Manual/Modifiers & Deformation

From BlenderWiki

Modifiers are automatic operations that affect an object in a non-destructive way. With modifiers, you can perform many effects that would be otherwise tedious to do manually (such as subdivision surfaces) automatically and without affecting the base topology of your object. Modifiers work by changing how an object is displayed and rendered, but not the actual object geometry. You can Apply a modifier if you wish to make its changes permanent.

There are two types of modifiers: Deform modifiers, and constructive modifiers. Deform modifiers only change the shape of an object, and are available for Mesh, Text, Curve, Surface and Lattice objects. Constructive modifiers are only available for Mesh objects, and typically change mesh topology in some way (e.g. the subsurf modifier which performs Catmull-Clarke subdivision).

Interface

The interface that is used for modifiers and constraints is described here:

• Modifier Stack

Modifiers

Modifiers are added from the Modifiers tab in the Edit Buttons (F9). The Modifiers tab appears when a Mesh, Curve, Surface, Text, or Lattice Object is added or selected.

• Armature - Use bones to deform and animate your mesh.
• Array - Create an array out of your basic mesh and similar (repeating) shapes.
• Booleans - Combine/subtract/intercect your mesh with another one.
• Build - Assemble your mesh step by step when animating.
• Cast - Shift the shape of a mesh, surface or lattice to an sphere, cylinder or cuboid.
• Curve - Bend your mesh using a curve as guide.
• Decimate - Reduce the polygon count of your mesh.
• Displace - Use textures or objects to displace your mesh.
• EdgeSplit - Add sharp edges to your mesh.
• Hooks - Add a hook to your vertice(s) to manipulate them from the outside.
• Lattice - Use a Lattice object to deform your mesh.
• Mirror - Mirror an object about one of its own axis, so that the resultant mesh is symmetrical, and you only have to model/edit half or a fourth of it.
• Smooth - Smooth a mesh by flattening the angles between its faces.
• SubSurf - Smooth the surface by creating interpolated geometry.
• UVProject - Project UV coordinates on your mesh.
• Wave - Deform your (dense) mesh to form an (animated) wave.

Constraints

• Copy Location - Copy the position an object based on some other object's position, so that objects move together.
• Copy Rotation - Copy the rotation of another object so they dance together.
• Copy Scale - Copy the scale of another object.
• Track To -
• Floor -
• Locked Track -
• Follow Path -
• Stretch To -
• Null -

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