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Blender Mega Thread

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  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    B-but your tools buttons to the left are eating viewport space being docked in a tab like that. And they have gradients. Even though the entire UI is flat-colored. This triggers me in ways I wouldn't think possible  :pensive:

    Interesting decision about removing the overlay icons on the top of the viewport though, and the workspace tabs. Nice.
  • FourtyNights
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    FourtyNights polycounter
    @Justo I don't like the "Region Overlap", because I want to see the edges of the panel where I can drag them, so I turned it off. And it's not occupying the viewport too much, especially if it's narrow like that with icons only.

    I flipped the header to to the bottom, like it was in 2.79. Before flipping, I kept constantly looking those settings from the bottom first, even when they were at the top. Did the same flip to bottom in the UV editor, 'cos I use that editor a lot, naturally. ;)

    I've never used workspaces even in previous Blender versions, and they're never been laid out they way I'd be comfortable using them. I create my workspace(s) in the single layout during the process of doing everything.

    Added gradients to those for clearer distinction between the part of UI they're in. Kinda forgot that the theme is flat, lol.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    So there is a bug that is bit annoying for my workflow.
    https://developer.blender.org/T68352

    however, I pushed the tool bit further to support a "bones" list.. Yes, bones! That's what I'm calling you - you informal vertexgroups!!
    And before you're asking: yes it's a sorted and filtered list of averages based on the current selection (and I means selection and not imsomethingbetterbecauseimactive-dude)


  • m00k
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    m00k polycounter lvl 6
    every time I open 2.79, it starts to feel more and more ancient, lol.

    I get what you mean man I look at 2.79 now and it looks like something from a lifetime ago. haha
  • FourtyNights
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    FourtyNights polycounter
    Just realized that Principled BSDF doesn't have an "Ambient Occlusion" input for an AO texture which reacts to light, like in Marmoset or UE4. SSAO is great... but baked AO is even more important. Is there any workaround for this?
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    @FourtyNights - I would be curious to know how you achieved the following :

    - Docking of the tools bar on the left (edit : nevermind, just found out about the  "Region overlap" option. I wish there was a way to set it individually for T/N/header though.)
    - Removal of all workspace presets/tabs
    - Docking of the viewport shading controls, snapping, object menu + putting them at the bottom (found that one too. Bottom genuinely feels more comfortable imho, and not just "because it was like that before")

    On top of that I seem to be having trouble making layout preferences to stick, like the way you have done it here with the timeline. How is that saved ?

    And last but not least : every time I start 2.8 the preferences window also opens. How does one prevent that from happening ? I suppose this is related to the above.

    Thanks !
  • MACHIN3
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    MACHIN3 sublime tool
    pior said:
    On top of that I seem to be having trouble making layout preferences to stick, like the way you have done it here with the timeline. How is that saved ?

    And last but not least : every time I start 2.8 the preferences window also opens. How does one prevent that from happening ? I suppose this is related to the above.

    Both are saved to the startup scene. Ctrl + U, if you use the 2.79 keymap, Check File - Defaults, if not.
  • FourtyNights
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    FourtyNights polycounter

    "Removal of all workspace presets/tabs"

    By simply right clicking a workspace tab, and "delete". You can also add any of them back with the small "+ tab" and choosing from the lists of the "+ Add Workspace" menu, so they're not permanently gone either.

    The "Default" layout is the original (when Blender is opened for the first time) workspace layout called simply "Layout" I renamed to Default + did those minor changes to the UI.

    The user preferences in 2.8... Blender devs decided it to be automatically saving by default. There's "three horizontal bars" button on the bottom left of the Preferences window. Click it and you have a tickbox for "Auto-Save Preferences". Disable it, and you'll get the "Save Preferences" button next to the "three horizontal bars" button, aka "Save & Load" (from the tooltip pop-up), for the manual saving.

