Subdivision modeling in Alias

Tutorial resources

These downloadable resources will be used to complete this tutorial:

Subdiv_Modeling_Tutorial_Files.zip - (58 mb)

Transcript

00:02

In Alias, we can create smooth NURBS models

00:05

using subdivision modeling techniques.

00:09

A subdivision object has an orange wire frame

00:12

but sometimes it will be shown green if it's got construction history

00:15

like Symmetry Align here.

00:19

The individual patches are known as limit surfaces

00:22

and we don't manipulate these directly.

00:24

Instead we use the subdivision control cage

00:28

that I can show with this box shading mode

00:30

and manipulate by turning on the control vertices.

00:35

And then I can use the normal Selection and Transform tools

00:39

to shape the subdivision either in the box shading

00:42

or more typically with surface shading.

00:45

And you can see that all the limit surfaces update and stay connected and smooth.

00:51

And because these are NURBS surfaces, I can create a hybrid model.

00:56

So you can maintain the simplicity of the SubD control cage

01:00

but also use traditional NURBS trimming and surface tools.

01:05

So here I've projected curves and trimmed holes in the limit surfaces

01:09

and added a surface filet

01:11

and the same up here

01:13

all with history and without affecting or over-complicating the SubD topology.

01:19

So you can present a finished design but keep the subdivision model easy to change.

01:26

And the topology of the control cage is key

01:28

to sculpting more complex shapes like this car.

01:32

So we're generally aiming for quads where possible

01:35

with a good flow in both directions.

01:38

But we do have the flexibility with subdivisions to use star

01:41

points like these five edges coming into one point here,

01:45

and n-gons like this five sided one

01:48

and three sides down here.

01:51

And this thicker edge is a crease on the subdivision cage

01:55

which gives a sharp edge on the limit surfaces.

01:59

So if I check the G2 curvature continuity,

02:02

all the non-creased surfaces are smoothly connected.

02:06

And where a crease is specified, you get G0 position continuity.

02:13

You won't get production quality highlights,

02:15

but you do maintain a smooth coherent object as you make changes.

02:20

And this means that you can focus on shaping

02:22

your design by moving the control cage vertices.

02:26

And the subdivision math does all the work

02:28

of keeping those limit surfaces smooth and connected,

02:31

which is a big time-saver around tricky blended areas like this wheel arch.

Video transcript

00:02

In Alias, we can create smooth NURBS models

00:05

using subdivision modeling techniques.

00:09

A subdivision object has an orange wire frame

00:12

but sometimes it will be shown green if it's got construction history

00:15

like Symmetry Align here.

00:19

The individual patches are known as limit surfaces

00:22

and we don't manipulate these directly.

00:24

Instead we use the subdivision control cage

00:28

that I can show with this box shading mode

00:30

and manipulate by turning on the control vertices.

00:35

And then I can use the normal Selection and Transform tools

00:39

to shape the subdivision either in the box shading

00:42

or more typically with surface shading.

00:45

And you can see that all the limit surfaces update and stay connected and smooth.

00:51

And because these are NURBS surfaces, I can create a hybrid model.

00:56

So you can maintain the simplicity of the SubD control cage

01:00

but also use traditional NURBS trimming and surface tools.

01:05

So here I've projected curves and trimmed holes in the limit surfaces

01:09

and added a surface filet

01:11

and the same up here

01:13

all with history and without affecting or over-complicating the SubD topology.

01:19

So you can present a finished design but keep the subdivision model easy to change.

01:26

And the topology of the control cage is key

01:28

to sculpting more complex shapes like this car.

01:32

So we're generally aiming for quads where possible

01:35

with a good flow in both directions.

01:38

But we do have the flexibility with subdivisions to use star

01:41

points like these five edges coming into one point here,

01:45

and n-gons like this five sided one

01:48

and three sides down here.

01:51

And this thicker edge is a crease on the subdivision cage

01:55

which gives a sharp edge on the limit surfaces.

01:59

So if I check the G2 curvature continuity,

02:02

all the non-creased surfaces are smoothly connected.

02:06

And where a crease is specified, you get G0 position continuity.

02:13

You won't get production quality highlights,

02:15

but you do maintain a smooth coherent object as you make changes.

02:20

And this means that you can focus on shaping

02:22

your design by moving the control cage vertices.

02:26

And the subdivision math does all the work

02:28

of keeping those limit surfaces smooth and connected,

02:31

which is a big time-saver around tricky blended areas like this wheel arch.

Transcript

00:03

If you prefer to stay in the Default Workspace,

00:06

then you can access all of the Subdivision tools here in the palette.

00:11

And if you use a shelf,

00:12

you could use the middle mouse button to drag that onto the shelf as a separate tab.

00:17

And that opens out all of the tools onto a single level

00:20

which makes them easy to access.

00:24

And you'll also want easy access to

00:25

the subdivision selection tools here under point types

00:30

and here under SubD.

00:32

So you can either add these to your shelf as well

00:35

or like I've done here, to your marking menu.

00:40

Alternatively, you can go directly to the dedicated Subdivision Workspace

00:45

and this has a shelf docked at the

00:47

top with most of the subdivision tools already added

00:50

and the Symmetry tool here and some useful curve tools.

00:55

The marking menus have Pick Vertex, Edge Face and Face and Edge Loop already added.

01:01

And over here in the Control Panel, there's a dedicated SubD panel shelf

01:06

with Transform, Display and Navigation tools.

01:10

And these have been set up with the default Maya hotkeys.

01:14

And because we're using numeric hotkeys and the letter R which is reserved,

01:19

you need to turn off the Auto prompt line mode here for those single hotkeys to work.

01:25

So you can use 2 for box shading

01:30

and 4 to display the vertices.

01:33

And then I could use the marking menu to pick an edge loop

01:37

and then R for Scale

01:41

and W for Move

01:44

and make changes to your model.

01:47

And then when you're finished, you can use 5 to turn off the controls.

01:53

And finally, the palette isn't shown by default,

01:56

but you can open it at any time from the Windows menu

01:59

if you need access to any of the palette tools.

Video transcript

00:03

If you prefer to stay in the Default Workspace,

00:06

then you can access all of the Subdivision tools here in the palette.

00:11

And if you use a shelf,

00:12

you could use the middle mouse button to drag that onto the shelf as a separate tab.

00:17

And that opens out all of the tools onto a single level

00:20

which makes them easy to access.

00:24

And you'll also want easy access to

00:25

the subdivision selection tools here under point types

00:30

and here under SubD.

00:32

So you can either add these to your shelf as well

00:35

or like I've done here, to your marking menu.

00:40

Alternatively, you can go directly to the dedicated Subdivision Workspace

00:45

and this has a shelf docked at the

00:47

top with most of the subdivision tools already added

00:50

and the Symmetry tool here and some useful curve tools.

00:55

The marking menus have Pick Vertex, Edge Face and Face and Edge Loop already added.

01:01

And over here in the Control Panel, there's a dedicated SubD panel shelf

01:06

with Transform, Display and Navigation tools.

01:10

And these have been set up with the default Maya hotkeys.

01:14

And because we're using numeric hotkeys and the letter R which is reserved,

01:19

you need to turn off the Auto prompt line mode here for those single hotkeys to work.

01:25

So you can use 2 for box shading

01:30

and 4 to display the vertices.

01:33

And then I could use the marking menu to pick an edge loop

01:37

and then R for Scale

01:41

and W for Move

01:44

and make changes to your model.

01:47

And then when you're finished, you can use 5 to turn off the controls.

01:53

And finally, the palette isn't shown by default,

01:56

but you can open it at any time from the Windows menu

01:59

if you need access to any of the palette tools.

Transcript

00:03

I can use primitives to create some of the basic shapes for this bike.

00:07

There's four subdivision primitives here on the palette

00:10

and up here on the shelf.

00:13

So I'll just start with the SubD cylinder

00:16

and it says enter the position.

00:17

So if I click in the perspective view, it gets created in a column orientation

00:22

centered on the ground plane.

00:24

So if I wanted to do this part of the exhaust, for example,

00:27

I'd need to rotate this by clicking here

00:30

and typing 90 degrees in the prompt line.

00:33

Alternatively, if I just delete that one,

00:36

what most users do is first choose an orthographic view and then place the cylinder

00:41

so that it's already in the orientation that I wanted.

00:44

And that just saves me doing the rotation.

00:48

So then I can use the Transform manipulator to

00:51

get that into the right shape and position.

00:56

For the front forks. I can use another cylinder.

00:59

And this time I'll use the top view to place it

01:02

and then I can use the left orthographic view to stretch it and scale it

01:07

and move it roughly into position.

01:11

And now if I rotate it,

01:12

you'll see that the Transform manipulator goes with it when I'm in this Pivot mode.

01:16

So the scaling still works nicely.

01:19

And here it can be useful to use the Move Pivot tool to control that pivot position.

01:24

And I'll just drag it so you can see the green pivot point.

01:28

And I'm just gonna hold down the Ctrl key

01:30

to snap it accurately to this vertex point,

01:34

so that now when I do a transform,

01:36

the scaling and rotation is working from that

01:38

pivot point in a much more manageable way.

01:42

And I've always got the option to switch to Global if

01:44

I prefer to work in the grid directions around the centroid.

01:49

So I'm gonna leave these two as simple cylinders.

01:54

But for the seat, I'll need a more sculpted shape.

01:56

So I'll start with a box primitive and I'll double click or Shift-click

01:59

to open the option window.

02:02

But first, I'll just place it

02:04

and shade it

02:06

and scale it a bit

02:08

and it doesn't look much like a box because it's

02:10

the control cage shape that box is referring to.

02:15

So I can get that a bit wider.

02:17

And now it's really important to keep this

02:19

window open so you can change these settings.

02:22

So I can make a guess as to what I'm going to need

02:26

and I can continue to transform the box.

02:30

But as soon as I close that window, I can't get back to it.

02:32

There's no Query Edit History on SubDs,

02:36

but that's not a problem because let's say I now spend some time sculpting the seat,

02:41

either using the Transform tool or the individual Move,

02:44

Rotate and Scale tools whichever you prefer.

02:50

So I'll get more of a seat shape.

02:52

I can bring up the middle a bit

02:54

and then maybe drop this center part down

02:59

and then maybe rotate the whole seat and move it up a bit.

03:03

And then now if I need to change the number of divisions in either direction,

03:06

I can use Delete and Insert.

03:09

So if I use Pick Edge Loop,

03:11

I can then just hit Delete on the keyboard to remove one

03:14

and to add divisions, I can use the Insert tool here.

03:17

And there's two options.

03:20

Parallel is the default,

03:21

which means I select an edge loop in the direction that I want an extra one in

03:25

and then just drag it to the location I want.

03:28

And I can do that in either shading mode,

03:31

but I'm gonna undo that one.

03:32

And then this time I'll use the Perpendicular option instead.

03:37

And here I just click on any edge to break in a new edge loop across it.

03:43

And it's up to you which one you prefer to use.

03:47

So you can keep sculpting and adding or deleting

03:50

divisions until you get the shape you want.

03:53

And you can create some quite useful

03:55

results starting from simple primitive shapes.

Video transcript

00:03

I can use primitives to create some of the basic shapes for this bike.

00:07

There's four subdivision primitives here on the palette

00:10

and up here on the shelf.

00:13

So I'll just start with the SubD cylinder

00:16

and it says enter the position.

00:17

So if I click in the perspective view, it gets created in a column orientation

00:22

centered on the ground plane.

00:24

So if I wanted to do this part of the exhaust, for example,

00:27

I'd need to rotate this by clicking here

00:30

and typing 90 degrees in the prompt line.

00:33

Alternatively, if I just delete that one,

00:36

what most users do is first choose an orthographic view and then place the cylinder

00:41

so that it's already in the orientation that I wanted.

00:44

And that just saves me doing the rotation.

00:48

So then I can use the Transform manipulator to

00:51

get that into the right shape and position.

00:56

For the front forks. I can use another cylinder.

00:59

And this time I'll use the top view to place it

01:02

and then I can use the left orthographic view to stretch it and scale it

01:07

and move it roughly into position.

01:11

And now if I rotate it,

01:12

you'll see that the Transform manipulator goes with it when I'm in this Pivot mode.

01:16

So the scaling still works nicely.

01:19

And here it can be useful to use the Move Pivot tool to control that pivot position.

