Hi, I'm working on a project where I need to do two different renders of an eagle, one metallic, one normal. I've got a great eagle model, but the thing that is driving me crazy is that I don't want to have to manually change the shader for all 50 pieces of the eagle. Why can't I apply a shader to the grouped object? When I try to, it gives me the circle with a slash through it, and won't let me. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks, Kent B

Attached Link: Digital Carvers Guild

Hoofdcommissaris is right, unfortunately you cannot apply a shader to a grouped object:-( If i remeber well, that function of Shader Ops work also in demo mode, but sincerely you can't live without shader ops in any case! -TOXE

ugh. I have to pay extra for something that I would think would be a basic function?

If the shader is constant throughout the entire model couldn't you simply adjust the master shader for the second render? If the normal version has many shaders find the dominant one and change that one, at least you won't have to do it 50 times. memaci

That's a good thought, but unfortunately with this model, pretty much each part has it's own shader. I'm going to give it up and buy the shaderops plugin, which means paperwork and redtape. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I appreciate the quick feedback. Kent

Ordering any of the DCG plugins is hassle-free. I wish the same could be said of other vendors offering downloadable software. Chris

You should buy shader ops but..... Make a copy of the scene (or use the original)& have just the eagle in it. Use the remove unused shaders option to clear out any duplicate shaders. Delete all the shaders in the copy scene until just the defalt shader is left. Adjust this to your metallic taste or drop one of the presets on it in the shader room. Everything will be shaded the same. If you need to bring your chrome eagle back into the first scene (with other objects and shaders) rename that one shader to something other than default and save the eagle to the browser so you can drop it into the scene. mdc DCG plug-in is much faster and does much more than this

Another option would be to export your eagle as a single DXF object. Then import the DXF with a single shader, apply your metal shader and eureka! it's all teh same texture.