevent-snapping-to-hidden-targets
https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/Rzbbbc/backface-culling-for-edges-and-vertices-too-for-re
https://github.com/leukbaars/BRM-BakeUI
I've read more than once that matcaps are not the best shading to use when on a 3D viewport, and after trying the viewport lamps again after a long time using matcaps, they do give you a better sense of form!
I tried looking at how other programs do it. There doesn't seem to be a consensus:
3ds uses an over-the-shoulder lamp setup, with a secondary opposite lamp (3ds docs was the one that most explained about it):
Maya, just from screenshots (didn't find any docs on it) seems to use a frontal lamp? Notice the pillow shading (It's the default viewport, on the left)
Modo seems to use something similar to 3ds, an over-the-shoulder lamp. Maybe there's a second lamp serving as a fill light as well?
Very simple, but it's been serving me well so far.
Thanks.
Here is mine. Its Maya inspired because I prefer when its more matte
I wanted to change the light direction based on rotation (instead of mouse-dragging the sphere widget), so I wrote this:
If you open a Text view in Blender, click New (to create a blank text object) and paste the above and press the Run Script button, it changes the direction of the viewport light that you specified on the script based on a XY rotation, with angles in degrees.
If you set X = 0 and Y = 0, you get plain a frontal lamp. If you use X = 0 and Y = -90, you get light coming in perfectly from the left.
X pitches the light up and down (depending on a negative or positive angle). Y yaws the light left and right (also negative or positive).
You need to test it with slight changes to get a feeling of what angle sign makes the light go in the direction you want.
Once you get something you like, save your user preferences. There's also this addon here with some presets.
3 DataTransfer mods. 1 for turning chamfers into fake flllets, 1 for hard edges(you can skip this one if you dont want hard egdes) and one for the surface fix. There's 2 source meshes one for the fake fillets and one for the uncut, undisturbed surface. DataTransfers are masked by vertex groups.
There's a few more vids on twitter:
Suprisingly simple stuff. To make this into a killer tool you'd have to find a good way to manage and maintain various surface source meshes(they can be unlinked from the scene, so as to keep it all clean). Or maybe just repeatedly applying the DataTransfer, could also work. Doing the vertex group masking could possibly also be automated. Both would ideally be integrated into a boolean tool.
For now, personally, I just use it as a final step to clean up unwanted shading on my lowpoly geo.
And i'm wonder, what more experienced people that i'am thinking about this
(Here is proposal for devs: https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/10bbbc/bevel-edges-options)
Here is blender bevel:
This kind of corners obviously beveled wrong way.
Here is maya bevel with some options(looking good with "Radial" and "Auto"/"None" "mitering" option):