Hi, i am very interested in using Curves. I just don’t know how. Im using blender 2.5 and i know how to do 2D curves. But when im trying to do 3D curves i cant figure it out. Or maybe Curves isn’t the tool i need. I want to model like a chair or a Car. Mainly a car, how would i get that subtle curve that you see on the door of the car? and what the difference between NURBS and Bezier Curves? Thanks
Unfortunately blender’s curves are pretty limited and suitable mostly for things like 2d shapes, extruding profiles and animation along curves. If you want to make a car, polygon modelling with subsurf is the way to go in blender, it subdivides the polygons to make a smoother shape that can be made to look a bit like nurbs modeling in other software.
Another useful modifier is the edgesplit, it allows you to make some edges sharp while using smooth shading on the model.
Some people even apply the subsurf modifier after making the general shape, so they can tweak every vertex separately or even make the curved mesh poly by poly from scratch, good for adding small details to the surface (note though that you cannot “unapply” the modifier after it’s applied.
Thank you so much, i really get it now…finally. Ive also heard of multiresolution, is that similar to subsurf?
Yes but multiresolution is mostly used for sculpting only, since it’s not as interactive as the subsurf. In 2.49 you cannot even change the topology as long as multires is activated.
Multiresolution also doesn’t support creases.
I’m not sure if you’re familiar with sculpting workflow as opposed to normal modeling, but it means you start with a very simple mesh, then you use multires to raise the polycounts very high and you edit the mesh with brushes instead of normal modeling tools. After making a detailed model you use the re-topology tool to make a lower-poly mesh with good topology onto the sculpted shape and then you can “bake” the details into a texture.