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archibold
03-27-2005, 03:27 AM
Hello,
I have a somewhat elaborate (for a newbie) hierarchy for a robot model I'm working on. Whenever I select an object in the hierarchy (e.g. right hip) and apply a material, the material is applied to all the children (thigh, knee, shin, ankle, foot). If I texture down the hierarchy, I can correct this, but I'm trying to experiment with some interesting textures I found on highend3d and each time I apply a new texture to a parent, I have to go back and reset the children, which is getting annoying. Is there a way to just apply a material to the parent object and not the children?

I could disassemble the hierarchy until I'm done with my texture experimentation, but as mentioned it's kinda complex. I was wondering if there's a way to create some kind of container for a material, and apply that to the different nodes, and then switch the inputs to the container node instead of switching to a different material altogether. That way I could update all the objects with the same material at the same time, but without having to actually change the material attributes.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.
-archibold
hs3d
03-27-2005, 09:41 AM
I had this problem ever since I moved to maya.
So I always assign a dummy locator on top of each part of the hirarrchy.
This way the locator is the parent, and it never gets any material.
It sound stupid if you are used to other software, but get used to it, it works.

I hope it helps, and I'll be glad to hrea about a more advanced solution.

Haim
mimo8
03-27-2005, 09:47 AM
I also allready took hierarchys appart aggain, just to place materials without affecting all the children ... no solution here.
cpan
03-27-2005, 10:13 AM
maybe assign to each object faces... but the ungrouping method it's easier
Jozvex
03-27-2005, 10:28 PM
You select the shape node instead!

When you want to apply a shader to an object that's a parent, but not affect the children, you need to select the shape node of the object rather than the transform node. The hierarchy is created through the transform nodes, but the shape nodes are still seperate.

You can select the shape node either buy:

1. Right clicking in the Outliner and turning on 'Show Shapes', then selecting the shape node which is parented under the usual transform.

2. Or by opening the Attribute Editor with your object selected, switching to the shape node tab (though it usually does automatically) and then hitting the 'Select' button at the bottom.

:thumbsup:
floze
03-27-2005, 10:41 PM
You select the shape node instead!

When you want to apply a shader to an object that's a parent, but not affect the children, you need to select the shape node of the object rather than the transform node. The hierarchy is created through the transform nodes, but the shape nodes are still seperate.

You can select the shape node either buy:

1. Right clicking in the Outliner and turning on 'Show Shapes', then selecting the shape node which is parented under the usual transform.

2. Or by opening the Attribute Editor with your object selected, switching to the shape node tab (though it usually does automatically) and then hitting the 'Select' button at the bottom.

:thumbsup:
...or by selecting the transform node(s) and hitting the down arrow button! :thumbsup:
archibold
03-27-2005, 10:47 PM
I was just about to try the locator method mentioned above, but the shape node stuff is a lot faster and cleaner. Thanks a bunch to everybody.

-archibold
Jozvex
03-27-2005, 11:05 PM
Meh, pickwalking is for babies.....

Hehe no I'm only joking, I wasn't sure if it would work within a hierarchy, I thought it would select the child instead, but no, for that you use the right arrow.
floze
03-27-2005, 11:47 PM
Meh, pickwalking is for babies.....

Hehe no I'm only joking, I wasn't sure if it would work within a hierarchy, I thought it would select the child instead, but no, for that you use the right arrow.
Yeah you're actually right, it gets tricky in a hierarchy of course where you might have blank transforms over your objects.

My suggestion is to get used to the outliner (with 'Display> Shapes ON', as Jozvex already stated) and explicitly select the desired shape nodes.
hs3d
03-28-2005, 09:09 AM
thnx jozvx for this tip.
I often wonder how is it that many basic stuff, like this thread for example, is unknown to so many users...
and I thought my way with the dummy locators, was the right way.

Haim

(I did read the manuals)
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