Hey all, I'm new here and looking for some help. I'm trying blender again with the new 2.80 update (beta) but I'm having trouble when baking a normal map for Suite 2. Does anyone know why I'm getting these grey islands instead of a typical normal map? Any help would be appreciated.
Try recalculating your normals? and triangulating your mesh before the bake. Ngons can give that result if memory serves. If you link your .blend I'll take a look.
Also @MACHIN3 I downloaded machin3 Tools this week and am incorporating it in my workflow I especially like the clean mesh function! Thanks a bunch for releasing it for free!
@MACHIN3 I downloaded machin3 Tools this week and am incorporating it in my workflow I especially like the clean mesh function! Thanks a bunch for releasing it for free!
100% I've only been learning Blender seriously for the last week or so and I installed Machin3Tools on the 2nd day. I can't imagine not having it in Blender. The Tab pie menu alone is priceless.
I'm currently trying to get into blender with the release of the 2.8 beta. Coming from 3ds Max, I desperately miss the ability to just Shift - Drag on a gizmo axis to extrude an edge or quickly copy faces around. I've tried googling for an addon or a clever Input solution, but haven't found anything yet.
It feels a little cumbersome to always arbitrarily extrude an edge and then snap it back to the axis I wanted to extrude it on in the first place.
Is there a better way to go about this, or a plugin that allows me to do this more quicklyy/conveniently?
/edit: Well, shortly after posting this, I found the "Extrude Edges Only" shortcut, which essentially extrudes an edge by no distance. This makes things a lot easier already for edges, even though it would still be way more convenient, if I could just Shift Drag on a gizmo handle..
@Insulaner With the verts, edges or faces selected, press E for the Extrude Region command.
You can then press X or X,X to constrain to global & local X axis, or press Y or Y,Y and Z or Z,Z to do the same for the Y or Z axes respectively.
When you're done you can click on the viewport or press Enter to commit.
One thing that always bothered me when I was starting was that the E command does two functions: first it generates the new geometry and then it also enters the Grab ("translation") mode.
If you press Esc to cancel, it will cancel only the translation step, not the generation step -- this means the new geometry will still be there, just on top of the original element(s) it was generated from. You'll need to Ctrl + Z to undo that step.
@Insulaner I'm using 2.80 a lot for modeling now(also coming from Max) and Blender's Extrude tools extend(no pun )beyond Max's edge extrude. Yes, I do miss shift extrude, but Blender has the ability to extrude verts(and even spline verts) plus it has the brilliant Ctrl+Rt click extrude to mouse. This last tool can replace edge extrude. Just use it from ortho and see how fast it is.
I'm slightly reluctant re-learning Blender 2.8's changed shortcuts and getting used to them, so I'm not switching from 2.79b straight away. Maybe after few months of the official release. It's just that I'm so fast with the "old" Blender, haha.
I also have to get two of my projects done first in 2.79b before switching to 2.8. So, not any time soon. Besides, 2.79b serves be perfectly enough for my needs.
@musashidan Having just edges with vertices has been a big advantage in Blender for me for years. For example, if you're creating eyelashes for your character, you can just copy the edges from the topology of the eye from the head mesh to a new object, and extrude their shape from there. That way they're perfectly lined up with the rim of eyelids. (;
/edit: Well, shortly after posting this, I found the "Extrude Edges Only" shortcut, which essentially extrudes an edge by no distance. This makes things a lot easier already for edges, even though it would still be way more convenient, if I could just Shift Drag on a gizmo handle..
This bugged me a lot coming from 3DS too, but one of Blender's core concepts is you can model entirely without a gizmo. Personally I think it's great and worth embracing, but you have to be a fan of keyboard shortcuts.
@FourtyNights : user preferences still mostly carry over fine to 2.8 (or at least they did in my case : tried various 2.8 builds over this past year and played around with moving over my prefs between versions and it worked. So when I ran the new 2.8 beta I had a 2.8 preferences folder already ready) - therefore the "old default shortcuts/new default shortcuts" thing is pretty much irrelevant. Well, unless for those who were die-hard about using the defaults back then, and are dead-set about learning the new defaults now ... but I never understood that point of view anyways, as this is the most backwards way of thinking of a keyboard shortcut system since it's here to be customized - not to be left dogmatically untouched
Now that said I do agree that there is not much point in jumping to the 2.8 beta right away besides maybe out of curiosity. The performance of the new viewport is fantastic for dense models for sure, but besides that not much has changed UX wise. If anything there are quite a few new little things getting in the way imho - the interface is overall less readable, and some things have been made more convoluted rather than streamlined.
