Jacquelin Vanderwood
January 2005
Start by creating one sphere. Press the Shift key to duplicate. The Clone Options appear. Stipulate 5 as the Number of Copies.
Select all of the spheres.
Right-click on the screen and choose Convert To and choose Convert to Editable Mesh.
Next, access Attach List through Edit Geometry.
Select the All button.
Open the Material Editor and choose Multi/Sub-Ojbect.
Now apply an individual color to each of six slots as shown below. Hit the Delete button to remove any extra slots.
The slot should look like the one below. Assign it to the sphere object.
Assign the MaterialByElement now.
Select Random Distribution.
Increase the ID Count to 3. If that doesn't achieve the desired number of colors, keep increasing the count until you get all six colors. I had to increase to 19.
So if you've created an object of any kind that you have attached and applied MaterialByElement, remember to increase the ID Count until you get the desired number of colors. This technique can be applied to a myriad of items including windows, lights, pool balls, the list is endless. Also, you can change the colors on the fly in active mode just by opening Material Editor and making changes to the individuals color chips. To apply material to each slot just click on the rectangle and use Standard to begin to import and apply the material desired. Then use the UVW Mapping to complete the process and then apply.
Copyright (c) 2005, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved
