UNLIMITED Object Copies in Blender? How to Use Collection Instances

Hi everyone! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below! :)

yo mark zugaburg

I don't get it. When you create the "Bonnie" collection, it doesn't show up anywhere. And you haven't added the bonnie model to it. When I create the collection instance it does appear, but there's nothing in it.

This is life saving for creating urban/city renders. Thanks a ton!

i always watch your tuts, you are a real timesaver my friend. Thank you for all the nice vids :)

Thank you very much. I searched a lot for this matter. May God reward you with good

Does the instances carry over to unreal engine and game development? Should I also be using instances, even if I'm modeling single non-complex objects at a time? Can instances reduce the performance needs of the game later, or I'm completely misunderstanding the purpose of the instance? An instance was used in one of the tutorial videos and now I use it everywhere, not only do I copy the whole chair as an instance but I also make the legs out of it? Is it necessary?

oh thank you so much!!!

Can't. My objects keep multiplying their vertices and faces.

You saved my day, lot of work and my PC's performance! THANK YOU! :)

hey man, can you do instancing tutorial for unity?

Thank you very much for your online instructions on how to do blender we appreciate you so much you're definitely one of my favorites

thank you for a great explain.

very useful info

How to remove it

is it possible to use this method with particle?

Great! I just want to ask if there's any difference between Alt+D and this? And also this and duplicating the collection by "Duplciate linked"? Thanks!

How do you even see how many vertices you have? I don't have those numbers showing up at the bottom of the screen... Help!

How can I make an instance unique (like in sketchup, with the composants) ? for example, what if I'd like to make only one Bonnie with a different tail, or one Bonnie with a different colour ?

I don’t know what I did but some of my objects are higher up in the z axis than others. Do you know how I can make them all be at the same height? Thanks.

thanks my lord

thank you, so much

exelent thanks

To be able to move the source mesh around without affecting the location of the instanced objects :- First select the instanced object and then from the top menu under go to Objects > Apply > Make instances real - and click on it.
The result: You now can move the original object around and have it not affect the instanced versions of it. This can be very useful if, like me, you have already placed the instanced how you want and now want to move the original mesh out of the way!

Thanks this is so helpful :)

wow so clear concepts thanks a lot!

Hi @The CG Essentials , great explanation on instances, but I have a question/doubt when appending/linking a collection from an other file as an instance...I have tried both appending and linking but it still adds to the statistics, is there a way to add without affecting the statistics??

How to render the instance, but not the origin collection

Alright, now suppose I want five hundred identical dogs but wearing different hats. I make a collection with, say, ten hats, and each Bonnie instance is to have one hat picked randomly from those.
And then to make it more interesting, each hat is to be tilted stylishly at some random angle for each Bonnie instance.

When I try "make instances real" it doesn't work at all, nothing changes... Anyone knows why?

tHANKS !

i just wanna say thank you

wow your intro shocks me

shift + R not work for me

Useful Video
Thankyou

Thanks for the tut, Justin! :)

How would you export the objects individually then?

Is there an option that i can set an option as intance after i allreaddy have placed it?

Too Awesome!!! thanks a lot!

I hope you live long life haha! thank you for this video it was exactly what i was looking for and very concise :)

how did you make copies? Why are you going so fast not showing how to do?

Thank you very much for this, Justin.
There was one big piece of information missing for me, and it caused me a lot of headache trying to apply this technique:

The instanced models will be generated at a certain offset from the generated empty; this offset is determined by the offset of the original collection from the World Origin. (= global coordinates) In the case of this video, it coincidentally works like a simple duplication because the original collection is located at the World Origin, which is why there is no extra offset to consider.
If that isn't the case, and the Collection is, for example, located at 0,0,5, the Instanced models will be offset by 0,0,5 from the empty that is generated when creating an instanced collection.
This appears to be intended by design (although I have no idea how that would fit in any workflow).

To "fix" it and basically cancel out this offset, you will have to set the standard offset of the collection to the global position of the original collection:

Place your 3D-Cursor in the middle of the collection. I suggest to select the central element, Shift + S > Cursor to Selected.
Select an object from the collection > Object Properties > Collection - Select the Dropdown arrow and select "Set Offset from Cursor"

I hope this helps.

Hi, Justin! Thank you for tutorial!

wow!

ffs blender, just make the option to "make instance" when I duplicate my object, there is no reason why I have to put a single object in a collection just to instance it. A few of these "quirks" are ok, but they just keep comming!
Sorry for ranting

is it possible to make like a synthesizer's knob layout using only 1 object (knob) as a reference? So I edit 1 object and the rest autoupdates?) My first fought was array modifier, but I cant get i working as I want.

How do you make a reference to an object like in Clarisse so you can edit it but still only have the reference, thereby keeping polycount low as in Clarisse?

Hi, Justin! Thank you a lot for your videos! I don't know how you do this but you have answers for every single problem I get stuck on in my Blender learning journey!

Awesome Tutorial!! But, how come "Shift+R" isn't working for me?

how do I do this without having to copy and paste things over and over, is there a way to do this with an array modifier?