3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [169]
Tip
The select commands in the Edit menu also work with subobjects. For example, in Vertex subobject mode, you can select Edit⇒Select All (or press Ctrl+A) to select all vertices. •
The By Angle option selects adjacent polygons that are within the specified threshold. The threshold value is defined as the angle between the normals of adjacent polygons. For example, if you have a terrain mesh with a smooth, flat lake area in its middle, you can select the entire lake area if you set the Planar Threshold to 0 and click the lake.
The Selection rollout also includes four buttons. These buttons include Shrink, Grow, Ring, and Loop. Use the Grow button to increase the current selection around the perimeter of the current selection, as shown in Figure 13.3. Click the Shrink button to do the opposite.
The Ring and Loop buttons are available only in Edge and Border subobject modes. Use Ring and Loop to select all adjacent subobjects horizontally and vertically around the entire object. Ring selection looks for parallel edges, and Loop selection looks for all edges around an object that are aligned the same as the initial selection. For example, if you select a single edge of a sphere, the Ring button selects all edges going around the sphere, and the Loop button selects all edges in a line from the top to the bottom of the sphere.
FIGURE 13.2
The Selection rollout includes options for determining which subobjects are selected.
FIGURE 13.3
Using the Grow button, you can increase the subobject selection.
Next to the Ring and Loop buttons is a set of up/down arrows. These arrows are used to shift the current ring and/or loop selection left and right for the Ring selection, or up and down for the Loop selection. Holding down the Ctrl key adds the adjacent ring or loop to the current selection, and holding down the Alt key removes the adjacent selection. Figure 13-4 shows how the Ring and Loop buttons work. The first sphere shows a selection made using the Ring button; the second sphere has increased this selection by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking the up arrow next to the Loop button. The third sphere shows a selection made using the Loop button; the fourth sphere has increased this selection by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking the up arrow next to the Ring button.
Note
For Editable Poly objects, the Hide Selected, Unhide All, Copy, and Paste buttons are located at the bottom of the Edit Geometry rollout. •
FIGURE 13.4
The Ring and Loop buttons can select an entire row and/or column of edges.
Cross-Reference
The Soft Selection rollout allows you to alter adjacent nonselected subobjects when selected subobjects are moved, creating a smooth transition. For the details on this rollout, see Chapter 10, “Accessing Subobjects and Using Modeling Helpers.” •
Tutorial: Modeling a clown head
Now that you know how to select subobjects, you can use the transform tools to move them. In this example, you'll quickly deform a sphere to create a clown face by selecting, moving, and working with some vertices.
To create a clown head by moving vertices, follow these steps:
1. Select Create⇒Standard Primitives⇒Sphere, and drag in the Front viewport to create a sphere object. Then right-click the sphere and select Convert To⇒Editable Poly in the pop-up quadmenu.
2. Open the Modify panel. Now make a long, pointy nose by pulling a vertex outward from the sphere object. Click the small plus sign to the left of the Editable Poly object in the Modifier Stack, and select Vertex in the hierarchy (or press the 1 key). This activates the Vertex subobject mode. Enable the Ignore Backfacing option in the Selection rollout, and select the single vertex in the center of the Front viewport. Make sure that the Select and Move button (W) is selected, and in the Left viewport, drag the vertex along the Z-axis until it projects from the sphere.
3. Next, create