How to attach object without modifying the color?

[faeljs]

Hello.

I'm creating an character in max and I would like to attack the parts of it. However when I try to attach in Edit Mesh menu, all of the objects became the same color. I don't want it, because each part has its own color.

What shoud i do?

[Steve_Curley]

Put simply, you can't. Attach makes the attached object part of the object you attached it to, therefore it becomes the same colour. If you were to apply simple (Standard) materials to the 2 objects before attaching them, then when you Attach you should be asked what to do about the Materials. Choose The "Do Not Modify" option and you'll get a single object with a Multi-subObject Material (2 sub materials). The 2 parts will retain their separate colours, but, the WireColour of both will be that of the original part.

[eric.paris]

First, you should convert your objects in Edit Poly, Edit Mesh is a little bit old.

The color applied to your objects are just representation color, and once you attach 2 objects, those objects become 1, and this new object can only have 1 representation color, the object take the original color from the main object you attach the others.

And you should attach, modify, your objects before skinning your character.

[faeljs]

Thank you very much.

In this case what do you recommend me? Attach only the body (tht will have the same color) and them the rest, like cloth, eyes, etc?

[Brock_Lafond]

Leave the eyes as separate objects. Once the character is rigged link the eyes to the head bone.

Clothing can be left separate as well.

For the purpose of animation, skin your character and then apply the skinning to the cloth.

[faeljs]

Hello.

I tried what you guys told me. First I attached only the parts of the body. When all of the parts was attached I tried then to attach eyes, hair etc. However the same problem.... the colour changed.

What I'm doing wrong?

[Brock_Lafond]

Don't attach the eyes. Use a link constraint to link them to the head bone.

As for the hair, add either a skin or physique modifier to it and assign the head and neck bones. Make sure that the envelope weighting is the same as the head. Alternatively you can use a Skin Wrap modifier on the hair.

If objects absolutely need to be attached assign material IDs to the polygons and use a Multi/Sub-Object material that corresponds to the material IDs.

Example: Make the skin Material ID 1. In the Multi/Sub-Object material set the first material to be your SSS Skin.

[spacefrog_ · Accepted solution]

The basic object color you use here is not really a good way to give your objects the look you are after. It's more a way to visiually seperate different objects from each other in the viewport.

To really define the surface look of your objects, you have to make use of materials. This supports multiple colors (and more of course) on one combined mesh ( thats what you create by attaching the parts).

Every polygon in your mesh has an ID ( a simple number ) attached to it called a Material ID. You can see this value in the edit mesh modifier when a polygon is selected. Once you set up your mesh to have different material ID's on the different parts ( eg. "1" for the head polies, "2" for the arms etc.. ) you are ready to assign a material to the whole mesh ( look up material editor in the docs ).

To have the material make use of the different Material IDs on your mesh, you have to create a material of type "Multi/Subobject". Which - as the name implies - simply is a container for multiple sub materials. Each of those sub materials again has a number ( an ID ) attached to it, which than corresponds to the material ID on your mesh's polys. This way you can give each of polygon on your mesh a specific look/material, if you that's waht you want ...