Blur Brush Blender 2.78

[Chic Aeon]

A few weeks ago a friend wrote because she had spent three days (and much hair pulling) trying to get the Blur Brush to work in Blender 2.77 (I think but it was an earlier version than what I am using). Since I don't weight paint I had no idea what the blur brush was. After a few days of angst she went back to an earlier version of Blender - 2.6 something I think where it is working.  

The last couple of days I have been working on rigging and weight painting (new to me) and so far it is going OK. I am following a very complex tutorial. I am now at the part where I need to use the blur brush and I CANNOT get it to work (the same issue she had and she has been making VERY complex clothing for four or five years now so knows what she is doing).  

I can't find anything at all on this via Google and the Blender manual just says that the blur brush has been "improved".  It apparently doesn't matter if you are using Avastar as she was and I am not. 

So does anyone have ANY CLUE what you need to do to get that blur brush to work in newer versions of Blender ?  OTHER brushes paint, just not the blur brush.   I am not in 2.79 as a bunch of plug ins that I normally use wouldn't work at all and I went back to 2.78.   This a month or so ago.  

 

Thanks. Here is a screenshot but I am not sure it is helpful.  No matter how I change the settings the BLUR brush simply doesn't work. 

 

 

LATER EDIT:

I talked to my friend just now and she said that Blur Brush works fine in 2.77 -- it was 2.78 that it didn't work in (what I am using).

She asked and asked about this when she was having issue but no one had a fix.  

 

MORNING EDIT:

I haven't found an answer for this but research at Blender.org does tell me that there were changes in the tool. It seemed to state that it was (now) to be used on higher poly models than before. I copied out the parts of the manual that had been changed and I am pasting in here in case it helps someone in the future. In the meantime I am moving on and abandoning clothes making LOL which I didn't think I would love anyway. 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2017 by Chic Aeon

[arton Rotaru]

Not a Blender user, but I would think that a brush strength as little as 0.001 won't do much in any application.

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, arton Rotaru said:

Not a Blender user, but I would think that a brush strength as little as 0.001 won't do much in any application.

That makes no difference. Tried HUGE values and it still doesn't work. Thanks though LOL. 

That value is there from following along with the tutorial BTW. Very smart lady. OTHER brushes work fine.  

 

[arton Rotaru]

Just fired up Blender 2.78c, and rigged a cylinder. The Blur brush did work pretty much as expected to me.

Edited October 18, 2017 by arton Rotaru

[Chic Aeon]

9 hours ago, arton Rotaru said:

Just fired up Blender 2.78c, and rigged a cylinder. The Blur brush did work pretty much as expected to me.

Well D*MN that is what I am using.  I will give it another try although I am thinking that The Universe is trying to tell me I don't want to make clothes.

 

THANKS VERY MUCH for going to all that trouble. It might be a setting she had us do in the tutorial?  That's the problem with tutorials of course LOL. There are very few that you get through without issues.  

I actually tried doing this tutorial more than a year ago and got stuck much earlier in the process (maybe at the Blend Brush) with a cylinder much like yours -- I don't remember.  I will look at your settings and if needed paste in what she said to do and perhaps you can see the issue. I am sure MY FRIEND (really is one) will be glad to know also LOL.

 

Just in case  you are unbelievably bored LOL, here is the tutorial that I am trying to follow. There are parts before this in the series which can be reached from the tutorial page. 

http://ainetutorials.blogspot.ca/2015/11/tutorial-principles-of-blender-rigging_14.html

:D.    There was a page where she changed the settings because of a change in an earlier version (this is a more than year old tutorial). They may have made other changes later? I guess going with the defaults might be a good way to test LOL.

I remember HOW MANY TUTORIALS I watched trying to learn how to make curtains (good curtains). Eventually I told myself that with ALL that knowledge (none of it actually working completely) I SHOULD be able to figure it out. And I did eventually and made a bunch of curtains. Whether I REMEMBER if I ever want MORE curtains ---- well that is the question.

 

Thanks again. Appreciate it. 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2017 by Chic Aeon

[Chic Aeon]

OK, Adding this info from friend as I apparently misunderstood (and still really don't understand but hopefully someone else will) :

"it isnt that the brush itself didnt work for me, it only worked within one mesh but not cross multiple meshes within a mesh group". 

So like chains on a body with links that consist of multiple chains (so far beyond my imaginations although I love the finished products LOL).

 

 

[Anna Nova]

I have a horrible feeling that when Animesh hits the streets we are all gonna have to get to grips with this.

But I'm with you Chic babe, clothes are for Clothes Shops, not for me to make.

[Chic Aeon]

Well I was about to toss the whole project after three or four days with pretty much nothing going right. Then I somehow managed to get the blur to BLUR after adding and subtracting  to a cylinder mesh so that I had "stripes" (which of course I didn't really want). 

The BIG problem was that the tutorial skirt had BLUE influence past the center of the skirt taking in the other leg. MY skirt (shape, length who knows?) didn't have ANY influence on the opposite leg. So I had to fix THAT and then the blur tool sort of worked LOL.  Mostly I just changed the bone weights manually to get the "color" that I wanted LOL.   Oh well. 

The back of the skirt seems to be "walking nicely". So I at least got the "idea".

Anyway smarter but not sure I really care. Sure I can have more fun in other areas. But who knows in another year I may try again.

Thanks all. 

 

My friend's issue is still up for answering. She tried on some other mesh boards with no ideas :D. 

 

 

[Faenzo]

You're actually absolutely right. Someone has messed up the way the blur brush behaves on the newer builds of blender. Me and other fellow creators have noticed the issue and it's a huge inconvenience that no one else seems to pick up on. It's more noticeable with meshes that aren't plain or multiple meshes being rigged together like a coat with buttons. 

It almost looks like someone took the smoothing modifier that changes the topology and made a brush out of it for the weight paint tool, because that's what it does, it sort of space out the vertices through weights. For example, if I have two lines forming a seam "====", if I use the blur tool to smooth the weights affecting it, instead of maintaing the shape of the seam, maintaing the correct space between the two lines, the blur weight paint brush will space out the two lines, almost like the smooth modifier would on the mesh topology, which I think is awfully retarded, I don't know who did that and why but I wish someone would fix that because it's annoying to go back to previous builds just to smooth weights. 

[Chic Aeon]

1 hour ago, Faenzo said:

You're actually absolutely right. Someone has messed up the way the blur brush behaves on the newer builds of blender. Me and other fellow creators have noticed the issue and it's a huge inconvenience that no one else seems to pick up on. It's more noticeable with meshes that aren't plain or multiple meshes being rigged together like a coat with buttons. 

It almost looks like someone took the smoothing modifier that changes the topology and made a brush out of it for the weight paint tool, because that's what it does, it sort of space out the vertices through weights. For example, if I have two lines forming a seam "====", if I use the blur tool to smooth the weights affecting it, instead of maintaing the shape of the seam, maintaing the correct space between the two lines, the blur weight paint brush will space out the two lines, almost like the smooth modifier would on the mesh topology, which I think is awfully retarded, I don't know who did that and why but I wish someone would fix that because it's annoying to go back to previous builds just to smooth weights. 

That's what my friend did and yes, I am sure it is frustrating.  I never checked to see if an older version was better for ME, I just gave up but it looks like I could have done something SIMPLE if I would have had more skills. That is the exact issue she had as she makes things with chains and pearls and things like that.