Nasty Curves

# 1 16-05-2005 , 07:29 PM

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Please help its urgent!

Ok, is there any NURBS geek around here this loft tool is killing me!

I made a closed shape curve wich afther I offset to get the inner shape and use the loft tool I get this weard surface.
I tried deleting the history,reversing the curve direction,rebuilding the curve but nothing!

Why...?

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# 2 16-05-2005 , 08:44 PM

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NURBS geek? Thats me.

Your best bet would be just to planar the outer curve and trim the inside. have no frickin clue y its doin that. I have tried making that when i saw your thread, it does the EXACT same thing for me. nope, your just gonna not have to do it that way.

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# 3 16-05-2005 , 10:05 PM

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Are you lofting it from to seperat curves, I think that it has to be to. Not sure though.

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# 4 17-05-2005 , 09:23 AM

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I am trying to form the surface between those two curves.

Tried with planar tool but it wont work cuz the inner curve is a little bit higher then the outter curve so I gess the loft tool is the only way to do it,and it will give me nice geometry so I can put golden shader on it so the light will bounce off propretly.

If you look at the surface geometry flow you'll see that each CV tries to connect the other CV but on the other side!

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# 5 17-05-2005 , 11:00 AM

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I think Maya is being picky with the offset settings. I had to experiment some, but I did get it to work. My offset settings are attached. Btw, I think you could get away with considerably less CVs to define the same shape.

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# 6 17-05-2005 , 12:13 PM

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I tried the curve aswell, and I didn't have any problems. Here is my offset curve options.Your problem might be in your option settings. ( Tip ) click on edit, and select reset settings. That will switch everything back to default. The only thing I modified was the offset distance. Everything else is at default. My loft options are at default aswell with nothing modified.

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# 7 17-05-2005 , 03:22 PM

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thanks!

Yes, I tried all that but it still brakes!
But I found out the more you offset the more CVs will be added to offseted curve,and more lofted geometry will be acting weard until it brakes up completly!

Is maybe the reason becaouse I made thoese sharp corners with 3CVs in the exact same place with snap tool?

If it cant be done with curves, can I offset somehow with polys!

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# 8 17-05-2005 , 04:38 PM

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Increasing offset distance does not increase CV count ( polysmoothing increases CV's ). I have tried the curve 3 times allready with a high CV count, and I get good results. Yes you can do it in Polys but it will be more time consuming. Retrace your steps, and post them here. I shure you can figure this out, you are simply missing a step. It happens to all of us, so don't give up.

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# 9 17-05-2005 , 07:47 PM

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Ok,was working a while on this curve problem and I figured that if I get rid of these sharp corners I am able to offset and loft with no problem!
So I made the surface from two parts.
First one is made out of linear curve (EP),and the other part out of cubic curve.
Now problem is I cant use planar,cuz I have 2 curves forming one shape and if I attach with connect or blend option surface again acts wild.

Here's my problem approach,not so good but I got the loft right!

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# 10 17-05-2005 , 08:19 PM

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By the way here's the shading problem.

Why cant things just go smooth once in life time!
Is there a way out of this mess???

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# 11 18-05-2005 , 04:11 AM

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Thats an awsome logo man, but I am ta a loss as to what yor shading problem is.It looks good. Are you using Maya to render, or are you using Mental Ray? As for the curve, could you post a work in process ( screen shots ) of everything your doing. I don't under stand why you have to use a linear curve and a cubic curve to achieve a loft?

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# 12 18-05-2005 , 07:31 AM

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i think i know what your shading problem is... the answer to make nurbs seem continuous at rendertime is
a) use polys or subds user added image

b) put all the surfaces under the same one node (for example group them together) and then use mental ray to render.

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# 13 18-05-2005 , 03:49 PM

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Hi!

Its rendered with Maya software, simple anisotropic shader setup!

Why cubic and linear?
Because it looks like an offset tool doesnt work best with rounded shapes on one and corner shapes on the other side!
The only way to produce sharp corners with cubic curves is to put 3 CVs on the same spot wich causes problems when offseting and lofting!
I dont use curves very much and now I am punished! :-)

Do you mean I should convert thoes surfaces to polys or subds?

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# 14 18-05-2005 , 04:50 PM

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Thats alot of hoops to jump through just to get the shape you wanted for a cool logo. The easiest way to have done the logo in my opinion is to use the Bevel Plus tool. Try using Mental Ray ( if you have it ) for your next render. It can do alot more than the Maya renderer can do. I made this logo for my avatar. It was made from text curves, with the Bevel Plus tool and a silver shader, rendered in Mental Ray. The same process can be done with custom curves.

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# 15 18-05-2005 , 09:30 PM

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Dude that looks awsome,Mental Ray you say...
I suggest you to add couple of silver spheres tossed up around, it will give more...something to the picture!Cant find that expresion in English...
Maybe extrude the top surface in a little bit,something like inverse bevel operation, that will give more specularity shapes on surfaces!
Try things...

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