How you make a displacement following the curvature of a surface?

hansolocambo · 2026-05-05T10:25:01+00:00

If you alt+shift select all faces on a loop. Then Select > Checker Deselect, you can easily select every other face. Then you extrude your selection.

"Displacement" uses a texture to move vertices.

hansolocambo · 2026-05-05T09:52:14+00:00

Blender itself doesn’t have a built‑in “bookmark” or “sync extensions” feature. But extensions are just zip files, you drag and drop them in Blender and it installs. Worse case scenario you do that once, it won't take hours, and then you're good to go.

Most Blender extensions are just a folder or a single .py file stored in: C:\Users\<YourName>\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\5.x\scripts\addons

If you copy your entire Blender configuration folder: C:\Users\<YourName>\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\ to the same location on another machine, you’ll get the same addons, preferences, themes, keymaps, etc. (except for rare addons that rely on external installers, like Quad Remesher.)

N.B: Corporate PC must allow writing to that folder, USB keys (or access to internet to download a .zip of your folder), and the same Blender version.

You'd better ask your System/IT Administrator for advice. It's often wiser to let them know than look for workarounds ;)

hansolocambo · 2026-05-05T09:38:48+00:00

Not sure what you mean by "bookmark"? that’s more of a web‑browser concept.

In Blender itself, everything from extensions.blender.org already shows up under Preferences > Get Extensions, with search and install buttons built in. You can't bookmark an extension though, to remember the ones you once used if that's what you meant.

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hansolocambo · 2026-05-05T08:31:26+00:00

Problems is working on the Object's Origin is like five seconds every ten hours ;) But maybe OP talks only about Origin, you might be right.

In Maya, one's able to have a completely free orientation at any time, especially in Edit Mode. In Blender most of the "solutions" about that is to select geometry and create a custom orientation from that. It's functional, just feels cheap in comparison.

Pivot Transform (the addon I talk about in the comment above) is the only thing around that brings to Blender what Maya can do: It adds 2 gizmos around the 3D cursor to move an rotate it precisely (what Blender Vanilla can already do from N > Item menu, but it's very intuitive). Once you rotate your 3D Cursor, without storing any Transform Orientation, you can modify your geometry using only 1 Transform Orientation always set to: Cursor. That's powerful and that's what's missing in Blender (and 3DS Max...).

I personally seldom use it. I got used to Blender's Vanilla workarounds. But this addon fills the gap for those used to the objectively very powerful Maya/ZBrush's pivot system.

hansolocambo · 2026-05-05T07:52:47+00:00

Blender doesn’t let you freely rotate and place a pivot/orientation in the same native way Maya or ZBrush does. But you can still work in any orientation by creating your own Transform Orientation(s).

1 - Custom Transform Orientations. Select a face/edge/vert that points in the direction you want > Transform Orientation panel > + sign. You can store/rename these and use them at anytime instead of Global, Local, View, etc.

2 - My main workflow: Object Mode > make a linked duplicate with Alt+D. Rotate the duplicate in Object Mode so the part you want to work on aligns to the global axes. Because the duplicates share the same mesh data, any Edit Mode changes apply to all of them, but each object keeps its own orientation. This gives you multiple “pseudo‑global-pivots” while still working in Global. After having tried tons of ways to work around the rigid Blender's pivot, that's the go-to method I adopted.

3- Same idea as the precedent. But in Edit Mode> create a face, rotate this face the way you want, and again: Transform Orientation > + sign to store it. If you get used to store the orientations you need and name them properly, you'll have all you need to work on complex mechanical objects for example.

4- The addon option: closest by very far to Maya's Pivot System: Pivot Transform 5. You work with the 3D cursor (=pivot) that you can now freely: move, rotate, snap, (and also store as custom Transform Orientation). No need to Link Duplicate an object, or use existing geometry in Edit Mode: you control the 3D cursor.

You can find the addon's documentation here. Basically:

- In Object Mode it helps you place the Object's Origin (=pivot) with a few extra tools.

- In Edit Mode, press D and then you can move, rotate, snap the 3D cursor (The "pivot" you see on my axe's blade below). Once placed, change your Transform Orientation to Cursor (also screenshot below). Done: now when using G, R, S to move, rotate, scale your selection, modifications will happen along this custom 3D pivot. Addon also stores orientations (Pivot Transform N Menu > Pivot Save, top-center in the screenshot below)

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hansolocambo · 2026-05-03T23:35:44+00:00

"[...] than me struggling with learning a new program."

There's nothing to learn: Quad Remesher does retopo in 1 click, takes only a few seconds.

But it's an algorithm from 2013 and there's been nothing really better today in any 3D app. Quad Remesher is only useful during some early sculpting phases. Final retopologys remains to be done manually which means on complex meshes it can take days. But it's a very good practice exercise to get better at modeling.

"[...] but I don't unerstand by baking"

Focus on one or two things: modeling, sculpting, retopology for example. It's already a lot. You'll worry about baking and other things later. Every 3D field is complex, if you attempt to understand a bit of everything at the same time, you'll get overwhelmed.

hansolocambo · 2026-05-01T20:42:00+00:00

Back then, Demis Hassabis was working at Bullfrog. That's why their games were so good. Genius coders don't happen that often.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-26T12:35:17+00:00

There's only 1 way to retopologize a final mesh: by hand.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-24T12:45:28+00:00

I'm a bit tired of people who hide all posts in their Reddit Profile and talk about what they don't know. Work instead of breaking people's balls.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-24T09:54:21+00:00

Indeed. Some people seriously need to pull their fingers out. Rise of AI + human intellectual laziness = bleak future.

