Measure Distance & Angle in Blender

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

To create and edit measurement Rulers & Protractors:

  1. In the Tool Shelf > Grease Pencil,
    Press Ruler/Protractor to activate Ruler/Protractor mode.
  2. LMB Click & Drag the 3D Viewport to create a measuring Ruler.
    * Hold Ctrl while creating the Ruler to snap its start and end points to 3D elements.
    * If a one or more measuring Rulers already exist, Ctrl must be held anyway to create a new Ruler.
  3. LMB Click & Drag along an existing Ruler line to turn it into a Protractor for angle measurement.
    * Hold Ctrl while creating the Protractor to snap its apex to 3D elements.
  4. LMB Click & Drag a point in an existing Ruler or Protractor to change its location.
  5. LMB Click an existing Ruler or Protractor and Press Delete to delete it.
  6. When finished creating measurement Rulers & Protractors,
    Press Enter to save them for later use of the Ruler/Protractor mode,
    Or Press Escape to discard them (without discarding Rulers / Protractors that were previously saved).

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To Delete all Ruler / Protractor data:
In the Properties Panel > Grease Pencil Layers,
Delete the RulerData3D Layer.

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Align camera to view in Blender

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

  1. Create a camera.
  2. Press Ctrl + Alt + 0.

Note:
This command will align the Scene’s Active Camera to the view,
And not the camera that is selected as the Active Object.
To make the selected camera the active camera:
In the 3D View select:
View > Cameras > Set Active Object as Camera

Reuse volumetric (smoke) simulation data in Blender

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

  1. Create a smoke simulation
  2. Set the Smoke Cache File Format to OpenVDB.
    * File must be saved for caching to be accessible.
  3. Set the Smoke Cache to External and choose the folder location.
  4. Cache the simulation.
  5. Create a new box object and make sure it has the same proportions as the original Smoke Domain box object.
  6. In the Physics tab, a Smoke Modifier to the new box, and set it to be a Smoke Domain.
    * make sure is has the same Divisions value in Resolution.
  7. For the new Smoke Domain, Set the Smoke Cache File Format to OpenVDB.
  8. For the new Smoke Domain, Set the Smoke Cache to External and choose the same folder location as the cache for the original Smoke Domain.

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Set parameters for multiple objects in Blender

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

Method A:

1) Select multiple objects

2) Alt + Click wanted parameter and change it

 

Method B:

1) Select multiple objects

2) Set the wanted parameter

3) right click parameter and choose ‘Copy To Selected’
* Do the same for grouped parameters like vectors using ‘Copy All To Selected’

 

 

Cycles True Displacement (experimental)

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

These are the steps to activate Cycles Render new experimental MTD feature (Micro Triangle Displacement)

Cycles Render settings:
Set ‘Feature Set’ to Experimental.

MTD_A

Object:
Apply a Subdivision Surface modifier and set it to Adaptive mode.
* Adaptive Mode is only available if the modifier has no other modifiers below it.

Set the ‘Dicing Scale’ attribute in pixels to set the displacement accuracy
* Lower numbers will result in greater details and more memory usage

MTD_B

Material Cycles settings:
Set Displacement to ‘True’ or ‘Both’.
* Setting it to Both will automatically use the same height map texture data to drive surface normals (bump) and create a consistent effect

Displacement set to 'True'
Displacement set to ‘True’
Displacement set to 'Both'
Displacement set to ‘Both’

Cycles material node:
Connect a texture to the Displacement input.

White color will displaced to a height of 0.1 units (10cm) by default, manipulate the texture data using math nodes to achieved desired height and offset.

MTD_D.jpg

Cycles Geometry settings:
For more accuracy reduce the Subdivision pixel rates And increase the maximum subdivisions.

MTD_E.jpg

 

Notes:

  1. There is currently conflict between Adaptive Subdivision and Tangent Space Normal Maps that renders objects completely black.
    A solution that is proposed at various discussions is to simply use Object Space mode in the Normal Map node.
    I’m not sure how good is this workaround for non flat surfaces..
    https://developer.blender.org/T49159
  2. When using a procedural fractal texture as a Displacement map, Shaders that are dependent on surface angle may significantly change their appearance in different rendering resolutions because the texture provides more and more detail for the displacement and that changes the nature of the geometry.
  3. The base mesh for the Displacement should be well Subdivided prior to the adaptive Subdivision in order to avoid polygon edges appearing.

Baking normal maps in Blender

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

Normal Bake

1) In the render Tab, under ‘Bake’, select Bake Type: ‘Normal’, enable ‘Selected to Active’, and set Ray Distance large enough to cover the geometry.

2) Make sure the target object has an active UV channel

3) In the UV/Image editor, create a new image with the desired resolution, and name it.

4) In the target Object’s material, set an Image Texture with the new image you created, make sure the Image Texture is node selected in the Node Editor of the Target Object’s material view, so it will be the target for the baked texture.

5) In the render Tab, under ‘Bake’, press the ‘Bake’ button.

6) Set the image texture as the materials Normal Map, check if it’s effective and save it to disk.

Lamp_Shaded
Model on the left is a 1.5 million triangle 3D scanning of an archaeological find, Model on the right is a 4000 triangles retopologized low poly model with geometrical details baked into a Normal Map.

Lamp_WIre

Simple re-topology in Blender

Posted on by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

Re-topology workflow in Blender is pretty straight forward and convenient,
Even without using a dedicated addon like ‘Bsurfaces’.

The simplest way to create new geometry over an existing surface is to activate snapping in face mode, and activate the ‘Project individual elements on the surface of other objects’ option.
This let’s you extend geometry, create new elements and transform existing elements while they’re constantly sticking to the surface behind them.
This can also be used with ‘Proportional Editing’ to allow organic tweaking of the new mesh over the surface.

Activating the ‘X Ray’ option in the display properties of the new low poly object helps by displaying the new mesh above the original surface.

Retopo

Another helpful tool in the process is the ‘Shrink Wrap’ modifier,
It can be used “press” mesh parts on to the original surface and than applied to create surface-tight mesh that can serve as the basic mesh for Re-topology or be joined to an existing mesh that was created earlier in the Re-topology process.

Retopo2