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478 Chapter 7: Creating Copies and Arrays
hierarchy. With instanced transform controllers,
you can change the transform animation of one
setoflinkedchildren,andautomaticallyhavethe
change affect any cloned sets.
This allows you to animate all clones identically
w ith a single a nimation setup. For example,
consider a scene containing three objects named
Torso, Thigh, and Calf. The objects are linked
hierarchically so that Torso is the parent of
Thigh and Thigh is the parent of Calf. Say you
select all three objects and then clone them, and
choose Clone Options > Controller > Instance.
Thereafter, if you transform either Thigh or Calf
object, the corresponding object in the other
hierarchy is tr ansformed identically, along with
any child objects. However, if you tr ansform either
Torso object, the other hierarchy is not affected.
Number of Copies—Specifies the number of copies
of the object you wan t to create. Available only
when you
Shif t +Clone an object.
Using
Shi f t +Clone to generate multiple copies
applies the transform successively to each
additional copy. If you
Shi f t +Move an object
andspecifytwocopies,thesecondcopyisoffset
fromthefirstcopybythesamedistancethatthe
first copy is offset from the or iginal. For Rotate,
two copies of the rotated object are created, with
thesecondcopyrotatedtwiceasfarasthefirst.For
Scale, two copies of the scaled object are c reated,
w ith the second copy scaled f rom the first copy by
thesamepercentagethatthefirstcopywasscaled
from the original.
Name—Displaysthenameoftheclonedobject.
You can use this field to change the name;
additional copies use the same name followed by a
two-digit number, starting at 01 and incrementing
by one for each copy. So, for instance, if you
Shi f t +Move an object and then specify the name
bui l di n g and two copies, the first copy will be
named building and the second will b e named
building01.
Usi ng Shift +Clone
Shi f t +Clone is the primar y way to duplicate
objects in 3ds Max. You hold down the
Shif t key
anddragduringanyofthestandardtransform
operations: Move, Rotate, or Sca le.
To Shift +C lo ne an object :
1.
On the main toolbar, cli
ck
the Move, Rotate, or Scale button.
2. Select a transform coordinate system and
constraints. E ach transform car ries its own
settings. To avoid su
rprises, always click the
transform button first, and then set your
transformcoordinatesystemandconstraints.
Note: You can a lso use the Transform Gizmo
to set axis constrai
nts.
3. Select the object or
set of objects you want to
clone. The selection can be a single object,
multiple objects, a group, or a sub-object
selection.
4. Hold down the Shif t key an
ddragthe
selection to apply the transform.
As you drag, a clone is created and selected; it is
now the object being t r ansformed. The original
object is no longe
r selected and is unaffected
by the transform.
When you release the mouse button, the Clone
Optionsdialoga
ppears. C hange settings in this
dialog or accept the defaults, and then click OK.
Shi f t +Clone uses the Clone O ptions dialog (page
1–476) for any tran
sform you choose.
Cloning with
Shift +Move (page 1–479)
Cloning with
Shift +Rotate (page 1–480)