Effects Stack

The effects stack is the core creative tool in Mesh Sculptor. Effects are applied sequentially to the mesh vertices, each reading the current vertex positions and pushing them along the surface normals. The order in the stack matters — effects at the top modify the base mesh first, and later effects build on top of those changes.

How Effects Work

Each effect in the stack receives:

Vertex positions — the current XYZ coordinates of every mesh vertex, as modified by all preceding effects.
UV coordinates — the original mapping of each vertex on the surface. U wraps 0–1 around the circumference, V runs 0–1 from bottom to top.
Ring normals — the outward-pointing direction at each vertex, computed from the cross-section ring geometry. Effects displace vertices along these normals.

After the entire stack has been applied, mesh normals are recomputed once for correct lighting and shading. This means individual effects do not need to worry about normal consistency — the pipeline handles it.

Effect Ordering

Because effects are applied sequentially, their order can dramatically change the result:

Texture before Twist — The texture is applied to the straight mesh, then the entire shape (including the texture) is twisted. The texture pattern follows the twist.
Twist before Texture — The mesh is twisted first, then the texture is applied to the twisted surface. The texture pattern stays aligned with height, crossing over the twist.

Drag effects in the stack to reorder them. Use Duplicate to create two copies of an effect and experiment with different orderings.

Structural vs Surface Effects

Effects fall into two categories that behave differently with shell settings:

Surface effects: Waves, textures, noise, blobs, and other displacement effects. These only affect the outer wall. When "Inner Follows Effects" is off, the inner wall stays smooth.
Structural effects: Twist and Taper/Bulge. These always apply to both inner and outer walls regardless of the "Inner Follows Effects" setting, because they change the overall shape silhouette.

Height Range (V Start / V End)

Most effects support a vertical range that limits where the effect is active:

V Start (mm) — The height in millimeters where the effect begins. Below this height, the effect has no influence.
V End (mm) — The height where the effect ends. Above this height, the effect has no influence.
The boundaries blend smoothly — there is no hard cutoff at the edges, which prevents visible seams.

Use height ranges to apply different effects to different sections of the object. For example, knurling only on the grip section of a handle, or waves only on the top half of a vase.

Growth Curve

Effects that support the growth curve provide an additional control for how the effect intensity varies over height. The growth curve is a small Bézier curve editor that maps normalized height (0–1) to an intensity multiplier:

A flat line at 1.0 means full effect everywhere (the default).
Drawing the curve to 0 at the bottom and top creates a fade-in/fade-out effect.
Sharp steps in the curve create abrupt transitions between affected and unaffected regions.

The growth curve multiplies the effect displacement at each height, giving fine control over where effects are strongest. It works independently of V Start/V End — use both together for maximum control.

Working with the Stack

Enable/Disable — Toggle individual effects on and off without losing their settings. Useful for comparing before/after.
Duplicate — Creates a copy of an effect with the same parameters. Use this to apply the same effect at two different height ranges.
Remove — Deletes an effect from the stack entirely.
Reorder — Drag effects up and down to change their application order.
Effects are applied in order from top to bottom. The preview updates in real-time as you add, remove, or reorder effects.