Parenting and Instancing (on points) in Blender

[@acanterelle]

I’ve been using and learning blender for getting on 15 years now man and honestly I did not expect to learn quite as I did 😂. Thank you, this was absolutely fantastic.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😁😁😁Thanks so much. It's always great to know you've taught a veteran something new 😁

[@BPCustomCreations]

This is a game changer! I am so grateful I found this early in the game!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Yeah it changed the way I did a lot of things that before had taken me FOREVER.

[@ryanbarry7670]

I've just started getting into 3D modelling and I just want to say how much I value your videos. You explain things so clearly, you repeat everything just enough times to reinforce it in our minds without ever feeling repetitive, and you go through and explain each step along the way that I always come away with so many little tips and tricks to make my life easier. Thank you so much for the time and effort you spend in making these videos!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks so much! It's great to hear if you've got the right balance so your comment is massively appreciated. Hope the videos keep being helpful!

[@MartinJamesLittle]

Instancing the cable segments is genius.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Isn't it! Such a sinly way to fix a big problem. I can claim no credit, it was all Sergey from cablerator. But it made me realise its also a very easy way to make things like tracks with the tracks not deforming on a curve/etc.

[@Yesmynameisbeef]

I've spent hours trying to figure out the keywords and phrases to search to turn a procedural chain into geometry to export and not only did I get my answer but now I actually understand how the chain itself works! Thank you so much!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😁 That's great to hear man. Really happy it's helped. You might also be interested in some of the instances you can do with Geometry Nodes now. I find it much more intuitive and simpler to set up. You can find the basics here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYPcppWCiMlgb6c

[@jimmyzimms]

UHHHG you just saved me so much time in riveting! I've previously used inset faces and then set cursor to the selected vertex, copy object, move to cursor but that's SO time consuming. [mind blown] Thanks!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I was exactly the same until I discovered this. It totally changed my workflow (much to my relief)! Glad you're finding things useful.

[@babegamecraze]

Very useful and great as always!! 💋

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@babegamecraze Thanks. Just so you know most of this in current Blender I would probably do through Geometry nodes.

[@babegamecraze]

@@ArtisansofVaul Good, but for people who are just starting in Blender and doesn't really know how to use geometry nodes this is gold.

[@amylin8520]

I come from Taiwan and am recently learning blender. After watching so many tutorials on youtube, I found that you are really a great teacher! You make complex things easy to understand. Thank you very much! Hope that you can make more tutorials.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks so much 😁 It's lovely to hear people are finding the tutorials helpful and easy to follow. Good luck on your Blender journey and do drop a comment if you ever have any difficulties or are looking for something specific.

[@kproductions9963]

Make instances real ! Exactly what I needed. Thank you . Had no idea

[@ArtisansofVaul]

No worries.

[@filamentio]

First of all: You are underratet ! What I have already learned on your channel, amazing! Second: I use this also for tank tracks!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks so much 😁 Yeah it's fantastic for anything you don't want to be distorted but you want on a curve or something similar. I've used it for making a chain for example.

[@prathikjsk6430]

Great information sir, thankyou for sharing this video. 👏👏👏👏👏

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Always happy to be able to help and thanks for taking the time to comment :D

[@David-to2hw]

the custom bit approve that. Fantastic tutorial, congratulation :D

[@konichiwatanabi]

THIS just made organizing awesome

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Glad it's going to be helpful 👍

[@konichiwatanabi]

@@ArtisansofVaul Quick question for you: my child object that is being instanced around the parent object's faces (ico sphere) displays one huge instance while the remaining instances are the correct size and uniform in scale. Any idea why this is happening?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@SolarMx6 It's a bit hard for me to work out without a picture to be honest but is it where one of the instances should be?

[@konichiwatanabi]

@@ArtisansofVaul it does look like one of the instances. It happens when I instance on faces and increase the factor of "Scale by Face Size" in the instancing options/Object Properties. The instances start very small, and as I increase factor to desired size, a single instance scales exponentially larger than the others. I will experiment with applying transforms, however this results in parent/child origins resetting to world origin. The adventure continues!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@SolarMx6 Hmm... I havent used that function to be able to help I'm affraid. But I will say that in some other uses (such as for scatter objects) it creates a new version of the original object as part of the process, though that is normally not in the location of one of the instances so I am not sure if thats it from what you have described.

