Oh, good: I was biting my tongue. Yes, it seems ridiculously convoluted, though, I'll give it, very flexible. For modeling, absolutely ridiculous. For animating, quite flexible.
Yeah I feel like there should be presets. (circular, square, triangle and bezier curve already pre-loaded in the array properties). click, adjust and apply.
Just rotate around the z-axis and in the property panel type 360/(number of parts). Blender will do the math for you and you don’t need to use the calculator. Thanks for your awesome work!!
Yes thx, I know, but I wanted to show the calculation here a bit larger and then point out that we will use the result later on in Python (and then in the addon I am creating)
A few tips: -You can align the 3D cursor's rotation to a surface by selecting it from the toolbox and clicking Orientation>Geometry. Then, when you snap it to the plane, it will be properly rotated. -When you add an object, click Align>3D Cursor -The Copy Attributes addon let's you copy the rotation values from one object to another -An alternative method for circular arrays, ist to add a Bezier circle. In the array modifier settings, change Fit Type to Fit Curve, with the circle selected. Then, add a Fit Curve modifier. You may need to adjust some values, but it's easier than using the empty in my opinion.
My array just makes my objects expand in size. Yes I have reset the scale. Everyone all over google keeps telling me that, and it still makes the objects in the array increase in size. I am so confused.
WOW. There's not a chance I'm doing this everytime I want a radial array. I'll have to hop into Modo to do that, where it's literally ONE FUCKING BUTTON. Still, thanks for taking your time to explain this feature.
At this very moment, I said what you said, really that's weird, why a powerful program like Blender doesn't have a nice advanced easy array tool just like 3DMax??????? even for 3d max, I have a question for Autodesk, whyyyyyyyyyyy when I extrude 2 faces with 2 different angles, I got a problem of evenness ???? when they will solve this problem??
@@marwanpainter8788 bcz it haz!!!!!!!!!11111!!!! (atleast in countless addons) Jayanam is just the grandpa of blender tutorials. When he whipped out the calculator I died. I think he might be using a steering wheel for input too.
Can't get my objects to follow in a circle. They seem to be spinning about some far away axis, even though it's set to local axis. Why is everything so hard to accomplish in Blender? This is a 5 second process in Maya!
so, when I try this: I have moved the origin of the cylinder to the centre of the potential circle. now when I change the rotation of X to 24, my cylinder moves along the circle, yours doesn't??
why can't there a simple "array around pivot"? so i don't need to hassle with extra pivots or orientations, would be dead easy and reduce the 3 min setup for everything to a 2 sec checker.
You have to apply rotation and scale to the object before you do this. I just wasted 15 minutes trying to figure out why it was doing whack stuff and not working correctly
I also have an issue while I did exactle every steps like Jayana, the array don't appear on the plane but rather is scaled on the local Z of the cylinder :(
Apparently, the developers don't want to implement it for whatever technical reason which doesn't mean much for whoever needs the feature. It's even listed on the "Anti-Features" page. Pretty much every attempt of proposing the feature, even if you bring it ready it's closed. Unless you rely on addons, you won't be making any radial based modelling on vanilla Blender any time soon.
another thing that would take two seconds in any other 3D program... now we get to calculate angles and set angles of other objects for some reason, thanks Blender.
Thank you! You are a lifesaver. Something I did however was make the mistake of resizing my empty which made the rotation not work. You don't need to resize it or you will need to reset the scale with CTRL + A and choose "scale". Just incase someone else comes across this problem.
I don't want to sound silly but when I do this in my project the distance from the center and the scale of the object being patterned is +- x2 bigger and farther away. Can't find out what I am doing wrong lol...
Actually you can divide the rotation by the number of elements directly in Blender - you simply do the math in rotation parameter (360/n - where n is the number of items set in the array modifier)
this is why sometimes i crying using blender, this is fucking simple task, I spend 10 minutes watching tutorials and after that it still does not work..................
two hours later and the 15 cylinders are still floating in space with increasing sizes. So frustrating!!! I followed the tutorial to the tee and still not working. Feel like crying here...
