Place the 3D cursor where you want the
center of your circular array to be.
In edit mode, select the
whole mesh by pressing A.
Then Press Alt+E and S to create the array.
You can then use the menu to change the
amount of duplicates in your array.
Make sure that the Pivot
Point is set to 3D Cursor.
The 3D Cursor and the object that you want
to create an array of, should not overlap.
Press Shift+D, then immediately follow that
up by pressing R and 30 on the Numpad.
Then press Enter.
Press Shift+R to repeat that action as many times as needed to complete the array.
The rotation is dependent on the view, so make sure you're in for example Front
Orthographic view, for best results.
In this example I rotated 30
degrees, to get 12 instances.
In other words, 360 degrees divided by 12.
If you know exactly how many duplicates you want
in an array, this is an easy and fast method.
First, create the object you
want to have in an array.
Then create a mesh circle - not a curve!
And set it to have the amount of vertices that
you want the array to have, 12 for example.
Scale the circle to the size that
you want the array to have.
Now parent the object to the circle with
Ctrl+P and choose parent to vertex.
Select the circle and under
Instancing Turn On Verts.
You can choose whether to align the objects to
the circle or not, and if you want to have the original object show up in renders or not.
Now you can still manipulate the circle.
If you don't align the objects to the circle, you can create some interesting
animation like this.
Select the Default Cube and go
into Edit Mode by pressing Tab.
Press M then choose to center.
Now you have one vertex.
While still in Edit Mode, make sure
the Vertex is selected by pressing A, then move it away from its origin.
In Object Mode, add a Screw modifier to it.
Now select the object that you want to have in
an array and hold Shift and select the vertex.
Then press Ctrl+P to parent to vertex.
It might be easier to select these things
in the Outliner than in the viewport.
Scale a cube on the X-axis.
Create a Bezier Circle.
Add a Bevel modifier, an Array modifier
and a Curve modifier to the cube.
Choose the Bezier Circle as the
object in the curve modifier.
Increase the array Count until the
cubes go all around the Circle.
You may need to scale the cube slightly.
Add another Array modifier
to increase the height.
Please note, that the modifier
order is important!
If you want to have it taper towards the top, you can twist the curve with Ctrl+T with
all its Vertices selected in Edit Mode.
You can offset the cubes by turning
on "Constant Offset" in the second Array modifier and increasing the X value.
If you want the stones to
follow the curve more smoothly, in Edit Mode add more Edge Loops by pressing
Ctrl+R and scrolling the mouse wheel up.
You may want to turn on Smooth Shading
and Auto Smooth at this point.
You can also subdivide the Bezier
Circle for a smoother result.
Add a Displace modifier to your
object and set Direction to X.
Decrease Midlevel to zero
and increase the Strength.
Now you can non-destructively move
the object away from its origin.
Next add an Array modifier.
Enable Object Offset instead
of Relative Offset.
Add an Empty and use it as the Offset Object.
In the Array modifier increase the Count to the amount of instances that you want.
Select the Empty in the Outliner.
Press R and Z to rotate along the Z-axis, and
eyeball the rotation until it looks okay.
You can see the rotation value
in the top left corner.
Round that number off and type it
on the Numpad, followed by Enter.
If you found this topic interesting
and would like to know more, don't forget that you can find it
in my "Blender Secrets" e-book.
Along with almost 2000 pages of other tips.
To get an idea of what the e-book is like, you can download the free sample from my
website - BlenderSecrets.org.