[@kainv.9221]

Thank you sooo much! Have been looking long for such a great Instancing explanation 🙏

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I'll be looking at instancing and alternative methods in a video in thr next couple of weeks as part of a project (specifically on making a tiled roof) so hopefully that will have some useful alternatives.

[@kainv.9221]

​@@ArtisansofVaul Looking forward to this video with some useful alternatives ! Btw, you can achieve a similar result with a Grid Modeler too (kind of) with the "Array Copy" function: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aJjTl5ysmL6Djrc (tutorial by Kushiro - 25:05 onwards.) The grid helps with the precision compared to the vanilla Array modifier. Just create a square face > multiply and align it with the Array Copy > create cubes out of the square faces > make it a sphere with a Subdivision modifier. Still not as exact, as you do it, but perhaps alittle faster.)

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@kainv.9221 Cheers. I have grid modeller bur I just haven't had time to give it a play around yet. It's on my long list of "when I get time..." projects.

[@sweetcorn1936]

hi amazing video.....when i have my bolts riverts what have ya....... how doi i make them apply to it.....? cant do nothing else with my model when instancing .... i have them stick to the faces or vertices but its like i cant apply them to it ?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@sweetcorn1936 select the object, ctrl+a then "Make Instances Real".

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@sweetcorn1936 I should add that I would generally use Geometry Nodes to do this now as it's a bit more of an elegant solution.

[@sweetcorn1936]

@@ArtisansofVaul amazing response time thank you! (heart)

[@sweetcorn1936]

@@ArtisansofVaul iv never really touched on geometry nodes , i have about 600 hours on blender , never seen this topic before so was nice... i have been learning to bake textures to my assets to send to unreal engine quite the pain in the ass , specially baking a metal texture , any good quality add on's for blender you recommend for baking a full asset with a lot of textures on it instead of baking one by one .....without making mistakes , cheers again

[@jasonmcdade8837]

Massively helpful! Thanks so much for sharing and for your time!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

😁👍🏻 Cheers. Great to hear its useful.

[@Land-Shark]

Awesome! The vertex method will work great for the B-24 Liberator model I'm working on.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Glad it's helping. You can also use geometry nodes now, which might be an even faster method! I cover that a little towards the end of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4eYfJ9qpJZmjKc

[@Land-Shark]

@@ArtisansofVaul I'll definitely try using the geo node method, and thank you! :)

[@GringoPicante]

@4:36 what is "boxcutter" and "hardops"? Are those plugins?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Yeah. I have playlists on them here- Boxcutter Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLnqmLZKRm5CajsNlyFbieVyGxzdbBN-jo Hard Ops Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLnqmLZKRm5CbwbAbNabT1z4SrJiiWhbSd&si=HkaZUF-Sjmq_C66g

[@hugoshobbies1688]

This was really helpful as my main goal is to create 3D printed models of WW2 tanks, which often have lots of rivets. However, I have two questions regarding this method. 1. Around minute 16: After I deleted the panel with the rivets, they are no longer parented to the whole object (I parented the panel to the box before). Did I miss something? Is there any way to prevent this? Or should I just re-parent all the rivets to the box they sit on afterwards? 2. What would be the way to use the same method on multiple plates in one model? As far as I know, the sphere can only be parented to a single object. Lastly, I have a general question: My final goal is to produce nicely detailed WW2 tanks in 1/72nd scale (20 mm). However, I'm also interested in other scales and uses, and I would like to end up with a perfectly detailed and proportioned model that may not be suitable for printing, but instead would be more suited for use as a purely digital object. For that, I may need to vary the level of details and material thickness to avoid problems with printing the models. Is there a simple way to sort of downscale the level of detail of a model, similar to how details are rendered based on distance in computer games? Could this be handled by slicing software or specialized software for such tasks? If there's no simple solution and I really have to build different models for different purposes, which way would make more sense in terms of an efficient workflow: building a lifelike model with all the details to scale first and then reducing the details afterwards for printing, or the other way around? For example, building a basic model that can be refined with more delicate details later?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Great questions and glad you found it helpful. So: 1: You would need to re-parent them I think. It's a little frustrating but it shouldn't take long. 2. If you add a second plate inside edit mode to the object that can work or else you might want to just make a second sphere to parent. You might want to check out these two videos as well. They look at a similar idea bur use Geometry nodes which now I would say are a superior way of going about this process for different results: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4eYfJ9qpJZmjKc kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXfEgHeDd92NepY The modelling part is tricky, sometimes it's possible but in other examples the parts can just become too small. It depends on how much variation you're talking between the different sizes but I generally try to avoid any structurally integral plate being less than 0.8-1mm in thickness.

