The purpose of this chapter is to try and cover some of the smaller, less visible tools that Blender provides. These tools will cover a wide range of different features and functionality; This chapter is very much a luckY dip of Blender tools. Although these are small tools they are very powerful and knowing about them will make your workflow with Blender much more efficient.
This chapter is likely to be very large due to the sheer number of tools it will try to cover.
Although Blender supports operations on many different Object Types, a large number of the tools described in this chapter are specifically targeted to work best with Mesh Object Types and this is the Object Type I will concentrate on in this chapter. This is not to say that the tools won't work with other Object Types such as Curve Object Types for example. If it is not specifically mentioned you can assume that the tools will work across many different Object Types. So when it doubt try using the tools on the other Object Types, the worst that can happen is the tool wont work.
Certain tool in Blender will only work on Mesh Objects Types while other tools will only work on Curve Object Types. Blender provides the ability to convert various different Object Types from or to Curve or Mesh Object Types. This functionality can also be used on Object Types that aren't curves or mesh's but will sometime now work as expected.
To activate the Convert To tool first select the objects you wish to convert and then whilst in Object Mode and with the Mouse Pointer over the 3D Viewport press [ALT Key+C Key].
When [ALT Key+C Key] has been pressed the Convert To popup dialog box will be displayed. See Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.QP]]. It has a number of entries listed below:
Curve From Mesh/Text - This command when used will try and covert any selected Object Types to Curve Object Types. This command will generally only work correctly when Mesh Object Types or Text Object Types are selected.
Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.QQ]] shows a Circle Mesh Object and a Text Object before and after they have been converted to Curve Object Types. As you can see they have very different appearances when displayed in Edit Mode.
Converting to a curve generally works best on object that are not very complex and are constructed with multiple branching sections. So object that are string like tend to convert best.
Mesh From Curve/Meta/Surf/Text - This command when used will try to convert Object Types that are of the Type Curve, Metaball, Surface or Text to a Mesh Object Type. This function is much more likely to succeed than the "Curve From Mesh/Text" feature. This is because Blender is has much better support of Mesh Object Types that almost any other Object Type that Blender supports.
Immediately after using the Convert To tool there are extra options that control how it will perform in the [[3D View Editor > Toolfshelf > Operator Panel]] which you can also display by pressing the [F6 Key] with the Mouse Pointer over the 3D Viewport.
Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.QR]] shows the Convert To popup operator dialog, which can be displayed right after using the Convert To feature.
It consists of two different options you can change:
Target - Is a dropdown menu selector which allows you to select what type of conversion operation you want to carry out on the selected objects.
Keep Original - Is a tickable option. When it is ticked it will make a copy of the object being converted and covert the copy, leaving the original objects unmodified. By default this option is not ticked so running Convert To on selected object will replace the original objects with converted one.
The Convert To feature will try it's best to convert objects of different types to curves or meshes. It is not always able to succeed. If this happen the Convert To will fail silently and no changes will be made to selected objects.
Often when working on complex scenes with lots of objects or single objects that are very complex, it can be hard to successfully navigate around and select the right objects. This can because the scene becomes confusing with so many objects or it can be because Blender's interface can slow down dramatically; Areas such a the 3D Viewport can become unresponsive if there are very complex things to display.
To try and keep scenes manageable Blender allows you to determine if certain objects are displayed or not in the 3D Viewport. They can be hidden fully or partially depending on the needs of the user.
The Hiding and Unhiding tools Blender provides are:
Hide Selected - To use Hide Selected select the objects you wish to hide and then press the [H Key]. Using this command in Object Mode will hide all the selected objects entirely. Using this command while in Edit Mode will hide the selected Mesh Geometry leaving the rest of the mesh unhidden.
If part of an Objects Mesh Geometry was hidden while in Edit Mode and you switch back to Object Mode the hidden part of the mesh will become visible again.
Hide Unselected - Works in the same way as the Hide Selected tool but instead of hiding all selected objects, it had all the object which are not selected leaving the selected objects visible. The keyboard shortcut to activate Hide Unselected is [SHIFT Key+H Key].
Objects or Mesh Geometry that has been hidden are not removed from a scene they are just not displayed in the 3D Viewport. You can see this by looking in the Outliner Editor, you will noticed hidden object are still listed.
