Hello all,
I am a noob to Blender and I’m learning it for the computer animation class for my school which is using Blender for the first time, so the teacher don’t know anything either. We are making an apple with a paper clip as the stem. I got through most of the apple part, now the paper clip seems to be very tricky. Is there some sort of bend tool or another modifier that does something similar by turning a cylinder into a paper clip. I looked at armatures, but it seems very complex and unneccessary for making a simple paper clip. I am fairly skilled in 3ds Max, but Blender just puzzles me greatly.
Thanks for the help in advance.
Perhaps you could trace the paperclip with curves first (note: you can do this in your favorite vector graphics program and then import) and then use BevOb to extrude along the curve. http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Tutorials/Curves/Extrude_Along_Path
I too am having difficulties with this kind of situation. Although the tracing method suggested seems to kind of work, is there a more simple way to achieve this effect?
Cheers!
You coud select a cube (or any other object will do…) hit Tab for Editmode. Hit A to select all, hit Delete. If promted select ALL.
Now you have a completly empty Object.
Go to Topview ( Numpad 7), make shure that you are in Vertex select Mode.
While holding down Ctrl you can now create Vertices with left clicking your mouse.
Trace the Basic Shape of a Paperclip like this…
Now select everything (A Key), and hit E for Extrude… when prompted select only Edges.
You need to move some Vertices around untill you get faces with the “same with” so you shoud have something like this…
Go to Face select Mode, hit A to select everything , then E to Extrude, when prompted select Region, and extrude your clip slightly so you get a 3 dimentional Paperclip like this…
Add a Subsurface…
Looks ugly… lets fix it… hit A until everything is Selected and then Subdivide until it looks ok…
After Subdividing it twice …
Its not perfect, but simple… hope it`s helping somehow 
Better use a curve and then use a bevel object. Or if using a curve of verticies use and apply the subsurf modifier before extruding.
The example clip in the last post needs to have edges much more round.
Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll try them and see how they work out.