How to bend objects in Blender with the simple deform modifier without going insane 

I'm losing my mind with this, good thing I had nothing else to do today because after like 8 videos I still can't do it.

Never expected that bending objects would be so un-intuitive and it's called "simple deform" 😂. Thanks for the clear explanation, saved me a lot of frustration.

Thanks so much for this workaround! I was shocked to see how overcomplicated this modifier was when every other modeling package handles bending so easily.

You saved me! I would have never figured this out. Thank you very much!

Wow you answered all my questions at once. I needed that limit portion, and you came through at the end too. Amazing. Thank you!!

I found this very helpful. Definitely demystified how this deform works. I'm no longer in the dark about bending.

The most helpful & clean instructions on simply deform on internet, Thanks! You earned a new sub!

Thanks Aaron - I have been trying to bend objects for a frustratingly long time. Two watches of your very helpful video and I now have leaf springs that bend! Thanks so much it is really appreciated.

Awesome little trick... I'm new to blender and this has been by far the frustrating tool I've used, I don't know why this work, I don't pretend to understand it, but thankyou for showing it.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! After a long night of frustration your video finally made things make sense!

thank you so much, i wish every blender demo video was this simple to understand

Still relevent thank you so much! I have 3d relief sculpts for printing and I wanted to turn them into cylinders and this method of adding the empty sphere and bending around it works perfectly without any distortion and it was so easy!

Not sure how to thank you for this video. I have been trying to bend an object since last few hours. Cheers 😊

I really like the use of the restrictions. Very cool.

Thanks, was about to go insane. I tried the empty but without the 90° trick without success, though I did find out that it seems to always work when bending around the z-axis. In any case when I looked for an explanation I found this video and now I know how to work around the problem. Thanks again for sharing this.

Thank you! Been banging my head against the wall with this.

Thanks, that simple demo earned you my sub, and I look forward now to checking out all of your vids.

In Maya, geometry modifiers give you a preview of what the modifier is doing happening by drawing a curve that represents the modifier which you can move, rotate and scale by default. If Blender added something like that it would make it much less confusing, but this is a great workaround to give you control of those attributes. Thanks so much!

THANK YOU SO SO MUCH, OMG. This literally fixed all my problems. thanks for the amazing explanation.

Something else is that it is tied to the object's local axies. So in object mode, if it is how you want it, you can move it with impunity; it is only in edit mode that you start running into issues. You can also resolve this by altering the actual object's rotation relative to global rotation to get what you want, rather than using an empty sphere.

great video - thanks!...i was equally impressed by your straight line free draw ability! 😄

bro I cant thank you enough, that was driving me crazy. THNX!

Nice work around that makes sense, thank you.

Finally get some idea on how it works. Always used other methods to achieve the bending goals.

Finally some sense to this modifier! thanks a lot!

Omg thank you so much lol I couldn’t believe how different this is in blender hahaha nice I appreciate you’re video

This was really helpful, it didn't solve my issues but sure put me on to the right path!

Super frustrating (simple) bend modifier. Thanks!

Nice detective work Aaron!

Thank you for such an enlightening video 🥰! To add something, you can also take the angle between the radiuses at the endpoints of the curve (at the centerpoint of the curve).

You good sir just made my life sooo much easier! Thank you so much!

Lifesaver...this seems like a bug or a programming oversight but thanks bunches for putting in the hard work to figure this out.

Amazing ! Very important to me. Thanks !

I'm only a month into my blender life and bending stuff has been a real issue. I see there is a paid tool you can add on that appears to be a good options (but to be fair I have no clue) but I want to learn and develop skills before I start paying for stuff that I may never use. This tricks seems a little inconvenient to be fair, but it works and my morning is better for it, so thanks heaps.

how many times i thank you for this great tutorial... bless you God

My god, finally someone with a good fix!

Great tutorial

Thaks for this man!

Thank you!! 👏

Huge. Thank You!

thank you!

Thanks 4 the great tips.

very cool👍

thanks you save my life

Thank you man🤍

Thanks for this. I'm trying to individually bend about 40 narrow planes, each in its own direction, so Blender sure is making me work for it :D Kinda miss "Bend" modifier in Max. Oh well. Thx for the video!