Show Hidden - Once objects have been hidden there needs to be a way to make those objects be unhidden and be redisplayed. This is what the Show Hidden command does. Its keyboard shortcut is [ALT Key+H Key]. Show Hidden works in both Object Mode and Edit Mode. Objects hidden while in Object Mode will be redisplayed when you use the Show Hidden command when in Object Mode. If you hide objects in Object Mode then switch to Edit Mode and hide part of an Object; The object hidden in Edit Mode will be redisplayed when Show Hidden is used, objects hidden in Object Mode will not. To get objects that were hidden in Object Mode to be redisplayed you must use Show Hidden while in Object Mode.
Blender has a feature called Scene Layers. They allow the user to organise objects in a scene by layering them. Scene Layers work in a similar way to clear acetate sheets that can be stacked on top of each other to form multilayer diagrams (such Blueprints which have different layers for items such as electrical wiring and structural elements). If you have used graphical editing software such as Gimp its layering system provides a similar sort of functionality.
The reasons you would want to use Scene Layers to organize a scene are many but some of the main reasons are:
Turning off Scene Layer 3 will result in the Green cube not being displayed in the 3D Viewport; It is not deleted it is just temporarily not displayed.
Blender's Scene Layers can be activated or deactivated in a number of ways:
Blender has 20 different Scene Layers that can be controlled by clicking the Scene Layer buttons in the 3D Viewport Header. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.QT]].
[Left Mouse Button Click] on one of the Scene Layer buttons will activate the Scene Layer you click on. The Scene Layer buttons in the top layer are for Scene Layers 1 to 10, while the buttons on the bottom later are for Scene Layers 11 to 20.
By default Blender has Scene Layer 1 button activated indicating that Scene Layer 1 is active and objects on that Scene Layer are visible in the 3D Viewport. Scene Layer buttons that are activated will be drawn depressed and in a darker color
The default scene in Blender only has Object on Scene Layer 1, if you were to [Left Mouse Button Click] on Scene Layer 2, the 3D Viewport would only display objects that are on Scene Layer 2. Since there are no objects on Scene Layer 2 by default the 3D Viewport would appear empty.
Holding down [SHIFT Key+Left Mouse Button Click] allow you to activate or deactivate multiple Scene Layers at once without deactivating the other selected Scene Layer buttons.
You can use your keyboard number row keys 0 through 9 to activate Scene Layers 1 through 10. If you hold down [SHIFT Key] then press one of the number row keys, you will be able to activate or deactivate multiple Scene Layers at once.
You can select Scene Layers 11 through 20 by holding down the [ALT Key] and then pressing number row keys 0 through 9. Holding down [ALT Key+SHIFT Key] and pressing number row keys 0 to 9 will allow you to activate of deactivate multiple Scene Layers 11 through 20.
When using the number row keys to change Scene Layer settings you must be in Object Mode.
Pressing the [BACKTICK Key] will toggle all Scene Layers between being activate and back to the state they were in before the [BACKTICK Key] was pressed. This method of activating all Scene Layers at once will allow you to quickly see all objects on all Scene Layers and then quickly go back to the original Scene Layer state.
Scene Layers can also be set in the [Properties Editor > Render Layer Context > Layer Panel > Scene section].
This set of Scene Layer buttons can only be set with the [Left Mouse Button] the number row keys will not work for setting these Scene Layer buttons. Other than that these button work in the same way as those in the 3D Viewport Header.
Objects in Blender's 3D Viewport can be assigned or removed from any of the 20 Object Layers that Blender provides. Objects can appear on a single Object Layer or on multiple different Object Layers.
There are multiple ways to set the Object Layers objects appear on:
Move To Layer - To use Move To Layer you must first select all the objects you want to move. Then while in Object Mode press the [M Key] while the mouse is over the 3D Viewport. The Move To Layer popup dialog will be displayed. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.QV]].
You can then [Left Mouse Button Click] on the little buttons in the Move To Layer popup dialog to set which Object Layers you want the currently selected objects to appear on. If you hold down the [SHIFT Key] while [Left Moues Button Clicking] this will allow you to assign an object to multiple Object Layers.
When the Move To Layer dialog box is displayed you can also press the number row keys 0 to 9 to move objects to Object Layers 1 through 10. Holding down the [SHIFT Key] while pressing the number row keys will allow you to select multiple Object Layers to move objects to. While holding down the [ALT Key] while using the number row keys will allow you to move selected objects to Object Layers 11 to 20.