I was having problems with this as well but I think I found the cause. All modifications made to the original object in "Object Mode" are also applied to the array clones geometrically. So if for instance you make an array of cubes and then scale the initial cube up 50% while in "Object Mode", then every iteration will be 50% larger than the one before it, causing them to explode out massively. The thing that confused me most was that this will apply to modifications (that were done in object mode) done to the original before you even made the array. The best solution I found is to do every single modification to the object that you want to array in "Edit Mode" and make sure that the object origin is in the same place as the reference empty. The array function seems to ignore changes that were made in "Edit Mode" so this way when you make the array it will make identical copies of the object.
You could create a Custom Orientation from the face, or first cylinder, and then, with the empty selected..Object menu>'Align to Transform Orientation' to avoid the copy-paste.. in 2.8, though, we've lost the commonly-understood keyboard shortcuts, if we all make our own.. these things will take longer to describe...
Can only scale exponentially if you scale the empty, and if you have rotation for the array then it'll skew everything as well. The array modifier needs a LOT of work.
This is ridiculous. A simple thing like a circular array and you have to know a "procedure". Blender is the most frustrating piece of software that exists.
Does this tutorial work for you in Blender 3.1 ? I learned a lot seeing it, but this solution didn´t work in 3.1. I had to use the along curve modifier.
This would be easier if snap cursor to selected resulted in the cursor having the same angle as the face normal AND if the cylinder could be snapped to both the location and rotation of the cursor when you create it. :(
Then it seems like that either the pivot point of these objects is wrong and/or the scale is not applied (scaled in object mode). BTW: I added this functionality to my free fast carve addon, so you can use it with one click
Hi thanks a lot, superb tutorial......but when I put empty ok...then when active Offset object appear already de number ob objects, not even wait to make rotation. What I'm doing wrong please?
I was offline and trying to remember this tutorial but couldn't. Instead I turned on showing edge angles and subtracted the angle of the desired face from 360 and then kept subtracting 90 until the cylinder was oriented in the desired direction.
This seems to be a real good video, only problem is the person is not telling us which buttons or hot keys he is pushing to bring up which of the several menu tabs!!
Is there a way to rotate the array around the axys? For example I used it to create the blades of a fan, but when I try to spin it everything is messed up
no matter what i try, my main object deforms in all sorts of ways when creating a circular array, in the best case it becomes a bit wider towards the outside of the circle because of the bend-like stretch. What must I do do leave my copied object without any deformations?
same and thanks to this i consider dropping blender. If i have to revisit all the time basic functionality thats childsplay in other software, then the package is very flawed.
haha, I literally needed this 2 days before you uploaded this tutorial to create a rotary phone disc. I just did the array on a flat plane before putting the disc in place. Next time I can do it straight on the model itself.
Loved the video. I actually had to watch it carefully several times before I picked up on a nuance. If I changed the rotation of the empty's Z axis from the view panel instead of the shortcut keys, it doesn't work properly. Each cylinder object is not aligned properly with the target's face. However, if I follow your video and change the empty's Z axis using the keys R - Z - (rotation value), it works perfectly. I have no idea why. Maybe you know?
Yes, because changing the Z-axis with the shortcut keys rotates alomg the local z-axis and this takes the other axis into acount (x and y change as well because of the rotation). This will not happen when you use the view menu.
Blender has come a long way, but doing a circular array is crazy hard compared to any 3D software out there. Thanks for the video.
Oh, good: I was biting my tongue. Yes, it seems ridiculously convoluted, though, I'll give it, very flexible.
For modeling, absolutely ridiculous. For animating, quite flexible.
Yeah I feel like there should be presets. (circular, square, triangle and bezier curve already pre-loaded in the array properties). click, adjust and apply.
@@josephvanwyk2088: Yeah, man, dang ol' bing, bang, boom, man, yo.
Just rotate around the z-axis and in the property panel type 360/(number of parts). Blender will do the math for you and you don’t need to use the calculator. Thanks for your awesome work!!
Yes thx, I know, but I wanted to show the calculation here a bit larger and then point out that we will use the result later on in Python (and then in the addon I am creating)
A few tips:
-You can align the 3D cursor's rotation to a surface by selecting it from the toolbox and clicking Orientation>Geometry. Then, when you snap it to the plane, it will be properly rotated.
