3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [145]
The three buttons at the bottom of the FFD Parameters rollout help in the selection of control points. If the All X button is selected, then when a single control point is selected, all the adjacent control points along the X-axis are also selected. This feature makes selecting an entire line of control points easier. The All Y and All Z buttons work in a similar manner in the other dimensions.
Use the Reset button to return the volume to its original shape if you make a mistake. The Conform to Shape button sets the offset of the Control Points with Inside Points, Outside Points, and Offset options.
To move the control points, select the Control Points subobject. This enables you to alter the control points individually.
FFD (Box/Cyl) modifiers
The FFD (Box) and FFD (Cyl) modifiers can create a box-shaped or cylinder-shaped lattice of control points for deforming objects. The Set Number of Points button enables you to specify the number of points to be included in the FFD lattice. Figure 11.28 shows how you can use the FFD modifier to distort the hammer by selecting the Control Point's subobjects. The left hammer is distorted using a 2 × 2 × 2 FFD, the middle hammer has a 4 × 4 × 4 FFD, and the right hammer is surrounded with an FFD (Cyl) modifier.
FIGURE 11.28
The FFD modifier changes the shape of an object by moving the lattice of Control Points that surround it.
Cross-Reference
The FFD (Box) and FFD (Cyl) lattices are also available as Space Warps. To learn more about Space Warps, see Chapter 42, “Using Space Warps.” •
Tutorial: Modeling a tire striking a curb
The FFD modifiers are great for changing the shape of a soft-body object being struck by a solid object. Soft-body objects deform around the rigid object when they make contact. In this tutorial, you deform a tire hitting a curb.
To deform a tire striking a curb using an FFD modifier, follow these steps:
1. Open the Tire hitting a curb.max file from the Chap 11 directory on the CD.
This file includes a simple tube object and a curb.
2. With the tire selected, choose the Modifiers⇒Free Form Deformers⇒FFD Cyl menu option.
A cylinder gizmo appears around the tire.
3. Click the FFD name in the Modifier Stack, and select the Control Points subobject from the hierarchy list. Then select all the center control points in the Left viewport, and scale the control points outward with the Select and Scale tool (R) to add some roundness to the tire.
4. Then select all the control points in the lower-left corner of the Front viewport, and move these points diagonally up and to the right until the tire's edge lines up with the curb.
Figure 11.29 shows the tire as it strikes the hard curb.
FIGURE 11.29
This tire is being deformed via an FFD modifier.
Summary
With the modifiers contained in the Modify panel, you can alter objects in a vast number of ways. Modifiers can work with every aspect of an object, including geometric deformations, materials, and general object maintenance. In this chapter, you looked at the Modifier Stack and how modifiers are applied and examined several useful modifier sets. These topics were covered in this chapter:
• Working with the Modifier Stack to apply, reorder, and collapse modifiers
• Exploring the Selection modifiers
• Using the Parametric Deformer and FFD modifiers
Now that you have the basics covered, you're ready to dive into the various modeling types. The first modeling type on the list is splines and shapes, which is covered in the next chapter.
Chapter 12: Drawing and Editing 2D Splines and Shapes
IN THIS CHAPTER
Working with shape primitives
Editing splines and shapes
Working with spline subobjects
Using spline modifiers
Many modeling projects start from the