01:24

And I'll just drag it so you can see the green pivot point.

01:28

And I'm just gonna hold down the Ctrl key

01:30

to snap it accurately to this vertex point,

01:34

so that now when I do a transform,

01:36

the scaling and rotation is working from that

01:38

pivot point in a much more manageable way.

01:42

And I've always got the option to switch to Global if

01:44

I prefer to work in the grid directions around the centroid.

01:49

So I'm gonna leave these two as simple cylinders.

01:54

But for the seat, I'll need a more sculpted shape.

01:56

So I'll start with a box primitive and I'll double click or Shift-click

01:59

to open the option window.

02:02

But first, I'll just place it

02:04

and shade it

02:06

and scale it a bit

02:08

and it doesn't look much like a box because it's

02:10

the control cage shape that box is referring to.

02:15

So I can get that a bit wider.

02:17

And now it's really important to keep this

02:19

window open so you can change these settings.

02:22

So I can make a guess as to what I'm going to need

02:26

and I can continue to transform the box.

02:30

But as soon as I close that window, I can't get back to it.

02:32

There's no Query Edit History on SubDs,

02:36

but that's not a problem because let's say I now spend some time sculpting the seat,

02:41

either using the Transform tool or the individual Move,

02:44

Rotate and Scale tools whichever you prefer.

02:50

So I'll get more of a seat shape.

02:52

I can bring up the middle a bit

02:54

and then maybe drop this center part down

02:59

and then maybe rotate the whole seat and move it up a bit.

03:03

And then now if I need to change the number of divisions in either direction,

03:06

I can use Delete and Insert.

03:09

So if I use Pick Edge Loop,

03:11

I can then just hit Delete on the keyboard to remove one

03:14

and to add divisions, I can use the Insert tool here.

03:17

And there's two options.

03:20

Parallel is the default,

03:21

which means I select an edge loop in the direction that I want an extra one in

03:25

and then just drag it to the location I want.

03:28

And I can do that in either shading mode,

03:31

but I'm gonna undo that one.

03:32

And then this time I'll use the Perpendicular option instead.

03:37

And here I just click on any edge to break in a new edge loop across it.

03:43

And it's up to you which one you prefer to use.

03:47

So you can keep sculpting and adding or deleting

03:50

divisions until you get the shape you want.

03:53

And you can create some quite useful

03:55

results starting from simple primitive shapes.

Transcript

00:03

Curves can be used to extrude, sweep and revolve SubD shapes.

00:08

On the shelf, this Curve tool here is set to degree 1

00:12

and that will create straight line polygonal curves.

00:15

And so I can trace this roof shape, for example

00:18

and also specify the SubD layout at the same time.

00:23

So I'll use Extrude first and I'll double-click to open the options

00:27

and I'll need to make sure that the Pick type is set to Curves / Surfaces.

00:33

And then I just extrude with the manipulator

00:36

and the faces are created exactly where my curved segments were placed.

00:41

And the nice thing about Extrude is that I can just hit Extrude Again or space bar

00:45

and continue building up the roof shape.

00:49

And because these second and third extrusions were from the SubD edges,

00:53

they'll be welded together to create a smooth shape.

00:58

Now, I don't have to use a degree 1 curve. I could change the settings here

01:04

or I can use the curve tools on the palette.

01:08

And I like to use the Edit Point Curve which defaults to degree 3.

01:13

So if I want to do this hood, I can just place a start

01:16

and end point

01:18

and then pick and move the interior CVs.

01:21

And I'm going to give it a little bit of an extreme shape here.

01:25

So this time when I use Extrude on this curve

01:29

because it's a smooth curve, it's got to be rebuilt into flat divisions.

01:39

maybe four.

01:41

And then with this uniform mode,

01:43

initially, it's giving me equally spaced faces.

01:47

But because I've got more shape at the front of the curve here,

01:50

I can use this Curvature Bias slider to change

01:53

the spacing to give me a much better match.

01:56

And there's also a Parametric option

01:59

which takes the internal curve structure to define the face spacing.

02:04

But you do need to keep this option window open to make these changes.

02:08

There's no Query Edit History to reopen it

02:12

and there's also no history link with the curve either,

02:15

so changing the curve shape won't update the subdivision.

02:20

So I can have a look at the wheel arch curve now.

02:23

And I can use this Circle tool which defaults to degree 5

02:27

so I'll just take that and place it in the side view

02:30

and scale it up.

02:33

So that's a smooth curve.

02:34

But I can always decide later if I want to change

02:37

it to a polygonal curve by using the Control Panel here

02:40

to put the degree back to 1.

02:44

If I want to remove these lower segments,

02:47

then on the palette, I can use the Object Edit Detach tool

02:51

and use Ctrl-snap on this point and go

02:55

and the same on this one.

02:57

And that separates that part which I can then just delete.

03:03

So then I can move that out to where the wheel arch should be.

03:07

And then I'll just move these bottom CVs inwards a bit

03:12

and then I'll just close the palette

03:14

and I'll use Extrude again.

03:17

And here I have a choice of Normal or Global direction,

03:21

but I'll typically change this on the manipulator.

03:25

So if I switch to Normal here,

03:27

I can grow this SubD

03:29

out nicely from the curve

03:31

and then maybe just move it inwards a bit to create a wheel arch rim.

03:38

Now, if I have a look at the back here,

03:40

I've got some curves I can use with Sweep.

03:44

So I'll open Sweep and I'll start by selecting

03:47

the profile curve or curves here and then Done.

03:52

And then I'll select just a single rail to start with

03:56

and build it.

03:58

And because this was a smooth curve, then I need to choose how many divisions I want.

04:02

So maybe four.

04:05

And if I take a look in the top view,

04:07

you can see that the Parallel mode keeps the profile parallel

04:12

and Radial maintains the angle to the rail.

04:18

So I'll do a Next

04:19

and select this profile.

04:22

And this time I'll use two rails and I've got to be

04:25

careful to select the curve and not the SubD edge here.

04:29

And that then sweeps between those two rails.

04:34

Up at the front, I've got some tire curves that I can revolve

04:38

and I'll just do a Hide Unselected

04:41

and a Look At.

04:44

So this is a degree 3 curve with quite a detailed shape

04:48

and a pivot point here in the center.

04:51

So I'll just use the Revolve tool

04:54

and it defaults to the Z axis

04:57

so I can change that to Y.

04:59

And this Local Pivot setting here uses the curve pivot point as the revolve center.

05:05

So I could change that using Move Pivot before I revolve

05:10

or in my case,

05:11

I can use the Global option because the wheel is centered on the grid axes

05:18

and I've got a bit of zig-zagging here

05:20

so I can change any of these settings. So I'm gonna use the Curvature Bias

05:25

and I often find that just below one gives the best result

05:30

and you can have a look at the limit surfaces to refine that further.

05:35

So then I can do the other curve as well to complete the tire.

05:43

So curves are a useful way to get started with your initial SubD shapes.

Video transcript

00:03

Curves can be used to extrude, sweep and revolve SubD shapes.

00:08

On the shelf, this Curve tool here is set to degree 1

00:12

and that will create straight line polygonal curves.

00:15

And so I can trace this roof shape, for example

00:18

and also specify the SubD layout at the same time.

00:23

So I'll use Extrude first and I'll double-click to open the options

00:27

and I'll need to make sure that the Pick type is set to Curves / Surfaces.

00:33

And then I just extrude with the manipulator

00:36

and the faces are created exactly where my curved segments were placed.

00:41

And the nice thing about Extrude is that I can just hit Extrude Again or space bar

00:45

and continue building up the roof shape.

00:49

And because these second and third extrusions were from the SubD edges,

00:53

they'll be welded together to create a smooth shape.

00:58

Now, I don't have to use a degree 1 curve. I could change the settings here

01:04

or I can use the curve tools on the palette.

01:08

And I like to use the Edit Point Curve which defaults to degree 3.

01:13

So if I want to do this hood, I can just place a start

01:16

and end point

01:18

and then pick and move the interior CVs.

01:21

And I'm going to give it a little bit of an extreme shape here.

01:25

So this time when I use Extrude on this curve

01:29

because it's a smooth curve, it's got to be rebuilt into flat divisions.

01:39

maybe four.

01:41

And then with this uniform mode,

01:43

initially, it's giving me equally spaced faces.

01:47

But because I've got more shape at the front of the curve here,

01:50

I can use this Curvature Bias slider to change

01:53

the spacing to give me a much better match.

01:56

And there's also a Parametric option

01:59

which takes the internal curve structure to define the face spacing.

02:04

But you do need to keep this option window open to make these changes.

02:08

There's no Query Edit History to reopen it

02:12

and there's also no history link with the curve either,

02:15

so changing the curve shape won't update the subdivision.

02:20

So I can have a look at the wheel arch curve now.

02:23

And I can use this Circle tool which defaults to degree 5

02:27

so I'll just take that and place it in the side view

02:30

and scale it up.

02:33

So that's a smooth curve.

02:34

But I can always decide later if I want to change

02:37

it to a polygonal curve by using the Control Panel here

02:40

to put the degree back to 1.

02:44

If I want to remove these lower segments,

02:47

then on the palette, I can use the Object Edit Detach tool

02:51

and use Ctrl-snap on this point and go

02:55

and the same on this one.

02:57

And that separates that part which I can then just delete.

03:03

So then I can move that out to where the wheel arch should be.

03:07

And then I'll just move these bottom CVs inwards a bit

03:12

and then I'll just close the palette

03:14

and I'll use Extrude again.

03:17

And here I have a choice of Normal or Global direction,

03:21

but I'll typically change this on the manipulator.

03:25

So if I switch to Normal here,

03:27

I can grow this SubD

03:29

out nicely from the curve

03:31

and then maybe just move it inwards a bit to create a wheel arch rim.

03:38

Now, if I have a look at the back here,

03:40

I've got some curves I can use with Sweep.

03:44

So I'll open Sweep and I'll start by selecting

03:47

the profile curve or curves here and then Done.

03:52

And then I'll select just a single rail to start with

03:56

and build it.

03:58

And because this was a smooth curve, then I need to choose how many divisions I want.

04:02

So maybe four.

04:05

And if I take a look in the top view,

04:07

you can see that the Parallel mode keeps the profile parallel

04:12

and Radial maintains the angle to the rail.

04:18

So I'll do a Next

04:19

and select this profile.

04:22

And this time I'll use two rails and I've got to be

04:25

careful to select the curve and not the SubD edge here.

04:29

And that then sweeps between those two rails.

04:34

Up at the front, I've got some tire curves that I can revolve

04:38

and I'll just do a Hide Unselected

04:41

and a Look At.

04:44

So this is a degree 3 curve with quite a detailed shape

04:48

and a pivot point here in the center.

04:51

So I'll just use the Revolve tool

04:54

and it defaults to the Z axis

04:57

so I can change that to Y.

04:59

And this Local Pivot setting here uses the curve pivot point as the revolve center.

05:05

So I could change that using Move Pivot before I revolve

05:10

or in my case,

05:11

I can use the Global option because the wheel is centered on the grid axes

05:18

and I've got a bit of zig-zagging here

05:20

so I can change any of these settings. So I'm gonna use the Curvature Bias

05:25

and I often find that just below one gives the best result

05:30

and you can have a look at the limit surfaces to refine that further.

05:35

So then I can do the other curve as well to complete the tire.

05:43

So curves are a useful way to get started with your initial SubD shapes.

Transcript

00:02

Retopo is a tool set that uses the mouse buttons and the Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys

00:07

to provide the same functions as these subdivision build and edit tools.

00:12

And it's similar to Maya's Quad Draw

00:13

in that you can build on to target meshes

00:16

or NURBS surfaces

00:18

or onto a view plane.

00:21

I'm going to use this mesh as a target.

00:24

But first, I'll just make it a bit more transparent so I can use it as an underlay.

00:28

Then I can double-click on the

00:30

Retopo tool

00:31

and make sure that I've got history turned on

00:34

and the first prompt is for the target.

00:37

So I'll use this body side and hit Next or space bar.

00:41

And the second prompt is for projecting an existing SubD, but I haven't got one,

00:45

so I'll go straight to the Go button

00:47

or space bar again.

00:49

So then I get this hotkey help card here which shows all the tools I can use.

00:55

And so I start by placing some dots on the mesh roughly where I want the vertices to be.

