[Bf-funboard] soft selection

[Tom Musgrove]

the term soft select refers to the selection 'intensity' being proportional 
with the selection radius.  Generally with the center of the selection has 
full intensity and the edge of the radius has almost no intensity.  
Generally both the radius of selection and the maximum intensity can be 
varied interactively.

By intensity, it is meant that a transform performed on a selection is 
proporptional to its intensity, thus central objects are displaced, scaled, 
and moved more than are edgeward objects.

As the following flash from MeshSurgery (a max plugin) shows this can 
extremely useful as a sculpting tool.

http://www.tools4d.com/MeshSurgery/flashclips/brush%20move.html

More complex examples can be seen in the Zbrush videos, in this video, the 
reveleant portion of the film is about 20% through 50%  of the way into the 
movie, and shows the sculpting of muscle and facial detain onto a primitive 
model.  (The rest of the movie is extremely impressive as well, but aren't 
relevant to the current discussion).

http://pixologic.com/zbrush/media_links/krol_movie_show.html

Soft selection can be done both algorithimically (ie intensity = i_max/ 
radius) or via an alpha mask.  Preferably both methods should be available.

Tom M.

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