Chapter 6 / The Torso
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After it’s collapsed, attach the other circles to it by hitting the Attach Multiple button , highlighting all the circles that come up in the Attach Multiple dialog box, and hitting Attach.
Step 2: Apply Surface Tools With all the circles now combined to form one object you need to apply one of the two modifiers that make up Surface Tools called CrossSection. This modifier connects shapes by creating lines between vertices of the existing shape (in this case, concentric circles). It connects the vertices based on the position of the First vertex of each spline and creates a spline cage. This “spline cage” is the precursor to a patch surface and is similar to a polygon mesh without faces—just vertices and lines. However, the vertices and lines of a spline cage are parametric and can be curved as well as linear. The ability to apply as much curve as you want, or need, is what makes Surface Tools and patch surface modeling so useful and powerful. FYI: SURFACE TOOLS TIMES TWO Surface Tools used to be a separate plug-in for Max consisting of the two modifiers: CrossSection and Surface. With Max 3, Surface Tools was absorbed into the basic modifier suite.