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1011

Patch Grids 993

A patch tube before smoothing (left) and after using Patch

Smooth (right)

Pa tch G r i ds

Create panel > Geometry > Patch Grids

Create menu > Patch Grids

Yo u c a n c r e a t e t w o k i n d s o f p a t c h s u r f a c e s i n g r i d

form:QuadPatchandTriPatch.Patchgridsbegin

as flat plane objects but can be modified into

arbitrary 3D surfaces by either using an Edit Patch

modifier or collapsing the grid’s modifier stack

down to an Editable Patch in the Modify panel.

Patch grids provide convenient "building material"

for custom surfaces and objects, or for adding

patch surfaces to existing patch objects.

You c an animate the surface of a Patch object using

various modifiers such as the Flex and Morph

modifiers. Control vert ices and tangent handles of

a patch sur face can be animated with an Editable

Patch mod ifier.

Surf ace Tools

The output of the Surface modifier (page 1–842)

is a Patch object. Patch objects offer a flexible

alternative to mesh and NURBS modeling and

animation.

Quad patch and tri patch

Editable Patches

You can convert a basic patch grid to an editable

patch object (page 1–968).Theeditablepatchhasa

variety of controls that let you directly manipulate

it and its sub-objects. For example, at the Vertex

sub-object level, you can move vertices or adjust

their Bezier handles. Editable patches let you

create surfaces that are less regular, more free-form

than the basic, rectangular patches.

When you convert a patch to an editable patch,

you lose the ability to adjust or animate its creation

parameters.