[@mgkroth]

Great tutorial! This will save me a lot of time and frustration. If the face was a curved surface and the rivets were flatter, how would you get the rivets(instances) to point in the direction of the curve at the instanced point?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

It's a different technique but this would work well (you can actually combine the two ideas together as well): kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXfEgHeDd92NepY

[@tony92506]

awesome video!!

[@ThugRiveSud]

Hi Artisan ! You are doing a great work on your videos ! I know your video was one year ago, but I have an issue with this tuto. When I select my faces and click "I" like you at 12:00, my faces are schreking separaltly and not in one face like you. I ve checked all .. .whats wrong ?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Just hit "i" again and it changes the mode to do it together. Hit it again to swap back to individual 👍🏻

[@egystan]

7:31 may I asking for something (shift+s) ...how could I get the lower origan options, Is it an addon !!!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Hi there. Its an addon called Machin3 Tools. You can get it free from Gumroad and it comes with LOADS of fantastic tools. Ive got a whole playlist on some of the things it can do here: kzbin.info/aero/PLnqmLZKRm5CYGKLbXGa3l74XPxTi45ft2

[@egystan]

Oh thank u alot

[@tohneyteoh]

13:47 what does align to vertex do?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Sorry I couldnt see any reference to aligning vertices at that point of the video. Do you mean for the instancing?

[@tohneyteoh]

@@ArtisansofVaul there's a check box "align to vertex" in the right bottom corner. What does it do?

[@tohneyteoh]

Here my situation: i want to use instancing method to create an array around a point. All the instances need to bend towards the centre. Can it be done with this method?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@tohneyteoh This will align the instance in the same direction as the normals of the vertex being aligned to I believe.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@tohneyteoh Just checking is this being arrayed around one point or many points? And when you say bend towards the centre do you mean the object being instanced as a "point" or bit sticking out that needs to be pointed towards the centre?

[@barbaro9154]

How did you show the Help menu in Tool bar at time 4:09? Is it an add-on?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

If you go to the tool menu and scroll down it has all the options there and it will stay at that lower point when you go onto a new tool. Hope that helps.

[@richardokeeffe8375]

Thank you for sharing!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

My pleasure. As always, thanks for the support.

[@GG-James-E]

Thanks, Great Video!

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Glad you liked it!

[@therealKrak]

Is there a way to align the rotation of the instances to the mesh I want it on? I created myself a grid by extruding single verteces and wanted to instance light models on each vertex but the rotation is really messed up if I click on "Align to vertex normal" and without... well

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Not with this method. But with Geometry Nodes it is (they are the way of the future now, seriously). I haven't got a video on that whole process at this point but I have a video you could use as a stand in workaround I think: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXfEgHeDd92NepY

[@therealKrak]

@@ArtisansofVaul Alright thanks! I will take a look

[@Darkflight5]

I’m tryna parent two spheres to a rectangle but the object doesn’t show to appear to click to parent them

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I'm not sure what exactly is the issue. Are the spheres not showing? Is it the rectangle that isn't showing? Are you just parenting or trying to instance as well?

[@Darkflight5]

@@ArtisansofVaul I’m trying to parent but idk why one of the spheres is the parent it’s like it won’t let me parent to the rectangle if that makes sense ?

