NURBS Lesson 01 (tools 1): 8 min.

We'll spend the first two lessons, just going over the basic tools for NURBS. NURBS is a strong free-form modeling tool
that unfortunately has a much steeper learning curve than Box Modeling and Surface Tools. Although its not my first
choice for building a head, some people do prefer this method. It's also a great tool to learn for building other free-form
shapes; like a car, a landscape, or a flowing shape with holes in it. So let's go over curves first.
Under create, shapes, NURBS curves, we have two options; point curve and CV curve. A point curve smoothly draws the
spline from point to point which is easy and simple. A Control Vertex curve uses a lattice to shape the spline. The
advantage here is that we can adjust the weight of each vertex, and in many cases, create the same spline with fewer
points. To do that, we go to Modify, sub-object curve CV. With CV curves we also have the ability to extend our spline,
by dragging one of the ends in the direction we want.
We're not restricted to starting with one of these two types of curves. We can also convert any spline to NURBS. We do
this by using the edit stack button, or attaching it to a NURBS object. If we want to attach our spline to a NURBS object
without losing its original parameters, then we can use Import. This gives us the ability to extract the spline back out.
Fuse is similar to weld. When I fuse two or more vertices together, the vertex becomes purple to let me know. Now it will
select the vertices as if they were one. If I change my mind later, I can unfuse them and pull them back apart. We can
add vertices by using Refine or Insert. The difference between the two is that Refine will adjust the vertices before and
after on the lattice without affecting the shape of the spline. While Insert will put the vertex right where you pick on the
lattice, slightly modifying the spline.
You'll notice that when I select more than one vertex, the name reads: multiple, which is not very helpful. To see which
vertices I actually have selected, we can turn on the Plug-in Shortcut key and hit the shortcut H. Now it gives me more
information.
If I turn off the sub-object menu, I can select this floating toolbox which is a fast way to choose different options that are
also located inside these roll-outs. Like mirror, by clicking and dragging, then picking a direction. A nice one here is blend,
which creates an independent curve between the splines. As I move the splines, the blend updates automatically.
Now on to standard NURBS surfaces. Just like in curves, we can start with either a point surface or a CV surface. We
can hide, fuse, refine and insert, very similar to the way we did with curves. If I open up my toolbox, I see that I have a lot
of the same options here too, like mirror and blend. To blend, I attach the objects, then select the edges.
While blend gives me an independent surface between the two planes, I now have another option. Under sub-object,
surface, I can join the two surfaces and have just one continuous surface. Although blend and join seam really cool, they
don't always work. As your objects become more complicated, the less chance it will blend or join smoothly. So, there's a
third option, that sometimes works well. It is called Surface Approximation. The idea is that you just put your segments
close to one another, and then at render time, it fills in the cracks. First I'll render our two pieces of the same object
without Surface Approximation. And now with. Choose renderer and set your parameters. NURBS tend to be memory
intensive, so this is an inexpensive way to get the same result as a blend.
We're not restricted to starting with one of these two types of surfaces. We can convert any Standard Primitive, except for
the teapot, into a NURBS object.