Running both 2.79 and 2.8 at the same time is a pretty great and friction-less solution at this time since copy-paste works just as well as ever in both directions.
About Shift-Extrude "missing" : indeed, the whole point of Blender modeling-wise is that in order to extrude an edge, the user is expected to :
> select the edge to extrude from > run the extrude command > move the mouse in the desired screen direction ... without even having to grab the manipulator, and without needing to have the cursor on top of said edge in the first place. > tap click to confirm
This means : no need to grab a manipulator at a pixel level, and no need to even hold down the mouse button. This is actually objectively faster and more fluid than the shift extrude approach.
BTW, speaking of user prefs - adding extra preview HDRIs is pretty straightforward, it's a matter a creating a new folder called "datafiles" next to "config" and "scripts", and then putting any .hdr into :
datafiles > studiolights > world
Then restart. On the next startup, 2.8 will add it to the list of preview envs (note that this is different from using an hdri image as an actual world background for renders)
Awesome - custom matcaps are always such a cool thing to have.
Overall I still wish there was some sort of pure "oldschool opengl" legacy viewport option (basically just like Solid in 2.79, with viewport specular/hardness option on materials), especially for modelling. I'm sure someone will work that in at some point though. Current wireframes are just a bit too thick too, but hey, it's all still beta.
@pior I'm finding the latest workbench studio shading REALLY nice for modeling. In the shading dropdown you can enable nice spec highlights. If you look under Lights in prefs you will see more options to customise.
On another topic, do you know if the F2 addon is now part of the core? I'm using F in 2.80 but it isn't behaving like I've seen F2 do on old videos. Also, it isn't showing in an addon search in prefs.
@pior I'm finding the latest workbench studio shading REALLY nice for modeling. In the shading dropdown you can enable nice spec highlights. If you look under Lights in prefs you will see more options to customise.
On another topic, do you know if the F2 addon is now part of the core? I'm using F in 2.80 but it isn't behaving like I've seen F2 do on old videos. Also, it isn't showing in an addon search in prefs.
F is working like F2 did for me, but 2.8 is messing up hotkeys when you change some of them sometimes, maybe that happened to you.
Yeah @musashidan , Studio is probably where it's at now when it comes to the most accurate/unforgiving shading representation of the model. I still feel like the good old Solid mode was just a tiny bid more clear and sharp - but maybe it's just me missing the controls allowing for pre-2010, non-physically accurate tinted specular highlights with hardness level.
There's just something a little bit too smooth for my taste with these new viewport modes. Great for believable and realistic materials of course (and the new Random option is a godsend for model reivew in production) but there is a certain raw look and feel that is a bit gone now.
Oh well ! Still, fantastic performance.
As for Add-ons : currently not bothering with testing them out at the moment since all the major ones will without a doubt be updated by the time the final 2.8 release comes. Really curious to see what will happen with those heavily relying on the left panel.
@kio@VertexPainter thanks intalled the addon(great timing was just released yesterday)
@pior I know what you mean, mate. I'm still day to day in Max and the oldschool blinn deault grey is in my face for hours.... That kind of material you describe is my goto for modeling too, but I have fallen a little in love with Blender's workbench shader for modeling. I've been messing with the workbench light settings in user prefs and I'm sure you can achieve that look. Also, there are plenty of Max/Maya/Xsi/Blinn/Lambert/Phong matcaps online(although not quite the same admittedly)
Workbench/Studio is definitely where it's at, no doubt. Now I am just patiently waiting for them to redo the UI/UX for it's light editor, as it makes absolutely no sense at the moment. I am sure that someone will claim that it is "just fine", but ... just no The "edit solid light" button makes no sense, there should just be a good old dropdown list to select the one that is current/editable. Aaaanyways ...
On a side note, the 2.8 matcaps seem to have some kind of small sampling/precision issue which wasn't there before, which contributes to the "round" look :
Nothing much of course - just an interesting thing to notice.
Is the 2.8 beta features the new UI? I'm thinking about learning blender.... maya user.
