I knew about the term object instancing but never figured out what it was. Thanks! Finally I know how people can have these huge scenes without having a to much memory
Great. One trick I do is put the main collection in a new scene. So you don't see the main collection and that allows us to move the instances and the origin in the place I want instead the world center
You can also instance individual objects (not collections) by just using Alt-D instead of Shift-D. Less flexible, but handy if you don't want to make an entire collection for one object.
That's a "linked Copy" The subtle difference being it's still creating a mesh (even if it's only linking the underlying object) Where as an Instance is not creating any mesh or data so is less resource heavy, for larger Collections or larger objects. But yes, you can do whatever you like, but choose wisely ;)
@@transmitthis Just to clarify, when you use an object in a particle system it doesn't create a mesh and saves on memory, right? So particle systems and instanced objects are easier on memory than arrays and linked copies?
@@transmitthis I've experimented with instance copies vs alt+d copies, and even if I duplicate 1000x high poly trees, vram or memory or face count doesn't change with alt+d... so im not so sure there's a resource argument for instance copies vs alt+d copies.
So much more could be added to this. A single object can be in more than one collection. You do not have to put the original objects at the world center. You CAN position the origin point of the collection wherever you want. The operator to do this is just in a very hard to discover location. Hiding the original collection from view and from render without unintentionally hiding the instances is a confusing pain with several work arounds.
Dear Blender Made Easy! Great Tutorial! I had a break from blender for 9 years, I really want to learn the GeoNodes-"Thing". If you "Shift R" 13 times (3:05) and just toggle visibility of the last duplicate, it still will be affected by all changes and modifications, right? So, if you Shift R once more and also do this (Shift R once more) when working on the window-collection-part before putting it all into a new collection (toggle visibility again), there won't be missing parts, if you add an instance of this new collection to the scene, right? BTW! I love your video but this is confusing! I just wrote "If you shift 13 times" but actually.... have you really Shift R 12 times???? Shift R is repeat last...? And that was "Shift D & R"? In the End it displays on your Screen Shift R x 12... it's counting , Shift R, Shift R x 2 -> Shift R x 4; Shift R x 5 -> Shift R x 7 -> you add the first circle-collection instance via popup menu -> first circle-Collection-Instance Object circle.001; you shift D ("copies an Object, with all the object data" - ah i think i got it! [add a instance of a collection is more or less like alt D on the whole collection of objects]) to get second Instance circle.002; you shift R to get the third Instance circle.003; you shift R (display shift R x2) and get the fourth Instance circle.004 -> we see the Original Mesh (A; in Collection: circle), 1 Object (B) which is the added circle-collection-instance (relation like "child of A"; Originals in the original Collection behave like "is Parent to B") and 3 duplicates of Object B - C, D, E and they alle have in the object data, like their original B: relation - child of A) -> so as long i dont wont to change anything individually it wont add RAM, but as soon as i go edit mode and change something (we see, it's not really a child?) it will add RAm, because it will become totally new object, which needs his own object data, instead of reading instanced Object Data (B reading from A) OR linked object data (ok there is no linked object data, never used alt-d, C,D,E have the same object data as B and B's object data is like an empty paper, forwarding to A's object Data! I see, i want to play around with changes in this "chain" :P). BUT... anyways, you got my Point... very confusing once i noticed Shift R x 12 can't be correct, right? Are you trying out some kind of AI-Support? Last time i traced back a problem to "instead of 1-2-3, it was counted 1-2-4" was when i checked out some LLM's :)
Hi there! I make flag waving and make around 100 of them. But my fps slows down, when I make instances, I can not change the material for each country. When I change, all flags turn into the flag of 1 country. How to solve? Thanks!
I've been trying to figure oit how they do instances on the backend considering Blender is mostly built on Python. My C++ brain says use pointers, but I'm not aware of Python having the ability to do this. I wonder if it's done during a compute pass rather and all the file is doing is saying repeat this object instance at x, y, z, t in coordinate space
So objects in Blender have a transform (what you see under "Item" and you reset with "Apply scale..."). That points to other stuff like meshes, modifiers, etc. When you instance something, you're making a new object (so a new transform) that points to the same other objects. Python can do this just by putting the same object into multiple dictionaries, for example. However, Blender is in C and C++, with Python being a relatively thin skin on top of it for building the UI.
