Blender has seen a sudden surge in popularity recently, and with it, a more-than-noticeable uptick in its number of users. Aside from it being free and open-source, the Blender development community has been working on plenty of game-changing updates and new features.
But new technology also comes with its fair share of quirks and bugs, especially when used with low-end devices: most digital art novices don’t usually have the experience or budget to use expensive machines. And regardless of a user’s skill level or work setup though, troubleshooting tips are always appreciated.
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So today, we’ll be talking about some common problems with Blender and some solutions for these issues.
Interface and Viewport Issues
Sometimes, issues arise even before you get to the rendering stage of your workflow. Weird issues when trying to zoom in, missing background and reference images, and glitchy interface problems are some of the more commonly encountered problems.
Some users may find that when trying to zoom into something in Perspective view, there’s a limit to how much they can zoom in. In those cases, the zoom reference most probably has a center point that the viewport is very close to already. You can remedy this by centering your 3D cursor on the object you want to zoom into with the Numpad dot (.) key.
In certain cases, Blender workflows require users to utilize reference images to create accurate 3D models. There are cases where those reference images suddenly disappear after orbiting the view. Simply switch the view into Perspective as opposed to Orthographic.
In some extreme cases, Blender’s user interface starts to exhibit peculiar screen glitches. The most common causes are hardware acceleration settings or on-screen effects that your OS applies to Blender by default. Try to disable these to see if this fixes the problem.
Lastly, some of these problems might just be bugs in the copy of Blender you have installed. Although there are plenty of useful Blender plug-ins users might want to install, these can also be causes for certain glitches or bugs. As a last resort, you can do a clean reinstall Blender and all of your personal add-ons by uninstalling your current copy and downloading and installing the latest Blender release and versions of the plug-ins.
Black and Invisible Elements
If you’re finding that your render progresses smoothly right up until the end, after which it turns completely black, double-check that your nodes are correctly connected with each other. Oftentimes, it’s a simple case of your compositing node not being connected to its adjacent nodes or “use nodes” not being ticked.
Double-checking that you have the appropriate options ticked on is also generally a good rule of thumb when you find yourself dealing with missing objects in your final render output. With how complex some renders can be, we can sometimes forget that we disabled certain objects for rendering somewhere down the line. Utilize Blender’s outliner and pinpoint the hidden or missing objects to try and check its settings.
For clipping issues with specific rendered objects in your Blender file, you can double-check the corresponding camera object for that render and fix up its clipping settings. Under the lens section of a camera’s settings, you can finetune the clipping start and end to figure out what settings solve your clipping problem.
Hardware Bottlenecks
Sometimes, issues arise when Blender starts pushing against the upper limit of your computer’s hardware capabilities. This might result in all kinds of issues, from poor and slow program performance to disabled features, and even sudden program crashes. In those cases, the most common culprits are the RAM or the GPU.
You can check if the RAM is the problem by opening up your Task Manager on Windows, the Activity Monitor on Mac, or the System Monitor on Linux. There, you can see just how much RAM Blender is using. A quick solution would be to optimize the file you’re working on in Blender - simplify your geometry, minimize the number of active particles, and use fewer textures. This can help lessen the load on your hardware and reduce rendering times. There are plenty of Blender classes and courses available that teach you good modeling practices that prioritize the use of simple, clean geometry.
For problems arising from GPU limitations, it might be a driver-related issue. So first, check that you have the most updated drivers installed for your computer’s graphics card. And second, also check you have the appropriate type of driver installed. Nvidia and AMD both have drivers that are optimized either for work or for games. Make sure the version you have installed is optimized for Blender use.
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A long-term solution would be to upgrade your RAM or graphics card but even lower-end devices should be able to run Blender efficiently when utilized correctly. Alternatively, you could also opt for cloud-computing services such as Vagon to use top-quality computing power at a fraction of the price of upgrading your machine.
Conclusion
It can be frustrating to have unforeseen issues pop up during complex modeling and animating workflows. It gets all the more upsetting when you can’t figure out what’s causing the problem. In those cases, what usually comes next is a series of trial-and-error tweaks to figure out the solution. Hopefully, the list we’ve gone through today will help lessen the time it takes to figure out a workaround.