[@kalubandali2241]

Thank you

[@ArtisansofVaul]

You're welcome

[@Krefey]

do you use an add on to have the quad sphere available to you? It's not on my list of meshes available

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Quad spheres come with Machin3 Tools. If you go to Gumroad its free (or $1 if you go to Blender Marketplace). Alternatively you can add a cube and use a subdivision modifier to turn it into an almost sphere. But Id go with Machin3 Tools, it has SO many functions and is generally amazing. You can see some on my playlist here: kzbin.info/aero/PLnqmLZKRm5CYGKLbXGa3l74XPxTi45ft2

[@AptemSK]

18:30 Также можно использовать пустышку для определения положения на кривой, а сам объект привязывать к пустышке, деформаций объекта не будет

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Very much so, normally a plain. But in current editions of Blender I would say you'd be better off using Geometry Nodes instead if you don't want deformation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYPcppWCiMlgb6c

[@AptemSK]

@@ArtisansofVaul Да, на нынешней версии блендера, я с тобой соглашусь

[@Dakarus84]

can imagine that you could also make jewelry like Space Wolfs the tooth and claw necklaces

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Definetly. Though I'd say you're now better off using Geometry nodes, you could even randomise the objects that way to have different teeth. You can see the randomising process here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZzMhXl9bqqYj80 Ans the general things you can do instances along something like a curve for a necklace here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYPcppWCiMlgb6c

[@JesseBakerH]

it's so weird that instancing isn't a modifier. I'm used to doing this with geometry nodes but i guess either way works for different purposes.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I would do it with Geometry nodes now as well. Much easier and more intuitive.

[@HrafnNordhri]

Instancing a flatted icosphere as a rivet around a circle gave less that desired results. Even checking align to vertex didn't change the rotation. So trying to do this around a somewhat circular object has failed.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Yeah, this is quite an old video and while it does work for what you're doing (and just generally) you might be better off with using a simple radial array or maybe geometry nodes for a much nicer experience. Here are some videos that might help out (again depending what you're trying to achieve): Radial Array (free): kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnbJi5SHoNKra7ssi=U6Q3Y2OHjhO7sDy9 Radial Array (Hard Ops): kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGaWloqbp7J1jc0si=GIMi00XjzZdmAtpi&t=593 Geometry Nodes for Rivets: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWqlm2CQa6ybpq8si=uEHZ0YDcUJdmfZDy&t=1644 Another Geometry Nodes for Rivets: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4eYfJ9qpJZmjKcsi=vBFxTkVRjVGqsocq&t=951 Crazy rivet setup possibility: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rXfEgHeDd92NepYsi=E3dGz5gB8ZGjSCLJ

[@HrafnNordhri]

@@ArtisansofVaul problem is, I made a pixar styled sub.. so I wanted rivets on the nose section which isn't exaclty round. :) The radial array won't work without much tweaking. I can't stand hard ops so I often ignore that part of your videos.. sorry to say.

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@HrafnNordhri 🤣 Im not sure what there is to hate about Hard Ops but each to their own. Probably the geometry nodes then.

[@HrafnNordhri]

@@ArtisansofVaul all good. We like what we like :D Still love your vids :D

[@koryaiine7393]

10:30 rivets

[@neilcollins7371]

Huh?

[@koryaiine7393]

@@neilcollins7371 just making a bookmark for reference later

[@ArtisansofVaul]

@@koryaiine7393 Ah, that makes sense. I was worried I'd misspoken and it was a correction 🤣

[@koryaiine7393]

@@ArtisansofVaul oh hehehe! 😀😘

[@کاوهآهنگر-ث6ز]

How did you give your objects color in view port shading?

[@ArtisansofVaul]

I've got a video thay covers everything here 😁 kzbin.info/www/bejne/paPUpWt8rJykbtE

[@longhairaddiction]

wow ! brilliant ! - speechless

[@ArtisansofVaul]

Thanks so much. Just so you know you might want to check out this video as its even faster (and I would say easier) now using Geometry nodes: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6mkomODj96ZgMk