9.5.2

OBJECTS MENU • 169
7. Objects Menu
On the Objects menu, you’ll nd not only a rich variety of object types for building all kinds of shapes,
but also objects that allow you to add sound, lighting and more to the scene. Image © Benedict
Campbell.
No matter what type of object you want to add to your scene — be it a HyperNURBS object for
character modeling, lights to illuminate your city or invisible microphones to record the whoosh of
space shuttles in Dolby Surround Sound — you’ll nd the commands for adding all of these objects
on the Objects menu.
Objects are the elements that are displayed in the Object manager’s left column. Each type of object
has a different set of properties. When you click on an object’s name in the Object manager, the
object’s properties will be displayed in the Attribute manager, where you can edit the values.
The object properties in the Object manager are usually divided into three main pages (although some
objects have further pages): Basic Properties, Coordinates and Object Properties.
In the Attribute manager, you can animate any object parameter that has a
circle next to its name. For details on how to record animation in the Attribute
manager, see Chapter 21, ‘Attribute Manager’.
If a single object is selected in the Object manager when you create a new object, you can affect
where the new object will be placed in the Object manager by holding down one of the following
keys at the same time:
 Shift: Makes the new object a child of the selected object.
 Ctrl: Places the new object on the same hierarchy level as the selected
object.
 Alt: Makes the new object a parent of the selected object.
If more than one object or no objects at all are selected when you create the new object, the new
object will be placed at the top of the Object manager.