I need to model tapering bezier curves that follow the surface of a mesh, but I can’t figure out an easy way to do it.
Imagine vines on an egg.
I can get the taper/vine working with the bezier curve, but I don’t know how to make it follow the mesh surface.
Ta.
There’s a way - use the retopo all tool to project an edge on an object.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Nicholasbishop/Using_Retopo (Retopo Mesh Overview)
The geom tool is handy too, though it only allows you to project points on a single face. However, if you create an intersection between two objects an edge is created that lies exactly on the surface.
http://www.hybird.org/~guiea_7/
In both cases you can use the ‘edges to curve’ script to convert the edges to a curve.
here’s another way
add a curve and shape it as you want. you need to have a reasonable density of control points. add a shrinkwrap modifier to the curve, setting the mesh as Ob. set the offset to whatever suits. then apply the modifier. (for some reason if you take that curve into edit mode at this stage, you loose the deform!)
add your bevel object and taper curve and there it is
Thanks for the reply guys. It looks like the retopo is what I’m looking for.
I did try the shrinkwrap, but it’s too hard to get it to do what I want.
Thanks again.
Retopo does not work with a curve, though.
How do I project a curve on to the egg and still keep it a curve?
i think the idea is to start with a mesh (a chain of edges) and convert to curve after retopo.
i still like the shrinkwrap method…bruceless, why can’'t you get it to do what you want?
