Deformers¶

A deformer is a non-destructive transform applied on top of a placement's base geometry. The placement's source vertices stay unchanged; the deformer computes the deformed positions every frame. Useful for stylized motion, blend shapes, and procedural distortion.

The stack¶

Each placement carries an ordered deformer stack. Deformers evaluate top-to-bottom; each one takes the previous output as input. Add, remove, reorder, and bypass per deformer.

The stack lives in the Properties pane > Deformers section.

Built-in deformers¶

Name	Effect
Bend	Curves geometry along an axis
Twist	Rotates geometry around an axis as you move along it
Sine	Adds a sine wave along an axis
Squash	Squash-and-stretch with a configurable axis
Lattice	Bezier-handle cage for arbitrary distortion
Wave	Radial sine wave from a center point
Noise	Perlin / Worley displacement
Cluster	Weighted control via auxiliary placement

The Bend / Twist / Sine page covers the three most common deformers in depth.

Add a deformer¶

Select the placement.
Properties pane > Deformers > + Add Deformer > pick from the dropdown.
The deformer appears in the stack with its default parameters.
The placement's geometry deforms in real time.

Parameter editing¶

Each deformer is a small section in the Properties pane. Drag fields to scrub, type values, or right-click for keying / expression / lock.

Most deformers have an axis parameter: pick X / Y / Z, or choose Custom and define a per-deformer axis vector.

Animation¶

Every deformer's numeric parameters are keyable. The Animation > Keyframes page covers the mechanics; the short version: turn on Animate > Toggle Auto Key, scrub the timeline, change a deformer's value, the framework records a key.

This is how a "flag wave" or a "wing flap" animation is typically authored: a Sine deformer with an animated phase.

Falloff and masks¶

Most deformers expose a falloff parameter that ramps the effect down at the edges of the placement's bounding box. Useful when you want the body to stay rigid while the tips deform.

For per-vertex weighting, combine with a render part mask: the deformer respects the mask, applying only inside the masked region.

Stack order matters¶

Bend then Twist ≠ Twist then Bend. Swap by dragging in the Properties pane's deformer list. The View Panel updates in real time so you can audition orders.

Performance¶

Deformers evaluate on the GPU when possible (compute shader), fall back to CPU for low-vertex-count cases. Budget per frame:

Simple deformers (Bend, Sine, Twist, Wave, Noise): ~0.1 ms per 10,000 vertices.
Lattice + Cluster: ~0.3 ms per 10,000 vertices (read auxiliary data).

Stacking 5 deformers on a 50,000-vertex mesh is still well under 2 ms per frame on a baseline GPU.

Bypass¶

The eye icon next to each deformer toggles it on / off without removing it. Useful when comparing the effect with vs without.

Apply (destructive)¶

Deformers > Apply Stack bakes the entire deformer stack into the placement's geometry. The deformers disappear from the stack and the base vertices update to their deformed positions. Irreversible (except via undo within the same session).

Apply when the deformer's effect is final and you want to free the performance budget for downstream work.