Question about Skew modifier

[Anonymous]

I am using kilometer as my world units. I am using Max 2011

Question concernng skew modifier.

In the "amount" spinner area its showing me units in km or kilmeters.

When I look skew in help under amount it says

"Sets the angle to skew from the verticle plane"

So I am confused. If its adjusting the angle why is it showing me a distance.

If the amount is a distance. What does the number mean? Looks like it can go to super high numbers.

I would like to understand the skew modifier to get some predicatability as far as what happens to the cameras cone and what happens to the camera angle as that amount in adjusted thats why the question. So far I see no visual que of what 25.0 km means relative to the vertile plane.

thanks

[Anonymous]

The amount parameter in Skew is not an angle, it is the offset distance in your chosen units.

True, the Help is a bit contradictory on this, in Proceedures it says:-

"

• Set the amount of the skew. The amount is an offset in current units parallel with the axis.

  The object skews to this amount beginning at the lower limit, by default the location of the modifier's center."

Which i believe is correct.

Then in Interface it says:-

"Amount

Sets the angle to skew from the vertical plane."

Which is misleading, as it implies that the units may be angular, such as degrees.

[Anonymous]

Here is my confusion. Here is example.

I have a simple cube that is 100x100x100 km size.

I have a skew modifier applied as you can see in my pic with amount 25.0 km

The boxes are just references and they are all 25 km length and height.

You or help says

The amount is an offset in current units parallel with the axis.

If I measure the distance from the y axis arrow and the blue centerline where it intersects the pink box I dont get 25.0 I get half which is 12.5. Whats up with that? I thought it would be 25 km. I assume the y axis is the verticle plane the help refers to.

Maybe I am not clear on what they mean by offset amount.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I dont get 25.0 I get half which is 12.5. Whats up with that? I thought it would be 25 km.

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Of course it is half. You are measuring from half way up the object, not the whole object skew.

The horizontal distace from the top and bottom corners (on either side) is 25km.

Because the Center is in the middle of the object, the top half gets 12.5 positive skew and the bottom half 12.5 negative, 25 in total.