By all accounts the UI/UX is very close to what the final release will be. I'm coming from Max and dabbled in 2.79 a tiny bit, but 2.80 is an entirely new and modern experience compared to 2.79, imo. I'm cram-learning 2.80 ocd-style and I'm really enjoying it. It's surprisingly easy to pick up.
@RNas the input is just a few points which are used to derrive the curve, how is the depth handled? could not see how this is adressed in your capture nor the gumroad page. nevermind its a proportional fall off as described.
Hi @MACHIN3, what an honor.
Oops, good point, I forgot to say. It was made for 2.79, but after requests I added support for 2.8 as well (needs more testing though).
@RNas the input is just a few points which are used to derrive the curve, how is the depth handled? could not see how this is adressed in your capture nor the gumroad page. nevermind its a proportional fall off as described.
@kio that's right, you have the shortest_path_select op getting the shortest path between the individual vertices, you fit a curve segment to each of the resulting series of vertices and map the nearest vertices around them based on a falloff size (a radius, like w/ proportional editing). As if each curve vertex became a bone that influences secondary vertices.
Hey @RN looks like a really handy tool! nice work. Would this tool allow for twist and rotation along the center of a plane? I'd like to fine tune hair cards
The tool would need to be able to isolate the effect to polygon islands. Does it recognize the different types of falloff settings? 'Connected' is the ticket for this.
Anyway, looks cool. Will probably pick this up once I have made the move to 2.8.
But as for hair cards - simply use Hair Tool (commercial add-on). Problem solved!
You absolute beauty!! Not having a Zbrush bridge for Blender 2.80 has been one thing that's made me hesitant to really jump in.....until now.
EDIT: 3dsMax is my main program and I use the Styx plugin as a flawless Zbrush bridge. Your tool now gives me a flawless bridge between Max and Blender via Zbrush. Just tested a 3-way bridge and it was perfect. Scale and UVs worked as expected, first time. Great stuff. This is a massive workflow boost.
Workbench/Studio is definitely where it's at, no doubt. Now I am just patiently waiting for them to redo the UI/UX for it's light editor, as it makes absolutely no sense at the moment. I am sure that someone will claim that it is "just fine", but ... just no The "edit solid light" button makes no sense, there should just be a good old dropdown list to select the one that is current/editable. Aaaanyways ...
Check out the new studio light editor, pretty neat, you can also save a bunch of presets and will appear in the dropdown list.
Yeah, but that's my point - this UX is backwards, the "edit Studio light button" and "Save as Studio Light" buttons are really not necessary. There should simply be a dropdown to set a given preset as current, and live editing of the preset from there with direct feedback in the viewport - as it was before.
Fantastic news about GoB @JoseConseco , will try it out asap ! [edit] - well, worked like a charm ! Thanks
BTW, how does one enable good old Cycles, even temporarily so ? Loving Eevee of course, but I'd like to run some comparison tests between the two yet I have been unable to find any info on how to do that.
BTW, how does one enable good old Cycles, even temporarily so ? Loving Eevee of course, but I'd like to run some comparison tests between the two yet I have been unable to find any info on how to do that.
Oh OK, I see what you mean. I do appreciate that this functionality is in by default but I agree that could be much simplified and having live feedback of the setup is a must. Viewport widgets to modify the lights would be a dream too.
BTW, how does one enable good old Cycles, even temporarily so ? Loving Eevee of course, but I'd like to run some comparison tests between the two yet I have been unable to find any info on how to do that.
If its not there check if cycles is activated on add-ons.
@Udjani - Oh that was easy ! Thanks Somehow couldn't find any info on that.
@musashidan - see above. Cycles is the non-realtime renderer that has been around for a few years (think : Keyshot-like path tracing). Eevee is completely different thing (Toolbag-like) and for 2.8 they set it up as the default render engine instead of Cycles and I couldn't find the option to change that. The two take the same inputs but function in a completely different manner, hence I was curious how things compared visually.
Once it is set it affects how the 4th viewport mode behaves (1-wireframe 2-work 3-basic realtime preview 4-render).
Hey @RN looks like a really handy tool! nice work. Would this tool allow for twist and rotation along the center of a plane? I'd like to fine tune hair cards
It does now heh... thank you for the idea. Click the spoiler to see some images:
AssetGen has been ported to Blender 2.8, this is still a work in progress. This is a free addon that automates the tasks to make your high poly ready for a game
engine. It will reduce the polycount, do your UV Mapping, texture it and
export it to a game engine. It is useful for static models that don't
need to be deformed, like environments and objects.
