Home Technical Talk

9 Blender noob questions.

polycounter lvl 9
Offline / Send Message
jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
1.Is it possible to change what icons that appear in the menus in blender ?, for example if i get up a list of all the

types of meshes i can create (under "Add"), i know for sure that i will never use force field. Can i make that dissapear

temerary so i dont see them in my menu ?

2.When you are working in the uv editor often i end up with a dussins (untitled 00x) documents. and everytime i click at

the image icons all theese ones come up that i dont really need is it possible to make blender throw out all of the

stuff that i aint using ?, same in the material/texture area? i know i am suppose to be more careful and not clicking

one of theese all the time but an "remove image from list" choice whould be nice.

3. Is it any way i can change some preferences that makes blender mark verts,linesor face,depending on where i hover my
mouse pointer over? , also is it anyway that blender will highlight the polys i am touching? so for example if i

touch a poly in the uv editor it will highlight the poly out in the 3d viewport not when i am clicking on it just

hover over tha face.

4. in the uv editor is it anyway you can hold a key down to get a straight line like shift does in Photoshop ?

5. Everytime i create a new object it comes out highligted in orange but i cant see throught. This is disturbing when

you are in the uv editor and apply a checker map. becouse you cant see it, is it anyway i can pull down the opacity ?

6. Is it anyway to see the geometry in object mode like 3dsmax settings for edge faces ?

7. is it possible to set the add selection to CTRL key like in max instead of shift ?

8. How do i select a bunch of verticies and make them align in one direction ? , example:
lets say that i have a standing cylinder in the scene and the verts away from my camera are lower that thoose facing

the camera. i want to be able to select all of the verts and scale them so that all verts end up in the same z

cordinates. In 3dsmax you just select all and scale them in that direction what buttons does blender have ?
also can ypu snap all the verts to the grid for example,without changing theor x and y possition ?

9. is it anyway to set so you get anti aliasing in the viewport ?

thanks.

Replies

  • Snowfly
    Offline / Send Message
    Snowfly polycounter lvl 18
    Tough questions. :) I'll try to answer a few-

    2. There's a little X icon next to these fields. Shift-clicking on that unlinks the texture/material from any objects it was assigned to, and it'll be discarded as soon as you close the .blend file you're working on. But while you haven't closed your scene, it remains available. It's a failsafe, but probably sloppy for materials and textures that you're sure you want to get rid of.

    3. You'll have to create a new selection mode for this. Open your Preferences menu, and under Input>3D View>Mesh, create a new hotkey that's set up like this:
    BlenderHotkey.jpg

    "3" is my hotkey, you can set this to anything you like. No selection highlighting though as far as I know.

    4. Just after pressing G, press X or Y depending on whichever axis you want to constrain to.

    6. Still trying to figure this one out. But for individual objects, select the one you want to view wireframes of, and under the Properties pane under the Object tab, check 'Wire' under the Display rollout.

    8. Not sure if I understand the question exactly. But try selecting the verts and pressing S, Z, 0 (zero) in sequence.

    If I want a bunch of verts to sit on the grid, I'll scale their Z to zero and then just type in 0 as their Z position.
  • Dim
    Offline / Send Message
    Dim polycounter lvl 10
    1. You'll need to do this through python as there's no visual way to do it, but in what context does this matter? Most of the menus are pretty small, so they aren't exactly cramped for space.

    2. To get rid of these images, shift+click on the X next to the image, then save your file, close and reopen Blender and the data should be cleared.

    3. To the first part of your question, no, you can't see the components highlighted. Typically this shouldn't matter because Blender selects whatever component is closest to your pointer (within a radius), so you can pretty easily select whatever component you want, without even properly mousing over it.

    As to the second part of your question, you're looking for the button in the header titled "Keep UV and edit mode mesh selection in sync":

    4. Scale to 0 on the X or Y axis to align things, to move them, g+x or y. Alternatively (and preferably), you can MMB+drag either vertically or horizontally to easily choose an axis. This can be done in the 3D view as well.

