I'm struggling to understand why the x-axis has to point up for the bend deform to work as intended. So from my understanding, we always have to point the axis that is tangent to the bend in the direction away from the bend, but I can't understand it intuitively.
Is this just a quirk to memorize because the modifier just works that way? Or is there math behind the reasoning that I don't realize? Thanks!
Hi Nolan,
that is indeed not completely straightforward; maybe the Manual can help:
Mind you, there is a typo in the third picture (c), that shoulb be Local axis Y points to the right...
I usually use an Empty as Origin in the Modifier, that way I can Rotate and Move the Empty to get more and 'easier' Control over the Bending.
The simple deform is designed to work on 3D objects. So when you use a 2D object like a plane(there's no z axis or thickness to it) the modifier has a weird effect. To compensate we place the x axis along the z axis to get the desired effect.
