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modifying multiple object position using modifiers

polycounter lvl 8
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Olli. polycounter lvl 8
is there a way i can modify the position/rotation of mulitple units using modifiers like skew, taper etc without changing the actual mesh at all (only modifying the position of the objects)

edit: using 3ds max

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  • animax
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    animax polycounter lvl 15
    Do you know about xform modifier?
  • Thaurdol
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    Thaurdol polycounter lvl 7
    I did a tree not so long ago where I made one master branch that I instanced all around the tree. The master branch was separated from the tree and then the tree was also stored away so the instances wouldn't be collapsed just yet.

    When you have a copy of the mesh you wish to modify using a master object you can put any modifier you want like bend in my case which bends every branch according to the master branch and thus I can have easily up to 10 variations of the same tree. Once you found the right settings just attach them to the object you want using the attach from list function. I'll add some pics below (will be poor quality)

    Hopefully this will help :)

    c7if.jpg
  • Olli.
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    Olli. polycounter lvl 8
    animax: i know about the reset XForm button... i havent used the actual Xform modifier though.. tried it just now but cant figure out what it does?

    Thaurdol: yeah i know about the instance functionality but thats not what im after.. what i want is to modify the position of the objects, not the mesh

    heres a picture to explain:explanatory.PNG
    1) original formation
    2) what happens when i apply a bend modifier... the boxes move, but the actual mesh gets "bent" as well
    3) what i want, the mesh stays the same, only the objects move.. i didnt adjust the rotation but logically the "bent" objects would also rotate slightly...
  • poopipe
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    poopipe grand marshal polycounter
    Spacewarps do what you want.

    You cant collapse them as theyre effectively world space modifiers so you need to snapshot your mesh
  • cw
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    cw polycounter lvl 17
    You could link your objects to a simple mesh (with linked xform modifier) and use the simple mesh via bend/taper etc. to drive their xforms? is that what you're after?
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