@@darrennew8211 okay awesome thank, you. That definitely helps me understand how they manage this then. For some reason I was under the impression the python code was deeper than just the UI. Thank you very much for such a well dictated technical summary.
Excellent tutorial as usual, Can we give the instances different material than the original? for example creating chess sets where one is black and the other is white. Instances are very useful to create patterns, is it possible to use them to create a Barbwire fence? Please advise. Thank you.
You can use 2 objects that share the same one piece of Mesh Data and change the material to be stored on the objects instead of the mesh data. This way each object can have unique material but same mesh data.
My only main concern is that it creates dupe materials (001. .002 .003 at the end) which creates lots of memeory. I discovered that way too late and it jumped from 200mb to almost 1gb memory. Deleting the dupe materials only cause one instance to go white. Its pretty infuriating lol. Not even the Material Utilities addon seems to fix it :/
Instance Collections are VERY frustrating. Things I HATE about IC: 1# You can't exclude Transition from IC, This means you really have to place the original's position exactly where it should be and predicting ware the other instance are in relation to the original IC. 2# The SIZE of the Empty is WAY too large, After making the first instance go in and scale down the Empty before making additional instance. 3# The IC folder becomes the default Linking destination of any linked import. So each linked item becomes as many instants you made of this collection. You have to drag the item out of the IC folder to undo this. IC is one of the functions in Blender that is valuable IF you know it's behaviors. IF you don't, you will have a bad day.
I knew about the term object instancing but never figured out what it was. Thanks! Finally I know how people can have these huge scenes without having a to much memory
Great. One trick I do is put the main collection in a new scene. So you don't see the main collection and that allows us to move the instances and the origin in the place I want instead the world center
You can also instance individual objects (not collections) by just using Alt-D instead of Shift-D. Less flexible, but handy if you don't want to make an entire collection for one object.
was just about to mention this
That's a "linked Copy" The subtle difference being it's still creating a mesh (even if it's only linking the underlying object)
Where as an Instance is not creating any mesh or data so is less resource heavy, for larger Collections or larger objects.
But yes, you can do whatever you like, but choose wisely ;)
@@transmitthis Just to clarify, when you use an object in a particle system it doesn't create a mesh and saves on memory, right? So particle systems and instanced objects are easier on memory than arrays and linked copies?
@@transmitthis I've experimented with instance copies vs alt+d copies, and even if I duplicate 1000x high poly trees, vram or memory or face count doesn't change with alt+d... so im not so sure there's a resource argument for instance copies vs alt+d copies.
So much more could be added to this.
A single object can be in more than one collection.
You do not have to put the original objects at the world center. You CAN position the origin point of the collection wherever you want. The operator to do this is just in a very hard to discover location.
Hiding the original collection from view and from render without unintentionally hiding the instances is a confusing pain with several work arounds.
Zero dislikes! This tutorial is really awesome. I didn't knew about instance before.
I WISH you made this video back last october lmao
great content thank you for the tutorial
Love your TUTS ,,,,,,,,,,, Thanks mate
That is what many a New Zealander is known to say to their girlfriend as a compliment.
this opens up so many options on blender! thank you!!
I knew about this feature, but this is THIS MUCH USEFUL! WOW
insanely powerful video. tysm
Clear and useful. Ty!
This was so useful and to the point!! Thank you!
this is an amazing tutorial. thank you!
Excellent Tutorial!!!
Excellent tutorials! Thanks a lot!
Great stuff 🙌
Thank you
wow, this is amazing, thank you 🙏🏻
That's mindblowing
thanks for the info... much appreciated.. .
Dear Blender Made Easy! Great Tutorial! I had a break from blender for 9 years, I really want to learn the GeoNodes-"Thing".
If you "Shift R" 13 times (3:05) and just toggle visibility of the last duplicate, it still will be affected by all changes and modifications, right? So, if you Shift R once more and also do this (Shift R once more) when working on the window-collection-part before putting it all into a new collection (toggle visibility again), there won't be missing parts, if you add an instance of this new collection to the scene, right?
BTW! I love your video but this is confusing! I just wrote "If you shift 13 times" but actually.... have you really Shift R 12 times???? Shift R is repeat last...? And that was "Shift D & R"?