    5. To change view modes, press Z.

    6. Not completely sure what you mean here (I am assuming you mean wire over shaded), but try selecting the object, then in the Object properties, under Display, check "Wire", and the wire will display over the shaded mesh.

    7. You can change all of the keyboard shortcuts by going to File>User Preferences>Input. Be wary of breaking the usability of the program however since the previous function that used control will not be reassigned.

    8. You can scale the verts to 0 in order to align them (s+z+0), then use the snapping tools in the header of the 3D view to set the mode to "vertex" (ctrl+shift+tab) and the gab the verts, while holding ctrl, and mousing over the desired new location. Sounds much more complex than it is.

    In order to scale them to a specific location on a specific axis, place the 3D cursor (with LMB), then use shift+S>Cursor to Grid, then press "." to constrain your transform to the cursor, and again, scale to 0 on the axis (s+z+0).

    9. I think there was a patch released for this recently, I'd have to check.

    Also, what version of Blender are you using? I would recommend you start here: http://www.blender.org/download/get-254-beta/

    Or grab a cutting edge release: http://www.graphicall.org/builds/
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    Okay dim.

    1. Yes it matters becouse most of theese tools i will NEVER use and ithey are confusing for the eye when you are working really fast.

    2. Its sad that you have to reopen your file to get rid of stuff,that sucks. :thumbdown:

    3. you missaunderstand me. I am talking about verts,polys,edges.. And no Blender does not select ore highligt thoose , they are in different modes even (EDGE,FACE,VERTZ). Modo had this function its really great becose you can stay in just one mode and be able to select anything.

    4. I was talking about the paint mode in the uv editor (to DRAW a straight line like in photoshop)

    5. Pressing z doesnt pull down the opacity it toggles between wireframe and solid. The solid gets highligten in color so it wont show the texture map, if i turn on wire frame and want to
    see the texturemap thats hardly gonna help me.

    6. That sounds exactly what i am after but doesnt Blender have an default render option for this for the entire scene?, seems strange that you whould have to do this yourself for every object.

    7. I dont find that under input where is it ?

    8. 4. I tryed that yesterday like in 3dsmax (pull the scale handle until they are in the same possition, but they ended up rotating instead, mayby my pivot whas wrong ? anyway Blender should make a button for this, this is something that most people use all the time.

    9. Awsome let me know if you find it, that whould be awsome. I am using Blender 2.54, I can find where my build version is ? , But i downloaded Blender from their site 1 week ago.

    Thanks alot for the help Dim !
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    Okay Firefly

    3.Awsome man i am gonna try it . I really Hope blender adds the highlightning function its beautiful, look in Modo and you will se for yourself. Expecially when you are selecting faces in the uv editor (just hovering over them) and you see in realtime the same faces getws selected in the 3d Viewport, awsome !

    I have read all the other answers, was hoping that Blender whould have made this smarter but i guess this will work in the meantime. Keep your eyes open i will be posting more questions soon here on the Polycount forum, you happen to know any good tutorials ?
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    Okay Firefly

    3.Awsome man i am gonna try it . I really Hope blender adds the highlightning function its beautiful, look in Modo and you will se for yourself. Expecially when you are selecting faces in the uv editor (just hovering over them) and you see in realtime the same faces getws selected in the 3d Viewport, awsome !

    I have read all the other answers, was hoping that Blender whould have made this smarter but i guess this will work in the meantime. Keep your eyes open i will be posting more questions soon here on the Polycount forum, you happen to know any good tutorials ?
  • Snowfly
    Offline / Send Message
    Snowfly polycounter lvl 18
    Yeah I get selection highlighting in Silo, it's pretty sweet.

    Keep asking those questions, I picked up Blender a couple of months back so I'm still learning, but I'm kind of embracing it for what it is, and not trying to make it behave like other 3D programs.
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    Snowfly wrote: »
    Yeah I get selection highlighting in Silo, it's pretty sweet.

    Keep asking those questions, I picked up Blender a couple of months back so I'm still learning, but I'm kind of embracing it for what it is, and not trying to make it behave like other 3D programs.

    Actually me and my friend started to build our own game everything you see on this picture is from our game engine, all have been made in Blender. (not 2.5)

    I really trying to learn the new blender.