You can also move selected objects to different Object Layers by navigating to [Properties Editor > Object Context > Relations Panel > Layers section]. The Layers section contains a collection of clickable Object Layer buttons that allow you to set which Object Layers the currently selected objects will appear on. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.QW]].
This method of setting Object Layers works in a similar way to the Move To Layer popup dialog, the only major difference is that you cannot use number row keys to set the Object Layers.
When there are objects present on a particular Object Layer the Scene Layer buttons in the 3D Viewport Header will display little dot in the Scene Layer buttons indicating that objects are present on those layers. The dots will be dark in color when there are objects which are not currently selected, but they will be displayed in a bright orange color when a currently selected active object is on a particular layer. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.QX]].
Objects that are added to the 3D Viewport while in Object Mode are treated as separate independent objects. They each have a different name and you can [Left Mouse Button Click] each object and it will be selected and the other will not be.
The Join command will allow you to take multiple independent objects and join them together to form one object.
To use the Join command you must be in Object Mode, then select multiple objects of the same Object Type, then press [CTRL Key+J Key]. Once this is done the objects will be joined together. The last object selected (Active Object) will be the one that all the other selected objects will be combined into, then other objects will take on the name of the Active Object. Now if you try and select the other objects while in Object Mode you will not be able to select them without selecting all the other objects.
Objects that are to be joined together must be of the same Object Type. Trying to Join a Curve Object Type with a Mesh Object Type will fail. It will either fail silently or there will be an error message displayed in the Info Editor Header.
Many tools in Blender will only work on objects that are a single independent whole, and will not work across multiple independent objects at once; This is where the Join command comes in useful. For example when doing UV Unwrapping, this can at present only be done on a single object.
Groups are the name Blender gives to the process of putting objects of various types into named categories. Objects that are put into a group can be treated as a single whole even though they are still single objects.
There is an almost infinite number of uses for Blender's Groups feature here's a list of some of the most common uses:
The number and type of objects you assign to a group is entirely up to you, as is the name you give to that group. There can be multiple groups and the same object can be part of multiple different groups at once.
Blender provides more than one way of creating groups and assigning objects to those groups.
Navigating to the [Properties Editor > Object Context > Groups Panel] allows you to add, remove and rename the groups currently selected object belong to.
If the currently selected objects are not assigned to any groups then the Groups Panel will be displayed with a big button named "Add To Group" and a + button to its right. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.QZ]].
Clicking the "Add To Group" button on pressing the + button will create a new group automatically if there isn't one created already.
If there are already groups available clicking the "Add To Group" button will list the current groups from which you can choose from, the selected group will be added to the selected objects, assigning those selected objects to the group. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RA]].
Clicking the + icon to the right of the "Add To Group" button will create a new group automatically and add the currently selected objects to that group.
The names of the current created groups will be displayed underneath the "Add To Group" button, each group having a name and its own properties. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RB]].
Each entry in the list of groups can be renamed by [Left Mouse Button Click] on the group name text field and typing in a new name.
You can remove a group by [Left Mouse Button Click] on the little X button to the right of the group name you want to remove. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RC]].
The groups selected object are assigned to can also be altered by navigating to [3D View Editor Header > Object > Group menu]. The Group menu entries provide several different ways of manipulating which objects belong to which groups. Each entry also has a corresponding keyboard shortcut which you can press to activate the particular menu entry your interested in using.
The Group menu entry currently provides the following list of tools:
Create New Group - Is activated by pressing [CTRL Key+G Key]; Any selected objects will be added to a new group. Groups created this way will automatically be given name.
The new group name can be changed by using the [3D View Editor > Toolshelf > Operator Panel] or by opening the popup Operator Panel by pressing the [F6 Key] while over the 3D Viewport. The group name can also be changed by navigating to [Properties Editor > Object Context > Groups Panel] and changing the group name from there.
Remove From Group - Is activated by pressing [CTRL Key+ALT Key+G Key]; At this point the "Remove From Group" popup dialog box will be displayed prompting you to select which group you want to remove from the currently selected objects. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RD]].
Remove From All Groups - Is activated by pressing [CTRL Key+SHIFT Key+ALT Key+G Key]; Once this command is activated any selected objects will be removed from all groups. There will be no feedback to indicate that this operation has succeeded or not. To confirm that it worked you can check [Properties Editor > Object Context > Groups Panel] to see if a selected object has been removed from the groups.