01:02

And you can see that they've been placed directly onto the mesh.

01:07

And then if I hold the Shift key down,

01:09

I get a preview of the possible quads and then I just click to build the ones I want.

01:15

And then I could do more dots.

01:17

Or this time I can use the Shift key to extrude edges by clicking and dragging.

01:22

And then without the Shift key, I can adjust a vertex

01:26

or an edge or even a face.

01:31

When I have a longer edge loop,

01:33

then Shift with the left mouse button

01:35

extrudes just one edge.

01:37

So I'll do another one of those.

01:42

And then Shift with the middle mouse button extrudes a whole edge loop.

01:46

So without Shift, I can tidy those vertices a bit.

01:51

And then to finish off the topology down here, I could either extrude one face

01:57

and then the Shift button shows me this preview

01:59

and I can click to bridge across the gap

02:02

or if I undo that,

02:04

then I could extrude the whole edge loop with the middle mouse button.

02:08

And then I have this gap here.

02:10

But all I need to do is just drag one

02:12

point on top of another and they're automatically welded.

02:16

So I'll come out of the

02:17

Retopo tool using Pick Nothing, Pick Object

02:20

and I'll put some cross sections on.

02:22

So you can see that the limit surfaces

02:24

in green are sitting slightly below the target mesh

02:26

because they're always slightly inwards of the control cage vertices.

02:33

And I've come out of Retopo

02:34

now, so I need to do a Query Edit History to get back into that editing mode.

02:40

So the Shift key on an interior edge loop does a perpendicular insert,

02:45

so I can add some loops to bring that close to the mesh

02:50

and I can continue to extrude around the wheel arch.

02:53

But I also want to follow this belt line.

02:57

And so to change that topology, I could use Ctrl and

03:00

Alt to cut from that point here

03:02

across to here.

03:05

And then I can just use the Ctrl key to delete that triangle.

03:09

But any time I can click additional dots

03:12

and then use one of those to create another face with the Shift key.

03:18

And then I'll just do some extrudes to finish off around the wheel arch

03:22

and continue along the belt line.

03:26

And then finally holding and moving the right mouse button

03:29

is a Relax function that eases out the angles between all the edges

03:33

and lets me tidy up the SubD.

03:39

And finally,

03:39

I'm going to use these three examples to

03:41

look at the History and Projection settings.

03:44

This one has both selected.

03:46

So if I move a vertex when I'm outside the

03:49

Retopo tool,

03:50

then as soon as I let go of the mouse, it always snaps back to the target geometry.

03:56

Without Persistent Projection,

03:57

then I'm free to move any vertices away from the target.

04:01

But when I next use Query Edit,

04:03

then I can move any of the other vertices and that one's not affected.

04:08

But as soon as I touch that one,

04:09

it will get re-projected onto the target.

04:13

Then finally, with no history at all, then obviously

04:16

I'm free to move any of the vertices,

04:18

but I've got no way back into the Retopo

04:21

tool using Query Edit.

04:23

And instead I just need to use the standard SubD tools to keep working on it.

Video transcript

00:02

Retopo is a tool set that uses the mouse buttons and the Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys

00:07

to provide the same functions as these subdivision build and edit tools.

00:12

And it's similar to Maya's Quad Draw

00:13

in that you can build on to target meshes

00:16

or NURBS surfaces

00:18

or onto a view plane.

00:21

I'm going to use this mesh as a target.

00:24

But first, I'll just make it a bit more transparent so I can use it as an underlay.

00:28

Then I can double-click on the

00:30

Retopo tool

00:31

and make sure that I've got history turned on

00:34

and the first prompt is for the target.

00:37

So I'll use this body side and hit Next or space bar.

00:41

And the second prompt is for projecting an existing SubD, but I haven't got one,

00:45

so I'll go straight to the Go button

00:47

or space bar again.

00:49

So then I get this hotkey help card here which shows all the tools I can use.

00:55

And so I start by placing some dots on the mesh roughly where I want the vertices to be.

01:02

And you can see that they've been placed directly onto the mesh.

01:07

And then if I hold the Shift key down,

01:09

I get a preview of the possible quads and then I just click to build the ones I want.

01:15

And then I could do more dots.

01:17

Or this time I can use the Shift key to extrude edges by clicking and dragging.

01:22

And then without the Shift key, I can adjust a vertex

01:26

or an edge or even a face.

01:31

When I have a longer edge loop,

01:33

then Shift with the left mouse button

01:35

extrudes just one edge.

01:37

So I'll do another one of those.

01:42

And then Shift with the middle mouse button extrudes a whole edge loop.

01:46

So without Shift, I can tidy those vertices a bit.

01:51

And then to finish off the topology down here, I could either extrude one face

01:57

and then the Shift button shows me this preview

01:59

and I can click to bridge across the gap

02:02

or if I undo that,

02:04

then I could extrude the whole edge loop with the middle mouse button.

02:08

And then I have this gap here.

02:10

But all I need to do is just drag one

02:12

point on top of another and they're automatically welded.

02:16

So I'll come out of the

02:17

Retopo tool using Pick Nothing, Pick Object

02:20

and I'll put some cross sections on.

02:22

So you can see that the limit surfaces

02:24

in green are sitting slightly below the target mesh

02:26

because they're always slightly inwards of the control cage vertices.

02:33

And I've come out of Retopo

02:34

now, so I need to do a Query Edit History to get back into that editing mode.

02:40

So the Shift key on an interior edge loop does a perpendicular insert,

02:45

so I can add some loops to bring that close to the mesh

02:50

and I can continue to extrude around the wheel arch.

02:53

But I also want to follow this belt line.

02:57

And so to change that topology, I could use Ctrl and

03:00

Alt to cut from that point here

03:02

across to here.

03:05

And then I can just use the Ctrl key to delete that triangle.

03:09

But any time I can click additional dots

03:12

and then use one of those to create another face with the Shift key.

03:18

And then I'll just do some extrudes to finish off around the wheel arch

03:22

and continue along the belt line.

03:26

And then finally holding and moving the right mouse button

03:29

is a Relax function that eases out the angles between all the edges

03:33

and lets me tidy up the SubD.

03:39

And finally,

03:39

I'm going to use these three examples to

03:41

look at the History and Projection settings.

03:44

This one has both selected.

03:46

So if I move a vertex when I'm outside the

03:49

Retopo tool,

03:50

then as soon as I let go of the mouse, it always snaps back to the target geometry.

03:56

Without Persistent Projection,

03:57

then I'm free to move any vertices away from the target.

04:01

But when I next use Query Edit,

04:03

then I can move any of the other vertices and that one's not affected.

04:08

But as soon as I touch that one,

04:09

it will get re-projected onto the target.

04:13

Then finally, with no history at all, then obviously

04:16

I'm free to move any of the vertices,

04:18

but I've got no way back into the Retopo

04:21

tool using Query Edit.

04:23

And instead I just need to use the standard SubD tools to keep working on it.

Transcript

00:02

In this next example, I've built some simple block shapes using NURBS surfaces

00:07

as these give me very clean reflections.

00:10

So I'm going to use the side surfaces

00:13

and with Retopo,

00:14

I'm going to select the surfaces as targets

00:17

and then Next and then Go.

00:21

And a slightly different way of working is

00:23

to just start by specifying the whole shape

00:26

and then creating a large face

00:29

and then I'll do another one.

00:31

And then I can just use Insert using Shift

00:35

to add divisions

00:36

in particular where I've got features I want to capture.

00:40

And because we had smooth target geometry,

00:43

the subdivision has got pretty good highlights

00:46

which gives me a good starting point to develop the side of the vehicle.

00:51

And with the roof,

00:52

I'll use the NURBS surfaces and an existing SubD

00:56

which doesn't fit the roof shape yet.

00:59

So if I do

00:60

retopo, I'll pick the target surfaces as before.

01:02

But this time, I'll answer the second prompt by selecting the SubD

01:06

and then hit Go.

01:09

Now this doesn't automatically snap to the target surfaces

01:12

until I pick and move a vertex.

01:16

And I can use the Relax tool with the right mouse button as

01:19

a quick way to get all of the vertices attached onto that target.

01:27

And then if I don't use any target geometry, so I'll just hit Next and Go,

01:33

I can create directly in a view plane.

01:36

So I'll choose the side view

01:38

and then draw freely with all of the

01:40

Retopo tools.

01:42

And there's no great advantage to this, but some users just like the Retopo

01:46

workflow and prefer it to starting with curves or primitives.

01:53

Now, this only creates a flat SubD in that view plane.

01:56

So I would delete the construction history so that

01:59

the vertices no longer snap back to the plane

02:02

and then move it and edit it with the normal

02:04

SubD tools to start building up this cant rail.

Video transcript

00:02

In this next example, I've built some simple block shapes using NURBS surfaces

00:07

as these give me very clean reflections.

00:10

So I'm going to use the side surfaces

00:13

and with Retopo,

00:14

I'm going to select the surfaces as targets

00:17

and then Next and then Go.

00:21

And a slightly different way of working is

00:23

to just start by specifying the whole shape

00:26

and then creating a large face

00:29

and then I'll do another one.

00:31

And then I can just use Insert using Shift

00:35

to add divisions

00:36

in particular where I've got features I want to capture.

00:40

And because we had smooth target geometry,

00:43

the subdivision has got pretty good highlights

00:46

which gives me a good starting point to develop the side of the vehicle.

00:51

And with the roof,

00:52

I'll use the NURBS surfaces and an existing SubD

00:56

which doesn't fit the roof shape yet.

00:59

So if I do

00:60

retopo, I'll pick the target surfaces as before.

01:02

But this time, I'll answer the second prompt by selecting the SubD

01:06

and then hit Go.

01:09

Now this doesn't automatically snap to the target surfaces

01:12

until I pick and move a vertex.

01:16

And I can use the Relax tool with the right mouse button as

01:19

a quick way to get all of the vertices attached onto that target.

01:27

And then if I don't use any target geometry, so I'll just hit Next and Go,

01:33

I can create directly in a view plane.

01:36

So I'll choose the side view

01:38

and then draw freely with all of the

01:40

Retopo tools.

01:42

And there's no great advantage to this, but some users just like the Retopo

01:46

workflow and prefer it to starting with curves or primitives.

01:53

Now, this only creates a flat SubD in that view plane.

01:56

So I would delete the construction history so that

01:59

the vertices no longer snap back to the plane

02:02

and then move it and edit it with the normal

02:04

SubD tools to start building up this cant rail.

Transcript

00:02

We're going to have a look at the Subdiv Insert tool

00:06

and I'll start with these Insert mode settings

00:09

and I'll just use this hood with the indented scoop area.

00:15

So the Parallel option has Pick Edge Loop selected, which is normally what you want.

00:20

And if the controls aren't already displayed,

00:22

then the first click will display them.

00:24

So I can then just click on one edge

00:27

and then drag as far as the next edge loop in either direction.

00:32

So I'll just undo that

00:34

and then with Perpendicular instead you click on

00:37

an edge to insert a new loop across it

00:40

and you get the same results when there's a simple flow of quads.

00:46

But where the topology is more complex like the five edges here in this corner

00:50

or the three down here,

00:52

then we can get different results.

00:55

When you use Parallel, it's limited to a simple edge loop up to a complex junction.

01:00

So here I would have to insert twice to get another loop

01:04

on the edge of the scoop.

01:06

But if I undo those, what Perpendicular allows me to do

01:09

is work across that whole inner edge in one go.

01:13

So I can add in a loop at the top

01:15

and another one lower down.

01:17

So both modes can be really useful.

01:19

And you can see that inserting brings the limit surfaces

01:22

closer to the control cage for a tighter shape.

01:26

So next, I'll look at the Offset mode with Relative and Parameter settings.

01:32

On this roof, I've got just one face loop that's across the center line.

01:37

So if I wanted to split that with an Insert,

01:41

and I'll just stick with Perpendicular,

01:44

you can see that this Parameter value goes from around 0 to 1.

01:49

So if I want to insert exactly at the center,

01:51

then because it's symmetrical, I can type in 0.5 in the tool window.

01:56

And that means I could delete these faces for example

01:59

and just go back to one half of the roof.

02:04

So that was the Relative mode

02:06

and I'll switch back to Parallel now as it's got this Both option.