7:30 ish .. thanks iv been going bonkers trying to figure this out in Blender

Cool video! Too bad my blender has own rules and it doesn't work for me (at least first part) :(

Interesting! Maybe the blender Devs should know that!😂

Great hack. Thank you. For me it's very surprising question why such a great and capable tool like Blender keeps soooo stupid and unintuitive way of one of the most basic things that can be done within a few clicks in every competitive 3D package...

You also need to use the empty trick to make the Array command work in a circular fashion. It's not "intuitive" but it does make sense after a while.

Great!

Thank you! Is there a way to apply the bend deformer to the parent object and all children be affected as well?

Is there a way of placing the origin of the object at the center of the bend. I am trying to bend a plane into a ball which then should roll along a path but, the rotation of ball resulting from the bend is centered around the origin of the plane. Can this be done with an empty as well?

THANK YOu

So now it won’t get all twisted up when you animate it rotating around a point behind it more than half way?

bless you my brain was about to explode

Well done....👏👏👍😎💪🔥🦫how long did that take for you to figure out that work around.....

isnt that called a "bug"? in the program?

yes, your opening comments were right on

In Simple Deform one axis is effectively bent around another axis. The axis you select in the modifier is the axis to be bent around, not the axis being bent. If you select X or Y to bend around, the axis being bent is implicitly set as Z. But, when you select Z and the axis to bend around it makes no sense to bend Z around Z. So the implicit axis being bent is changed to X. The manual is effectively saying Z bends around X, Z bends around Y, but it's X that bends around Z (because Z bending around Z makes no sense.)

god bless you

Life saving! Btw, have you figured out yet, why does it happen?

Hi, Thanks for your explain, A question, Is there a way to bend one side but don't affect another side(Imagine bending into a fork) ? I had to adjust the position of empty object and the limits of modifier to match now, but it's not precise

Reading the documentation, one senses that trying to make bending conform to the same logic as the other deform operations was not a good choice by the developers and it may have been better to just make bend its own modifier. I wonder if bending could be achieved more intuitively building a modifier in geo nodes...

work like magic, look like only z axis can bend properly ?

Very Nice but shame can't see what you pressing and not saying what you pressing as you move along, how you get rid of the empty once you done the bending please? What you press, as I can't get rid of it..thanks

When a tutorial starts with 'Im still confused' you instantly close the page.

Bending is very confusing in blender. I usually mess with origin axis/geometry in edit mode to get a desired result.

Thanks you! but still my mind is struggling on finding the logic behind it.

man it still does not work for me. it distort it to a hourglass shape

I’ve been using a gn group instead of screaming

i love blender and those who develop it, but i can't lie - it drives me insane that we have geometry nodes getting all kinds of love, and ai denoising etc etc, but a simple deform modifier that is nowhere near fit for purpose

Increase your display

they should attach a gizmo or how one would call it automatically to the deform modifiers. some things are really great in Blender, deformers are not

still isnt working for me, im about to lose my mind

How is it possible that other open source programmes like tinkercad work so much easier? I understand that blender can do so much more, but why making the simple actions so utterly complicated?

Usually I prefer the way blender does things as opposed to maya or whatever but in this case... To create hair I cant do it in blender because the bend modifier in blender sucks and in Maya works like a charm, as I hate it, I would prefer to stay in blender.

i really think this thing,simple deform, doesn't work at all .I tried everything .This function has to be reformed completely in the new versions.Sorry this isnt normal.

Went I try to bend something, my object disapears. I give up. The bending function is designed by a person who hates to bend things.

Nice video! We think that the center of the modifier is the pivot of the object, but it's not. Those Angles are really the result of a Radius. Blender will calculate how far away to put a "new center" so you can get that angle in you actual pivot. Yes, a complete piece of shit... I know... but engineers have shit for brains, normally, anyway.

Thanks for sharing. “Simple Deform” is oxymoron - nowhere near of simple.

Yes I am very confused and angry. F Blender !

Thank you man🤍