Add Selected To Active Group - Is activated by pressing [CTRL Key+SHIFT Key+G Key]; Once activated the Active Object (last selected object) will be scanned for all the groups it belongs to, then the "Add Selected To Active Group" popup dialog is displayed listing all the groups the active object belongs to. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RE]].
Select one of the listed groups and all other selected objects will then be added to the selected group.
Remove Selected From Active Group - Is activated by pressing [ALT Key+SHIFT Key+G Key]; Once activated the Active Object (last selected object) will be scanned for all the groups it belongs to, then the "Remove Selected From Active Group" popup dialog is displayed listing all the groups the active object belongs to. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RF]].
Select one of the listed groups and all other selected objects will then be removed from the selected group.
The Remove Selected From Active Group popup dialog box has an extra entry called "All Groups". Selecting this entry will scan the Active Object (last selected object) for all the groups it is currently a member of and remove all selected objects from those groups, this will also remove all groups from the Active Object itself.
When objects are added to groups they will be outlined in a light green color, this acts as a visual reminder that the object belong to one or more groups. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RG]].
Once and object is removed from a group it will no longer be outlined in the light green color.
Unlike parented objects, grouped objects are independent, operation such as translation operations only effect objects that are selected even if other unselected objects are part of the same group.
The Blender's Add Menu which can be accessed pressing [SHIFT Key+A Key] while over the 3D Viewport, allows you to add various Object Types to the 3D Viewport. One of those Object Types are Group Instance Object Types. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RH]].
Normally the Group Instance menu is empty, as by default Blender doesn't have any objects which belong to a group.
If you add objects to a group, that named group will be added to the Group Instance menu and the different group names will be listed in the Group Instance menu. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RI]].
You can then select one of the Group Instance entries listed and all the objects that belong to the selected group will be added to the 3D Viewport. The added Group Instance object will be treated as a single object even if the Group Instance object is made up of multiple different objects. An added Group Instance object in the 3D Viewport will also include an extra empty object with which you can manipulate the entire Group Instance as a whole; See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RJ]].
Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RJ]] shows a Group Instance object that has two objects in its group consisting of a uv sphere and a cube. The empty object is highlighted in bright orange and the other objects are outlined in a darker orange color.
The brighter orange color of the Empty Object indicates that it is the Active Object and it is the only object you can perform a Manipulation Operation on. Manipulating the empty will manipulate the other two objects.
You will not be able to enter Edit Mode on a Group Instance Object and all the manipulation operations will be carried out in Object Mode.
If the original objects that were added to a group are directly alter those changes will be reflected in the Group Instance objects that are present in the 3D Viewport. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RK]].
If you add or remove objects from a group that are being used in a Group Instance object, the Group Instance object will be updated in the 3D Viewport to reflect those group changes.
Dupli-Groups are very similar to Group Instance objects, this is because Group Instance objects are basically Dupli-Group objects with all the settings set automatically to make them work as Dupli-Groups.
Dupli-Group objects are collections of objects that belong to the same group; The Dupli-Group object take those objects in the group and displays them all as a single object which you can manipulate with another object (usually an Empty Object) I will call this object the Control Object.
To use the Dupli-Group feature you must have some objects which are members of a named group, if you don't have any groups then they will need to be created.
The next thing you need to do is add a Control Object (an empty in most cases but can be any type of object).
With the Control Object still selected navigate to [Properties Editor > Object Context > Duplication] and click on the Groups button. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RL]].
Once the Groups button is activated another text field called Group will appear, [Left Mouse Button Click] on this text field and select the named group you want the Dupli-Group to use. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RM]].
Once the Group text field has been set the objects the belong to the selected group will be duplicated and attached to the Control Object. You can then manipulate the Control Object to alter the Dupli-Grouped objects in a similar way.
What follows is a simple example of how to setup a Dupli-Group.
Dupli-Verts and Dupli-Faces are two separate but related features that Blender provides. They allow you to take an object and where there are vertices or faces on that object Blender can duplicate some other objects and place them in a formation that matches the position of those vertices or faces. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RN]].
To use the Dupli-Verts or Dupli-Faces features you must tell Blender which object will have it vertices or faces used to position the duplicated objects, that object is called the Parent Object. The objects that will be duplicated over the Parent object are called the Child Objects.
To achieve this you must first use Blender's Parenting feature.