02:11

So if I click here and drag,

02:12

you can see the Relative option gives

02:14

me quite different offset distances on both sides

02:17

because it's relative to the face length.

02:21

If I undo that and switch to Distance

02:24

and then do exactly the same.

02:26

You can see that the offset is now an equal distance on both sides.

02:31

So I'm just gonna put that back to Single because in practice,

02:34

I probably use Bevel instead,

02:38

but this offset mode also affects the angle of the insertion.

02:41

And I can show this on the wheel arch.

02:45

So the Distance setting keeps this initial angle constant,

02:48

and so it can distort the layout a bit,

02:52

whereas Relative adjusts the angle of the flow between the edges as it goes along.

02:58

And that's why Relative is the default setting.

03:02

So undo those and have a look at the last option which is Edge Flow.

03:06

But first, I'm going to copy and paste

03:09

and then Template so that we can compare any changes to the original.

03:13

So the default is without Edge Flow.

03:16

And here the control cage is kept the same

03:19

and it's simply split.

03:21

But if I turn Edge Flow on,

03:22

then the control cage is now modified to try

03:25

to maintain the curvature shape of the limit surfaces.

03:29

So if we shade those, you can see that it's resulted in a flatter shape

03:33

when I haven't got Edge Flow

03:35

and with Edge Flow on, it's moved further out and it's rounder.

03:40

But in practice,

03:41

you're probably going to pick those new inserted edges and

03:44

move them around until you get the shape you want anyway.

Video transcript

00:02

We're going to have a look at the Subdiv Insert tool

00:06

and I'll start with these Insert mode settings

00:09

and I'll just use this hood with the indented scoop area.

00:15

So the Parallel option has Pick Edge Loop selected, which is normally what you want.

00:20

And if the controls aren't already displayed,

00:22

then the first click will display them.

00:24

So I can then just click on one edge

00:27

and then drag as far as the next edge loop in either direction.

00:32

So I'll just undo that

00:34

and then with Perpendicular instead you click on

00:37

an edge to insert a new loop across it

00:40

and you get the same results when there's a simple flow of quads.

00:46

But where the topology is more complex like the five edges here in this corner

00:50

or the three down here,

00:52

then we can get different results.

00:55

When you use Parallel, it's limited to a simple edge loop up to a complex junction.

01:00

So here I would have to insert twice to get another loop

01:04

on the edge of the scoop.

01:06

But if I undo those, what Perpendicular allows me to do

01:09

is work across that whole inner edge in one go.

01:13

So I can add in a loop at the top

01:15

and another one lower down.

01:17

So both modes can be really useful.

01:19

And you can see that inserting brings the limit surfaces

01:22

closer to the control cage for a tighter shape.

01:26

So next, I'll look at the Offset mode with Relative and Parameter settings.

01:32

On this roof, I've got just one face loop that's across the center line.

01:37

So if I wanted to split that with an Insert,

01:41

and I'll just stick with Perpendicular,

01:44

you can see that this Parameter value goes from around 0 to 1.

01:49

So if I want to insert exactly at the center,

01:51

then because it's symmetrical, I can type in 0.5 in the tool window.

01:56

And that means I could delete these faces for example

01:59

and just go back to one half of the roof.

02:04

So that was the Relative mode

02:06

and I'll switch back to Parallel now as it's got this Both option.

02:11

So if I click here and drag,

02:12

you can see the Relative option gives

02:14

me quite different offset distances on both sides

02:17

because it's relative to the face length.

02:21

If I undo that and switch to Distance

02:24

and then do exactly the same.

02:26

You can see that the offset is now an equal distance on both sides.

02:31

So I'm just gonna put that back to Single because in practice,

02:34

I probably use Bevel instead,

02:38

but this offset mode also affects the angle of the insertion.

02:41

And I can show this on the wheel arch.

02:45

So the Distance setting keeps this initial angle constant,

02:48

and so it can distort the layout a bit,

02:52

whereas Relative adjusts the angle of the flow between the edges as it goes along.

02:58

And that's why Relative is the default setting.

03:02

So undo those and have a look at the last option which is Edge Flow.

03:06

But first, I'm going to copy and paste

03:09

and then Template so that we can compare any changes to the original.

03:13

So the default is without Edge Flow.

03:16

And here the control cage is kept the same

03:19

and it's simply split.

03:21

But if I turn Edge Flow on,

03:22

then the control cage is now modified to try

03:25

to maintain the curvature shape of the limit surfaces.

03:29

So if we shade those, you can see that it's resulted in a flatter shape

03:33

when I haven't got Edge Flow

03:35

and with Edge Flow on, it's moved further out and it's rounder.

03:40

But in practice,

03:41

you're probably going to pick those new inserted edges and

03:44

move them around until you get the shape you want anyway.

Transcript

00:03

The Subdivision Bridge tool builds faces between opposite edges

00:10

and you can have a different number of edges on each side,

00:13

and I can use space bar for Build,

00:16

but you'll end up with a multi-

00:18

sided face, and that means your limit surfaces will be overly complex.

00:23

So I'll undo that.

00:25

And what you typically do with Bridge is think about the topology first.

00:29

So if I want to create this feature here,

00:32

I can move and scale these vertices to line them up

00:36

and that gives me two edges here.

00:40

And then over at the rear,

00:41

I can start to think about how the wheel

00:43

arch is gotta stretch up to this shoulder line.

00:48

And I'm keeping the topology really simple at this stage.

00:55

And this time, I'll double click on Bridge to open the option window

00:59

and I'll pick two edges here

01:01

and then two on this side

01:03

and space bar for Build.

01:06

And that builds a straight line connection.

01:09

Because I've got the window open, I can choose how many divisions I want in between.

01:15

And then I can just move these vertices inwards a bit

01:18

to shape that side panel.

01:21

And I'll just turn off the sketch.

01:24

And so you can see that the new faces are welded and blended

01:27

into the edges I've built from.

01:31

Here at the back,

01:32

I've already arranged the vertices to have three edges here and three here.

01:37

And I'm also going to just delete these faces so that I can rethink the topology.

01:43

So I could do just a normal flat bridge across here.

01:47

But there's also the option of creating a path curve to influence the shape.

01:52

So I'll use an edit point curve

01:54

and I'll just give that a little bit of shape.

01:58

And like before we can use Shift-select with the Add mouse button,

02:03

but I can also drag-select because you can't bridge to an internal edge,

02:07

so they don't even get selected.

02:10

So pick the curve

02:12

and then do the build.

02:13

And you can see that instead of a straight line,

02:16

the bridge is roughly following the curve shape.

02:21

In practice though, it's often just as easy to pick and move the vertices instead.

02:28

And then to finish off, I could just bridge across here.

02:31

But if I end up creating non-matching topology,

02:34

then this side edge doesn't get welded.

02:40

So I can undo that, and this time get the topology matching,

02:44

and then you can see that it's welded on the side as well as the two ends.

02:53

And finally, I've got a section of wheel here

02:55

and I've just revolved a front and a back SubD

02:60

and I'll just make the box shading a bit transparent here

03:02

so I can see all of the faces.

03:06

And so bridging across edges is our typical workflow,

03:10

but you can also use faces.

03:13

So I'll drag-select all these faces on both sides.

03:17

And when a closed loop is selected,

03:18

these arrows appear to correct any twisting that might happen.

03:23

And then when I build, all those faces are deleted

03:26

and new bridge faces are created across the resulting edges.

03:31

So it's not a common workflow, but it can occasionally be useful.

Video transcript

00:03

The Subdivision Bridge tool builds faces between opposite edges

00:10

and you can have a different number of edges on each side,

00:13

and I can use space bar for Build,

00:16

but you'll end up with a multi-

00:18

sided face, and that means your limit surfaces will be overly complex.

00:23

So I'll undo that.

00:25

And what you typically do with Bridge is think about the topology first.

00:29

So if I want to create this feature here,

00:32

I can move and scale these vertices to line them up

00:36

and that gives me two edges here.

00:40

And then over at the rear,

00:41

I can start to think about how the wheel

00:43

arch is gotta stretch up to this shoulder line.

00:48

And I'm keeping the topology really simple at this stage.

00:55

And this time, I'll double click on Bridge to open the option window

00:59

and I'll pick two edges here

01:01

and then two on this side

01:03

and space bar for Build.

01:06

And that builds a straight line connection.

01:09

Because I've got the window open, I can choose how many divisions I want in between.

01:15

And then I can just move these vertices inwards a bit

01:18

to shape that side panel.

01:21

And I'll just turn off the sketch.

01:24

And so you can see that the new faces are welded and blended

01:27

into the edges I've built from.

01:31

Here at the back,

01:32

I've already arranged the vertices to have three edges here and three here.

01:37

And I'm also going to just delete these faces so that I can rethink the topology.

01:43

So I could do just a normal flat bridge across here.

01:47

But there's also the option of creating a path curve to influence the shape.

01:52

So I'll use an edit point curve

01:54

and I'll just give that a little bit of shape.

01:58

And like before we can use Shift-select with the Add mouse button,

02:03

but I can also drag-select because you can't bridge to an internal edge,

02:07

so they don't even get selected.

02:10

So pick the curve

02:12

and then do the build.

02:13

And you can see that instead of a straight line,

02:16

the bridge is roughly following the curve shape.

02:21

In practice though, it's often just as easy to pick and move the vertices instead.

02:28

And then to finish off, I could just bridge across here.

02:31

But if I end up creating non-matching topology,

02:34

then this side edge doesn't get welded.

02:40

So I can undo that, and this time get the topology matching,

02:44

and then you can see that it's welded on the side as well as the two ends.

02:53

And finally, I've got a section of wheel here

02:55

and I've just revolved a front and a back SubD

02:60

and I'll just make the box shading a bit transparent here

03:02

so I can see all of the faces.

03:06

And so bridging across edges is our typical workflow,

03:10

but you can also use faces.

03:13

So I'll drag-select all these faces on both sides.

03:17

And when a closed loop is selected,

03:18

these arrows appear to correct any twisting that might happen.

03:23

And then when I build, all those faces are deleted

03:26

and new bridge faces are created across the resulting edges.

03:31

So it's not a common workflow, but it can occasionally be useful.

Transcript

00:02

The topology so far creates quite soft surfaces.

00:06

So we can use the Bevel and the Crease tools to create some sharpness.

00:11

So I'll start with Bevel and have a look at this rear fender area.

00:16

So Bevel is a variation on the Insert tool,

00:19

but it has Distance set as the default Offset mode.

00:23

And there's this Edge Loop setting, which is quite useful,

00:26

so I'll use that to pick this edge loop here

00:29

and just do a space bar for Build

00:32

and then either adjust this Distance slider or more typically

00:35

just click and drag with the left mouse button.

00:39

And if I zoom in here,

00:41

a division of 1 deletes the original edge and

00:44

adds two new edges spaced equally either side.

00:48

So I can increase those divisions here

00:50

or interactively with the middle mouse button.

00:55

And then I've got a Crown option to go from rounded to flat

00:59

and I can use the right mouse button

01:00

and I'll stick with 1 for a rounded fillet effect.

01:05

And typically I'll use two divisions which keeps a central edge

01:09

and then a bigger distance gives a softer edge

01:12

and a smaller distance makes it more like a fillet

01:17

So that gives quite a nice sharp highlight.

01:21

But Bevel will add complexity.

01:24

So here I've got a lot of vertices that will need managing.

01:28

So I can undo that with a Ctrl-Z.

01:31

And then if I take this Edge Loop setting off,

01:34

I could just do the Bevel on a few edges instead.

01:37

And then when I build it,

01:39

it gets created OK,

01:41

but again, I get complexity in the limit surfaces.

01:46

So I can undo that or if you can't undo

01:49

you just need to pick the new edges and hit the Delete key.

01:53

But be aware that the original edge CVs won't necessarily be

01:56

in exactly the same place as before you did the Bevel,

01:60

so use undo if you can.

02:03

So an alternative is the Crease tool.

02:06

It doesn't have any options, so we select the edges first.

02:09

So I'm gonna do this wheel arch

02:11

and then just hit Crease

02:13

and it creates a sharp edge on the limit surfaces,

02:15

but without adding any extra edge loops.

02:20

Now, if I just take off the shading here and I open up the Draw Style options,

02:25

you can see that by default,

02:27

interior edges are shown in single line thickness,

02:30

boundary edges are double,

02:32

and creased edges are displayed at four times thickness, so they are easy to spot.