    Links: http://jimpaw.deviantart.com/art/ingame2-157487711?q=&qo=
    http://jimpaw.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2m0u72
    http://jimpaw.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2lqa3y
  • Dim
    Offline / Send Message
    Dim polycounter lvl 10
    Those are some very nice shots Jimpaw.
    jimpaw wrote: »
    1. Yes it matters becouse most of theese tools i will NEVER use and ithey are confusing for the eye when you are working really fast.

    To be honest, when working with Blender quickly, you'll really never use the menus, and this is one of it's strengths. Once you get to the point where you have the shortcuts pretty much memorized, you'll be able to execute commands that way, far faster than in menus.
    2. Its sad that you have to reopen your file to get rid of stuff,that sucks. :thumbdown:

    It's not so bad (just ctrl+S, ctrl+O, double click on the file and you're set), and it shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds. Plus it's a failsafe, as snowfly mentioned, because once it's actually gone, it's really gone.
    3. you missaunderstand me. I am talking about verts,polys,edges.. And no Blender does not select ore highligt thoose , they are in different modes even (EDGE,FACE,VERTZ). Modo had this function its really great becose you can stay in just one mode and be able to select anything.

    Ah, I see what you mean. In the header, simply shift+LMB on all the different component modes you want. You can have all 3 if you like.
    4. I was talking about the paint mode in the uv editor (to DRAW a straight line like in photoshop)

    To be honest, I've almost never used the painting tools because they used to suck, and I haven't looked into them for years, but you can actually use photoshop with projection painting. I know this is in the current release, but I'm not sure where. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Textures/UV/Painting_the_Texture/Projection_Paint
    5. Pressing z doesnt pull down the opacity it toggles between wireframe and solid. The solid gets highligten in color so it wont show the texture map, if i turn on wire frame and want to
    see the texturemap thats hardly gonna help me.

    Still not completely sure what you're asking here, could you post an image of it from another program? Do you want to dim the image while it's on the object? If so, there's not really good way to do this, but I'm not really sure when it'd be useful.
    6. That sounds exactly what i am after but doesnt Blender have an default render option for this for the entire scene?, seems strange that you whould have to do this yourself for every object.

    Again, this isn't all that useful. Just about the only time you need to know the wireframe information is when editing the mesh, in which case it will be displayed. If you mean render as in the actual render engine, there's plenty of tutorials out there that will show you how.
    7. I dont find that under input where is it ?

    I don't know exactly where it is under input, but it shouldn't be too hard to find since it's organized categorically.
    8. 4. I tryed that yesterday like in 3dsmax (pull the scale handle until they are in the same possition, but they ended up rotating instead, mayby my pivot whas wrong ? anyway Blender should make a button for this, this is something that most people use all the time.

    I would recommend not using the grab/scale/rotate widgets, and get used to g, s, and r to perform those functions, as you will have far more control, and be much quicker. The reason there's no button for this is that this way is much more flexible between axis, distances, other tools, etc. and honestly, it doesn't take that much time. If you need, I can produce a short video about this.
    9. Awsome let me know if you find it, that whould be awsome. I am using Blender 2.54, I can find where my build version is ? , But i downloaded Blender from their site 1 week ago.

    To find your build number, press space, and type in "Splash Screen" click on that and you can find the SVN build number on the top right. Honestly, I'd sit tight on this for another week or two, as they'll be releasing another beta soon enough.

    I'd just like to reiterate snowfly's point that Blender is very different from most other packages, in very fundamental ways. It will not behave as you have to come to expect from Max and crowd, because it has a different way of going about things (for various reasons). Just know that while it may take a different path to get there, Blender is capable of the same results, in the same amount of time, if used properly.
  • kaptainkernals
    Offline / Send Message
    kaptainkernals polycounter lvl 12
    You seem to know alot about blender Dim, so if i may pick your brain quickly.

    Regarding the space shortcut, in 2.49 it brought up:

    add, edit, select, transform etc. Which i liked.

