Spline! Help Please!

Hello everyone,

So I am into acrh viz. I have tried to switch to Blender a number of times but I get stumped on things all of the time. Nonetheless, I know Blender is very capable of doing everything I do in other software. With that being said, I have HUGE issues with understanding how SPLINES work in Blender.

So for example, I need to trace over a a picture of a baseboard (or moulding in USA). This is generally how I create baseboard, then just extend it along whatever part of interior I need. But in Blender to me it seems so complicated. Press V, then choose automatic, or vector, or free…I tried to attempt creating a baseboard after reading on Blender Manual, but no success.

Not just for baseboard, creating nice vases, and other misc things to fill in the scene…seems much harder. PLEASE, if anyone has good tutorials on how to use Blenders curves, I’d appreciate it. I also tried to search for tutorials with not much success. Or if someone has a method to share, I’d be happy to hear it.

Thank you

I tried two methods. One, using splines I made a spline of the shape of the baseboard, and a spline of the shape of the room. I then used the shape of the baseboard as the bevel object of the shape of the room. The other way I did it was to make a face with the shape of the baseboard and then just extruded it like a piece of wooden stock, no splines needed.

  1. Find a picture with the shape of the baseboard that you want. Press N to get the 3D View Properties menu. Find the Background Image panel. Check the checkbox and then add your baseboard image. Press Numpad 1 for the front view and press Numpad 5 to get an ortho projection. You should see the baseboard image now.

Press Shift A to add an item, choose Curves from the popup menu and then Bezier from the secondary menu. In the Tool Shelf on the left side of the 3D View, in the Add Bezier panel, check the Align to View checkbox. Now you should see an orange curve in the 3D View.

Press Tab to get into Edit mode. Move the left hand control point to the top of your baseboard image. There are 3 dots to each control point. Move the center of the three to the top of your baseboard image. The other two connected dots are your control handles. They control how the the curve approachs or leaves the control point.

Now move the second control point to the other end of the curve coming from the top of the baseboard in your reference image.

For both of the control points there is one control handle that is pointed toward the curve with the arrows. That curve is the path of the Bezier(Bez zee yay!) curve

Select one of the control handles that point toward the curve. Press V to get the handle menu. I choose Vector because it sets the control handle to point the curve directly at the other control point. That’s a good place to start. Now choose the other control handle that points toward the curve. It’s connected to the other control point. Press V and choose Vector again. You’ll notice that the Bezier curve is now a straight line between the control points.

Now you can gently move the control handles so that the Bezier curve approximates the curve in your reference image.That section of the curve is done.

Now you need more control points. Make sure the second control point is selected. Move your cursor to where you want the new third control point. Press Ctrl and the LMB (Left Mouse Button) to make a new Control Point. Set the control handles pointing towards this new section of the Bezier curve to Vector, and then gently move them out so that the curve approximates the curve of that section of your reference image.

Repeat this and work your way to the other end of the baseboard profile. When finished, press the Tab key to return to object mode. Name the curve Baseboard Shape.

Now Press A to deselect all objects. Press Shift A to make another Bezier Curve. This one is the path of the bottom of the wall.

Get into Edit mode. Use the Ctrl + LMB to make control points at your corners of the wall. In my test, I worked counter clockwise. Once you have all of the corners done, press A to select all of the points, then press V and select Vector. The walls are straight and you do not need to do anything more to this Bezier curve.

Get back into object mode. In the Data context of the Properties panel,(button shows a curve with vertices at the end) Click on the Bevel Object button and choose the Baseboard Shape.

You should e able to figure out how to modify this for your own use.

  1. Get the Front view, Ortho mode with your reference image. Press Shift A and choose Plane. Check the Align to View checkbox in the Tool Shelf. Go into Edit mode and delete one of the vertices. Now place the other vertices along the curve of your reference image. Use Ctrl + LMB to make more along the curve of the reference image until you are done. Then select all the vertices and press F to make a face. Then press E and extruce the shape along the Y axis. Now you have a piece of baseboard molding. You can cut it or stretch it to length.

  2. To do a vase test, I used the same basic shape that I did in 2). But instead of extruding it, I used the Tools tab in the Tool Shelf and chose Spin. I made a 360 degree spin with the axis 0 x, 0 y, 1 z. I adjusted any off-centered ness by moving all the vertices in the proper axis.

I hope this helps. Attached is the file I made while working through the steps.

baseboard2.blend (473 KB)

Thanks for giving me this advice. I can now make the baseboard with the spline method you told me about. I can also make a vase but what I do is outline it then convert it to a mesh and then use the screw modifier. Then if I want detail, I just solidify it and then add another sub d modifier.

I just don’t understand the room part you talked about. I’m not sure how you go about getting the baseboard around the whole room. At this point, I would just create one piece of baseboard and then just duplicate it and place it along the room.

Well, to do it with only Bezier curves, I’d take your floor plan and mark out a Bezier curve that matches where the walls are. Put in a control point for each corner. Since most rooms have flat walls and not smooth curves, I’d then choose a Vector setting for all the control points and control handles so that they make straight segments. Then I’d take the Bezier curve that represents the profile of the baseboard and use it as the Bevel Object for the Floor Plan Bezier curve.

My second option was similar to your method except that I made the outline for the baseboard starting with a plane instead of a Bezier curve.

In the end, do what you feel is easiest and most comfortable. In your spare time, play with the Bezier curves, they can be quite powerful.

Just one thing to be aware of when using curves for stuff like molding or trim. If you have corners (vector handles), the taper isn’t going to be right to keep the profile between sections. The profile section will rotate in the corner, but it will not scale to maintain the profile thickness along the path. Such that the shape gets narrower in the corner. So a profile on a curve is best used for curvy stuff.

To get around that on objects with sharp corners you may just want to mesh extrude a profile shape and use the shear command to make corner transitons. Shear works based on view, so it’s a good idea to switch to orthographic. A value of 1 for shear results in a 45° bevel suitable for a 90° corner.

i didnt read much here, but i would like to say that blender is not a strong software for splining. try Cinema4D, that software is REALLY good with splining, but bad at polymodelling. blenders strongest side is polymodelling to be honest. we do have curves, but i barely ever use it.

but really, try cinema4d for splining, i think that is THE best software for that.
i´ve worked with blender, c4d max zbrush and maya, so those are the programs that im comparing it with.

I know Cinema 4D. I used it as my go to software. That is why its so hard for me to figure the spline modeling out in Blender. Also, poly modeling in Cinema 4D is not that bad, yes they could improve a lot but it gets the job done. Where they lack in poly modeling tools, they excel in splines.

Thanks everyone for the help.

then i would say use c4d for splining, at lesst for now. and i find c4d awefull at polymodelling, and the reason being you have to swich tools all the time and the keybinds are all over the keyboard. and some keys that i find essential is not bound, like swiching between point, edge and poly (vertex edge face in blender). i bound them to 1 2 3 since i use alt for navigation.

also, in order to extrude a face in cinema, you have to use face select, select it and then extrude it, in blender you can be in whatever mode you want, if ur in poly you can select all 4 verteses and extrude.

also common keys like U+L M+F, they are so scattered in cinema, i find my hand swinging back and forward on the keyboard when working in cinema, but in blender the hand stays fixed all the time saving me a lot of time and i never have to take my eyes off the screen.
thats why i hate poly in c4d compared to blender.