-When you add an object, click Align>3D Cursor
-The Copy Attributes addon let's you copy the rotation values from one object to another
-An alternative method for circular arrays, ist to add a Bezier circle. In the array modifier settings, change Fit Type to Fit Curve, with the circle selected. Then, add a Fit Curve modifier. You may need to adjust some values, but it's easier than using the empty in my opinion.
My array just makes my objects expand in size. Yes I have reset the scale. Everyone all over google keeps telling me that, and it still makes the objects in the array increase in size. I am so confused.
Same problem here
Select the cylinder, ctrl + a, apply scale. should fix it.
@@ericmeier586 Thank you
Had the same problem: imgur.com/Bd5Smbo
When I applied the scale, my array did not produce anything after that :/
@@ericmeier586 Thanks, you saved us!!
WOW. There's not a chance I'm doing this everytime I want a radial array. I'll have to hop into Modo to do that, where it's literally ONE FUCKING BUTTON.
Still, thanks for taking your time to explain this feature.
That's why I added this to my addon Fast Carve: ua-cam.com/video/Z7wXoz618xo/v-deo.html
Thank you for this one. I don't think I could have clicked around enough to figure that one out.
Thank you so much. I was rotating the empty globally! It's been driving me nuts for hours.
I've been using Blender for 8 months now and I still bungle up somewhere or the other in this process.
Looking forward to seeing it in Fast Carve :) Good luck!
Yes, Im working on it.
this makes me appreciate 3ds max tools.
At this very moment, I said what you said, really that's weird, why a powerful program like Blender doesn't have a nice advanced easy array tool just like 3DMax???????
even for 3d max, I have a question for Autodesk, whyyyyyyyyyyy when I extrude 2 faces with 2 different angles, I got a problem of evenness ???? when they will solve this problem??
@@marwanpainter8788 bcz it haz!!!!!!!!!11111!!!! (atleast in countless addons)
Jayanam is just the grandpa of blender tutorials. When he whipped out the calculator I died.
I think he might be using a steering wheel for input too.
One word : addon ...
@@YT775 Haha... I wrote this addon my friend - JMesh tools has it.
@@Tertion One more word: Jmesh tools - my addon - free
This is such an awesome Blender tutorial I love it.😃👍
thank you very much, straight to the point and efficient!
Guys HELP PLEEES! How to snap 3d cursor to the center of the surface ????
Can't get my objects to follow in a circle. They seem to be spinning about some far away axis, even though it's set to local axis.
Why is everything so hard to accomplish in Blender? This is a 5 second process in Maya!
When I need a circular array on a flat plane I use the "spin" command.
Thank you! This video almost made me quit Blender.
Thank You! Wanted to die watching this tutorial before had seen You comment))
Thanks, this was working but spin is so much faster, but it does not edit the final result if you edit the original spinned object!
Matt, you just stopped me breaking a wall...with my head! Thank you!!
Thanks man!
Nice work.
Can those multiple array cylinders all be edited or are they just repetitions of the original?
so, when I try this: I have moved the origin of the cylinder to the centre of the potential circle. now when I change the rotation of X to 24, my cylinder moves along the circle, yours doesn't??
Awesome!
why can't there a simple "array around pivot"? so i don't need to hassle with extra pivots or orientations, would be dead easy and reduce the 3 min setup for everything to a 2 sec checker.
You have to apply rotation and scale to the object before you do this. I just wasted 15 minutes trying to figure out why it was doing whack stuff and not working correctly
using object offset causes each piece to be different sizes and to be placed randomly everywhere versus in any kind of order.
Check if you changed the size in object mode and didnt apply it.
@@JayAnAm hehe, had the same problem. Luckily I wasn't the only one :) Thank you good sir
OH GOD I NEEDED THIS!
in my case its not working, the big cylinder is rotating instead
Gracias Amigo! Very usefull!
There has got to be a better way! No radial array tool?
jeez, why does blender make circular arrays so difficult??
Because the god Ton thought this is the proper way to do it.
>|^P
I think there is a bug in the latest 2.8 release, it doesnt behave as it does here. I will have to submit a bug.