We have included tools to help you create your high poly, for example add edge wears automatically or make your mesh looks stylized.
Hi, I'm looking at Blender for a Hair solution. Now that 2.8 is out ,it looks a bit easier to get into. So after scouring the internet I found a way of getting hair out of Blender. ( to put into Marmoset) In Blender 2.79 there is a button named Convert which converts it to a mesh. This button is missing in 2.8...Im just wondering whats happened to it ? Has it been moved or just not implemented yet? Thanks for looking.
Replies
Try recalculating your normals? and triangulating your mesh before the bake. Ngons can give that result if memory serves. If you link your .blend I'll take a look.
Also
@MACHIN3
I downloaded machin3 Tools this week and am incorporating it in my workflow I especially like the clean mesh function! Thanks a bunch for releasing it for free!
It feels a little cumbersome to always arbitrarily extrude an edge and then snap it back to the axis I wanted to extrude it on in the first place.
Is there a better way to go about this, or a plugin that allows me to do this more quicklyy/conveniently?
/edit: Well, shortly after posting this, I found the "Extrude Edges Only" shortcut, which essentially extrudes an edge by no distance. This makes things a lot easier already for edges, even though it would still be way more convenient, if I could just Shift Drag on a gizmo handle..
Now that said I do agree that there is not much point in jumping to the 2.8 beta right away besides maybe out of curiosity. The performance of the new viewport is fantastic for dense models for sure, but besides that not much has changed UX wise. If anything there are quite a few new little things getting in the way imho - the interface is overall less readable, and some things have been made more convoluted rather than streamlined.
Running both 2.79 and 2.8 at the same time is a pretty great and friction-less solution at this time since copy-paste works just as well as ever in both directions.
> select the edge to extrude from
> run the extrude command
> move the mouse in the desired screen direction ... without even having to grab the manipulator, and without needing to have the cursor on top of said edge in the first place.
> tap click to confirm
This means : no need to grab a manipulator at a pixel level, and no need to even hold down the mouse button. This is actually objectively faster and more fluid than the shift extrude approach.
datafiles > studiolights > world
Then restart. On the next startup, 2.8 will add it to the list of preview envs (note that this is different from using an hdri image as an actual world background for renders)
Overall I still wish there was some sort of pure "oldschool opengl" legacy viewport option (basically just like Solid in 2.79, with viewport specular/hardness option on materials), especially for modelling. I'm sure someone will work that in at some point though. Current wireframes are just a bit too thick too, but hey, it's all still beta.
https://github.com/iceythe/blender-scripts/blob/master/2.8_contrib/mesh_f2.py
There's just something a little bit too smooth for my taste with these new viewport modes. Great for believable and realistic materials of course (and the new Random option is a godsend for model reivew in production) but there is a certain raw look and feel that is a bit gone now.
Oh well ! Still, fantastic performance.
As for Add-ons : currently not bothering with testing them out at the moment since all the major ones will without a doubt be updated by the time the final 2.8 release comes. Really curious to see what will happen with those heavily relying on the left panel.
On a side note, the 2.8 matcaps seem to have some kind of small sampling/precision issue which wasn't there before, which contributes to the "round" look :
Nothing much of course - just an interesting thing to notice.
It's a tool to shape meshes using curves:
You can read more about it in here:
https://gum.co/bezier_mesh_shaper
If you were already a Blender user before version 2.8, you might like to have a look at this summary I've written about the changes from 2.7x to 2.8.
You can grab it from: https://www.dropbox.com/s/971ykjro968jlnz/GoB_2.8.0.zip?dl=0
Fantastic news about GoB @JoseConseco , will try it out asap !
[edit] - well, worked like a charm ! Thanks
BTW, how does one enable good old Cycles, even temporarily so ? Loving Eevee of course, but I'd like to run some comparison tests between the two yet I have been unable to find any info on how to do that.
@musashidan - see above. Cycles is the non-realtime renderer that has been around for a few years (think : Keyshot-like path tracing). Eevee is completely different thing (Toolbag-like) and for 2.8 they set it up as the default render engine instead of Cycles and I couldn't find the option to change that. The two take the same inputs but function in a completely different manner, hence I was curious how things compared visually.
Once it is set it affects how the 4th viewport mode behaves (1-wireframe 2-work 3-basic realtime preview 4-render).
2.79 2.8