    My guess is, that Blender auto-saved your Preferences window to be opened at all times... but that sounds more like the "Startup File" issue, 'cos it's part of the UI which is saved manually from the file menu. But in general, layouts and other adjusted UI elements are part of the Startup File, separate from user preferences.

    EDIT: I agree about separation in customization. For example the colour of tab icos on the "Properties" editor are linked to the "Ouliner" editor's collections, objects and other elements such as meshes, materials, textures etc. At some point of the 2.8's development, Properties editor's tab icons were black & white. Much clearer to me, personally. They can be set to that kind of color theme... but then also stuff in the Outliner gets affected, 'cos they're linked that way.
  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range
    Skinpop said:
    Coming from Max and being completely new to blender, are there any settings that will make life easier for me?
    Maybe you missed this earlier. I recently uploaded a 10-part(more to come) 2.80 for Max users tutorial series. You might find some of it useful.


  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range
    Yeah, this has been a problem with lights even in Blender 2.7. Someone in the Blender Artists forums suggested a workaround.
    Thanks man, I saw that, but for now I'm just scaling the lights to shorten the crazy line. Not ideal, but it does the job.
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    While people are sharing their startup scenes, might as well show what mine looks like atm:



    I like them simple and clean.

    When exporting hotkeys, has anyone experienced the Favorites tab always being behind the Export Key Configuration tab? It's so annoying to have to move it every time we need to.


  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    @FourtyNights
    Ha, thanks ! Yeah I was aware of the new paradigm for preferences saving/autosaving - I just didn't know that many settings (layout, preferences window being shown or not, and a few other things like which matcap/lighting to load by default for instance) were part of the startup file instead of being saved as global preferences.

    This makes absolutely zero sense, but hey at least now I can make it behave as expected ! I was wondering why my layout changed recently with seemingly no way to edit it back, and indeed that was because I recently updated the contents of my startup after a work session.
  • Tiles
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    Tiles greentooth
    pior said:
    @FourtyNights - I would be curious to know how you achieved the following :


    - Removal of all workspace presets/tabs

    This is also connected to the startup.blend. First close all tabs by right click at them and choosing delete. Then save the startup file. One tab has to exist though. You can't remove them all without to modify the source code.




  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    Does anybody know where I can change the color of these elements?
    The obvious choice doesn't do the trick


  • another caveman
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    another caveman greentooth
    Has anyone made / found any plugin to link a UE4 Project material library with Blender? So interested in having such tool.. :)
  • Tiles
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    Tiles greentooth
    rollin said:
    Does anybody know where I can change the color of these elements?
    The obvious choice doesn't do the trick


    Source code. They have now the crazy system that they recolor the monochrome icons by code afterwards. Search for the UIIcons.h file. There they are all defined. The different coloring is defined in line 25 to 50. The DEF_ICON_ ... . And every icon then has something like DEF_ICON in front of it. That's the white ones. Or DEF_ICON_MODIFIER, that's one of the color groups.

    Those icons are most probably assignet to one that has a white color. DEF_ICON. You could add those icons to another color group. DEF_ICON_SCENE. Or something like that. And then recompile Blender.

    Good luck with even finding the icon in the sheet. It's one big mess ...
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    Gnaarrr.. The only thing in the ui that's a nuisance for me till now and it can't be set in the theme..  :/
  • Tiles
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    Tiles greentooth
    Sorry that i have no better message :/
  • Nosslak
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    Nosslak polycounter lvl 12
     
    rollin said:
    Gnaarrr.. The only thing in the ui that's a nuisance for me till now and it can't be set in the theme..  :/
    Might be worth filing a bugreport for it in that case or just raise it on the Blender Devtalk forum as it sounds like it might have just slipped through the cracks.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    Nosslak said:
     
    rollin said:
    Gnaarrr.. The only thing in the ui that's a nuisance for me till now and it can't be set in the theme..  :/
    Might be worth filing a bugreport for it in that case or just raise it on the Blender Devtalk forum as it sounds like it might have just slipped through the cracks.
    https://developer.blender.org/T68419  :#
  • RaphaelBarros
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    RaphaelBarros polycounter lvl 2
    Tiles said:
    rollin said:
    Does anybody know where I can change the color of these elements?
    The obvious choice doesn't do the trick


