Hi,
I am having problems staying organized with this window. Is there anyway I can group the objects into sub folders to keep everything organized?
I found this link:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/The_Outliner
I don’t think the above answers my question. Can someone help?
You could systematically make groups but the spirit is somewhat different than a folder like manner. You can’t really make groups of groups. A group rather qualifies an object accordingly to one or more criteria. Groups are sets and as such can intersect, something folders rarely do. IMHO it is more useful.
You make groups in Object mode by selecting members and with the Ctrl-G shortcut and manage them directly in the Outliner if you choose to display them from the drop list on the Outliner header… or use the ‘Objects and Links’ tab of the Object buttons.
Maybe I don’t understand the work flow. Below is a picture of my current scene. You will notice everything is in alphabetical order. Right now it is not too complicated but when this character is done I will have 50ish objects in different groups. How the heck and I am going to manage that? I also don’t understand how to have an object in the background view, so you can see where it is in wire frame but not edit it. I am sure I just don’t understand the workflow. Could someone help me how to manage this?
Thanks IamInnocent for your help so far!
Thanks
-Jonn
Ok, so it is a robot…
You say :
Maybe I don’t understand the work flow.
What you have to understand is that there is no workflow set in advance in Blender. It offers plenty of tools that you will use to set up your own workflow. So I’ll describe the tools and you do whatever you want with it.
I already told you about the groups and how they can be used to tag objects : you could have a group “Electronics”, another “Hydraulics”, another “Central Processing”, etc… i am just guessing since I don’t know you and how you think. In my case groups are useful since I may model a whole landscape with a village, streets and what not ; I can group buildings by street, vocation, building materials and all I need. Then I chose “Group” in the menu that now read “All Scenes” on your image and I can manage them very efficently.
Another way of organizing your stuff is parenting. That has a more folder like structure. Many users see only the utilitarian aspect of parenting, like when they are after a certain effect (e.g. dupliframes, armatures…) but you can have parents just for the purpose of organization, not transformation, and this will be directly reflected in the Outliner as a hierarchy.
Of course you can use layers and display only visible layers in the Outliner with still the same category menu button.
I like that the outliner will let me see my objects by type, so I can examine just the armatures, just the modeling, just the paths. Right now it works only for the active object which I find a little limitative : I’d like for it to work by selection so I could, for example, select a mesh and a curve to examine both types at the same time.
You actually can use the scenes and chain them up. Let’s say that in scene one you have the landscape, in scene two the buildings, in scene three the vehicules, in four the characters, in five many lighting set ups, in six many cameras. (I know that the last two may surprise but, you see, it is my workflow : I like to be able to concentrate on just the set up of the lighting or just that of the shots organization ). Then from Scene 2 you could go in the Output panel of the scene buttons (F10) and find the oh-so-discreet Set menu button, just below “Extensions” and chose to have Scene 1 as a set. Scene 1 will show and can be rendered but that is all. And you can chain scenes so, from Scene 3, if you make Scene 2 a set you will also see Scene 1 because it is the set of Scene 2. And so on…
The question you had :
I also don’t understand how to have an object in the background view, so you can see where it is in wire frame but not edit it.
could be solved by sets and scenes but I find it easier to set the drawtype of such an object to “Wire” in the Drawtype group of the Draw panel of the Object buttons and make it unselectable in the Outliner with a click on its mouse pointer icon.
As you see, it is almost impossible that you can’t make things clear your own way.
Hopefully this helps.
Yeah, Blender is messy.
Sorry but the mess is only in the eye of the beholder.
Some may call that level of freedom “messy” but, in my opinion, when Blender gives one the tools and makes one fully responsible to organize one’s workflow, it liberates and makes it possible to be all you can be as an artist, even in some unexpected, unprogrammed ways.
My 2 cents - Parenting as described by IamInnocent is an easy to implement solution. Best used with a little bit of planning. For example - parenting objects that would be moved, scaled etc together. The main object in the parent relationship can be an empty. Also, if the dotted lines cause you any trouble, you can turn them off in View Properties - just toggle off Relationship Lines.
If you will be using in other blend files, you can create groups for easy appending.
Best of both worlds - Use parenting and grouping on the same set of objects - now you can easily append groups and keep the outliner in order.
Best of Luck!
Great thanks guys! I have a lot to learn!