I also have an issue while I did exactle every steps like Jayana, the array don't appear on the plane but rather is scaled on the local Z of the cylinder :(
i wish blender have radial cloner like in cinema 4d. it is way easier
If UA-cam has 1000 likes I will like for you
Jesus christ, why is it so obtuse to make a circular array hooly shiit. Thanks for tutorial though
not work
I love blender but this is hilariously complicated
moooo #freeboyhome
This is kind of a ridiculous process for such a simple task...
Honestly? This should just be part of the Array modifier itself, like a checkbox "Make Circular" or something
That's why I added this to my Fast Carve addon
Apparently, the developers don't want to implement it for whatever technical reason which doesn't mean much for whoever needs the feature. It's even listed on the "Anti-Features" page. Pretty much every attempt of proposing the feature, even if you bring it ready it's closed.
Unless you rely on addons, you won't be making any radial based modelling on vanilla Blender any time soon.
USEFUL TIP: Instead of using external calculator you can type 360/15(or other obj count) right in Blender.
another thing that would take two seconds in any other 3D program... now we get to calculate angles and set angles of other objects for some reason, thanks Blender.
Thank you! You are a lifesaver.
Something I did however was make the mistake of resizing my empty which made the rotation not work. You don't need to resize it or you will need to reset the scale with CTRL + A and choose "scale". Just incase someone else comes across this problem.
I don't want to sound silly but when I do this in my project the distance from the center and the scale of the object being patterned is +- x2 bigger and farther away. Can't find out what I am doing wrong lol...
damn coming from rhino this is long, thanks though anyway
modo is way better for modeling...This is just an array...all these things for just a circular array? woww
Can't really be true that you need some hack in combination with a calculator to produce something as basic as a circular array in Blender. Right?
Actually you can divide the rotation by the number of elements directly in Blender - you simply do the math in rotation parameter (360/n - where n is the number of items set in the array modifier)
there is "spin duplicates" tool in blender
going through all this for a simple polar array is absolutely ridiculous.
To complex for something that is very easy in other software.
this is why sometimes i crying using blender, this is fucking simple task, I spend 10 minutes watching tutorials and after that it still does not work..................
two hours later and the 15 cylinders are still floating in space with increasing sizes. So frustrating!!! I followed the tutorial to the tee and still not working. Feel like crying here...
aww hell nah I'm reinstalling cinema 4d
It doesn't work. Everything goes weirdly. I'm losing my mind completely. I won't recommend anyone following this tutorial
I was having problems with this as well but I think I found the cause. All modifications made to the original object in "Object Mode" are also applied to the array clones geometrically. So if for instance you make an array of cubes and then scale the initial cube up 50% while in "Object Mode", then every iteration will be 50% larger than the one before it, causing them to explode out massively. The thing that confused me most was that this will apply to modifications (that were done in object mode) done to the original before you even made the array.
The best solution I found is to do every single modification to the object that you want to array in "Edit Mode" and make sure that the object origin is in the same place as the reference empty. The array function seems to ignore changes that were made in "Edit Mode" so this way when you make the array it will make identical copies of the object.
You could create a Custom Orientation from the face, or first cylinder, and then, with the empty selected..Object menu>'Align to Transform Orientation' to avoid the copy-paste.. in 2.8, though, we've lost the commonly-understood keyboard shortcuts, if we all make our own.. these things will take longer to describe...
Can only scale exponentially if you scale the empty, and if you have rotation for the array then it'll skew everything as well. The array modifier needs a LOT of work.
Wish it just had a native circular array modifier...
wtf blender please fix this its so complicated for something that should be so simple to do.
wasn't able to lock the cylinder parallel to the incline surface. i quitted after 10 minutes.
Thanks for the tutorial, helped me with my problem!
This is ridiculous. A simple thing like a circular array and you have to know a "procedure". Blender is the most frustrating piece of software that exists.
Does this tutorial work for you in Blender 3.1 ? I learned a lot seeing it, but this solution didn´t work in 3.1. I had to use the along curve modifier.
Guys, this is dumb. There is a much simpler method. Add Array modifier > add curve Modifier > pick a circle
Well.. and now what if i want to change the cylinder size without applying the modifier????
