3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [191]
New Feature
The Conform brushes are new to 3ds Max 2012. •
With the object to conform to selected, you can select the Conform button and change the options for this brush using the Conform panel, shown in Figure 14.21. Within the Conform panel, you can set the Strength, Falloff, and Conform values. The Conform value sets the rate at which the vertices move toward the conform object. Higher values make the vertices move immediately, and smaller values, such as 0.1, cause the movement to be gradual.
FIGURE 14.21
The Conform panel holds the options for using the Conform brushes.
The Mirror option causes the vertices' movement to be applied equally on either side of the mirror axis. The Vertex Normals/View drop-down list lets you control how the vertices move. The View option causes the vertices to move toward the target into the current view, and the Vertex Normals option moves the vertices along their normals toward the conform object. You also have options to move only the selected vertices, to Ignore Backfacing vertices, to select the mirror and freeze axes, and to freeze specific selected edges so no movement happens.
Within the PolyDraw panel are four brushes for defining how the vertices are transformed. The Conform Move brush moves vertices under its brush range. Vertices also can be rotated and scaled using the Conform Rotate and Conform Scale brushes, and the Conform Relax brush smoothes the moved vertices by moving them gradually toward their original position.
Tutorial: Matching a road to a rolling terrain
If you've created a rough rolling landscape using a Plane object and the Noise modifier, matching a road running across the surface can be tricky if you have to select and move each individual vertex. Instead, you can use the Conform brushes to move the vertices so they match the underlying hills.
To conform a road to an underlying terrain, follow these steps:
1. Open the Conforming road.max file from the Chap 14 directory on the CD.
2. With the road selected, click the Graphite Modeling Tools button on the main toolbar to make the Ribbon appear, and select the Freeform tab.
3. Select the Draw On: Surface option from the drop-down list to the right of the Step Build button, click the Pick button, and click the hilly object. Then select the straight road object, and click the Conform button.
4. In the Conform panel, select the View option and change the viewport to the Top view.
5. Select the Conform Move brush, and click and slowly rotate the brush in small circles over the road object to move its vertices to conform to the hilly landscape, as shown in Figure 14.22.
FIGURE 14.22
The Conform Move brush is used to make the road match the underlying terrain.
Step Build
The Step Build tool lets you click to place new vertices on the surface of the object. The location of these new vertices depends on the current Grid, on the current object's Surface, or within the Selection using the On selections located to the right of the Step Build button. If you select the On: Surface option, then you can use the Pick button to select the object whose surface you want to create vertices on. After freestanding vertices are created, you can hold down the Shift key and drag over these new vertices to create a polygon. The Ctrl key lets you remove polygons, and the Alt key lets you remove vertices. With these controls, you can quickly remove and rebuild polygons to create new shapes.
Extend
The Extend tool works on border subobjects and lets you add new polygons to fill the hole by dragging on the border vertices. If you press and hold the Shift key while dragging an edge, you can pull the edge away to create a new polygon. Dragging with the Shift+Ctrl keys lets you drag two adjacent edges out. The Ctrl key