02:37

And just note that I've made this selection color whiter for these videos.

02:41

It'll normally be a pale orange.

02:45

So I could use Crease instead of Bevel for this fender.

02:48

And I'll start with the whole edge loop and Crease.

02:51

And that's a really quick way of adding definition into the model.

02:56

It's also easy to remove a crease.

02:59

So if I don't want to see this break in the wheel arch, I can simply pick the edges

03:03

and do an Uncrease.

03:05

So then the crease will attempt to fade out smoothly.

03:09

And if it doesn't fade the way you want

03:12

over here on the palette in the Subdivision tab,

03:14

there's an extra tool called Modify Crease.

03:19

And if you then click on the creased edge,

03:22

then where it's red at this boundary edge, it's locked and you can't modify it.

03:26

But if there's enough edges, ideally, at least three or four,

03:30

then I can modify the fade out. So if I go from 3 to 4, that edge softens off a bit

03:36

or a bit more

03:38

or I can turn it off.

03:40

And when the Modify is applied,

03:42

these sliders become active for modifying the sharpness

03:46

and the bias.

03:47

But typically I'd leave these at the default values to create a simple crease.

03:52

And this Modify option can be a bit tricky.

03:55

So it won't work here where the ends are both locked

03:58

and it won't work if you haven't got enough edges to control the fade out.

04:04

So finally, I'm just going to have a look at a more finished example here

04:08

just to show you that the Crease has some limitations.

04:11

So down here, for example, I've creased along these three edges

04:15

and it's creating some distortion in the limit surfaces.

04:19

So you might remodel that or use Bevel instead.

04:25

But in general, it's a really efficient way to add definition to features

04:29

without increasing complexity on the control cage,

04:32

which is particularly useful as you're building up the topology.

Video transcript

00:02

The topology so far creates quite soft surfaces.

00:06

So we can use the Bevel and the Crease tools to create some sharpness.

00:11

So I'll start with Bevel and have a look at this rear fender area.

00:16

So Bevel is a variation on the Insert tool,

00:19

but it has Distance set as the default Offset mode.

00:23

And there's this Edge Loop setting, which is quite useful,

00:26

so I'll use that to pick this edge loop here

00:29

and just do a space bar for Build

00:32

and then either adjust this Distance slider or more typically

00:35

just click and drag with the left mouse button.

00:39

And if I zoom in here,

00:41

a division of 1 deletes the original edge and

00:44

adds two new edges spaced equally either side.

00:48

So I can increase those divisions here

00:50

or interactively with the middle mouse button.

00:55

And then I've got a Crown option to go from rounded to flat

00:59

and I can use the right mouse button

01:00

and I'll stick with 1 for a rounded fillet effect.

01:05

And typically I'll use two divisions which keeps a central edge

01:09

and then a bigger distance gives a softer edge

01:12

and a smaller distance makes it more like a fillet

01:17

So that gives quite a nice sharp highlight.

01:21

But Bevel will add complexity.

01:24

So here I've got a lot of vertices that will need managing.

01:28

So I can undo that with a Ctrl-Z.

01:31

And then if I take this Edge Loop setting off,

01:34

I could just do the Bevel on a few edges instead.

01:37

And then when I build it,

01:39

it gets created OK,

01:41

but again, I get complexity in the limit surfaces.

01:46

So I can undo that or if you can't undo

01:49

you just need to pick the new edges and hit the Delete key.

01:53

But be aware that the original edge CVs won't necessarily be

01:56

in exactly the same place as before you did the Bevel,

01:60

so use undo if you can.

02:03

So an alternative is the Crease tool.

02:06

It doesn't have any options, so we select the edges first.

02:09

So I'm gonna do this wheel arch

02:11

and then just hit Crease

02:13

and it creates a sharp edge on the limit surfaces,

02:15

but without adding any extra edge loops.

02:20

Now, if I just take off the shading here and I open up the Draw Style options,

02:25

you can see that by default,

02:27

interior edges are shown in single line thickness,

02:30

boundary edges are double,

02:32

and creased edges are displayed at four times thickness, so they are easy to spot.

02:37

And just note that I've made this selection color whiter for these videos.

02:41

It'll normally be a pale orange.

02:45

So I could use Crease instead of Bevel for this fender.

02:48

And I'll start with the whole edge loop and Crease.

02:51

And that's a really quick way of adding definition into the model.

02:56

It's also easy to remove a crease.

02:59

So if I don't want to see this break in the wheel arch, I can simply pick the edges

03:03

and do an Uncrease.

03:05

So then the crease will attempt to fade out smoothly.

03:09

And if it doesn't fade the way you want

03:12

over here on the palette in the Subdivision tab,

03:14

there's an extra tool called Modify Crease.

03:19

And if you then click on the creased edge,

03:22

then where it's red at this boundary edge, it's locked and you can't modify it.

03:26

But if there's enough edges, ideally, at least three or four,

03:30

then I can modify the fade out. So if I go from 3 to 4, that edge softens off a bit

03:36

or a bit more

03:38

or I can turn it off.

03:40

And when the Modify is applied,

03:42

these sliders become active for modifying the sharpness

03:46

and the bias.

03:47

But typically I'd leave these at the default values to create a simple crease.

03:52

And this Modify option can be a bit tricky.

03:55

So it won't work here where the ends are both locked

03:58

and it won't work if you haven't got enough edges to control the fade out.

04:04

So finally, I'm just going to have a look at a more finished example here

04:08

just to show you that the Crease has some limitations.

04:11

So down here, for example, I've creased along these three edges

04:15

and it's creating some distortion in the limit surfaces.

04:19

So you might remodel that or use Bevel instead.

04:25

But in general, it's a really efficient way to add definition to features

04:29

without increasing complexity on the control cage,

04:32

which is particularly useful as you're building up the topology.

Transcript

00:03

To develop this bottom edge of the side panels,

00:06

the topology will have to reflect all of these different directions.

00:10

And for this, I can use the Cut

00:13

the Weld and Unweld and the Extract tools.

00:16

So I'll need an extra face down here, so I'll just use Extrude

00:21

and make sure that's set to Subdiv Edges.

00:24

And this will weld to the origin edge but not to the side here.

00:30

So I can do that manually using the Weld tool.

00:34

And To Target means that I pick one vertex or edge

00:38

and then ask it to move and join to this one.

00:41

Or if I undo that

00:44

To Midpoint finds the center position.

00:46

And so I can just drag-select the vertices to join them in the middle.

00:52

And to show you the Tolerance option first, I'm going to use Unweld.

00:56

So if I wanted to separate out this fender, for example,

00:60

I could pick this edge loop and then choose Unweld.

01:03

And you can see that it's now a separate SubD.

01:08

But if I undo just the move,

01:11

these are still separate subdivs with the vertices pretty much coincident

01:16

and certainly within this tolerance.

01:19

So when I box-select and let go,

01:22

only the close or coincidence CVs are welded.

01:28

Over here on the hood, I could use Unweld again,

01:31

but I can also just pick the faces and do Extract

01:35

with Keep original off.

01:37

Then it works just like a cut and paste for SubD faces.

01:42

And then at this frontage,

01:45

if this time I use Extract with Keep original on,

01:49

then it's the equivalent of a copy and paste

01:52

because the normal copy and paste tools don't work on subdiv faces,

01:56

so we use Extract instead.

01:58

And then I could use that to start some new geometry

02:02

which starts out with the same structure and shape as the hood.

02:06

So Weld and Extract work within the existing topology and edge flow.

02:11

But if I now go back to the body side

02:14

and just get this angle how I want it.

02:18

I'm wanting to create an indent feature here.

02:20

So I'm going to need to change the flow of the topology.

02:24

So I'll start with a simple Insert

02:28

and then to add edges across here, I can now use the Cut tool

02:33

and so Cut works on CVs and edges.

02:37

And when Both is set, then I can use the Ctrl key for point snap on a vertex,

02:42

but just click and drag for an edge.

02:46

And I could use this Offset parameter if I want a particular value.

02:49

But more typically we just click and drag by eye

02:53

and that will give me these new edges

02:57

and I don't want a triangle

02:58

so I can cut again from this point to this edge.

03:03

And then I can just pick this edge,

03:05

not this one

03:06

and hit Delete on the keyboard to get back to a quad.

03:11

And then I can adjust the shape a bit if I want to.

03:15

But now I've got a five sided face here

03:18

so I can use Cut again, and I've got a choice of how to work.

03:22

I can either click on each edge to get the flow that I want

03:27

or if I undo that

03:29

I can also just get into a view where for example, this edge is lined up

03:34

and then just click all the way across

03:36

to create a cut that gives me a good layout.

03:42

So all that work reorganizing the topology now allows me to pick these edges.

03:48

And I'll just unpick those

03:51

and move them inwards to create a fully

03:53

controlled light catching feature along the bottom edge.

04:01

And then finally, I could add an extra edge here using Insert,

04:06

but I can also use Cut in a different mode.

04:10

So when my first click is not on the geometry,

04:13

then the second creates this cut line which is actually viewport based.

04:17

So you can see that I can move the model around and get it lined up

04:21

or adjust that cut line

04:24

and then hit Cut Through.

04:26

And that adds the new edges which I can just pick and move to tidy up the shape.

04:34

So Weld and Cut allow you to change the flow of the topology

04:38

to develop the features that you want on your design.

Video transcript

00:03

To develop this bottom edge of the side panels,

00:06

the topology will have to reflect all of these different directions.

00:10

And for this, I can use the Cut

00:13

the Weld and Unweld and the Extract tools.

00:16

So I'll need an extra face down here, so I'll just use Extrude

00:21

and make sure that's set to Subdiv Edges.

00:24

And this will weld to the origin edge but not to the side here.

00:30

So I can do that manually using the Weld tool.

00:34

And To Target means that I pick one vertex or edge

00:38

and then ask it to move and join to this one.

00:41

Or if I undo that

00:44

To Midpoint finds the center position.

00:46

And so I can just drag-select the vertices to join them in the middle.

00:52

And to show you the Tolerance option first, I'm going to use Unweld.

00:56

So if I wanted to separate out this fender, for example,

00:60

I could pick this edge loop and then choose Unweld.

01:03

And you can see that it's now a separate SubD.

01:08

But if I undo just the move,

01:11

these are still separate subdivs with the vertices pretty much coincident

01:16

and certainly within this tolerance.

01:19

So when I box-select and let go,

01:22

only the close or coincidence CVs are welded.

01:28

Over here on the hood, I could use Unweld again,

01:31

but I can also just pick the faces and do Extract

01:35

with Keep original off.

01:37

Then it works just like a cut and paste for SubD faces.

01:42

And then at this frontage,

01:45

if this time I use Extract with Keep original on,

01:49

then it's the equivalent of a copy and paste

01:52

because the normal copy and paste tools don't work on subdiv faces,

01:56

so we use Extract instead.

01:58

And then I could use that to start some new geometry

02:02

which starts out with the same structure and shape as the hood.

02:06

So Weld and Extract work within the existing topology and edge flow.

02:11

But if I now go back to the body side

02:14

and just get this angle how I want it.

02:18

I'm wanting to create an indent feature here.

02:20

So I'm going to need to change the flow of the topology.

02:24

So I'll start with a simple Insert

02:28

and then to add edges across here, I can now use the Cut tool

02:33

and so Cut works on CVs and edges.

02:37

And when Both is set, then I can use the Ctrl key for point snap on a vertex,

02:42

but just click and drag for an edge.

02:46

And I could use this Offset parameter if I want a particular value.

02:49

But more typically we just click and drag by eye

02:53

and that will give me these new edges

02:57

and I don't want a triangle

02:58

so I can cut again from this point to this edge.

03:03

And then I can just pick this edge,

03:05

not this one

03:06

and hit Delete on the keyboard to get back to a quad.

03:11

And then I can adjust the shape a bit if I want to.

03:15

But now I've got a five sided face here

03:18

so I can use Cut again, and I've got a choice of how to work.

03:22

I can either click on each edge to get the flow that I want

03:27

or if I undo that

03:29

I can also just get into a view where for example, this edge is lined up

03:34

and then just click all the way across

03:36

to create a cut that gives me a good layout.

03:42

So all that work reorganizing the topology now allows me to pick these edges.

