3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [134]
Reordering the Stack
Modifiers are listed in the Modifier Stack with the first applied ones on the bottom and the newest applied ones on the top. The Stack order is important and can change the appearance of the object. Max applies the modifiers starting with the lowest one in the Stack first and the topmost modifier last. You can change the order of the modifiers in the Stack by selecting a modifier and dragging it above or below the other modifiers. You cannot drag it below the object type or above any World-Space modifiers or Space Warp bindings.
FIGURE 11.2
The Modifier Stack changes the text style to identify instances and references.
Tutorial: Creating a molecular chain
Whether you're working with DNA splices or creating an animation to show how molecular chains are formed, you can use the Lattice and Twist modifiers to quickly create a molecular chain. Using these chains shows how reordering the Modifier Stack can change the outcome.
To create a molecular chain using modifiers, follow these steps:
1. Select Create⇒Standard Primitives⇒Plane, and drag in the Top viewport to create a Plane object. Set its Length to 300, its Width to 60, its Length Segments to 11, and its Width Segments to 1.
2. With the Plane object selected, select Modifiers⇒Parametric Deformers⇒Lattice to apply the Lattice modifier. Enable the Apply to Entire Object option. Then set the Struts Radius value to 1.0 with 12 sides and the Joints Base Type to Icosa with a Radius of 6.0 and a Segments value of 6.
3. Select Modifiers⇒Parametric Deformers⇒Twist, and set the Twist Angle to 360 about the Y-axis.
4. Notice that the Sphere objects have been twisted along with the Plane object. You can fix this by switching the modifier order in the Modifier Stack. Select the Lattice modifier, and drag and drop it above the Twist modifier in the stack.
This step corrects the elongated spheres.
Figure 11.3 shows the corrected molecular chain.
FIGURE 11.3
Changing the order of the modifiers in the Stack can affect the end result.
Holding and fetching a scene
Before going any further, you need to know about an important feature in Max that allows you to set a stopping point for the current scene. The Edit⇒Hold command saves the scene into a temporary buffer for easy recovery. After a scene is set with the Hold command (Ctrl+H), you can bring it back instantly with the Edit⇒Fetch command (Alt+Ctrl+F). These commands provide a quick way to backtrack on modifications to a scene or project without having to save and reload the project. If you use these commands before applying or deleting modifiers, you can avoid some potential headaches.
Tip
Along with saving your file often, using the Hold command before applying any complex modifier to an object is a good idea. •
Collapsing the Stack
Collapsing the Stack removes all its modifiers by permanently applying them to the object. It also resets the modification history to a baseline. All the individual modifiers in the Stack are combined into one single modification. This feature eliminates the ability to change any modifier parameters, but it simplifies the object. The right-click pop-up menu offers options to Collapse To and Collapse All. You can collapse the entire Stack with the Collapse All command, or you can collapse to the current selected modifier with the Collapse To command. Collapsed objects typically become Editable Mesh objects.
Tip
Another huge advantage of collapsing the Modifier Stack is that it conserves memory and results in smaller file sizes, which makes larger scenes load much quicker. Collapsing the Modifier Stack also speeds up rendering because Max doesn't need to calculate the stack results before rendering. •
When you apply a collapse command,