Now all the Child Objects will be parented to the Parent Object.
With the parenting done there is one final step to have Dupli-Verts or Dupli-Faces setup correctly.
You should now have the Parent Object correctly setup and acting as a Dupli-Vert or Dupli-Faces object.
When the Dupli-Vert button is activated an extra tickable option called "Rotation" will appear in the [Properties Editor > Object Context > Duplication Panel]. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RQ]].
The Rotation option will rotate the Child Objects so that they align with the direction of the Vertex Normals of each vertex. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RR]].
Vertex Normals are a way to express the direction that vertices are pointing.
Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RS]] shows a circle object with each of its vertices showing that Vertex Normal line, which indicates visually the direction those vertices are pointing as far as Blender is concerned.
By default the Vertex Normals lines are not displayed on object in the 3D Viewport.
To show Vertex Normals on an object you must:
With Display Vertex Normals Icon activated the selected object will display a little blue line at each of the vertices of the selected object. That little blue line will point in the direction the vertex is pointing.
By default the Vertex Normal lines will be very small in length and can be difficult to see.
You can alter the display length of the Vertex Normal line as displayed in the 3D Viewport by navigating to [3D View Editor > Properties Region > Mesh Display Panel > Normals Section] and entering a new value in the Size text field; See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RU]].
It is these Vertex Normal line directions that control how Dupli-Vert objects will rotate when the Rotation tickable option is selected in the [Properties Editor > Object Context > Duplication Panel].
If the Child Objects of a Dupli-Vert object don't appear to be rotating as you expect them to, make such the Child Objects do not already have some Object Level Roational values on them. If they do this will alter how they react to rotating when the Rotation tickable option is active. You can usually solve this by Applying Rotation on by selecting the Child Object and pressing [CTRL Key+A Key].
What follows is an example of how Object Level rotation on an object can effect the Dupli-Verts Rotation option.
When the Dupli-Faces buttons is selected the [Properties Editor > Object Context > Duplication Panel] will display extra options called "Scale" & "Inherit Scale". See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RX]].
The Scale tickable option will tell objects which are being duplicated on the faces of a Dupli-Faces object to take into account the size of the faces that duplication is happening on. Larger faces will result in larger duplicated object and smaller will result in smaller faces. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RY]].
The Inherit Scale text field allows you to control the ratio of scaling that happens to duplicated objects on the faces of Dupli-Face objects. A smaller value will result in objects being duplicated at a much smaller size when placed on a face, while increasing the Inherit Scale value will result in objects being duplicated at a larger size on faces. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.RZ]]. [NMI: I don't know the exact formula that Blender uses to interpret the scale value, It would be nice to know exactly what it means.]
The Dupli-Verts and Dupli-Faces features work slightly differently when in Object Mode versus Edit Mode.
In Object Mode doing Translation Operation such as scaling or rotating will result in Dupli-Verts and Dupli-Faces objects having their location and size altered as a whole object. In Edit Mode though only the location of the duplicated object will change. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SA]].
When you are using Blenders Dupli-Verts feature the Relations Extra Panel can be used to control how Child Objects being used on a Dupli-Verts Parent Objects will orientate themselves. To access the Relations Extra Panel navigate to [Properties Editor > Object Context > Relations Extra Panel]. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SB]].
For the Relations Extra Panel features to have any effect you must first have setup a Dupli-Vert Object. Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SC]] shows a Circle Object that has been setup as a Dupli-Vert Object (Parent Object), a Monkey object has then been parented to the Circle Object. This results in a default working Dupli-Vert Object of a Monkey being duplicated on all the vertices of the Circle Object.
Notice that all the Monkey Objects displayed in figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SC]] are all orientated to point in the same direction; This is because the Rotation tickable option at [Properties Editor > Object Context > Duplication Panel] is not enabled. With the Circle Object (Parent Object) selected, navigate to the Rotation tickable option and enable it. This should result in the Monkey Object now aligning to follow the Vertex Normal alignment of the Circle Object. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SD]].
The Relations Extras Panel allow even more control over how Dupli-Vert Child Objects (Monkey Object) are aligned in related to the vertices of their Parent Object's (Circle Object) Vertex Normal directions.
The Relations Extras Panel to drop down menu fields for this called "Axis" and "Up Axis" at location [Properties Editor > Object Context > Relations Extra Panel > Tracking Axes Section]. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SE]].