    Source code. They have now the crazy system that they recolor the monochrome icons by code afterwards. Search for the UIIcons.h file. There they are all defined. The different coloring is defined in line 25 to 50. The DEF_ICON_ ... . And every icon then has something like DEF_ICON in front of it. That's the white ones. Or DEF_ICON_MODIFIER, that's one of the color groups.

    Those icons are most probably assignet to one that has a white color. DEF_ICON. You could add those icons to another color group. DEF_ICON_SCENE. Or something like that. And then recompile Blender.

    Good luck with even finding the icon in the sheet. It's one big mess ...
    I see you're are lurking here! Getting some nice UI feedback to improve Bforartists I suppose?
  • Tiles
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    Tiles greentooth
    Sure. There's lots to improve even with 2.80. And ideas are always welcome. But i don't want to hijack this thread. It's about Blender :)
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    Ok two more questions:

    1) blender seems to select stuff that is million miles away.
    Is it possible to change the pick distance (single click)?

    2) is it true that blender simply doesn't know (or care) what I might want to do?
    Say I select a bunch of vertices in the UV editor and click-drag on one of them to move - independent on the key-mapping - blender seems to be unable to make a context sensitive decision - e.g. if I want to move or box select?
    And even if I try to setup key mappings there seems to be no option for a context sensitive trigger. I can only choose between click and click-drag with optional key-modifiers
    so my best option right now is spam my mouse buttons with a unique uv-select button and an uv-transform button. 
    I'm not sure why blender didn't go the context sensitive route right from the beginning and instead spamed every functionality to some keys but I don't understand why this is not possible now. Or am I missing something? 
  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range

    1 - can you show an example? Selecting for me in Blender is much more accurate than my main program(Max)

    2 - you've lost me on this one. G is the universal hotkey for grab(move) Have box select active>select components>hit G to move them. Or maybe I'm misinterpreting your intentions.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    Hi @musashidan

    1 - In the UV editor you can pick uvs that are not exactly under the cursor. It is common to have some kind of sphere of picking distance so you don't need as scope when working to pick a tiny (infinitesemal small point). But in blender it just.. well.. that's the radius I have


    2 - I mean context sensitive about what your mouse cursor is above. You know, like Command&Conquer: click -> select, click -> move, click -> attack. 


  • Tiles
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    Tiles greentooth
    rollin said:
    Ok two more questions:

    2) is it true that blender simply doesn't know (or care) what I might want to do?
    Say I select a bunch of vertices in the UV editor and click-drag on one of them to move - independent on the key-mapping - blender seems to be unable to make a context sensitive decision - e.g. if I want to move or box select?
    And even if I try to setup key mappings there seems to be no option for a context sensitive trigger. I can only choose between click and click-drag with optional key-modifiers
    so my best option right now is spam my mouse buttons with a unique uv-select button and an uv-transform button. 
    I'm not sure why blender didn't go the context sensitive route right from the beginning and instead spamed every functionality to some keys but I don't understand why this is not possible now. Or am I missing something? 

    I hope i understand you right. That you always end in box select when you leave a tool in the tool shelf is bad design of the new tool shelf. It should end in Select, not in Box Select. This is unfortunately not this easy to fix. I haven't found a solution yet besides to modify the source code. So what remains for now is to change the method to Select every time you leave one of the tools in the tool shelf. Always an extra click. Better said two, since the Select menu item is hidden in the sub menu. But then it should behave like you want it to behave. Or you ignore the tool shelf, call the old operators by hotkeys, and work in the old Blender fashion.

