Modify Soft Selection Falloff

 
 
 

The falloff is the area surrounding the soft selected components in which a tool’s effect gradually weakens. As the falloff increases the effect of a transformation decreases. Falloff is represented by a color gradient.

Note

The color gradient appears on vertices and edges regardless of your current component selection mode.

Related topics

Change the size of the falloff area

You can adjust the size of the Falloff Radius in a number of ways.

To adjust the Falloff Radius relative to its current size, press b while dragging the mouse left or right. The cursor changes to a circle representing the size of the falloff area starting at the current Falloff Radius. Relative resize is useful when you are making multiple small adjustments to your model.

To adjust the Falloff Radius starting from an absolute size of 0, press b + left or right. The cursor changes to a circle representing the size of the falloff area starting at 0. Absolute resize is useful when you are first starting to make Soft Selection transformations or when you have lost track of the size of the Falloff Radius.

You can also adjust the Falloff Radius in the Tool Settings editor.

Change the shape of the falloff area

You can modify the shape of the falloff using the Falloff curve. The shape of the curve indicates the shape of the falloff around the selected components. You can add additional points to the curve by clicking on the graph and you can modify the position of existing points by dragging them with the mouse.

You can also use the provided Curve Presets to quickly set the Falloff Curve to a number of frequently used shapes.

Below is a list of the Curve Presets and the resulting effect on a plane when a single vertex is translated on the Y axis.

Falloff Curve Transformation Effect
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

You can also save your own custom falloff preset so you can reuse it at any time.

To store a custom falloff preset

  1. Change the Falloff Curve to the shape of your choice.
  2. the custom falloff icon.
  3. Select Store Custom.

    The next time you click the custom falloff icon, the Falloff Curve will return to the shape you stored.

Change the color of the falloff area

You can change the colors Maya uses to display a weighted falloff’s color feedback with the Falloff color option. This is useful if the default colors are hard to see against your mesh’s texture or shader. By default, Maya uses a ramp from black to red to yellow.

To change the color of the falloff area

  1. Open the Tool Settings editor.
  2. Turn on the Soft Select option under Soft Selection.
  3. Select one of the circles above the Falloff color ramp.
  4. Adjust the falloff of the ramp by dragging the circle left or right.
  5. Adjust the shade of the current color by dragging the Color slider left or right.
  6. Change the current color by clicking the colored icon next to the label Color and selecting a specific color from the Color Chooser.
  7. You can add a color to the ramp by clicking on the ramp itself.

    An extra colored circle will appear above the ramp.

  8. You can remove a color from the ramp by clicking the box underneath the ramp corresponding to that color.

You can also turn off the colors by turning off Viewport color in the Soft SelectionTool Settings editor.