Applying Deformer Lists

The Bend Effector, when assigned to an item, deforms the object in a curving or arcing fashion.

The Bezier Deformer is an excellent way to apply deformations in a continuously smooth manner. This can be extremely useful for long tube-like structures (such as tentacles, tails, and whips).

The Curve Constraint Effector attracts nearby vertices, constraining them to the nearest position along the defined curve.

The Lag Effector, when assigned to an item, deforms the object along a directional vector that is determined by the target item's animation. (Essentially, it is deformed along the direction it is traveling.)

The Lattice Effector, when assigned, creates a structured array of points across the mesh like a cage. You can move each individual vertex of this cage to deform the underlying mesh. Modo smoothly interpolates the deformation between the vertex locations.

The Magnet Effector, when assigned to an item, draws points within its defined range toward the center of the magnet, itself.

The Rotation Effector, when assigned to an item, rotates the target item. You can link it to rigging and can control it through the Schematic view links when combined with the various modifiers because it is an item with channels.

The Slack Effector, when assigned to an item, deforms the target as if it were suspended between two points.

Use the Spline Deformer to apply deformations in a continuously smooth manner. This can be extremely useful for long tube-like structures (such as tentacles, tails, and whips).

The Transform Effector, when assigned to an item, moves, rotates, or scales the target item. You can link it to rigging and can control it through the Schematic view links when combined with the various modifiers because it is an item with channels.

With the General Influence you can assign any vertex tagging methods to define a grouping of vertices for the deformer to influence. This limits their application to specific user-defined areas of a mesh (or the entire mesh).

Use an Item Influence when a rigid item needs to stay in the proper position relative to a deforming surface or when multiple items need to transform in a uniform way (such as a tower of spheres that bends around on itself).

Daisuke Ino developed MDD files during his work on a dynamics engine built as a plug-in to a host 3D application. These files are a simple point cache that stores a location in space for every vertex in a model for every frame in the animation.

With morph maps you can save alternate user-defined deformations for any mesh. To animate any morph map, you must first apply a morph deformer to the model.

The Push Influence deforms geometry by pushing vertices along their average normals.