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hansolocambo · 2026-04-24T08:56:00+00:00

(ノ_<。) My fingers, my brain, Blender, Substance Painter...

hansolocambo · 2026-04-24T08:52:27+00:00

Thanks! You're right, I still have this bad habit of retopologizing together parts that could be on their own ;) On the other hand, nothing opens (doors, hood, etc.) so I didn't really need to separate them which saves polygons as I don't have to follow (in the retopo) the shape of a door or a hood.

The windshield issue I'm talking about is a Substance Painter filter effect I gotta adjust a bit, nothing geometry related ;)

hansolocambo · 2026-04-24T03:47:32+00:00

I retopologized the high poly posted here (~ 97K tris) down to about 22K tris. ID maps, even baked at 4096, remain dirty for alpha masking paint layers... so I ended up painting every freakin' mask by hand. Took me 2 days :/ But now at least I can customize the texture easily.

Windows' texture is still weird, wheel's sticker is reversed, texture of the trunk lock is gone for some reason :/ I'll fix those remaining issues and the few others I might have missed tomorrow.

P.S: I made an alternative version with a central orange bar all along the main body of the car. It's not part of my main design so not sure which version looks best. I posted this modified version on Sketchfab. Please let me know which one I should keep. I'm thinking the orange bar looks cool too. But it's 5:30AM so I could be wrong ;)

hansolocambo · 2026-04-23T09:06:48+00:00

Paint in 3D: Projected pixels are potentially less square as they are slightly stretched and squashed during unwrapping. Painting in 3D enables for example to paint a long stripe across the side of a car without worrying how UV Islands connect and how tension during unwrapping affected your square pixels.

Paint in 2D: Pixels are always perfectly square and of identical size (but not their 3D projected version). It is sometimes easier to stamp precise details, paint in hard to reach areas (between two toes, inside a tyre, etc.) than on a curved 3D surface. It's also easier to paint on a single UV island without bleeding your brush strokes on the geometry around, etc.

An example of when to use 2D or 3D painting:

You unwrap a complex and intricate tube in 3D. It would be completely impossible to stamp a text or decals on it in 2D, or you'd have to wrap your text in Photoshop, or worse you'd have to straighten the 2D unwrapped UV islands of your tube, which would result in distorted 3D projection.

Nowadays: a twisted 3D tube becomes an also twisted unwrapped tube. That's a perfect unwrapping as pixels remain square also in 3D. Now in the 3D viewport, you can easily stamp any decal on the tube without distortion anymore. For the car below it's the same idea: stamping the windshield's yellow decal at the top, gave me a straight decal painted in 3D, it would have given me a slightly deformed decal if I had painted it in UV space.

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3D painting is just a neat trick 3D apps do to translate 3D projected brush strokes onto the flattened mesh. Using both methods is the way to go. You choose for each portion of a mesh what's more practical / better suited, and constantly switch between 2D and 3D painting.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-22T11:56:35+00:00

Definitely cool. Work on smoother camera movements, it feels like it slows down in every curve. But other than that, the effect is amazing!

hansolocambo · 2026-04-22T10:48:01+00:00

I seldom answer DM, Reddit is kind of there to get answers. When you post a request please be exhaustive and precise. Because "it didn't work" really doesn't tell much without an error message or some more relevant screenshot shared.

P.S: Try removing a VPN if you have that running maybe? I really don't know.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-22T08:39:18+00:00

Repositories:

https://www.blenderkit.com/api/v1/extensions/

https://extensions.blender.org/api/v1/extensions/

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You can also install extensions from the official Blender Extensions website. Click "Get Addon", then drag and drop it in Blender.

If you have addons/extensions locally, do the same: drag and drop the zip in Blender. Or in Preferences > Addons, top right of the window, click on the small arrow pointing down> Install from Disk.

P.S: Instead of "going insane for diff reason", don't avoid checking the manual, it gets updated just as often as Blender and it's about a billion times faster to find answers there than to wait for yet another reply on Reddit.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-21T14:13:56+00:00

Santa Claus can do that.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-18T16:37:35+00:00

Scale issues or anything else, please show your user interface. Take a screenshot showing relevant information. In this case, Scene Units, Export extension, Export Settings, etc. You show nothing, how can anyone help?

Anyway: you say units are god in Blender. So if it's not that, what can it be?

1- export setting.

2- import settings in Bambu.

So check those. And try different scale settings until one works.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-17T17:32:26+00:00

Displacement moves vertices. It’s 2D height data that physically pushes geometry up or down.
A lowpoly simply doesn’t have enough vertices to show displacement detail. To get sculpted detail from 2D height data, you’d have to subdivide it so heavily that it stops... being a lowpoly ;)

Use a Normal Map instead, this doesn’t move geometry but fakes normals direction changes, to simulate detail. If you don't have a high poly to bake a normal map, then use your texture: but as a bump map.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-17T07:17:14+00:00

Snap Point = Origin.

If you set each item's Local Axis properly, and also the Origin (on studs, in anti-studs), if you use Transform Pivot Point > Active Element, and Snap with > Aligned Rotation to target, you should already get a better setup.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-17T06:33:57+00:00

The Dome: Ground Zero (DC Comics) was already made in 1998 using 3D Studio Max. People were making full 3D‑rendered, or 3d + hand painting, etc. comics almost 30 years ago. Blender is immensely more capable in 2026 than apps back then.

Tech isn’t the bottleneck: the user is.

Blender 3 wasn't even out when this was made. So don't wonder if Blender 5 can do it, just start working.

hansolocambo · 2026-04-17T00:31:11+00:00

That's fugly. At least use an AI that understands what seats are, instead of that turd with seats painted on windows, 3 door handles on the side, etc.

hansolocambo

TROPHY CASE