The Axis drop down menu field determines which Local Axis of the Child Object (Monkey) will point towards the Parent Objects (Circle) Vertex Normal. The Axis menu consists of 6 options, "+X", "-X","+Y","-Y","+Z","-Z". Whichever entry is selected will be the Local Axis that points along the Parent Objects Vertex Normal direction.
The Up Axis drop down menu field determines which Local Axis of the Child Object (Monkey) will be considered its upward pointing access. Any Child Object that is Dupli-Verted will always try and keep that axis pointing upward. The Up Axis drop down field consists of 3 options, "X", "Y", "Z".
To alter the orientation of the Dupli-Vert Child Object (Monkey) you must first make sure that it is selected. Once it is selected you change change the values of the Axis and Up Axis fields; This will make the Child Object reorient it self to try and align as we have asked it.
Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SF]] shows how the Child Object reorients as the Axis value changes from +Y to -Y. The Local Axis are displayed on both the Parent Object and the Child Object so you can get some idea of how the values of Axis and Up Axis are interpreted.
Only certain combinations of Axis and Up Axis values are valid, if you try and make the Child Object align in ways that are not possible the settings in Axis and Up Axis fields will be ignored until they are valid.
The Axis and Up Axis options will only have an effect if the Parent Object (Circle) has the Rotation tickable option enabled in [Properties Editor > Object Context > Duplication Panel].
The Make Dupli-Face command is located in [3D View Editor Header > Object Menu]. It allows you to select multiple objects and for each of the selected objects a plane object is created, which is then setup as a Dupli-Face object. The Dupli-Face plane object will then have the selected object duplicated on that plane's face. Each selected object becomes the child of the plane object, which is the parent object. If you select one of the plane objects and switch into Edit Mode and add more Mesh Geometry that has faces the selected object will be duplicated on each of the extra faces.
The plane object that is created automatically may be very small and hard to see, you may need to zoom in a great deal to see it.[NMI: This issue may be fixed in later versions of Blender.]
If the selected objects which have the Make Dupli-Face command run on them is linked in from an external Blender file, those linked objects will be made local to the current Blender file.
The Make Dupli-Face command in [3D View Editor Header > Object Menu] can be hard to describe what it does. So what follows is an example of how to use it.
[NMI: The way the Make Dupli-Face command works may change in future so check back to make sure and update the text above if it does.]
Parenting is a way of connecting two or more objects in a hierarchical way. Such that Manipulation Operations carried out on a Parent Object will be copied to the Child Object in a similar way, however Manipulation Operation carried out on the Child Object will not be reflected in the Parent Object. Manipulation Operation are carried out in one direction from the Parent Object to the Child Object, when Blender Parenting feature is being used.
The Parent and Child naming terminology is used so as to reflect a similar situation to that of a real parent and child when it comes to influencing each other. For example when a parent is walking with a child and holding its hand, it is generally the parent that has the major influence over the direction that child can walk. The child holding the parents hand generally has little or no influence on the direction the parent walks. The direction of influence is from the parent to the child, not vice versa.
The Parenting effect will only take place when the Parent Object is in Object Mode. Doing Translation Operations on the Parent Object while it is in Edit Mode will not result in the Child Objects being altered.
Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SG]] shows a diagram of a Parent Object (A Sphere) that has several Child Objects (Cubes) parented to it. The arrows indicate the direction of influence from the Parent Object to the Child Objects. As the Parent Object gets manipulated the Child Object alter in a similar manner.
When Parenting is active between objects a dashed line is drawn from the Parent Object to the Child Object in the 3D Viewport. The dashed line acts as a visual clue the Parenting is active. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SH]].
The Outliner Editor can also be used to determine the Parenting relationship between objects. A Parent Object will have all it's Child Object displayed underneath it and indented to the right in the Outliner Editor.
Figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SI]] shows the 3D Viewport and the Outliner Editor when a Cube is the Parent Object of two Child Objects.
The order that objects are selected when Parenting is about to be used is important. The last selected object is the Active Object and will be the Parent Object when Parenting is used, all other objects will be Child Objects once Parenting is activate.
Blender's parenting tools can be access by navigating to [3D View Editor Header > Object Menu > Parent Menu]. The Parent Menu will display most of the different parenting types that Blender supports even if the currently selected objects don't support certain types of parenting.
