Tutorial: Soft selecting a heart shape from a plane

Tutorial: Soft selecting a heart shape from a plane

Modeling Basics 3ds max Chapter wise

All the editable modeling types offer the ability to work with subobjects. Subobjects are the
elements that make up the model and can include vertices, edges, faces, polygons, and elements.
These individual subobjects can be selected and transformed just like normal objects
using the transformation tools located on the main toolbar. But, before you can transform
these subobjects, you need to select them. You can select subobjects only when you’re in a
particular subobject mode. Each editable object type has a different set of subobjects.
If you expand the object’s hierarchy in the Modifier Stack (by clicking the small plus sign to
the left of the object’s name), all subobjects for an object are displayed, as shown in Figure 12-2.
Selecting a subobject in the Modifier Stack places you in subobject mode for that subobject
type. You can also enter subobject mode by clicking on the subobject icons located at the top
of the Selection rollout or by pressing the 1 through 5 keys on the keyboard. When you’re in
subobject mode, the subobject title and the icon in the Selection rollout are highlighted yellow.
You can only work with the selected subobjects while in subobject mode. To transform the
entire object again, you need to exit subobject mode, which you can do by clicking either the
subobject title or the subobject icon, or by pressing one of the keyboard shortcuts, 1–5.

 

 

Subobject selections can be locked with the Selection Lock Toggle (spacebar) and be made into a Selection Set by typing a name into the Named Selection Set drop-down list on the main toolbar. After a Selection Set is created, you can recall it anytime you are in that same subobject mode. Named Selection Sets can then be copied and pasted between objects using the Copy and Paste buttons found in the Selection rollout for most editable objects. Using Soft Selection When working with editable mesh, poly, patches, or splines, the Soft Selection rollout, shown in Figure 12-3, becomes available in subobject mode. Soft Selection selects all the subobjects surrounding the current selection and applies transformations to them to a lesser extent. For example, if a face is selected and moved a distance of 2, then with linear Soft Selection, the neighboring faces within the soft selection range move a distance of 1. The overall effect is a smoother transition.