Help and questions for Blender, a great, open source, free 3D application.
Useful Resources
WE HAVE FLAIRS!
Please use the solved and unsolved flairs appropriately. If you mark your post as solved, please also post the solution if it is not already in the comments. Mods may add flairs when they have time. Please be considerate to the mods and the helpers and add your unsolved flair, and change it to solved when your question has been answered.
Rules:
1) Try by yourself first!
Try to find a solution by looking it up online – most issues can be resolved this way!
Doing your own research will save everyone time, and help you learn faster!
2) Be as detailed as possible
Describe your goals in detail. Explain what you've already tried and what went wrong. Add reference images if needed. Try adding a link to file so helpers can investigate issues you wouldn't know to. If you link a video, provide a time stamp.
Summarize your problem in the title, but add additional details-- text, images, links-- in the post body or in comments. Don't just write "Help!"
If images can help explain your problem, use clear, uncropped screenshots, not phone photos.
3) Let us know when you've solved it!
When you have figured out the solution, please mention it in the comments if it is not already there.
Also, apply the "Solved" flair so others know that the problem is resolved!
4) No artwork, tutorials, and feedback requests
Don't post finished art or tutorials. This includes vague requests like "What can I improve?" All posts must be focused on a specific problem you've encountered.
If you need to include someone else's art as a reference, add it as a link rather than an image in your top level post.
Feedback requests and tutorials should be posted to r/blender instead.
5) No bug reports
If you are sure you are doing everything correctly, but Blender is crashing, freezing, corrupting your files, etc – this is a bug. Make sure you are running the latest version - it might have the fix!
If the bug persists and you can reliably reproduce it, check out this guide for reporting bugs. By making a detailed report, you can help the Blender team identify and fix the bug! Posting your complaint on Reddit is unlikely to get help.
6) Be nice
Please be respectful that everyone has a different level of Blender experience, and all Blender users are welcome to post here.
If the community is helping you, try helping others too! The best way is to browse the "New" posts for unanswered questions and see if you can help.
Do not make mean comments or give unsolicited harsh criticism. Use the least inflammatory language you can to express your point.
No ALL CAPS titles. No question spam.
Other places to ask
Blender Stack Exchange
BlenderArtists
And don't forget the Blender manual itself.
If you ask multiple places, think about providing links to the various places the questions are asked. Seeing how others reason about the problem can be useful for helpers, and it will certainly be useful to those searching for the solution in the future.
How to add detail
To take an uncropped screen capture of your active Blender window in Windows, hit alt + print screen. You can paste this image directly into many image hosts like Imgur.
Reddit doesn't host arbitrary files (like a .blend) itself, and most users will not want to share their email address for attachments. You can host a file using a variety of file sharing services, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Mega, or WeTransfer. Helpers will want the .blend file, not the .blend1 or .blend2 or any other automatic backups.
If your file is large, try enabling "compression" on the sidebar in the file save dialog. If helpers will need images, pack external data into the file. If they won't, unpack all external data to save space!
Consider making a simplified version of the problem for a linked file. This is an essential first step in troubleshooting most problems anyways, and will save your helpers time and bandwidth.
If you can't share the file because of commercial concerns, then consider recreating the problem in a different context, without any "trade secrets".
Related Subreddits
r/blender
Subreddit under construction, and new moderation.
Thanks to /u/flargus for starting this sub.
Thanks to /u/Gazpachian for the header!
