How do i set seperate color on duplicated cubes

Support Basics & Interface
1

Hello,

I have been using blender 2.37 for a few days & while I can see it’s very
powerful, the documentation for it isnt very good.

The problem im having is when I duplicate an object for example a cube, so that I have 2 cubes now visible on screen. If i then try and add a material/color to the first cube the 2nd cube also gets the material/color as well.

So my fist question is how do i apply color to only the 2nd cube, so it doesn’t affect the other and vice versa.

Also though this may be related or the same question how do i make a cube that has been duplicated with shift+d into a non linked ie independant of the first cube.

I have browsed the forum and I know this is so simple and vital to using blender that it must have been answered however I have been unable to find it.

Ps. My preferences are defaults are for as i know and im running blender 2.37 on linux, running fedora core 3 rpm distro.

(A wouldbe blender fan if only i could get the basics sorted) :slight_smile:

Thankyou. :expressionless:

2

If you want your two “seperate” objects to use different materials add another material with “NEW” under the material window. Before you do that though u need to delete the current material. Than press new and this material will not be linked to the originating object. The new object has a unique material. Or, you can also click on the number 2 under the material window (F5), material name. It will say “SINGLE USER?” click it. Which is faster.
Check out the tutorials here too for some more info:

http://blender3d.org/cms/Tutorials.243.0.html#814

http://biorust.com/tutorials/browse/8/added/desc/1/

3

Yes I know I have to add a material with add new, I did that but when i change the properties of the material ie color the duplicated objects both change ie they are both still copyin the newly changed color no matter how many different materials i make.

I have read teh tutorials and did the ginger bread tutorial from start to finish and it was how i noticed the color duplicate problem im having (the buttons on the ginger bread man couldnt be made to have seperate colors) and so far no one has given i example that i could follow and see work.

4

Ok you’ve either made an instance of the first cube by using ‘ALT+D’ instead of duplicating it using ‘SHIFT+D’. Instancing will link the material data between duplicates automatically.

Or//

You need to change the settings in the user presets. Pull the header bar down at the top of the Blender window, (the one with File etc on it). This will display the user options.

Open the Editing section and turn off Texture & Material buttons when duplicating. To save these settings, change them as soon as you open Blender, then press ‘CTRL+U’.

Hope this helps.

Sonix.

5

Sorry for being gruff. I found the tutorial for you, check it out and tell me what you think. Its a Sub Surf tutorial and one of the parts has you make a simple eye. It shows a way you can use to make those buttons different.

http://biorust.com/tutorials/detail/79/us/

Also, in order to make your duplicated material independent of the object it was copied from you have to make a single user. DO this:

  1. take a cube mesh, duplicate it SHIFT + D, now change the color on one cube to see them both change

  2. select the cube whos color you dont want to change and go to the buttons window ‘F5’. Look at the material tab on the material name. There should be a 2 there for number of users for this object. Clik on it and it will ask you, SINGLE USER? Click on it.

  3. now when you change the color setting only one object is changed.

Anything else let me know.

6

you sure you didn’t check the “documentation” link on blender.org? there’s a rather complete manual there… :wink:
but yeah, basically you have two objects linked to the same material. clicking the number of users button, or add new, gives you a single user material to play with for each model
I admit the docs are rather daunting, but it’s a big program…and it has this “object->data” paradigm which is quite powerful when you use it, but it takes a while to “click” and until then, causes confusing side effects such as you saw

7

Ok im gonna reply to each of the answers given. But before I do I like to say thanks to all of ya that have so far tried to help so.

Now for my response.

To Sonix date Thu June 16 2005

first yes i definately did type shift+d and not alt+d, also i checked preferences and the options for duplication of textures and material are NOT selcted.

I am using fedora core 3 version, so either its a quirk with that or my preferences are not being taken into accout im using the 2.37 version for linux.

Though on the plus side its good to know about ctrl+U as before then i had to keep resetting the preference to off for textures and materials, even though it made no difference to duplicated objects they still were linked.

To Jong Thu 16 June

Yes you first point excatly duplicates my problem in that both objects are still linked materially. The single user button clinking i will try.

To slikdigit Thu Jun 16,

Yes i did read the documentation, its the very first thing i downloaded and
read. It may just be that different version of linux have blender set up differently but after duplication of a obj with my version the materials are still linked if i then add a new material from the material & textures button (the silly red ball picture) they are still linked but now i have a new material. Il try the single user thing.

On another point i, while i was about ready to commit suicide i decided to start at the very beginning of the forum and I found something that did work, Though im sure there is a good reason why this is not the right way to do it, may be someone could explain it.

A post i found said that if before i duplicate an object with shift+d that i make sure that im in object mode the materials dont get linked, while in edit mode they do. And sure enough when i tried it with duplicate done in object mode the materials arnt linked while in edit mode they are.

Now given what ya have all said, is this a bad way to do it, or should i try to get yours ways to work, as im wondering why no one mentioned it.

BTW im using BLENDER 2.37 LINUX VERSION with fedora core 3.

Thanks for all those that answered, now im off to play with the single user thing and report back.

Terry Wallwork

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