Datasheet

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Chapter 1 ✦ Finding Your Way — Exploring the Max Interface
Modify panel
The parameters found in the Create panel are great for changing an object, but they are avail-
able only while you’re creating the object. If you select another object and then return to the
Create panel with the first object selected, all its parameters are gone. Actually, they aren’t
gone, but rather they’ve migrated to the Modify panel. The Modify panel is the permanent
location of object parameters.
In addition to modifying object parameters, you can use the Modify panel to apply modifiers
to the selected object. Modifiers are parameter-driven functions for modifying an object. You
can see a complete list of modifiers in the Modifier List drop-down list (or in the Modifiers
menu).
Once applied, you can control the modifiers via parameters displayed in the Modify panel.
All modifiers that are applied to an object are displayed in the Modifier Stack (like the Twist
modifier applied to a sphere object in Figure 1-10), which appears at the top of the Modify
panel (directly under the Modifier List drop-down list). You can also apply modifiers using
the Modifiers menu.
Figure 1-10: Use the Modify panel to
apply modifiers and to modify object
parameters.
The Modifier Stack is like an object’s medical history: It details everything that has happened
to an object. The Modifier Stack displays all modifiers that have been applied to the current
selected object. This stack lets you revisit any modifier and change its parameters, reorder it
in the stack, or delete it.
An introduction to modifiers is presented in Chapter 11, “Introducing Modifiers for Basic
Object Deformation,” but you can find coverage of other modifiers sprinkled throughout the
rest of the chapters. For example, see Chapter 24, “Working with Cameras,” for coverage of
the Camera Correction modifier.
Cross-
Reference
Modifier Stack
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