Blender All-in-One For Dummies

Chapter 2

Simplifying Your Life as a Modeler with Modifiers

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting started with modifiers

Discovering the types of modifiers available in Blender

Using some of the more frequently used modifiers

Working with meshes can get complicated when you have complex models consisting of lots and lots of vertices. Keeping track of these vertices and making changes to your model can rapidly become a daunting and tedious task, even with well-organized topology. You can quickly run into problems if you have a symmetrical model where the left side is supposed to be identical to the right, or if you need more vertices to make your model appear smoother. In these times, you really want the computer to take on some of this tedious additional work so you can focus on the creative parts.

Fortunately, Blender actually has a feature called modifiers that helps tackle the monotony. Despite their rather generic-sounding name, modifiers are an extremely powerful way to save you time and frustration by letting the computer assume the responsibility for grunt work, such as adding smoothing vertices or making your model symmetric. Another benefit of modifiers is that they’re non-destructive, ...