This would be easier if snap cursor to selected resulted in the cursor having the same angle as the face normal AND if the cylinder could be snapped to both the location and rotation of the cursor when you create it. :(
Yes, but with the Fast Carve addon it is now really simple cause the empty is generated : ua-cam.com/video/Z7wXoz618xo/v-deo.html
I really don't like the arrays it gives more problems than it solves
I love how the first 1:19 has absolutely nothing to do with the video.
That is the clunkiest thing I have ever seen. Still glad it exists I guess.
not works even not arrays the object
FFS, why. Why??
You can skip the step where you calculate the degrees using the calculator by just typing "360/15" directly into the z rotation field in blender.
it is so much easier in maya
It doesn't work. All I get is objects which get bigger and bigger, and when I rotate the empty, they just rotate weirdly.
Then it seems like that either the pivot point of these objects is wrong and/or the scale is not applied (scaled in object mode). BTW: I added this functionality to my free fast carve addon, so you can use it with one click
yer mate i had the same issue, make sure the empty is scaled to 1
@@epicXfiles And the objects are not scaled in object mode without applying the scale.
i couldn't make this trick work on blender 3.0 . objects keeps getting bigger and bigger on every step. and they became huge after 3-4 count.
oh i fixed it.we need to ctrl + a and apply all transforms to model before all the process
Wow. Well I guess I don't have to duplicate my objects 1,000000 times any more.. Thanks for this, definitely learned something new.
Hi thanks a lot, superb tutorial......but when I put empty ok...then when active Offset object appear already de number ob objects, not even wait to make rotation. What I'm doing wrong please?
I was offline and trying to remember this tutorial but couldn't. Instead I turned on showing edge angles and subtracted the angle of the desired face from 360 and then kept subtracting 90 until the cylinder was oriented in the desired direction.
This seems to be a real good video, only problem is the person is not telling us which buttons or hot keys he is pushing to bring up which of the several menu tabs!!
Is there a way to rotate the array around the axys? For example I used it to create the blades of a fan, but when I try to spin it everything is messed up
Thank you
why is this so extra for something that should be so easy to do.
I added this feature to my free JMesh tools addon so you can create it with one click
Did you ever finish the fast carve addon? I can't find a Gumroad account with any of your addons
no matter what i try, my main object deforms in all sorts of ways when creating a circular array, in the best case it becomes a bit wider towards the outside of the circle because of the bend-like stretch. What must I do do leave my copied object without any deformations?
same with me
Awesome tutorial, very nice tips.
Can you make WebGL tutorial for Blender user,
Like as glTF formate
Using the spin modifier and defining the number of steps seems easier to me
super useful...thank you so much
Great video, looking forward to see if your addon can simplify this process. 👍👍
Hi! Thanks for that tutorial.. Exactly what i needed to arrange bolts around a rim!
Great!
Thanks for tutorial!
Awesome... thank you sir!
I keep revisiting this video. Thank you and please never take it down
same and thanks to this i consider dropping blender. If i have to revisit all the time basic functionality thats childsplay in other software, then the package is very flawed.
haha, I literally needed this 2 days before you uploaded this tutorial to create a rotary phone disc. I just did the array on a flat plane before putting the disc in place. Next time I can do it straight on the model itself.
In 1-2 days you can use this functionality using my Fast Carve addon with just a few clicks:-)
@@JayAnAm absolutely awesome. You are doing amazing work.
Loved the video. I actually had to watch it carefully several times before I picked up on a nuance. If I changed the rotation of the empty's Z axis from the view panel instead of the shortcut keys, it doesn't work properly. Each cylinder object is not aligned properly with the target's face. However, if I follow your video and change the empty's Z axis using the keys R - Z - (rotation value), it works perfectly. I have no idea why. Maybe you know?
Yes, because changing the Z-axis with the shortcut keys rotates alomg the local z-axis and this takes the other axis into acount (x and y change as well because of the rotation). This will not happen when you use the view menu.
@@JayAnAm Never knew this. Could I use the manipulators if I wanted?
@@JayAnAm I just answered my own question. Yes I can 😀
@@FredLarsonK1FL :-)
they should add the word "global" to those things