8

Surfacemodelingismorefreeformthangeometric
(parametric) mo deling. Although you can create
Patch and NURBS primitives from the Create
panel, more often a surface model begins when you
use the
quad menu (page 3–741) or the modifier
stack (page 3–802)
to “collapse” a parametr ic
modeltosomeformofeditablesurface.Onceyou
have done so, a variety of tools let you shape the
surface. A lot of surface modeling work is done by
editing
sub-objects (page 3–1111) of the surface
object.
See also
Patch Grids (page 1–980)
Editable Patch Surface (page 1–950)
Editable Mesh Surface (page 1–984)
Editable Poly Surface (page 1–1012)
Introduction to NURBS Modeling (page 1–1079)
Subdivision Surfaces (page 1–945)
Tools for Low-Polygon Modeling (page 1–1254)
Subdivision Sur faces
A subdiv ision surface is a surface that has been
dividedintomorefaceswhileretainingtheobject’s
general shape. You perform subdivision to add
more detail to an object, or to smooth it out.
Yo u c a n c r e a t e a s u b d i v i s i o n s u r f a c e by a p p l y i n g
a mo difier to an object. Two kinds of subdivision
surfaces are suppor ted:
•The
HSDS modifier (page 1–693) provides
hierarchical subdivision surfaces.
•The
MeshSmooth modifier (page 1–714)
provides smoothing.
Both these modifiers work b est as finishing tools
for models.
TheSubdivisionSurfacerolloutforan
Editable
Poly surface (page 1–1012)
allows you to add a
subdivision surface to this type of object without
the use of a modifier.
Soft S election Rollout
Selec t an ed itable patch, editable mesh, editable poly,
editable spline, an object that has an Edit Mesh, Edit
Patch, or Edit Spline mod ifier applied to it, or an object
that has a comparable Select modifier applied to it.
> Modify panel > Choose a sub-object level. > Soft
Selec tion rollout
The Soft Selection controls allow you to partially
select sub-objects in the vicinity of an explicit
selection. This causes t h e explicit selection to
behave as if surrounded by a "magnetic field."
Surface Modeling