03:48

And I'll just unpick those

03:51

and move them inwards to create a fully

03:53

controlled light catching feature along the bottom edge.

04:01

And then finally, I could add an extra edge here using Insert,

04:06

but I can also use Cut in a different mode.

04:10

So when my first click is not on the geometry,

04:13

then the second creates this cut line which is actually viewport based.

04:17

So you can see that I can move the model around and get it lined up

04:21

or adjust that cut line

04:24

and then hit Cut Through.

04:26

And that adds the new edges which I can just pick and move to tidy up the shape.

04:34

So Weld and Cut allow you to change the flow of the topology

04:38

to develop the features that you want on your design.

Transcript

00:02

For a symmetrical design,

00:04

we can either build one subdivision across the centerline like this roof

00:09

or build one half and then use layer symmetry either up

00:12

here in the layer bar or here in the Object Lister.

00:17

Building the whole shape will generally give us a smoother limit surface across the center.

00:23

Building one half is generally more efficient,

00:26

but we have to work harder to get a good result on this centerline join.

00:31

There are tools that can help us with both methods,

00:34

but they all rely on the symmetry direction set in each layer.

00:38

And this yellow plane defaults to a centerline along

00:41

the X direction which works for this car,

00:44

but that can be changed, so you need to be aware of the direction

00:48

as it's this layer symmetry, which is key to using the symmetry tools.

00:54

So I'm going to start with this roof that we've built as one half.

00:58

And if we wanted now to make that the whole roof,

01:01

then I've got two ways to get the other half.

01:04

I can use Edit > Duplicate > Mirror.

01:07

And the default setting of XZ gives us

01:09

the same result as the default layer direction.

01:12

And so I get the mirrored side.

01:14

Or if I delete that

01:16

alternatively, I can turn on the layer symmetry

01:19

and then say Create Symmetric Geometry.

01:22

And the end result is exactly the same.

01:25

And I've still got two separate subdivisions

01:28

so I can join them into one using the Weld tool.

01:32

And I'm gonna use the To Tolerance setting

01:35

and just drag over these coincident center CVs to merge them.

01:40

So you can see that that's been welded into a single subdivision.

01:44

But over here, the CVs weren't snapped accurately to the center.

01:48

So I can use Weld again with two midpoints

01:51

to join those together on the centerline.

01:55

And that then gives me a reasonable smoothness across the middle.

02:01

But of course,

02:02

the difficulty is that it's very easy to make a change and lose the symmetry.

02:08

So we have a tool up here on the subdiv shelf

02:11

or here on the palette in the Object Edit tab

02:14

called Symmetric Modeling.

02:16

And if I pick the subdiv,

02:18

it reads the symmetry direction from the layer.

02:21

And when I apply it,

02:22

it forces the geometry to be symmetrical in that layer direction.

02:27

And then down here, I can choose which side to use as the master.

02:31

And you notice that the subdiv is now green, which means construction history.

02:36

So if I pick and move CVs on one side,

02:39

then the same actions are applied to the other side.

02:44

But also the subdivision tools work symmetrically.

02:48

So if I do an Insert,

02:50

that's applied on both sides.

02:53

Or if I pick this edge loop and do some extrusions,

02:57

then I get the new faces built on both sides

03:00

and it's the same with the Crease tool

03:03

and most of the other subdivision tools.

03:07

And if I ever want to get rid of that forced symmetry,

03:10

I just need to use Delete Construction History

03:13

and then the sides are independent again

03:15

until I reapply symmetric modeling.

03:20

So the other method is to stick with one half like on this hood.

03:25

And you can see that I have deliberately made

03:27

this very badly lined up on the centerline.

03:30

I am pretty zig-zaggy here.

03:33

So of course, I could fix that manually with moving and snapping vertices.

03:37

But I've got a tool on the Object Edit > Align pull-down here

03:42

called Symmetry Plane Align.

03:45

So if I apply it here on this edge, both the edge CVs are snapped to the centerline

03:50

and these second CVs are moved so that they're

03:56

And these blue lines show where it's been applied.

03:60

And because it does the two CVs I can skip this edge and then do this one

04:05

and this one

04:07

to get a tidied up center edge.

04:10

And so that gives me a reasonably smooth result across the center.

04:15

And again, the wireframe is now green, so

04:18

if I pick this vertex and move it,

04:21

then construction history causes this second one to

04:23

move and maintain that 90 degree relationship.

04:29

And if I try to move the second one,

04:31

it will always ping back level to the centerline CV.

04:36

So both ways of working are equally useful,

04:39

and particularly when you use the two symmetry tools to help.

Video transcript

00:02

For a symmetrical design,

00:04

we can either build one subdivision across the centerline like this roof

00:09

or build one half and then use layer symmetry either up

00:12

here in the layer bar or here in the Object Lister.

00:17

Building the whole shape will generally give us a smoother limit surface across the center.

00:23

Building one half is generally more efficient,

00:26

but we have to work harder to get a good result on this centerline join.

00:31

There are tools that can help us with both methods,

00:34

but they all rely on the symmetry direction set in each layer.

00:38

And this yellow plane defaults to a centerline along

00:41

the X direction which works for this car,

00:44

but that can be changed, so you need to be aware of the direction

00:48

as it's this layer symmetry, which is key to using the symmetry tools.

00:54

So I'm going to start with this roof that we've built as one half.

00:58

And if we wanted now to make that the whole roof,

01:01

then I've got two ways to get the other half.

01:04

I can use Edit > Duplicate > Mirror.

01:07

And the default setting of XZ gives us

01:09

the same result as the default layer direction.

01:12

And so I get the mirrored side.

01:14

Or if I delete that

01:16

alternatively, I can turn on the layer symmetry

01:19

and then say Create Symmetric Geometry.

01:22

And the end result is exactly the same.

01:25

And I've still got two separate subdivisions

01:28

so I can join them into one using the Weld tool.

01:32

And I'm gonna use the To Tolerance setting

01:35

and just drag over these coincident center CVs to merge them.

01:40

So you can see that that's been welded into a single subdivision.

01:44

But over here, the CVs weren't snapped accurately to the center.

01:48

So I can use Weld again with two midpoints

01:51

to join those together on the centerline.

01:55

And that then gives me a reasonable smoothness across the middle.

02:01

But of course,

02:02

the difficulty is that it's very easy to make a change and lose the symmetry.

02:08

So we have a tool up here on the subdiv shelf

02:11

or here on the palette in the Object Edit tab

02:14

called Symmetric Modeling.

02:16

And if I pick the subdiv,

02:18

it reads the symmetry direction from the layer.

02:21

And when I apply it,

02:22

it forces the geometry to be symmetrical in that layer direction.

02:27

And then down here, I can choose which side to use as the master.

02:31

And you notice that the subdiv is now green, which means construction history.

02:36

So if I pick and move CVs on one side,

02:39

then the same actions are applied to the other side.

02:44

But also the subdivision tools work symmetrically.

02:48

So if I do an Insert,

02:50

that's applied on both sides.

02:53

Or if I pick this edge loop and do some extrusions,

02:57

then I get the new faces built on both sides

03:00

and it's the same with the Crease tool

03:03

and most of the other subdivision tools.

03:07

And if I ever want to get rid of that forced symmetry,

03:10

I just need to use Delete Construction History

03:13

and then the sides are independent again

03:15

until I reapply symmetric modeling.

03:20

So the other method is to stick with one half like on this hood.

03:25

And you can see that I have deliberately made

03:27

this very badly lined up on the centerline.

03:30

I am pretty zig-zaggy here.

03:33

So of course, I could fix that manually with moving and snapping vertices.

03:37

But I've got a tool on the Object Edit > Align pull-down here

03:42

called Symmetry Plane Align.

03:45

So if I apply it here on this edge, both the edge CVs are snapped to the centerline

03:50

and these second CVs are moved so that they're

03:56

And these blue lines show where it's been applied.

03:60

And because it does the two CVs I can skip this edge and then do this one

04:05

and this one

04:07

to get a tidied up center edge.

04:10

And so that gives me a reasonably smooth result across the center.

04:15

And again, the wireframe is now green, so

04:18

if I pick this vertex and move it,

04:21

then construction history causes this second one to

04:23

move and maintain that 90 degree relationship.

04:29

And if I try to move the second one,

04:31

it will always ping back level to the centerline CV.

04:36

So both ways of working are equally useful,

04:39

and particularly when you use the two symmetry tools to help.

Transcript

00:02

The individual Move, Rotate and Scale tools work in the X, Y and Z directions.

00:08

And it's the same with the Transform manipulator.

00:11

So I'm gonna have a look at how we

00:12

can work in the directions determined by the geometry instead,

00:17

by looking at the Adjust Manipulator option for the Transform tool.

00:21

And by using the Transform CV tool with the Slide and NUV options.

00:26

And I'll start with that.

00:29

I can access Transform CV from here on the palette

00:33

or here on the marking menu

00:35

or over here on the Control Panel shelf

00:39

and the space bar displays the puck

00:42

which looks very complex, but I'm just going to stick with Move

00:46

and then it defaults to XYZ, but I'm going to use it for Slide

00:50

and for NUV

00:52

or in fact, just for N which is the normal direction.

00:54

So I'll choose that

00:56

and then I'll pick this edge loop

00:59

and click on the Transform CV tool

01:02

and then clicking and dragging the left mouse button

01:05

displays these blue arrows and moves the CVs outwards and inwards.

01:11

And you can see from this view that that would

01:13

have been hard to achieve in the XYZ directions alone.

01:18

If I want to keep going,

01:20

this has got an embedded pick mode in the center

01:23

and it's currently set to CVs

01:26

and the tool is still active so I can just click and drag on the next CV

01:31

and just keep going,

01:33

adjusting individual CVs in the normal direction.

01:38

So in the center of the puck, I can switch the selection to Edge Loops,

01:42

Faces, or just Edges.

01:45

So I'm gonna pick Edge Loops

01:47

and I'll also switch to the Slide mode.

01:50

So the next click I do will select the whole loop

01:54

and apply the Slide arrows

01:56

and these point in the directions of the control cage edges.

02:01

So if I drag one colored arrow,

02:04

then they all travel along the edge directions.

02:08

And this hardly changes the shape at all.

02:11

But it does let us reposition the CVs along this side.

02:16

And when I have a complete edge loop with a simple quad layout,

02:20

then I get these chevrons that let me twist or angle the row of CVs.

02:27

And because edge loops are set here for selection, then I can click on the next one

02:32

and this one has a star point here, so it's got an extra arrow color

02:37

and some different edge directions.

02:40

And then I can click over here.

02:43

But this time, I don't want to move this vertex in the edge loop.

02:47

So I can always override the built in selection

02:50

by picking the CVs I want first and then selecting the tool afterwards.

02:58

So some people use this for all of their

02:59

CV transforms and they'll use the XYZ setting,

03:03

the Move, Rotate and Scale and this Sensitivity setting.

03:08

But the key ones for subdivisions are just Move, Slide and Move Normal.

03:12

So you can keep it simple

03:15

or you can get a similar result with the Transform Manipulator.

03:20

So if I just pick this edge loop at the front of the hood

03:24

and then choose Transform,

03:26

if it's set to Pivot, you can switch to Global

03:29

to get the manipulator onto the geometry,

03:33

but it's not necessarily in the most useful location.

03:37

So with Global, you get this Adjust Manipulator button.

03:41

And if I select it, I can move the manipulator freely

03:45

or if I click on the geometry,

03:47

so I'll just pick this face,

03:50

it moves the manipulator to the center and

03:52

adjusts the orientation to match the face direction.

03:56

Or if I click on this edge, it gets centered and oriented to the edge direction.

04:01

And I can keep adjusting it

04:03

and Ctrl-snap it to this corner

04:05

and all the time it keeps that orientation.

04:09

So then you have to remember to come over here and switch back to the Transform mode.

04:14

And I'll often use space bar for that.

04:17

And now the Transform manipulator is working like a Slide

04:21

and the scaling is working nicely towards the center line.

04:26

So with these two tools,

04:28

you can move vertices in geometry directions as well as in the X, the Y and Z.

Video transcript

00:02

The individual Move, Rotate and Scale tools work in the X, Y and Z directions.

00:08

And it's the same with the Transform manipulator.

00:11

So I'm gonna have a look at how we

00:12

can work in the directions determined by the geometry instead,

00:17

by looking at the Adjust Manipulator option for the Transform tool.

