"Instancing" in Carrara?

tami_7956c1f21d

Hello,
I'm using Carrara 8 and am about to build something that will require a number of identical objects. Is there a way to create an instance in Carrara, so that additional copies aren't as processor-intensive? Is this a master object? If someone can explain how to do this correctly I'd appreciate it. I seem to always generate copies...

Thanks!

Joepingleton

The replicator or surface replicator work great for what you are wanting to do. Here a link to a quick tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf6D7jagRIo

It even works on animated objects [ http://youtu.be/Zb33bholx00 ]

evilproducer

The other possibility is to use the Duplicate command. It is also less processor and memory intensive. The downside to duplication is that it can't duplicate a rigged figure. Fenric has a plugin that allows it, but I don't know the name. Maybe someone would be kind enough to post it.

The Promote to Master command is actually the opposite of what you want to do. It takes a duplicated object and promotes it to a master object.

The replicators that Joe mentioned above are also great as they can automate the process of duplication and they should also be even less memory intensive than duplicating. There is Replicator for replicating objects, and a Surface Replicator that replicates objects on th surface of other objects. Both Replicators can replicate multiple objects.

A replicator can replicate rigged figures.

Even the Plant editor uses its own replicator to generate the leaves on the plants.

Dartanbeck

Something else that you should know about Duplicating: (Ctrl + D) or Edit > Duplicate

If you select an object and duplicate it, the duplicate is now selected.
If you move it, then rotate it, perhaps scale it
you can press Ctrl + D (or Edit > Duplicate) again, before deselecting the original duplicate, the new duplicate will undergo the same movement, rotation and scaling that you've done to the last one, automatically! This works great if, say, you want to build a fence, for example. Make a single post. Duplicated it and move it into the next logical position for the fence, then duplicate it again, and again, and again, until you've got all of the posts you need in that direction. Now select all of those posts, and Group them (Ctrl + G or Edit > Group) and duplicate the group and put it into position!

Say you perform some changes to a duplicate, and wish to duplicate it again, without applying what you've applied to the new one, simply deselect it and select it again, or perform another action and undo the action before duplicating. Undo will stop an action from being reproduced from duplicating.

TangoAlpha

Dartanbeck has it right. In this picture there is just one fence post, one fence rail, one horizontal member... Cmd-D (ctrl-D) duplicated them and they were grouped into a fence panel. Then Cmd-D on the panel repeatedly, and instant fence.

There are only five rocks in the stream - same principle. :)

rock livrette

I think it is Fenric Posing Pack 3 that lets you dublicate rigged figures in carrara.

tami_7956c1f21d

Thank you everyone who replied. Greatly appreciated!

arcady

Duplicate creates more copies, replicate creates the appearance of more - correct?

As in, with replicate, I'm not taking as big of a CPU / GPU resource hit?

But with Duplicate, it is the same as if I had dragged a few dozen of them into the scene?

evilproducer

arcady said:

Duplicate creates more copies, replicate creates the appearance of more - correct?

As in, with replicate, I'm not taking as big of a CPU / GPU resource hit?

But with Duplicate, it is the same as if I had dragged a few dozen of them into the scene?

Duplicating is not like dragging a few copies of the same objects from the browser into a scene. It is different than replicated objects, but it's also not the same as dragging multiple copies of the same object from the browser.

When you drag the same object multiple times from the browser into a scene, the geometry for each object is a master object. If you have the Consolidate Shaders on Load option disabled in the Preferences, then each shader that loads with the object would be a master shader.

If you duplicate an object, it references the original object, and shaders. What this means is that if you edit the object's geometry, Carrara will by default ask if you want to create a new master to edit, or if you want to edit all instances of the object, or something similar to that. The same with the shader.