    In 2.53 / 54 which i've switched over to, I have to type add + the first letter of what ever i'm looking for, is there anyway to make it more 2.49 like for the space menu?
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    1. Yes i know but i like it clean. when you work with something everyday it makes a huge difference in the long run.

    2. yepp got that.

    3. Awsome ! , this works like a charm thanks man !

    4. I have used projection painting several times in diffeent programs but basicly
    none of them do it good enought, they are not sensetive enought. but the mode that makes you take a screenshor from an angle and paint direcly in photoshop look aesome !, i have tryed that before that is really good, does blender have that ?

    5.Whats happening when i enter the uv editor is that if i want to unwrap faces from the model into the uv editor they have to be selected. When they are selected you cant see the texture in the 3d view becouse the color is overlapping the texture. at least that happends to me, but when i think about it i dont have the material inside blender set to use the texture image i have only choosen that picture inside the uv editor mayby thats the reason.

    6. Okay i respectfully disagree here. I have an internship right now on a game company and everyone uses edge faces all the time, if you are modeling an entire town and lets say that you want to put another object like a wall lamp
    ans stick it into the wall its really nide to have a preview where it fits. Actually this is one of the things i like with Max otherwise i cant stand max ;)

    8. Please do that. Actuallt what i whould like the most is to see a video that really explains all the tools in the uv editor. I dont think i ever have seen a tutorial like that except easy ones (like a tea box). but a tutorial
    that covers all the tools in there and really explains the buttons.

    9. I have already installed the newest ones. But thank you now i know.


    I agree with you totally Actually i cant stand 3dsmax, huge install,slow workflow,wortless uvmapping tools (it doesnt even support adding seams before uv. I like how logical max is thought very straight forward but thoose are the only things. I really love Blender. Its so natural and you get results quickly. I understand if you dont have time to make a tutorial but do you know where i can find one about uv in 2.54 ?

    Thanks alot !
  • Snowfly
    Offline / Send Message
    Snowfly polycounter lvl 18
    Hi kaptainkernals. I'm not dim, But I'll give it a shot.

    In Preferences, under Add-Ons, check 'Dynamic Spacebar Menu'. Probably not exactly what it was like in 2.49, but is it close enough for you?

    Really cool art assets jimpaw! Regarding question #5, is it the face selection highlight that's bothering you? Would setting the 'Face Selected' color's alpha to 0 under Themes solve the problem for you?

    Dim- Shift-clicking select modes works in the 3D view, but not in the 2D UV view? Or am I missing something?

    Here are the hotkeys I added to the UV editor.
    1 - Vertex
    2 - Edge
    3 - Face
    4 - Island

    BlenderUVKeys.jpg
  • kaptainkernals
    Offline / Send Message
    kaptainkernals polycounter lvl 12
    Thats exactly what i'm looking for, thanks Snowfly. Cool so two users i can ask if ever i need to know about something in blender.
  • Dim
    Offline / Send Message
    Dim polycounter lvl 10
    1. Yes i know but i like it clean. when you work with something everyday it makes a huge difference in the long run.
    Yeah, this functionality doesn't work right out of the box, but it should be fairly easy to do with python. I'm really not the person to talk to about that as I've done more scripting in Maya than Blender, but if you go on the Blender developer's IRC channel on freenode (#blendercoders or #blenderpython), then you can find a lot of helpful people there. They should be able to help you out in short order.
    4. I have used projection painting several times in diffeent programs but basicly none of them do it good enought, they are not sensetive enought. but the mode that makes you take a screenshor from an angle and paint direcly in photoshop look aesome !, i have tryed that before that is really good, does blender have that ?
    Indeed it does. Not really sure where to find that in 2.5 since I've never actually used it...