00:21

And by using the Transform CV tool with the Slide and NUV options.

00:26

And I'll start with that.

00:29

I can access Transform CV from here on the palette

00:33

or here on the marking menu

00:35

or over here on the Control Panel shelf

00:39

and the space bar displays the puck

00:42

which looks very complex, but I'm just going to stick with Move

00:46

and then it defaults to XYZ, but I'm going to use it for Slide

00:50

and for NUV

00:52

or in fact, just for N which is the normal direction.

00:54

So I'll choose that

00:56

and then I'll pick this edge loop

00:59

and click on the Transform CV tool

01:02

and then clicking and dragging the left mouse button

01:05

displays these blue arrows and moves the CVs outwards and inwards.

01:11

And you can see from this view that that would

01:13

have been hard to achieve in the XYZ directions alone.

01:18

If I want to keep going,

01:20

this has got an embedded pick mode in the center

01:23

and it's currently set to CVs

01:26

and the tool is still active so I can just click and drag on the next CV

01:31

and just keep going,

01:33

adjusting individual CVs in the normal direction.

01:38

So in the center of the puck, I can switch the selection to Edge Loops,

01:42

Faces, or just Edges.

01:45

So I'm gonna pick Edge Loops

01:47

and I'll also switch to the Slide mode.

01:50

So the next click I do will select the whole loop

01:54

and apply the Slide arrows

01:56

and these point in the directions of the control cage edges.

02:01

So if I drag one colored arrow,

02:04

then they all travel along the edge directions.

02:08

And this hardly changes the shape at all.

02:11

But it does let us reposition the CVs along this side.

02:16

And when I have a complete edge loop with a simple quad layout,

02:20

then I get these chevrons that let me twist or angle the row of CVs.

02:27

And because edge loops are set here for selection, then I can click on the next one

02:32

and this one has a star point here, so it's got an extra arrow color

02:37

and some different edge directions.

02:40

And then I can click over here.

02:43

But this time, I don't want to move this vertex in the edge loop.

02:47

So I can always override the built in selection

02:50

by picking the CVs I want first and then selecting the tool afterwards.

02:58

So some people use this for all of their

02:59

CV transforms and they'll use the XYZ setting,

03:03

the Move, Rotate and Scale and this Sensitivity setting.

03:08

But the key ones for subdivisions are just Move, Slide and Move Normal.

03:12

So you can keep it simple

03:15

or you can get a similar result with the Transform Manipulator.

03:20

So if I just pick this edge loop at the front of the hood

03:24

and then choose Transform,

03:26

if it's set to Pivot, you can switch to Global

03:29

to get the manipulator onto the geometry,

03:33

but it's not necessarily in the most useful location.

03:37

So with Global, you get this Adjust Manipulator button.

03:41

And if I select it, I can move the manipulator freely

03:45

or if I click on the geometry,

03:47

so I'll just pick this face,

03:50

it moves the manipulator to the center and

03:52

adjusts the orientation to match the face direction.

03:56

Or if I click on this edge, it gets centered and oriented to the edge direction.

04:01

And I can keep adjusting it

04:03

and Ctrl-snap it to this corner

04:05

and all the time it keeps that orientation.

04:09

So then you have to remember to come over here and switch back to the Transform mode.

04:14

And I'll often use space bar for that.

04:17

And now the Transform manipulator is working like a Slide

04:21

and the scaling is working nicely towards the center line.

04:26

So with these two tools,

04:28

you can move vertices in geometry directions as well as in the X, the Y and Z.

Transcript

00:02

As the design develops, you'll end up with more CVs

00:06

and in wireframe, the ones in the distance and the foreground are all visible.

00:11

And so if I do a box-select,

00:14

I kind of expect to select these ones at the front and these ones behind.

00:20

But that becomes more of an issue when I'm using box mode

00:23

because I don't see the CVs behind the shading.

00:27

So it looks like I've done a controlled selection.

00:30

But in fact, I've accidentally selected these ones behind.

00:36

It's not so much of a problem in surface shading

00:39

because I can see the obscured CVs

00:42

and that's due to this Xray setting that gives them a partial visibility,

00:47

so you can see them,

00:49

but you're still at risk of selecting them.

00:53

And that's why we have this icon up here for Camera-based Selection.

00:58

And when that's on, a drag-select won't select the ones behind.

01:03

The shading occludes the selection.

01:06

And that works for box mode shading too.

01:09

And this icon is a shortcut for the Preferences > Selection Options here

01:14

and it defaults to just Shaded occlusion,

01:17

but I can choose to use both Shaded and Wireframe.

01:23

So then without shading,

01:25

I still have the occlusion effect for the selection

01:28

even in the wireframe.

01:30

And I can always toggle that off and switch back to being able to pick through.

01:36

And it's worth keeping an eye on that setting so

01:38

that you always get the behavior that you're expecting.

01:44

Another way of managing lots of geometry is selection sets.

01:48

So let's say I want to select this hood

01:50

and I can use the Grow tool here to get the faces that I want.

01:55

Then if I want to pick that often,

01:57

I can come up to the Edit menu and create a selection set from it.

02:01

And there's a couple of options, but I'll just take the default setting and say go

02:07

and then here on the Windows menu, I've got the Selection Set Lister

02:11

and I can rename the set here if I want to.

02:15

And if I do a Pick Nothing, then on the palette, I've got a Pick Selection Set tool

02:19

that'll pick the whole set with just one click

02:23

and a set can be surfaces, curves, faces, CVs or a mixture.

02:29

So here I can pick this line of CVs

02:32

and create another selection set

02:35

and I can rename it here.

02:39

And when I use Pick Selection Set,

02:41

I need to click on a member of that set,

02:43

so a CV, in this case.

02:46

I can't just pick on the edge of the hull to select it.

02:50

Alternatively, I can pick it using the entries in the Set Lister.

02:56

So if you're going to use selection sets,

02:58

it's probably worth adding the pick tool to your marking menu.

03:03

And another tool that some users also add is Pick Hull

03:07

because picking SubD elements and CVs can be a bit confusing.

03:12

So here if I use Pick Edge, it actually does two things.

03:15

It selects the edge which I use for SubD tools like Bevel or Crease.

03:21

But also when I do a transform CV, it selected the two CVs associated with that edge

03:29

and Pick Face has the same two selections,

03:32

the face object for tools like Extrude or Extract,

03:36

but also the four CVs on the corners for Transform

03:42

and the same for edge loop,

03:44

I've got edges

03:46

but I only see selected CVs when I activate the Transform CV tool.

03:51

So if I want to pick those CVs first, I can use Pick Hull instead

03:56

and it selects the same range

03:58

but only the CVs not the edges.

04:01

And for some tools like Align up here,

04:04

that's what's required.

04:08

And then just a final tip is to explore

04:10

these different settings for the three mouse buttons,

04:14

they're fully customizable. But there are four options for only three buttons.

04:19

And the one not in the default settings is Pick,

04:22

so I'll show you that. And I'm going to put that onto my middle mouse button

04:26

and then put add back on to the left because it's so useful.

04:30

And that just means I no longer have the toggle option.

04:34

So then if I pick some faces

04:37

and then I want to pick over here instead,

04:39

previously, I'd have to do a Pick Nothing first,

04:43

but with the middle mouse button, I can just pick this one instead

04:47

and then use the left button to add

04:49

and add again

04:51

and I can use the right button to unpick.

04:55

So that pick option just means I don't have to use

04:58

Pick Nothing to go and pick a completely different item.

05:02

So there's no right or wrong for these.

05:04

It's just up to you to explore the settings and see if they suit you better

05:08

or to just keep the default settings if you're used to those.

Video transcript

00:02

As the design develops, you'll end up with more CVs

00:06

and in wireframe, the ones in the distance and the foreground are all visible.

00:11

And so if I do a box-select,

00:14

I kind of expect to select these ones at the front and these ones behind.

00:20

But that becomes more of an issue when I'm using box mode

00:23

because I don't see the CVs behind the shading.

00:27

So it looks like I've done a controlled selection.

00:30

But in fact, I've accidentally selected these ones behind.

00:36

It's not so much of a problem in surface shading

00:39

because I can see the obscured CVs

00:42

and that's due to this Xray setting that gives them a partial visibility,

00:47

so you can see them,

00:49

but you're still at risk of selecting them.

00:53

And that's why we have this icon up here for Camera-based Selection.

00:58

And when that's on, a drag-select won't select the ones behind.

01:03

The shading occludes the selection.

01:06

And that works for box mode shading too.

01:09

And this icon is a shortcut for the Preferences > Selection Options here

01:14

and it defaults to just Shaded occlusion,

01:17

but I can choose to use both Shaded and Wireframe.

01:23

So then without shading,

01:25

I still have the occlusion effect for the selection

01:28

even in the wireframe.

01:30

And I can always toggle that off and switch back to being able to pick through.

01:36

And it's worth keeping an eye on that setting so

01:38

that you always get the behavior that you're expecting.

01:44

Another way of managing lots of geometry is selection sets.

01:48

So let's say I want to select this hood

01:50

and I can use the Grow tool here to get the faces that I want.

01:55

Then if I want to pick that often,

01:57

I can come up to the Edit menu and create a selection set from it.

02:01

And there's a couple of options, but I'll just take the default setting and say go

02:07

and then here on the Windows menu, I've got the Selection Set Lister

02:11

and I can rename the set here if I want to.

02:15

And if I do a Pick Nothing, then on the palette, I've got a Pick Selection Set tool

02:19

that'll pick the whole set with just one click

02:23

and a set can be surfaces, curves, faces, CVs or a mixture.

02:29

So here I can pick this line of CVs

02:32

and create another selection set

02:35

and I can rename it here.

02:39

And when I use Pick Selection Set,

02:41

I need to click on a member of that set,

02:43

so a CV, in this case.

02:46

I can't just pick on the edge of the hull to select it.

02:50

Alternatively, I can pick it using the entries in the Set Lister.

02:56

So if you're going to use selection sets,

02:58

it's probably worth adding the pick tool to your marking menu.

03:03

And another tool that some users also add is Pick Hull

03:07

because picking SubD elements and CVs can be a bit confusing.

03:12

So here if I use Pick Edge, it actually does two things.

03:15

It selects the edge which I use for SubD tools like Bevel or Crease.

03:21

But also when I do a transform CV, it selected the two CVs associated with that edge

03:29

and Pick Face has the same two selections,

03:32

the face object for tools like Extrude or Extract,

03:36

but also the four CVs on the corners for Transform

03:42

and the same for edge loop,

03:44

I've got edges

03:46

but I only see selected CVs when I activate the Transform CV tool.

03:51

So if I want to pick those CVs first, I can use Pick Hull instead

03:56

and it selects the same range

03:58

but only the CVs not the edges.

04:01

And for some tools like Align up here,

04:04

that's what's required.

04:08

And then just a final tip is to explore

04:10

these different settings for the three mouse buttons,

04:14

they're fully customizable. But there are four options for only three buttons.

04:19

And the one not in the default settings is Pick,

04:22

so I'll show you that. And I'm going to put that onto my middle mouse button

04:26

and then put add back on to the left because it's so useful.

04:30

And that just means I no longer have the toggle option.

04:34

So then if I pick some faces

04:37

and then I want to pick over here instead,

04:39

previously, I'd have to do a Pick Nothing first,

04:43

but with the middle mouse button, I can just pick this one instead

04:47

and then use the left button to add

04:49

and add again

04:51

and I can use the right button to unpick.

04:55

So that pick option just means I don't have to use

04:58

Pick Nothing to go and pick a completely different item.

05:02

So there's no right or wrong for these.

05:04

It's just up to you to explore the settings and see if they suit you better

05:08

or to just keep the default settings if you're used to those.

Transcript

00:02

As you create topology, you'll often get uneven layouts or zigzag shapes.

00:08

So I'm gonna use simple NURBS geometry,

00:11

so this for example, is just a flat plane

00:14

to help line up these vertices.

00:19

So I use the SubD Align To Surface tool

00:22

and it says "Pick at least three CVs". So I'll just drag-select this whole row.

00:28

And I am only going to use this middle button which is Align To Surface.

00:32

And then my only decision is which way the vertices will move.

00:35

So Closest would be fine,

00:37

but in this case, I could choose Z as well.