    Regarding context. Even when they call it context menus, Blender has no context sensitive menus yet. The context menus are mode dependant to some degree. But have no context with what is under the mouse.




  • Skinpop
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    Skinpop polycounter lvl 9
    A few more questions:

    Is there a way to lock selection like in Max(spacebar hotkey)? I use that feature all the time and kinda miss it.

    Is there something like the max symmetry modifier in blender?

    Is there really no backface selection with solid shading?
     
    @musashidan thanks, that's a great help.


  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    Skinpop said:
    A few more questions:

    Is there something like the max symmetry modifier in blender?

    The Mirror modifier + Merge enabled seems the closest you can get
  • RN
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    RN sublime tool
    rollin said:
    Skinpop said:
    Is there something like the max symmetry modifier in blender?
    The Mirror modifier + Merge enabled seems the closest you can get
    On 2.79 you have to delete half of the mesh yourself (easily done by selecting a center vertex then using the Select -> Side of Active menu), but on 2.80 the Mirror modifier now has a Bisect option that should ignore one of the halves for you.
  • RaphaelBarros
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    RaphaelBarros polycounter lvl 2
    RN said:
    rollin said:
    Skinpop said:
    Is there something like the max symmetry modifier in blender?
    The Mirror modifier + Merge enabled seems the closest you can get
    On 2.79 you have to delete half of the mesh yourself (easily done by selecting a center vertex then using the Select -> Side of Active menu), but on 2.80 the Mirror modifier now has a Bisect option that should ignore one of the halves for you.
    There's also an addon (already in Blender 2.8, no need to download, just activate it) called Automirror. Just click on it and it'll automatically delete the other half and apply the mirror with clipping.

    https://youtu.be/uFzncNeBlIs



  • Fletcher
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    Fletcher polycounter lvl 11
    Hello there,
    I have a little problem. I want to 3d print my model but I want to cut it into smaller pieces because that way it will be simpler and less time consuming. But I don't want to do simple planar cut through model because i will leave visible seam after printing. I want to cut mesh through already existing cavities that are irregular and are not planar.
    I want to achieve similar effect  as shown here -> https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3764804
    That figurine was separated into parts along cavity between body and robe and we can see that this intersection is not planar. I am wondering how I can achieve such result in blender.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    thx @RN and @RaphaelBarros

    @Fletcher You might want to use boolean modifier with a custom mesh? At least that's how I solved a similar task once (in max though)
  • Fletcher
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    Fletcher polycounter lvl 11
    @rollin yeah, I just did that, it was a tricky shape but I managed to do it by drawing spline on mesh, then converting it to mesh and creating plane for slicing from it. Worked fine I guess. 
  • m00k
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    m00k polycounter lvl 6
    @rollin

    Blender does have a context sensitive menu it's under W (i hope its the default keymap.) It also has context for edge, vert etc.

    Also if you want to make context sensitive keymaps. All you need to do is set it in the correct category in the keymap settings.
    I rectangle'd object mode, edit mode and uv editor respectively.


  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    Hey @mook
    Maybe I don't understand you or you don't understand me. 
    Anyway, can you try to guide me through setting up one example keymap? E.g. for moving (left click select)?
    To make it clear: I already set it up for the 3d view where I can box-select and use the gizmos (move, rotatae, scale) all with the left mouse button without the need of any other button or menu. Works like a charm.
    I just can't set this up with the UV Editor as there are no gizmos there (I'm already using Magic UV's gizmos in some cases but it's not the same as proper gizmos) and the move/roate/scale functionality IS already a tweak-type keymap.

    Disabling them just turns all transform modes in UV Editor into select-only ones. Do you understand what I mean? The (e.g. move-tweak) keymap options would require an option to use the key only when the mouse courser is above a selection




  • m00k
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    m00k polycounter lvl 6
    @rollin

    I think I understand what you mean. Blender's keymap configuration is quite convoluted. There's already a post about it on right click complain: https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/nqdbbc/ 

    I think you want to use the move command only when clicking on a vertex/ selection yes? not when you click anywhere in the image editor. I don't think that can be changed very easily, it's just how blender works.

