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Chapter 11: Introducing Modifiers and Using the Modifier Stack

FIGURE 11.15
The Ripple modifier can make small waves appear over the surface of an object.

For the Shell modifier, you can specify Inner and Outer Amount values. This is the distance from the origi-
nal position that the inner or outer surfaces are moved. These values together determine how thick the shell
is. The Bevel Edges and Bevel Spline options let you bevel the edges of the shell. By clicking on the Bevel
Spline button, you can select a spline to define the bevel shape.
For each Material ID, you can use the Material ID for the inner section or the outer section. The Auto
Smooth Edge lets you smooth the edge for all edges that are within the Angle threshold. The edges can also
be mapped using the Edge Mapping options. The options include Copy, None, Strip, and Interpolate. The
Copy option uses the same mapping as the original face, None assigns new mapping coordinates, Strip
maps the edges as one complete strip, and Interpolate interpolates the mapping between the inner and
outer mapping.
The last options make selecting the edges, the inner faces, or the outer faces easy. The Straighten Corners
option moves the vertices so the edges are straight.
Tutorial: Making a character from a sphere
Creating a little game character from a sphere is a good example of how the Shell modifier can be used.
To use the Shell modifier to create a character, follow these steps:
1. Open the Gobbleman shell.max file from the Chap 11 directory on the DVD.
This file includes a simple sphere object that has had several faces deleted.
2. With the sphere object selected, select Modifiers ➪ Parametric Deformers ➪ Shell to apply the
Shell modifier. Set the Outer Amount to 5.0.
This makes the hollow sphere into a thin shell. Notice that the lighting inside the sphere is now
correct.
Figure 11.16 shows the resulting shell.

Slice modifier
You can use the Slice modifier to divide an object into two separate objects. Applying the Slice modifier cre-
ates a Slice gizmo. This gizmo looks like a simple plane and can be transformed and positioned to define
the slice location. To transform the gizmo, you need to select it from the Stack hierarchy.

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