In the End it displays on your Screen Shift R x 12... it's counting , Shift R, Shift R x 2 -> Shift R x 4; Shift R x 5 -> Shift R x 7 -> you add the first circle-collection instance via popup menu -> first circle-Collection-Instance Object circle.001; you shift D ("copies an Object, with all the object data" - ah i think i got it! [add a instance of a collection is more or less like alt D on the whole collection of objects]) to get second Instance circle.002; you shift R to get the third Instance circle.003; you shift R (display shift R x2) and get the fourth Instance circle.004 -> we see the Original Mesh (A; in Collection: circle), 1 Object (B) which is the added circle-collection-instance (relation like "child of A"; Originals in the original Collection behave like "is Parent to B") and 3 duplicates of Object B - C, D, E and they alle have in the object data, like their original B: relation - child of A) -> so as long i dont wont to change anything individually it wont add RAM, but as soon as i go edit mode and change something (we see, it's not really a child?) it will add RAm, because it will become totally new object, which needs his own object data, instead of reading instanced Object Data (B reading from A) OR linked object data (ok there is no linked object data, never used alt-d, C,D,E have the same object data as B and B's object data is like an empty paper, forwarding to A's object Data! I see, i want to play around with changes in this "chain" :P). BUT... anyways, you got my Point...
very confusing once i noticed Shift R x 12 can't be correct, right?
Are you trying out some kind of AI-Support? Last time i traced back a problem to "instead of 1-2-3, it was counted 1-2-4" was when i checked out some LLM's :)
Plz make tutorials for 2D animation in blender
Gracias!!! Me salvaste!
Everything i need to know! ;-)
Hi there! I make flag waving and make around 100 of them. But my fps slows down, when I make instances, I can not change the material for each country. When I change, all flags turn into the flag of 1 country. How to solve? Thanks!
I'd love to know how to use the collection origin offset settings properly
awesomr tutorial
by making instances real you are adding memory back again right? Thanks
Can you instance an object along a path?
Excellent,... a little too fast but still excellent.
I've been trying to figure oit how they do instances on the backend considering Blender is mostly built on Python. My C++ brain says use pointers, but I'm not aware of Python having the ability to do this. I wonder if it's done during a compute pass rather and all the file is doing is saying repeat this object instance at x, y, z, t in coordinate space
So objects in Blender have a transform (what you see under "Item" and you reset with "Apply scale..."). That points to other stuff like meshes, modifiers, etc. When you instance something, you're making a new object (so a new transform) that points to the same other objects. Python can do this just by putting the same object into multiple dictionaries, for example. However, Blender is in C and C++, with Python being a relatively thin skin on top of it for building the UI.
@@darrennew8211 okay awesome thank, you. That definitely helps me understand how they manage this then. For some reason I was under the impression the python code was deeper than just the UI. Thank you very much for such a well dictated technical summary.
Curious if instances collections also update the f add a new object into the original instance.
Excellent tutorial as usual, Can we give the instances different material than the original? for example creating chess sets where one is black and the other is white. Instances are very useful to create patterns, is it possible to use them to create a Barbwire fence? Please advise. Thank you.
You can use 2 objects that share the same one piece of Mesh Data and change the material to be stored on the objects instead of the mesh data. This way each object can have unique material but same mesh data.
@@myztazynizta Thank you, I tried your suggestion and it was really helpful. Appreciate it. Regards
🤯
My only main concern is that it creates dupe materials (001. .002 .003 at the end) which creates lots of memeory. I discovered that way too late and it jumped from 200mb to almost 1gb memory. Deleting the dupe materials only cause one instance to go white. Its pretty infuriating lol. Not even the Material Utilities addon seems to fix it :/
Each instance is still an instance, not an "instant".
First Viewer
Well done 👍✅
Instance Collections are VERY frustrating. Things I HATE about IC: 1# You can't exclude Transition from IC, This means you really have to place the original's position exactly where it should be and predicting ware the other instance are in relation to the original IC. 2# The SIZE of the Empty is WAY too large, After making the first instance go in and scale down the Empty before making additional instance. 3# The IC folder becomes the default Linking destination of any linked import. So each linked item becomes as many instants you made of this collection. You have to drag the item out of the IC folder to undo this. IC is one of the functions in Blender that is valuable IF you know it's behaviors. IF you don't, you will have a bad day.
7th veiwer
Yeah, woohoo. Congratulations....
You win a free gummy bear from Blender Guru...
lol...
@@neilmarshall5087 😂
thank you