user: How do I use Options in Blender? Include parameters, examples, warnings and best practices.

assistant: [image reference removed]

The Wave modifier.

Motion
:   The wave effect deforms vertices/control points in the Z direction,
    originating from the given starting point and propagating along the object with circular wave fronts
    (if both X and Y are enabled),
    or with rectilinear wave fronts (if only one axis is enabled),
    then parallel to the axis corresponding to the X or Y button activated.

Cyclic
:   Repeats the waves cyclically, rather than a single pulse.

Along Normals
:   For meshes only. Displaces the mesh along the surface normals (instead of the object’s Z axis).

    X/Y/Z
    :   Restrict displacement along normals to the selected local axes.

Falloff
:   Controls how fast the waves fade out as they travel away from the coordinates above
    (or those of the *Start Position Object*).

Height
:   The height or amplitude of the ripple.

Width
:   Half of the width between the tops of two subsequent ripples (if *Cyclic* is enabled).
    This has an indirect effect on the ripple amplitude. If the pulses are too near to each other,
    the wave may not reach the zero Z position, so in this case Blender actually lowers the whole wave
    so that the minimum is zero and, consequently, the maximum is lower than the expected amplitude.
    See [Technical Details and Hints](#technical-details-and-hints) for more information.

Narrowness
:   The actual width of each pulse: the higher the value the narrower the pulse.
    The actual width of the area in which the single pulse is apparent is given by `4 / Narrowness`.
    That is, if *Narrowness* is 1 the *pulse* is 4 units wide, and if *Narrowness*
    is 4 the *pulse* is 1 unit wide.

Vertex Group
:   The name of a vertex group which is used to control the influence of the modifier.
    If left empty, the modifier affects all vertices equally.

    Invert
    :   Inverts the influence of the selected vertex group, meaning that the group
        now represents vertices that will not be deformed by the modifier.

        The setting reverses the weight values of the group.

### Start Position

Object
:   Use another object as the reference for the starting position of the wave.
    Note that you then can animate this object’s position, to change the wave’s origin across time.

Start Position X/Y
:   Coordinates of the center of the waves, in the object’s local space.

### Time

Settings to control the animation.

Offset
:   Time offset in frames. The frame at which the wave begins (if *Speed* is positive),
    or ends (if *Speed* is negative). Use a negative frame number to prime and pre-start the waves.

Life
:   Duration of animation in frames. When set to zero, loops the animation forever.

Damping
:   An additional number of frames in which the wave slowly damps from the *Height* value
    to zero after *Life* is reached.
    The dampening occurs for all the ripples and begins in the first frame after the *Life* is over.
    Ripples disappear over *Damping* frames.

Speed
:   The speed per frame, of the ripple.

### Texture

You can finely control which vertices are affected by the wave,
and to what extent, using a texture.

See [common masking options](../common_options.xhtml#modifiers-common-options-masking) for a complete reference.