splines then retopo

I was thinking, if I map out say a car in splines. then snap a polgon/vertcie to the curve, this should help me with my topology correct? I think because in different ortho views since I zoom in and out in different orthoes is causing dent in my mesh. since the camera will have better or worst effect on your view depending on how close or far away you are. so I have been studying this technique about spline modeling.
also, is it better to modelwhile in subsurface should help with the dents (vertcies not being properly alighned causing dents as well correct?

Well first of all note that you’ll have to convert those splines into mesh with alt+C since you can’t snap mesh on splines. Second, it’s not a bad idea to outline/shape your organic models with a spline to help you when modeling with mesh, it’s really good since you’ll have more control over your mesh and a general idea how your model looks in 3D space and you won’t have to constantly shift from one ortho perspective to another. If you’re modeling with a mesh that’s subsurfed I recommend you crease your mesh’s out edges to value of 1 so it is not round. Using splines as a helping tool for modeling is a good idea especially when it comes to hard-surface models that tend to have a lot of organic parts or shapes in them.

Just look what I made using splines as control points:


Here’s my spline cage that helped me with this:


I suggest you make your spline cage first, copy it and paste it to another layer. And convert your original spline cage to mesh and restrict it’s viewport selection as shown in the second picture so that you don’t accidentally RMB click it and move it when modeling.

if you do it with nurbs surfaces you don’t need to retopo !

happy bl

RickyBlender, you can’t snap nurbs surfaces onto mesh. So the spline cage would be useless.

but you can model with Nurbs surfaces directly
it has geometric continuity and always quads !

very useful and precise

happy bl

They’re not if you need a precise edge count, then you have to convert to mesh add the extra edge loops and space out the other edges to have even ammount of space between them. On the other hand you can’ even snap nurbs to nurbs which makes them pretty useless. I made a thread few weeks ago asking about nurbs surfaces and they’re role in 3d modeling and the general conclusion I got by reading the responses and searching about them elsewhere online is that they’re downright useless in blender which in my opinion is true.

will never agreed with that !

but your right we need more tools for nurbs and curves
hope we get more soon

but to make 3D complex mechanical curvy curves
Nurbs surface are the most precise and easiest to use
as I said
you always have geometric continuity and quads
this is the only tool in Bl that can do that
so only a matter to learn /work with Nurbs and get the precision for complex 3D surfaces

These nurbs are use a lot in CAD soft for a long time so it has been a good tool for a very long time
but peoples are not used to it or don’t understand how to use it !

just hope we get more tools for these soon

happy bl

Another flaw that nurbs surfaces have is that you can’t snap your mesh onto them, you just can’t snap anything to them. If the control cage was better and if they were snapable then I wouldn’t call them useless. But for now they’re pretty without a purpose. Using a boolean on them would automatically convert them to a mesh which is also bad considering that non-destructive modeling is very preferable.

agreed we need more tools for these

but Nurbs surface are still very useful for complex 3D surfaces

if we could finished the New Nurbs tools project
it would be very nice indeed!

happy bl

We finally agree on something. A more powerful patch tools would be of most help for modeling complex organic shapes which usually road vehicles, aircraft and sea vessels usually have.

thanks guys,
also, isnt nurb surfaces lower poly count compared to primitive mesh? by this I mean using a subsurface vs adding more pathes I guess it’s called? for more geomotry? and do you guys prefer to model with subsurface on to help not get dents or to better get the topology you want for hard surface geometry?

depends on the resolution used
but can always use the remesh to lower v count!

so always make a copy or nurbs surf then do the convert to mesh function of resol !
and see how it looks

happy bl

thanks guys for your time and wisdom.

one last question, because modeling in orth and zooming in and out on a mesh when aligning vertices to a reference image.

could this also cause dents because zooming in and out on a particular edge or vertcie would be at different eye capacity ? depending on your eye sight. lol
vertices would actually be closer or further away to the reference image depending on your zoom. since I always use the middlemouse button to zoom in.

verts are always added at cursor locations
so set your cursor to a given depth and then add others !

happy bl

isnt from my cursor. I extrude and do edge modeling. but as you can see in my pictures. is the subsurface cage suppose to be wavey like pic 3?

I am thinking maybe use local or norla axis. in pic (at bottum) see how I will get a out of place vertcie and causes dents?
but in the first pic, my mesh looks fine but isnt.

this is what I mean by having edge flow issues. maybe I need to find a tutorial on how to move and properly set a vertcie?

I know how poles, ngons and quads wor but, this edge flow like in my pictures has been a issue for a long time and I model everyday. but have noticed chaining axis and doing different things like spline or using a cyldiner to start a car sometimes gives me good topology and sometimes not.

isnt nurbs suppose to help with this issue? also since nurbs have I think patches doesnt that give better geomotry but saves memory>

sorry for the bad handwriting, using the paint tool to write is very hard. lol

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You’re topology/edge flow is bad, here how it should look like:


As you can see in this picture, there are no dents whatsoever:


Here’s the wireframe:


how can I work on that> I understand topology but, not placing the vertcie correct> any advice or suggestions to fix this? thats why I was thinking about splines or nurbs.

It all comes down to personal preference, I have shown you in my first post an example on how it’s done.

I have one last question if you dont mind.

You have scene my topology now and you said my edge flow is bad.
every time I look up edge flow tutorials, there are only tutorials on cuting holes into a mesh , doing loop cuts , ngons and triangle. nothing about vertcie placement in top, side and ortho view. I am wondering if I need to work on using the transformation orientation to get better edge flow? using the normal axis to help get acurate topology by having the vertcie go to a certain angle instead of eye placement?
thanks for all your help and any info or suggestion on how to fix my edge flow please tell me.

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Manual/3D_interaction/Transform_Control/Transform_Orientations

I found this tutorial today and I like. basically used a circle to outline the headlight and the wheel cover and connected them and continued modeling by edge modeling.

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You just keep watching that tutorial, practice and by time you’ll get better. As for the edge flow yes it is bad and that was causing dents in your mesh and not the vertex/edge placement more or less. You don’t need to use transform orientation tool to get a better edge flow you could but that would be just a waste of time. Also, keep in mind that the blueprints you’re using might not be drawn perfeclty and that could cause irregularities in your mesh once you placed the edges according to the line drawing.