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Part III: Modeling Basics

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

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