NURBS Modeling
January 24, 2003
By Brian J. Immel
Putting It All Together: NURBS Island
Using what we have learned from the previous lessons on NURBS modeling and tools, lets model a tropical get-away!
Mountain Range
1. Lets use the Birail 3+ tool to create our mountains. Create two curves in a semi circle shape. These will be our rail curves.
2. Create a series of curves with varying heights to be the high and lows of the mountain.
3. Hit the Birail 3+ tool and select all the riders in a clockwise motion, hit enter and select both the rails.
4. Delete history on the NURBS surface.
5. Create two more curves at the ends of the rail curves. These will be our mountain base curves.
6. Select the curves that form the ends of the mountain and break them into two curves (Edit Curves > Detach Curve).
7. Select the base curves and the two broken curves and hit Surface > Boundary. Repeat this step for the other end of the mountain.
8. Create a layer and put the mountain in it. Name the layer Mountain and turn it to reference mode. Now our mountain is complete.
9. Save your file.
Beach
1. Select the original rail curves and duplicate them.
2. Create another layer and name it Beach. Put the duplicated curves in there.
3. Create two more curves that will close off the rail curves.
4. Attach these new curves and round out the edges so they aren’t so sharp.
5. Move the CVs around so that they reach out beyond the mountain’s base.
6. Delete the curve’s history.
7. Create two more curves (riders for the beach surface) and use the Birail 2 tool.
8. Delete history on the beach surface.
9. Break the two beach rider curves in half.
10. Select both parts of one beach rider and the end curve to the beach and use the Boundary tool to create geometry that would close off the open part of the beach. Repeat this step for the other side.
11. Save your file.
Beach Hut
1. Lets create our beach house of out bamboo stalks. Create a series of NURBS Cirlces as illustrated below.
2. Scale a few circles in and move them closer to another circle (so that they almost sit within a larger circle).
3. Create three separate lofts.
4. Select each loft and Attach Surface.
5. Duplicate the end circles and scale them in.
6. Select the end circles and create a loft out of them. We’ll use these as the thickness of the bamboo shoots.
7. Select the end lofts and Attach Surface.
8. Delete the history of the shoot and center the pivot. Now we have our template bamboo shoot. From here, we’ll duplicate them several times to make walls, a floor and a ceiling.
9. Select all the bamboo shoots and group them (ctrl-g). Also center the pivot on this group.
10. Copy one of the bamboo shoots and place it at the four corners of the floor. Rotate them so that they stand upright as illustrated below.
11. Duplicate the floor group and rename it to roof. Rotate slightly and move the roof group up to the approximate location illustrated in the following image:
12. Duplicate the floor group again and sit it upright as the rear wall.
13. Duplicate the back wall three more times and make adjustments for windows and a door.
14. Create a layer and name it Beach_house. Put all beach house in that layer.
15. Turn the beach and mountain layers back on and scale the beach house group so that it fits nicely on the beach.
Palm Trees With Leaves
1. Turn off all the other layers and create a new layer named Tree.
2. Create a series of circles that goes up like a palm tree. Scale each circle smaller and smaller as you make your way up to the top.
3. Select the bottom circle and select each one up till you reach the top one and create a loft out them. This will be the basis for the trunk of the tree.
4. Now lets create a leaf. Go to the top view and create a series of curves that will outline half of the shape of the leave.
5. Cut the curve and then get rid of the unwanted pieces. Attach the curves.
6. Use Duplicate negative X on Scale to mirror the curves.
7. Reverse curve direction of the new curve.
8. Delete the history of both the curves.
9. Select both of the curves and create a loft out of them.
10. Insert three isoparms running the long length dividing the leave.
11. With the loft still selected, create a lattice with 5x2x5 divisions.
12. Select the lattice points and push and pull them around until you have a nicely sculpted leave.
13. Delete the history.
14. Move the pivot point by hitting the insert key and move it to the beginning of the leave. Hit the insert key again to turn of move pivot option.
15. Move the leave to the top of the tree and duplicate it many times translating, rotating and scaling each one.
16. Select all the leaves and the tree and group them. Center the pivot and put them all in the Tree layer. That completes Nurbs Island.
Other items you could add to this model:
- Canoe
- Volcano top
- Cave in the side of the mountain
- Fruit hanging from the trees
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