    Not sure if this is up-to-date, but give it a try. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNd54jgesgk&feature=player_embedded[/ame]
    5.Whats happening when i enter the uv editor is that if i want to unwrap faces from the model into the uv editor they have to be selected. When they are selected you cant see the texture in the 3d view becouse the color is overlapping the texture. at least that happends to me, but when i think about it i dont have the material inside blender set to use the texture image i have only choosen that picture inside the uv editor mayby thats the reason.
    Ok, I see what you mean. Press N in the 3D view to bring up your view properties. Under display, be sure that shading is set to Multitexture or Textureface. Then use alt+Z to go into textured mode, and start editing your UVs. Your texture should now be applied. Your texture may also not be assigned to the mesh, so make sure to select all your UVs, then select your texture.
    6. Okay i respectfully disagree here. I have an internship right now on a game company and everyone uses edge faces all the time, if you are modeling an entire town and lets say that you want to put another object like a wall lamp
    ans stick it into the wall its really nide to have a preview where it fits. Actually this is one of the things i like with Max otherwise i cant stand max ;)
    I get what you're saying here. I've never had a reason to do this since wireframe typically works for me, but I also haven't really assembled a lot in Blender, rather doing it in engine.
    8. Please do that. Actuallt what i whould like the most is to see a video that really explains all the tools in the uv editor. I dont think i ever have seen a tutorial like that except easy ones (like a tea box). but a tutorial
    that covers all the tools in there and really explains the buttons.
    I'll see what I can do about this. Ideally I'd do it tonight, but I have some other work to take care of, so we'll see. If I don't do it in a couple of days, would you mind PMing me about it?

    kaptainkernals: if you're just looking for the add menu, use shift+a, but otherwise, as snowfly suggested, the dynamic spacebar is pretty cool.

    Edit:

    snowfly: just checked that out and you're right it doesn't work in the UV editor. Sort of an annoying little inconsistency, of which there are many :)
  • kaptainkernals
    Offline / Send Message
    kaptainkernals polycounter lvl 12
    Thanks for the additional shortcut dim, the keys from 2.49 to 2.5 have changed so much, i'm having to relearn some of them.I

    f you do at some time do a video tutorial on the UV tools, I'd also be very interested in that, particularly for 2.5x

    All the current tutorials are either poorly done, or on to old/simple to be useful.
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    The strange thing is that he says that this should follow along if i download blender but it doesnt. i think i am gonna have to mail him about this, i have used this function in mudbox and its really useful when you are doing characters. I will look up every thing and remind you if forget man.. thanks again.:thumbup:
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    thanks alot,glad you like the pictures,they are a bit old now, actually soon as i get started good with blender i am going to make a portfolio. The thing is that i like when faces are highlighted. This is perfect for me. When you create anew object blender puts it in to edit mode for mo, but without selecting all the faces in that glowing annoying color. and then when i enter the uv editor i want the selection become visible so that i can see my object properly.
    make sence?
  • Vrav
    Offline / Send Message
    Vrav polycounter lvl 11
    Yeah, I think I know what you mean and agree. I have found that the 'keep UV and Edit Mode mesh selection in sync' option is of some use. Have you tried it? Icon is next to the pivot-selection icon in the UV/Image Editor header. There isn't hover-highlighting (maybe with scripts?) but you can at least then see all your UVs for the given model and compare the selection visually.

    edit: Ahh, hm, this was already mentioned. I guess I don't know then.
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    thanks alot anyway vrav, by the way does anyone know how to lock verticies in the uv editor? , i have an island that is flatten perfect and i want i slightly distorted island witht he same topology to snap to the otherone. The problem is that when i pin the first island it still gets moved when i use the proportional edit tool. Hiding wont do it becouse the i cant see it ,isit any way i can just select some islands and lock them ?
  • Snowfly
    Offline / Send Message
    Snowfly polycounter lvl 18
    Is there a reason you can't just duplicate and mirror the geometry? At least you get free perfectly matched UV's that way...
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    yes i is, so there is no way to lockl vertecies or island ?
  • Snowfly
    Offline / Send Message
    Snowfly polycounter lvl 18
    If there is, the features might be broken and warrant a bug report. I thought Pin or Proportional Edit Connected would do the trick, and Snap to Adjacent Selected only affects the border verts.
  • jimpaw
    Offline / Send Message
    jimpaw polycounter lvl 9
    i whould like to report alot of bugs to blender but it seems like it takes forever if you gonna follow all of thir steps, thanks for the help anyway snowfly, i will try to look this up.
Sign In or Register to comment.