Assigning slots vs linking materials

Is there any particular reason slots are assigned manually in this video rather than linking the materials to save time? I’m still unsure if linking materials means a permanent syncing or just transferring the material settings once.

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General Q&A note

Help us all to help you.
Please give full screenshots with any questions. With the relevant panels open.
This can be done by Blender itself, via the ‘Window’ menu bar top left-hand side.
On that menu dropdown is ‘save screenshot’.
Also, include the lecture time and name/number that is relevant to the problem/issue.

I’m not having a problem or issue. I’m asking a question regarding the lesson given in the lecture this post is attached to. The lecturer assigns the same material slots manually and does so repeatedly, but I thought it would be faster to simply link/transfer material data, so I want to know if there’s a particular reason to do the former.
I feel like providing a screenshot of the lecture video would be somewhat pointless, but I can if it’s necessary.
I don’t know what you mean by lecture time or name/number? Do you mean the 13_md_bc3, complete-blender label?

Some of us, like me, did many courses on GameDev. But also, many years ago. So I don’t have any recollections to the current course setup and lessons. It’s difficult to imagine, where a student has a problem or, just like you, have a question about.

  • In Blender there is no right or wrong (except when it doesn’t work … :wink: ). It’s more about efficiency, like your question.
  • Remember an object contains a mesh (or several meshes). A single mesh face (or a group of faces) are assigned to a material. It’s not the object that has the material, but the mesh inside.
  • Linking materials work if you have a single material. The first material in the materials list is automatically assigned to all faces inside the object. When more materials were assigned to an object mesh, these are related to some faces in the mesh of that object. Linking (combined) materials to another object, Blender doesn’t know which to which faces to connect materials to.
  • Also a teacher has a plan on how to explain Blender features in a simple, fun way. Doing things efficiently, can sometimes, miss the real meaning of Blender internal workings. The teacher keeps it simple.
  • If you have the knowledge to do it differently, or more efficiently, do it! Try it out! As I started this with saying, there is no “good or wrong” in Blender. If it works for you, it’s OK!
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No those tags are the problem really. They work great in one direction but are near impossible to work backwards from. What helps is the Udemy lecture number and name, or on the GameDev site it only has lecture names and sections, no numbers.
The time in the lecture as well if it is a specific problem being asked about. People want to help but not have to rewatch an entire lecture to do so!

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