Using the ARRAY MODIFIER in Blender - Blender Modifier Tutorial

what's up guys Justin you're with the CG essentials come back with another blender modifier tutorial for you so in today's video we're gonna talk about how to use the array modifier to make multiple copies of objects inside of blender so you can use this to create objects along straight lines and then as a more advanced function you can also use this to make your copies fit certain paths so let's go ahead and just jump into it right so the array modifier is designed to help you create multiple copies of objects inside of blender along a path that you dictate so you can find the modifier over in the modifiers section so under the little button right here that looks like the wrench and you can add it by clicking this little drop-down clicking add modifier so we're gonna go find the option for array we're gonna click on it and so notice when we add this first object this comes in and it creates one copy of the object and it's at a relative offset of one meaning the new object it has been placed at exactly the width of the first object so it gets placed at the starting point and being exactly the same width as the first object and so the first thing you'll notice is you can adjust this count function in order to create multiple different copies so you can use this to create as many or few copies as you want so you can see how you can click and drag this up and down or you can click in here and then type in a value and hit the enter key and so in addition and we're in fixed count mode right now which means you can set the number of objects that you're going to create using this mode so you just set a certain number of objects you set the offset and you're good to go and so let's say for example that we were to adjust these offsets you can see how what's gonna happen is with the relative offset that's going to affect your spacing along the x-axis so as I click and drag this first one that adjusts my spacing along the x-axis and notice that you can also give this values along the Y and the Z axes as well so you can use this to create copies in different directions like this and so one thing I want to talk about really quick and notice that you can go in and you can type values and all but one thing I want to talk about really quick is the difference between the constant offset and the relative offset so the relative offset is based on the width of your object so you can see how when I set this to one for example this creates a copy at the width of this object if I was to put it one-and-a-half then this would create a new copy at every one and a half of the width of the object so on the other hand if you were to check the box for constant offset instead of relative offset that just means that your copies are gonna be created based on a fixed distance that you create so notice as I click this up this is moving my copies out so let's maybe create three copies instead but this is now gonna allow you to set a constant offset between your base object and your other objects and so that's just something to be aware of you probably get a little more fine control using the constant offset but it's gonna be a lot faster to use the relative offset to set the spacing in here so you can use either one of those just know that one is based on a multiplication of the width of your object the other is based on a distance and so there's a couple other kinds of fit types that you can select in here so like for example we have this currently set at fixed length but let's say that we wanted this to match the length of something inside of our model so let's say that we were to come in here and one thing to notice about this by the way is these modifiers live inside of each object meaning if I click on this you can see how I get a modifier that shows up inside of my Barrel object however if I was to click on this you can see how none of the information about the array modifier that's being applied to the barrel is in this particular object this is going to be different so for this cube we could add a modifier and it would be an array modifier but instead of having the fixed count checked we would click the drop down we can click fit length and what that means is you can now set this so that your copies are going to fit inside of a certain length so for example let's set our relative offset to an inch and a half or one and a half notice that as I set a length this is fitting as many objects as it can between your start point and end point and notice that this isn't a hundred percent precise meaning that like for example if I set this at thirty three I don't get a new object if I set it at thirty four I do that's because this is fitting as many of these in with the link that I've selected as it can so you can use this to fit a certain number of objects along a certain length and then in addition to that what we've got over here is I've got kind of a general fence object and the third option for modifiers you can find in that drop-down is going to be fit curve and so what fit curve is going to do is that's gonna fit a certain number of objects in here based on the length of a curve and notice how you get a little window in here allowing you to select the curve what we can do is we can click in little eyedropper and I've got a Bezier curve in here already I can select that and then what this is going to do is notice this doesn't follow the curve what it does instead is it creates a fence that matches the length of the curb or the curve inside of the object so what this does is it this makes your array the same length as the curve and then if you wanted to add like a curve modifier for example so you could go in to add modifier and add a second modifier and click on curve and then it's gonna ask you to select the curve so in this situation it's going to be this Bezier curve again and notice what this is going to do is this is going to bend this to fit along the curve but because we used our array function to make it the right length it fits really well and so one thing you may want to do is I'm going to close out of this and you may want to set this so that it's aligned with the base point of your line because the distance from your line is going to affect the way that this looks so the further away from your line this is the weirder your results gonna be so like for example if I was to move this like way out here or way back here notice that the way this is getting deformed along this curve is changing depending on where my object is so just be aware that the closer you have this to the line or the curve that you want to deform this along the more specific or exact your result is going to be with something like this and so we've talked a little bit about these three options the fixed count the fit length and the fit curve there's also an option down here called object offset and so what object offset does is that allows you to create a more complex array so the way that that works is if I was to generate an array with the stare right now you can see how I have an option for relative offset a number of copies then I can also move this along a line but let's say we wanted this to rotate well there's really no option in here for each one of these rotating or scaling or anything like that because that's just not in here as an option however what we can do is we can add an object inside of blender and then associate those two items together and then we can use that to add additional additional functions to the object offset tool or the array tool and so that that sounds tricky but it's not really that complicated once you kind of get an idea the way that it works so the way that this works is what we're gonna do is we're gonna add an object into our model and so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do a shift right click right here to put my 3d cursor right at the base of this object then I'm gonna do a shift a and I'm gonna add an empty and so what an empty is is basically just an empty item that isn't really geometry it's basically just an object that goes in your scene that doesn't really affect anything unless you unless you link to it well in this situation I'm going to add a plane axes some people add like circles or spheres or other things like that I'm just gonna add an ACCI notice that's gonna get placed right where my cursor was well what I want to do now is I want to go back to my modifier and I'm going to turn on object offset and I want to use the eyedropper to select my empty and so initially it doesn't look like anything happened but basically what's happened is we have now linked our array to this empty so what that means is that means that now anything that I do to the empty is going to get applied to each one of the objects in our array so for example if I was to tap the R key and then tap Z to lock this to the axis and then rotate this maybe like negative five degrees or something like that and hit the enter key notice that now each one of these is now rotating by negative five degrees so you can use this to add a rotational factor to your object and so the more that you do this the more the more extreme the result can be so let's say for example that I was to rotate this instead of five degrees let's say I was to rotate this negative 45 degrees and hit the enter key what you're gonna notice now is you're gonna notice that these objects are being basically each one of these is rotated by that 45 degrees and so what that means now is that means you can do some really interesting things with the amount of objects in your array so let's say I was to turn this array up you can see how these are all kind of the same height right now well you could add a Z modifier to this so that each one of your copies moves up along the z-axis with every copy you create so you can see how every one of them is getting that rotational factor applied to it so you can see how you can use this in order to create these different results so let's take this back and adjust our rotation so it's a lot lower so let's say that our rotational factor is a lot lower and let's say that our relative offset is a lot closer so let's say our relative offset is like point 5 or let's go with 1 you can see how now you can use your empty right here to apply a rotational factor to each one of these so each one of these is getting a rotational factor of negative 15 degrees well not only can you use this to apply rotational factors you can also use this to apply a scale to each one of these so what you can do is let's say you wanted this to scale up on the x axis you could type in a value of 1.1 and hit the enter key well now if I look at this in the top down you're gonna notice that each one of these is getting the x axis scaled by one point one each time it creates a new copy and so you could do that with all of these if you wanted to notice how they're getting a lot bigger and notice that the movement is going to affect this as well so you can see how where I place the empty is going to affect the way that this that this is created so you could use this to create spiral stairs you could use this to create a lot of different things and so I'm not really going to talk about this too much in this video but you could also use this in order to create an animation so we may talk about that in another video but basically what you could do is you could set this array modifier to a count of 0 to start and then at another frame you could set it at a count of like 40 or something like that and this would actually animate the creation of these objects between 0 and 40 frames and so this isn't the best example in the world but let's say for example that you wanted like a sphere at the beginning and the end of this object well you could do a shift a in order to add a UV sphere and then you could click on this and you could use the start cap in the end cap to include a sphere at the start and the end of your array so that would be more helpful with something like this fence so let's say for example that with this fence you wanted an end cap right here so that your fence closed off you could set this at this post got placed as an end cap on the end of the fence so you can use the start and end cap to add an item at the beginning in the end of your array so that's where man in this video leave a comment below and let me know what you thought was this helpful to you did you know you can do some of this with the array modifier I just love having that conversation with you guys if you like this video please remember to click that like button down below if you're new around here remember to click that subscribe button for new blender content every week as always thank you so much for taking the time to watch this I really appreciate it I will catch you in the next video thanks guys

Channel: The CG Essentials

Views: 21,475

Rating: 4.9041533 out of 5

Keywords: blender, blender 2.82, blender 2.8, blender 2.8 array, blender array modifier, blender 2.8 modifier, blender array modifier tutorial, blender copy mode, blender copy objects, blender array tool, blender array tutorial, blender array along curve

Id: g3DFxH0N7U0

Length: 13min 4sec (784 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 02 2020