8

708 Chapter 8: Modifiers
2.
Combine the spheres into a single editable
mesh object.
Right-click a selected sphere and from the
Transform (lower-right) quadrant of the quad
menu, choose Convert To: > Convert to
Editable Mesh. Then click Modif y panel > Edit
Geometry rollout > A ttach List. In the Attach
List dialog, click All, and then Attach.
3. Create a mult i/sub-object material (page
2–1403)
with six m aterials, and specif y a
different color for each material. Assign the
material to the object with multiple spheres.
Becausesphereprimitivesareassignedmaterial
ID 2 by default, all the spheres now have the
color assigned to material number 2 in the
multi/sub-object material.
4. Assign the MaterialByElement modifier to the
object.
5. From the Parameters rollout, turn on Random
Distr ibution.
Because the default ID Count setting is 2, some
ofthespheresareassignedsub-material#1,and
the rest are assigned #2.
6. Use the spinner to increase the ID Count setting
to 3. A lso change the Uniqueness g roup > Seed
value.
Now the first three materials are assigned to the
spheres at random, althou g h with some Seed
settings, you may see only two different colors.
7. Keep increasing the ID Count setting until
you see all six colors in the multi/sub-object
material. As the assignments are random, it
may take awhile.
Interf ace
Material ID By Element group
The two choices in this group let you either create a
truly random distribution of material IDs or divide
the assignments among up to eight materials
according to percentages yo u set.
Random Distribution—Assigns the materials at
random to different elements in the object.
ID Count—Determines the minimum number
of material IDs to assign. Because material ID
assignment is random, setting it to the number
of materials in the mult i/sub-object mater ial or
higher doesn’t guarantee that all materials get used.
List Frequency—Determines an appro ximate
relative weight (percentage) for each of up to eight
material IDs, as set by the Mat’l ID #1-8 spinners.