The parenting tools can also be accessed by pressing [CTRL Key+P Key] while the mouse pointer is over the 3D Viewport. This results in a popup dialog being displayed called "Set To Parent". See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SJ]].
The number of type of entries displayed in the "Set To Parent" popup dialog box can change depending on the type of objects that are currently selected when the Set To Parent command is activated. This is because the "Set To Parent" popup dialog is context sensitive.
The current list of Parenting Types and tools that Blender supports is listed below:
What follows is a description of each of the different Parenting Type.
The Object parenting method is the most general form of parenting that Blender supports. It can be used to parent objects of almost any type together. When Object parenting is used it is only active when in Object Mode; Doing transform operations on the Parent Object while in Edit Mode will not result in Child Objects inheriting those transformations.
Like all other Parenting Types, the last object that is selected before carrying out the parenting operation is the Parent Object, while all other selected objects are Child Objects.
Carrying out transformation operations on the Parent Object will result in all the Child Objects inheriting those transformations. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SK]].
The Object (Keep Transform) parenting method is almost identical in function to the Object parenting method. The only difference is that when Child Objects are parented using Object (Keep Transform), if those Child Objects inherited transformations from a previous Parent Object, they will keep those transformation when their new parent is set using Object (Keep Transform).
The functionality of Object (Keep Transform) can be hard to explain in a technical manner, so instead let us shown an example of the difference between standard Object parenting and Object (Keep Transform) parenting.
Let us assume that we have a scene with 3 objects consisting of 2 empty objects called "EmptyA" and "EmptyB", and a Monkey. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SL]].
 - 1.png "Temporary Image")
If we select only the Monkey by [Right Mouse Button Click] and then select the "EmptyA" object by [SHIFT Key+Right Mouse Button Click]. Once they are both selected press [CTRL Key+P Key] to display the "Set To Parent" dialog box and select the Object entry. This should result in the "EmptyA" object being the Parent Object of the Monkey which will be the Child Object. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SM]].
 - 2.png "Temporary Image")
Now that the "EmptyA" object is the Parent Object of the Monkey, select only the "EmptyA" object by [Left Mouse Button Click] it. Now scale down the "EmptyA" object by pressing the [S Key] and entering the value .5.
 - 3.png "Temporary Image")
Notice that when the "EmptyA" object is scaled that the Monkey also scales by a proportional amount and move to the left. This happens even though the Monkey is not directly selected. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SN]].
Select only the Monkey by [Left Mouse Button Click] it, then [SHIFT Key+Left Mouse Button Click] "EmptyB" object. With the Monkey and "EmptyB" object selected press [CTRL Key+P Key] to display the "Set To Parent" popup dialog box and select the Object parenting method entry.
 - 4.png "Temporary Image")
When the Monkey has its Parent Object changed from "EmptyA" to "EmptyB" object, notice that the Monkey changes its apparent location and scale. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SO].
The Monkey changes its scale because it never had its scale or location altered directly. When the Monkey was the Child Object of "EmptyA" object it inherited its scale information from the "EmptyA" object. Since "EmptyB" object has no scaling applied on it, the Monkey loses the inherited scale data.
Having a Child Object reset its inherited transformation data when it changes its Parent Object is often useful and what you want. Sometimes though you want any Child Objects to keep any transformations they had from a previous Parent Object. To do this instead of using standard Object parenting from the "Set Parent To" popup dialog, you instead need to use Object (Keep Transform) parenting method.
So if when changing the Parent Object for the Monkey from "EmptyA" to "EmptyB" we had used the Object (Keep Transform) entry from the "Set To Parent" popup dialog, then the Monkey would keep its previous scaling information when it's parent is switched. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SP]].
 - 5.png "Temporary Image")
An Armature in Blender can be thought of as similar to the armature of a real skeleton, and just like a real skeleton an Armature can consist of many bones. These bones can be moved around and anything that they are attached to or associated with will move and deform in a similar way.
In Blender Armature Object Types are usually used to associate certain bones of an Armature to certain parts of a Mesh Object Types Mesh Geometry. You are then able to move the Armature Bones and the Mesh Object will deform. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SQ]].
Armature Deform Parenting is one of the most flexible ways of associating Bones in an Armature to another Object, it gives a lot of freedom but that comes at the price of a little complexity, as there are multiple steps involved in setting up Armature Deform Parenting such that deformations are actually carried out.
Blender has several different ways of Parenting an Armature to an object, most of them can automate several of the steps involved, but all of them ultimately do all the steps we describe for Armature Deform Parenting.
Using the Armature Deform Parenting operator is the first step in setting up the relationship between an Armature Object and it's Child Objects.
To use Armature Deform Parenting you must first select all the Child Objects that will be influenced by the Armature and then lastly select the Armature Object itself. Once all the Child Objects and the Armature Object are selected press [CTRL Key+P Key] and select Armature Deform in the Set Parent To popup dialog. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SR]].
Once this is done the Armature Object will be the Parent Object of all the other Child Objects, also we have informed Blender that the Bones of the Armature Object can be associated with specific parts of the Child Objects so that they can be directly manipulated by the Bones.
At this point however all Blender knows is that the Bones of the Armature could be used to alter the Child Objects, we haven't yet told Blender which Bones can alter which Child Objects or by how much.
To do that we must individually select each Child Object individually and toggle into Edit Mode on that Child Object. Once in Edit Mode we can then select the vertices we want to be influenced by the Bones in the Armature. Then with the vertices still selected navigate to [Properties Editor > Object Data Context > Vertex Groups Panel] and create a new Vertex Group with the same name as the Bone that you want the selected vertices to be influenced by.
Once the Vertex Group has been created we then assign the selected vertices to the Vertex Group by clicking the Assign Button. By default when selected vertices are assigned to a Vertex Group they will have an Influence Weight of 1. This means that they are fully influenced when a Bone they are associated with is moved, if the Influence Weight had been .5 then when the bone moves the vertices would only move half as much. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.SS]].
Once all these steps have been carried out, the Bones of the Armature Object should be associated with the Vertex Groups with the same names as the Bones. You can then select the Armature Object and switch to Pose Mode in the [3D View Editor Header > Mode Select Button]. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.ST]].
Once in Pose Mode transforming one of the Bones of the Armature that has been associated with vertices of an object will result in those vertices also being transformed.
What follows is a simple example of how to setup Armature Deform Parenting so that you end up with an Armature whose Bones can Influence the mesh of a Child Object when the Armature is in Pose Mode.
You can obtain an already setup Armature Deform Parenting blend file from the link below:
3DViewEditorHeader-ObjectMenu-Parent-Armature Deform.blendThe Armature Deform With Empty Groups parenting method works in almost the same way as Armature Deform parenting with one difference. That difference is that when you parent a Child Object to an Armature Object the names of the bones in the armature are copied to the Child Objects in the form of newly created Vertex Groups, one for each different deforming armature bone name. The newly created Vertex Groups will be empty this means they will not have any vertices assigned to those Vertex Groups. You still must manually select the vertices and assign them to a particular Vertex Group of your choosing to have bones in the armature influence them.
For example if you have an Armature Object which consists of 3 bones named BoneA, BoneB and BoneC and Cube Mesh Object type called Cube. If you parent the Cube Child Object to the Armature Parent Object the Cube will get 3 new Vertex Groups created on it called BoneA, BoneB and BoneC. Notice that each Vertex Group is empty. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.TG]].
Bones in an Armature can be generally classified into 2 different types:
Deforming Bones - Are bones which when transformed will result in vertices associated with them also transforming in a similar way. Deforming Bones are directly involved in altering the positions of vertices associated with their bones.
Control Bones - Are Bones which act in a similar way to switches, in that they control how other bones or objects react when they are transformed. A Control Bone could for example act as a sliding switch control, when the bone is in one position to the left it could indicate to other bones that they react in a particular way when transformed, when the Control Bone is positioned to the right, transforming other bones or objects could do something completely different. Control Bones are not directly used to alter the positions of vertices, in fact Control Bones often have no vertices directly associated with themselves.
When using the Armature Deform With Empty Groups parenting method Vertex Groups on the Child Object will only be created for Armature Bones which are setup as Deforming Bone types. If a Bone is a Control Bone no Vertex Group will be created on the Child Object for that bone.
To check weather a particular bone in an armature is a Deforming Bone simply switch to Pose Mode or Edit Mode on the armature and select the bone you are interested in by [Right Mouse Button Click] it. Once the bone of interest is selected navigate to [Properties Editor > Bone Context > Deform Panel] and check if the Deform tickable option is ticked or not. If it is the selected bone is a Deforming Bone, otherwise it is a Control Bone. See figure [[CHAPNO.FIGID.TH]].
Chapter Summary here.