    Maybe the transform tool is more to your liking. It lacks a move across x and y at the same time button though.



    The simplest way to set a hotkey is to right click on the function in question.

    This, though when done on a tool in the toolshelf will set the shortcut to make that the active tool. Not to activate the tools function.
    If you want to start moving right away you need to go to the top bar and change it there.


    If you want more control you can paste the commands into the hotkey preferences like so (open image in new tab):

    You need to remove bpy.ops and the brackets from the command or else it won't work. Also for setting active tools the command is the same for every tool but the ID is different as seen in GIF.

    Hope this helps dude
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    @rollin I don't know if it's what you're looking for rollin, but in the latest version of this keymap setup, there are some shenanigans going on with the M/R/S tools that maybe is doing some of what you're describing. Namely this new feature:

    RMB in transform tools in 3D view and in other editors now works as a “tweak tool”. What this means is that RMB click drag now not only performs transform, but also selects what’s under a cursor before hand. This makes it much faster to simply tweak positions or rotations of many elements in a rapid succession with a single click. It comes with a disadvantage though, as you are no longer able to use RMB to perform transform tweak from anywhere. It will only work if there’s nothing under the cursor. If there is, it will be selected first. I think it’s a a good tradeoff, as the former case is a bit more useful. An example:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8hMtEeKGm4&feature=youtu.be

    Personally I don't use this new feature and prefer the traditional custom setup, but maybe the method by which this was achieved could be repurposed to what you're looking for. 
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    @mook
    Me when I realize there's a transform tool:


    Thanks for the nice tutorial, however the process for setting up hotkeys and using the operator ids is something I do already know. Even though my initial issue with the current implementation of the input doesn't change the transform tool does already help a lot. 
    Thx for helping me out! 

    @Justo
    I tried setting something similar where the MMB would then move, rotate, etc. but this wasn't better - just another custom setup you would have to get used to..
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    I am beginning to read into materials for Blender 2.8. How can I define default materials while still retaining the ability to create and preview in the Viewport Shading new materials I create?

    In the Viewport Shading Tab, previously I had set everything to display everything with a matcap (Lightning>Matcap) and single (Color>Single). AFAIK I'm using the standard matcap, only that with a darkened value of 0,6. I like how it looks. 

    Everything's ok though until I want to create new materials. I can't preview them unless I change my settings to Color>Material, but if I do that, the default material takes over again my objects that don't have any materials applied yet, and this default mat is way too bright. 

    I'm looking at the docs and watching tut vids, but if someone knows the answer I'd appreciate it. I'd post pics, but this workstation cant upload pics in the internet for (stupid) reasons.
  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range
    @justo welcome to the weird, wonderful,and whacky world of Blender materials....... :)

    Coming from Max it took me a little while to get my head around it.

    Workbench and EEVEE display materials differently. EEVEE is best used to display your standard principled shader materials that you've created. Workbench has its own viewport display material that can be found Viewport Display dropdown of the material panel. Basically, Workbench is not really designed for displaying your custom created materials. It's more of a modeling/scene layout/general tasks viewing environment. So really, you should treat Workbench and EEVEE as tools for different jobs in regards to assigning and viewing materials. I believe Blender 2.7x is like this as well with whatever viewport renderers it uses.

    You can also set the display(Workbench) under the object data panel>viewport display.

    Also, you can't display textures on Matcaps.

    Blender's material system works on objects rather than the scene(like you would have in Max) - Create a material library within a scene and apply materials to objects. Materials have to be applied to objects when you save and reopen your scene or they will be lost. There's more to it than that, but that's the basics.
  • Justo
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    Justo polycounter
    Heya Danny. I was aware of most of what you said.  

