Chapter 7. NURBS Curves and Surfaces


You can use NURBS curves to create nearly any objecta medieval knight, a detailed car, an alien, or just about any other object you can imagine. Because they can be highly organic, characterized by sinuous, rounded shapes, NURBS surfaces are great for creating trees, faces, and streamlined vehicles.

For anyone who has used other software programs with Bézier curves (for example, Adobe Illustrator), NURBS curve creation should come quite naturally. Although NURBS curves are different than Bézier curves, you create and edit them similarly. Bézier and NURBS curves represent curved lines whose shape you can edit by translating points along the curve (the placement of the original points was specified at the curve's creation). You can use NURBS curves to create a framework for a final surface, outline the profile of surfaces that you plan to later revolve to create the final surface, and fine-tune a surface (Figure 7.1).

Figure 7.1. You can edit a revolved surface using the original NURBS curve you used to create it.




    Maya for Windows and Macintosh
    MAYA for Windows and MacIntosh
    ISBN: B002W9GND0
    EAN: N/A
    Year: 2004
    Pages: 147
    Authors: Danny Riddell

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