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862 Chapter 8: Modifiers
2.
Apply the Symmet ry modifier.
The teapot appears to have two spouts.
3. In the modifier st ack, click the + button to see
the Mirror gizmo, and then select Mirror.
The mirror gizmo acts as a slice plane w hen it is
w ithin the boundaries of the object
4. With Mirror Axis set to X, click and drag the
mirror gizmo along the X axis.
Dragging right slices more of the teapot until
there is n othing visible. Dragging left causes
a second teapot to appear. When the mir ror
gizmo is moved beyond the boundaries of the
original mesh, it acts as a mirror plane showing
you two complete teapots.
Example: To per form box modeling with the
Sy mmetr y mod ifi er :
1.
Create a box primitive in the Perspective
view por t, and then convert it to Editable Poly
or apply the Edit Poly modifier.
2. If necessary, press F4 to activate Edged Faces
display mode in the Perspective viewport.
3. Apply the Symmetry modifier.
Other than t he new edge loop created by the
modifier, the box’s appearance doesn’t change,
because it’s already symmetrical.
4. In the modifier st ack, click the + button to see
the Mirror gizmo, and then click Mirror.
5. In the Front viewport, with Mirror Axis set to
X, drag the Mirror gizmo in either direction
on the X axis.
Onlytheleft-handboxmoves;thisisthecopy
createdbytheSymmetrymodifier.
6. Position the M irror near the left side of the
originalbox,sothetwocopiesaremerged.
7. Inthemodifierstack,gototheEdit/Editable
Poly level and access the Vertex sub-object level.
If you no longer see the Symmetry copy of
thebox,turnonShowEndResult.
With Show End Result on, you might see an
orange wireframe “cage” that shows the edges
of original object. This is on by default for
editable poly objects, but off by default for
theEditPolymodifier.TheShowCagetoggle
for editable poly objects is on the Subdivision
Surface rollout, and for Edit Poly it’s on the Edit
Poly Mode rollout.
You can also see that only the vertices of the
original object are visible; the vert ices of the
symmetr y object can’t be transformed directly.
8. Moveoneofthevisibleverticesontheright
side of the box.
As you do so, its counterpart on the symmetry
object moves symmetr ically in real time.
As you can see, the Symmetry mod ifier not
only creates a mirror image of an object for
yo u, but also lets you manipulate both sides in
tandem in an intuitive way.
9. Now move one of the vertices on the left side of
the box, where it overlaps the sym metry box.
Because you’re also moving its counterpart
vertex, which is invisible, the apparent result
is motion of the corresponding point on the
plane of symmetry. This isn’t as intuitive as
moving a non-overlapping point, so for best
results, position the Mirror g izmo s o as to cause
as little overlap as possible; that way you can
edit the center vertices directly on the plane of
symmetry.
Interfa ce
Modifier Stack