    Also, you can't display textures on Matcaps.
    I did not know this. I might need to give up on modelling with those sexy matcaps then, sadly, if I want to display textures that is.

    The other thing is about Workbench. There was something tricky about the way Blender treated the Workbench render engine and your default viewport display which I don't recall. I believe whatever settings you tweaked for Workbench only worked when you render your viewport, while your default viewport view remains with separate settings, so that the user could tweak one and work on the other, or something like that....

    ...In any case, I only mention that because I don't want to muddle my doubt. I only wish to change the default material in the default viewport view, whether that's properly called Workbench amongst Blender users or not. I am simply seeking a beginner pipeline in which I can assign colors to objects (which I know how to do) and know how and where to change the default material for all other unaltered objects (which I do not know how to do and is my main goal atm).
  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range
    Workbench is the default viewport renderer.

    I'm not sure how to change the default material. I just have a custom default material applied in my startup blend file and use Hardops Alt+M in object mode to apply to selected.

    If I just want to apply different colours to objects I set viewport to studio>object and set the colours in object data>viewport display.

    I'm still a 2.80 newb as well so hopefully some of the vets here will chime in. ;)
  • RN
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    RN sublime tool
    Oh, hey. Happy 100th page of this Blender Mega Thread, bros
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    I think terms like "Workbench" and "Previz" are really causing unnecessary confusion, similarly to some of the other unneeded UI/UX fluff that 2.8 is adding. And while certainly useful, the plethora of possible display mode combinations is just making things very cumbersome to navigate ... Oh well.

    As far as I am concerned I simply ended up spending a couple hours crafting a few presets instantly accessible through a custom menu in Pie Menu Editor - hence no need to ever fumble with the various modes and infinite number of combos anymore.

    http://www.imgur.com/JItNwry.gifv

    Here's the PME code for solid mode + a specific matcap + color from vertex for instance:

    C.space_data.shading.type = 'SOLID' ; C.space_data.shading.light = 'MATCAP' ; C.space_data.shading.color_type = 'VERTEX' ; C.space_data.shading.studio_light = 'skin_008.png'

    As far as changing the default material : not quite a material, but you can certainly set a specific Matcap or Lightrig and have that be loaded as default as part of your startup scene. And that scene itself can hold a few materials, which you can then apply to objects as you create them (a basic grey, a basic black, white, and so on.). The default will still always be white of course.

    As for matcap mode : while it can't display textures (for now ? I can only imagine that texture will come at some point), it can definitely display vertex colors. Kindof useless with the default build, but extremely useful with the Pablo sculpt/paint branch.
  • ant1fact
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    ant1fact polycounter lvl 9
    @Justo @musashidan while it used to be you couldn't have matcaps + textures it is no longer the case
  • Defunct
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    Defunct polycounter lvl 10
    I need a little help. its not anything major, just a little feature that I miss. In 2.79 the cursor could warp to the opposite side of the screen if it went out of bounds when scaling or moving something by large distances. In 2.8 it just stops at the edge of my screen. Is there a setting somewhere for this?
  • FourtyNights
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    FourtyNights polycounter
    @Defunct In the Preferences, "Input" section, there's a checkbox for "Continuous Grab", and that does the job...

    ...but it should be enabled by default. At least when I installed Blender 2.8 for the first time, it was on already. Maybe you have accidentally switched it off or something.
  • Defunct
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    Defunct polycounter lvl 10
    @FourtyNights oh ahah that was it. Yeah, I probably disabled it accidentally. Thank you!
  • CheeseOnToast
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    CheeseOnToast greentooth
    I might be being thick here, but how the hell do you use an ambient occlusion map with EEVEE and the principled BSDF shader? Just spent a fruitless hour trying to find examples.
  • m00k
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    m00k polycounter lvl 6
    @CheeseOnToast
    I just multiply it with the albedo texture.
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