3DS Max Tutorial - Arrays and Clone Types: Copy, Instance and Reference

[@TheDanGoldstein]

Hi Jonathan, great tutorial! Do you know if there is a way to instance the teapot for example and then add an object (lets say a cube) to the inside of the teapot but have it update all teapot instances so the cube appears inside them all? I have been scouring the internet for an answer and cant seem to find one. Thanks!

[@JCobesV2]

Hey Dan! Glad you found it helpful. Yeah there's a simple solution! I just did this myself. So first, create your instanced array (teapots for example), then create your cube and move into place. Next, add an "edit poly" modifier on the teapot. In the "edit poly" rollout, go to attach and select the cube from the list. The instanced teapot should then place a cube in all of them. Let me know if that works! It should. Thanks for the comment.

[@TheDanGoldstein]

@@JCobesV2 That worked!! Thanks so much man, I really appreciate it! If you dont mind me taking that question one step further...say I have a handful of items Grouped, and want that group to show up inside each of the teapot instances, if I do it the same way you just mentioned when hitting Attach it seems all the grouped items take on the same material/UV as the teapot. Is there a way to populate the instanced teapots with this group of items without using the Attach button so this doesnt happen?

[@JCobesV2]

@@TheDanGoldstein Glad that helped Dan! Alright the next step is a little bit trickier but very doable. At least this would be my approach. How familiar are you with multi/sub object materials? I would first create a multi material and apply to all objects. Create to sub-materials (one for teapot and one for cubes). Set the material ID of the teapots to 1 and cubes to 2 (can be done with "material ID" modifier). Attach objects like you would. Now, when using the unwrap UVW modifier, you can change between different UV Channels so you can access the cubes' UV's independently of the teapots. This will be found in the lower right of the UVW window. The other approach would be more manual and not as efficient. If you don't attach, you could manually align using the align tool or create a separate array. The key sounds for your project though is to maintain the instances so I would really try to make the first approach work. It just takes some understanding of UV's and UV channels. Hope that helps man! Let me know how it goes.

[@TheDanGoldstein]

@@JCobesV2 Thanks man, that first approach definitely did the trick! I really appreciate you taking the time to respond, it was a total life saver for my project! Btw, I also checked out your portfolio, lots of great stuff in there, keep up the great work and tutorials! Cheers!