9

Flex Modifier 691
Inter face
Fillet group
Radius—Specifies the radius of the filleted corner.
Apply—Applies the value specified in the Radius
spinner to selected vertices. For example, before
selecting any vertices, set the Radius to the desired
value, then select your vertices and click Apply to
fillet the select ion with the specified radius.
Chamfer group
Distance—Specifies the distance of the new vertices
from the original corner vertex.
Apply—AppliesthevaluespecifiedintheDistance
spinner to selected vertices. For example, before
selecting any vert ices, set Distance to the desired
value, then select your vertices and click Apply to
chamf er the corners.
Flex M od if i er
Select a Mesh , Patch, or NURBS object. > M odify panel >
Modifier List > Object-Space Modifiers > Flex
Select a Mesh, Patch, or NURBS object. > Modifiers menu
> Animation Modifiers > Flex Modifier
Flexcausesthetonguetowagastheheadrotates.
The Flex modifier simulates soft-body dynamics
using virtual springs between an object’s vertices.
You can set the spr ings’ stiffness, or how actively
they keep vertices from coming close to each other,
as well as stretch, or how far apart they c an move.
At a more advanced level, you can also control the
sway, or how much the spring angle can change.
At its simplest, this system causes vertices to lag
behind an object as it moves.
Flex works with NURBS, p atches, meshes, shapes,
FFD space warps, and any plug-in-based object
types that can be deformed. You can combine Flex
with space warps such as Gravity, Wind, Motor,
Push, and PB omb to add realistic physically based
animation to an object. In addition, you can
apply deflectors to soft-body objects to simulate
collision.
Note: The Flex modifier is aware of
vertex/con trol-point motion in any animated
modifier that deforms point s below Flex in the
modifier stack, such as the Morphermodifier(page