• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

A copy is just what it sounds like—an exact replica of the original object. The new copy maintains no ties to the original object and is a unique object in its own right. Any changes to the copy do not affect the original object, and vice versa.

Instances are different from copies in that they maintain strong ties to the original object. All instances of an object are interconnected, so that any geometry modifications (done with modifiers or object parameters) to any single instance changes all instances. For example, if you create several instances of a mailbox and then use a modifier on one of them, all instances are also modified.

Note

Instances and references can have different object colors, materials, transformations (moving, rotating, or scaling), and object properties. •

References are objects that inherit modifier changes from their parent objects but do not affect the parent when modified. Referenced objects get all the modifiers applied to the parent and can have their own modifiers as well. For example, suppose that you have an apple object and a whole bunch of references to that apple. Applying a modifier to the base apple changes all the remaining apples, but you can also apply a modifier to any of the references without affecting the rest of the bunch.

Cross-Reference

Instances and references are tied to the applied object modifiers, which are covered in more detail in Chapter 11, “Introducing Modifiers and Using the Modifier Stack.” •

At any time, you can break the tie between objects with the Make Unique button in the Modifier Stack. The Views⇒Show Dependencies command shows in magenta any objects that are instanced or referenced when the Modify panel is opened. This means that you can easily see which objects are instanced or referenced from the current selection.

Tutorial: Creating instanced doughnuts

Learning how the different clone options work will save you lots of future modifications. To investigate these options, you'll take a quick trip to the local doughnut shop.

To clone some doughnuts, follow these steps:

1. Create a doughnut using the Torus primitive by selecting Create⇒Standard Primitives⇒Torus, and then dragging and clicking twice in the Top viewport to create a torus object.

2. Click the torus object in the Top viewport to select it.

3. With the doughnut model selected, click the Select and Move button (or press the W key). Hold down the Shift key, and in the Top viewport, move the doughnut upward. In the Clone Options dialog box, select the Instance option, set the Number of Copies to 5, and click OK. Click the Zoom Extents All (or press the Shift+Ctrl+Z key) button to widen your view.

4. Select all objects with the Edit⇒Select All (Ctrl+A) command, and then Shift+drag the doughnuts in the Top viewport to the right. In the Clone Options dialog box, select the Instance option again, set 3 for the Number of Copies, and click OK. This creates a nice array of two dozen doughnuts. Click the Zoom Extents All button (or press the Ctrl+Shift+Z key) to see all the doughnuts.

5. Select a single doughnut, and in the Parameters rollout of the Modify panel, set Radius1 to 20 and Radius2 to 10.

This makes a nice doughnut and changes all doughnuts at once.

6. Select the Modifiers⇒Parametric Deformers⇒Bend command. Then in the Parameters rollout of the Command Panel, enter 25 in the Angle field and select the X Bend Axis.

This adds a slight bend to the doughnuts.

Cross-Reference

You can use modifiers to alter geometry. You can learn about using modifiers in Chapter 11, “Introducing Modifiers and Using the Modifier Stack.” •

Figure 8.3 shows the doughnuts all changed exactly the same. You can imagine the amount of time it would take to change each doughnut individually. Using instances made these changes easy.

Tutorial: Working with referenced apples

Now that you have filled our bellies with doughnuts, you need some healthful food for balance. What better way to add balance than to have an apple or two to keep the