rows and rows of it...

[chuzzlewit]

I've had this dilema before in 6 but as I've just purchased 7.5 I'm hoping there will be a easier solution. I'm animating a store flythrough and on one shelf theres 50 bottles each with the same label...you can see whats coming. If I label each of the bottles seperatly in modeler thats 50 seperate surface styles even though its all the same image - (there are also 30 or so shelves so that would be 30x50 images in all). If I model 1 bottle in modeler and clone it in layout there's no align and distribute (someone kindly mentioned a script at flay that did this but I couldn't find it). Even so I now get 50 extra items I have to scroll through (1500 if you take into account all the shelves). Has this been simplified in 7.5?

[kyuzo]

Model and texture one in modeller, and do the label using a UV texture. UV's can be copied and keep their position on the geometry. (have a look on the tutorials page for the basics on UV's)
You can then make an array of these along and back the shelf, all with labels in the right place, leaving you with less objects to deal with in layout.
Hope this helps

Derek

[toby]

in modeler, make a box on the ground plane with lots of divisions, in a grid pattern that you'd like for the rows of bottles. Kill the polygons (hit "k") and save. Load the object (which is only vertices) into layout, in the geometry tab add Custom Object "FXEmitter". Set the emitter's "nozzle" to "object vertices", set the birthrate-per-frame as well as the particle limit to however many bottles you want, then use "FXLinker" under the Scene tab. set "Particles" to the vertex-grid object and "replacement object" to the bottle, and put the number of bottles in.

Save the scene as "shelf_setup", then you can load it into your animation ("load items from scene") for every shelf you need - "replace with object file" to change the bottles or grid-object.

(In the scene editor you can parent the bottles to a null then collapse the null and you won't have to scroll thru the bottles)

As far as having 1500 bottles in the scene, I would use some other method than a complete bottle - photographs, compositing...

[chuzzlewit]

I have tried both methods and they open up a lot of possibilities which I hope to employ in my latest project. Time well spent guys - very much appreciated.