00:41

It then says "Pick the target surface".

00:44

So I'll select that plane and then all the CVs get lined up to it.

00:49

So then if I take off the shading,

00:51

you can see that the subdivision is now green, which means construction history.

00:56

So that means that if I move the plane, the CVs will follow

00:60

or if I rotate it

01:02

and they'll always stay aligned.

01:05

But even more useful is that I can turn off the target geometry layer.

01:09

But still when I move a vertex, it's going to snap back into alignment.

01:14

So I can nudge it along, but it's always gonna stay on that plane

01:18

and that gives a really clean lower edge to that rear bumper.

01:25

Another example where I can use this is on this front wheel arch

01:29

and that's gone out of shape as I've been developing the topology.

01:34

So I've got another NURBS surface here

01:36

and this one's not completely flat, it's got a bit of curvature at the bottom.

01:41

Now, I don't really want to have to pick these vertices one by one.

01:45

So I like to use the Pick Hull tool

01:48

and I've added it here on my marking menu.

01:52

So sometimes it's easier to pick the CVs first

01:56

and then choose the Align To Surface tool.

01:59

And this time I'm gonna want the Y direction instead

02:03

and I'm gonna hit the Align To Surface button

02:06

and pick that

02:08

and the vertices just snap to the surface.

02:12

And with construction history,

02:14

they stay stuck to that surface as I make adjustments.

02:20

So some other examples,

02:23

you could use part of a cylinder to tidy up a wheel arch opening

02:28

or at the front here, I can use a NURBS surface to get a smooth centerline shape

02:32

and a coherent profile along this front edge.

02:39

But I can also just use a NURBS curve.

02:43

So for the top of this front fender, I'm going to create a curve

02:48

and a single span degree 1 will always be a straight line.

02:51

So I could increase that to degree 2.

02:55

And then I've got a middle CV that I can use to give it some shape in the side view

03:01

and then move it out a bit in the top view.

03:05

And the nice thing about degree 2 is that the curve is always planar

03:09

without any waviness.

03:12

And it's this simplicity that we want to make use of.

03:17

So I'll use Pick

03:18

Hull again to select that row of CVs along the top.

03:21

And this time, I'm going to use the Align To Curve tool.

03:25

And again, I'm just going to use this middle button Align To Curve

03:29

and it says to pick the target curve so I'll select that

03:33

and you can see that all the CVs get aligned.

03:37

Now, if I zoom in a bit,

03:38

you can see that the limit surfaces won't match the curve

03:41

exactly because it's the control cage vertices that get aligned.

03:47

And while this is still live, I'm going to have a look from the top

03:50

and show you the Uniform option here.

03:54

And this spaces out the CVs evenly along the curve,

03:58

but I will generally use Closest to maintain the layout that I had to start with.

04:05

And now I can control that whole shape with just this one CV

04:09

and the four interior vertices on the subdivision

04:11

follow that

04:12

and stay in a nice controlled relationship to each other.

04:18

And then finally, I can automatically generate the curve.

04:23

So here I've got quite a good layout, but there are a few wobbles

04:28

so I can take advantage of the work that I've

04:30

done so far by using the Generate Curve button.

04:34

But before I use it, I need to select the degree of the curve that I want to create.

04:39

So it would be degree 1 for a straight line

04:42

or degree 2 for a clean planar curve.

04:46

And degree 3 is probably what I'm going to need

04:48

here to capture this curved shape at the rear.

04:52

So once I've chosen the degree I can say generate the curve

04:56

and that does two things, it creates this curve

04:59

and it aligns the CVs.

05:02

And if I shade that up, you can see that again,

05:04

I have a history relationship where the curve shape is controlling all of those CVs.

05:13

So if I was to delete the construction history on that whole subdivision,

05:17

I would lose all of those history alignments.

05:20

But if I just want to remove one,

05:22

then I could use either the History View or the History Visualizer.

05:28

And here you can find the rear plane

05:31

and the wheel arch surface

05:33

and the fender curve and the side curve.

05:37

So if I wanted to delete the history, just for that one,

05:40

I can pick the associated Align function

05:43

and just do a delete

05:45

and then it's no longer affecting the subdivision.

05:50

Or if you want to keep it simple, you can just pick the target geometry and delete it

05:55

and that will only affect that one alignment

05:58

and leave the others still connected.

Video transcript

00:02

As you create topology, you'll often get uneven layouts or zigzag shapes.

00:08

So I'm gonna use simple NURBS geometry,

00:11

so this for example, is just a flat plane

00:14

to help line up these vertices.

00:19

So I use the SubD Align To Surface tool

00:22

and it says "Pick at least three CVs". So I'll just drag-select this whole row.

00:28

And I am only going to use this middle button which is Align To Surface.

00:32

And then my only decision is which way the vertices will move.

00:35

So Closest would be fine,

00:37

but in this case, I could choose Z as well.

00:41

It then says "Pick the target surface".

00:44

So I'll select that plane and then all the CVs get lined up to it.

00:49

So then if I take off the shading,

00:51

you can see that the subdivision is now green, which means construction history.

00:56

So that means that if I move the plane, the CVs will follow

00:60

or if I rotate it

01:02

and they'll always stay aligned.

01:05

But even more useful is that I can turn off the target geometry layer.

01:09

But still when I move a vertex, it's going to snap back into alignment.

01:14

So I can nudge it along, but it's always gonna stay on that plane

01:18

and that gives a really clean lower edge to that rear bumper.

01:25

Another example where I can use this is on this front wheel arch

01:29

and that's gone out of shape as I've been developing the topology.

01:34

So I've got another NURBS surface here

01:36

and this one's not completely flat, it's got a bit of curvature at the bottom.

01:41

Now, I don't really want to have to pick these vertices one by one.

01:45

So I like to use the Pick Hull tool

01:48

and I've added it here on my marking menu.

01:52

So sometimes it's easier to pick the CVs first

01:56

and then choose the Align To Surface tool.

01:59

And this time I'm gonna want the Y direction instead

02:03

and I'm gonna hit the Align To Surface button

02:06

and pick that

02:08

and the vertices just snap to the surface.

02:12

And with construction history,

02:14

they stay stuck to that surface as I make adjustments.

02:20

So some other examples,

02:23

you could use part of a cylinder to tidy up a wheel arch opening

02:28

or at the front here, I can use a NURBS surface to get a smooth centerline shape

02:32

and a coherent profile along this front edge.

02:39

But I can also just use a NURBS curve.

02:43

So for the top of this front fender, I'm going to create a curve

02:48

and a single span degree 1 will always be a straight line.

02:51

So I could increase that to degree 2.

02:55

And then I've got a middle CV that I can use to give it some shape in the side view

03:01

and then move it out a bit in the top view.

03:05

And the nice thing about degree 2 is that the curve is always planar

03:09

without any waviness.

03:12

And it's this simplicity that we want to make use of.

03:17

So I'll use Pick

03:18

Hull again to select that row of CVs along the top.

03:21

And this time, I'm going to use the Align To Curve tool.

03:25

And again, I'm just going to use this middle button Align To Curve

03:29

and it says to pick the target curve so I'll select that

03:33

and you can see that all the CVs get aligned.

03:37

Now, if I zoom in a bit,

03:38

you can see that the limit surfaces won't match the curve

03:41

exactly because it's the control cage vertices that get aligned.

03:47

And while this is still live, I'm going to have a look from the top

03:50

and show you the Uniform option here.

03:54

And this spaces out the CVs evenly along the curve,

03:58

but I will generally use Closest to maintain the layout that I had to start with.

04:05

And now I can control that whole shape with just this one CV

04:09

and the four interior vertices on the subdivision

04:11

follow that

04:12

and stay in a nice controlled relationship to each other.

04:18

And then finally, I can automatically generate the curve.

04:23

So here I've got quite a good layout, but there are a few wobbles

04:28

so I can take advantage of the work that I've

04:30

done so far by using the Generate Curve button.

04:34

But before I use it, I need to select the degree of the curve that I want to create.

04:39

So it would be degree 1 for a straight line

04:42

or degree 2 for a clean planar curve.

04:46

And degree 3 is probably what I'm going to need

04:48

here to capture this curved shape at the rear.

04:52

So once I've chosen the degree I can say generate the curve

04:56

and that does two things, it creates this curve

04:59

and it aligns the CVs.

05:02

And if I shade that up, you can see that again,

05:04

I have a history relationship where the curve shape is controlling all of those CVs.

05:13

So if I was to delete the construction history on that whole subdivision,

05:17

I would lose all of those history alignments.

05:20

But if I just want to remove one,

05:22

then I could use either the History View or the History Visualizer.

05:28

And here you can find the rear plane

05:31

and the wheel arch surface

05:33

and the fender curve and the side curve.

05:37

So if I wanted to delete the history, just for that one,

05:40

I can pick the associated Align function

05:43

and just do a delete

05:45

and then it's no longer affecting the subdivision.

05:50

Or if you want to keep it simple, you can just pick the target geometry and delete it

05:55

and that will only affect that one alignment

05:58

and leave the others still connected.

Transcript

00:02

I'm gonna show you three ways to tidy the CV layout.

00:06

And I'll start with the Planarize tool and have a look at this rear end.

00:11

There's an Edge Loop option here because Planarize works on edges, not CVs.

00:17

So if I pick those, I get a preview of the plane

00:21

and I can choose here if I want a Z direction plane centered on the selection

00:25

or a Best Fit plane that averages between the two end points.

00:30

But because I want this half to mirror across smoothly,

00:33

I'm just going to check in the side view

00:35

and there's still a little bit of twist there.

00:37

So I'm gonna choose View Based which works best when I'm in Orthographic

00:42

as it's created perpendicular to the view plane and between the two end points.

00:48

And if I zoom in these yellow lines show the Projection Type,

00:52

so Closest moves the CVs 90 degrees to the plane,

00:56

and Adaptive moves them in the direction of the edges.

01:00

So then I can just hit space bar to Planarize,

01:04

and you can see that the subdivision

01:05

isn't green because there's no construction history.

01:08

But because I can pick by edge loop, it's very quick to pick another,

01:12

do a space bar

01:14

and another and a space bar.

01:17

So that does a nice job of making that layout more controlled and regular.

01:22

And we can do a similar job with the Align To Curve tool.

01:27

So let's just say I wanted these CVs to be in a straight line.

01:31

So a straight line here would be degree 1.

01:34

I'm just going to use the simple Align option

01:36

and it's highlighted as the default.

01:38

So space bar will align all of those

01:40

without creating the actual curve or the history.

01:44

And then I can use my Shift to Add-select

01:47

and space bar again

01:50

and again, Shift and Add up to here and space bar.

01:55

So that's straightened out these three sets of edges.

01:59

And then on this hood area,

02:01

I'm going to want curved shapes, not straight lines.

02:04

So I can use degree 2

02:07

and I'll pick from here and Shift-Add to here

02:11

and then just do the space bar to Align

02:14

and I can select again

02:16

and space bar

02:18

and again,

02:20

and that does a really quick tidy up.

02:23

And the key really is to understand the

02:25

effect of different degrees on a curved shape.

02:30

So then finally, I've got a Smooth tool

02:33

and this has got two modes, Smooth and Relax.

02:37

So I'll start with Smooth and keep this Strength value reasonably low.

02:43

And then I just click and hold and drag

02:45

across faces to reduce the angles between the edges

02:49

and smooth out some of these zigzags.

02:52

And again, there's no history but the Undo works well

02:56

and I can reduce this Strength value

02:58

and then do it again more iteratively this time with a bit more control.

03:05

And if I do a Smooth on this middle section here,

03:07

it will soften that inwards, but it doesn't really change the layout much.

03:13

Whereas if I now switch to Relax and do the same thing,

03:17

then it does the same smoothing. But it also changes the edge lengths

03:21

and moves towards a more even distribution

03:24

which changes the layout quite significantly

03:28

Over here, if I use smooth it

03:31

improves the layout, but I've still got this angle here.

03:35

So I'll do an Undo

03:36

and this time I'll use Relax

03:40

and I get a nicer layout.

03:42

But if that's too much, I can do Undo again,

03:45

reduce the Strength

03:47

and then just do a series of small click and drags to get a more subtle result.

03:54

But be aware that even in Smooth mode, you can lose too much of your design shape,

03:59

particularly in the interior.

04:03

And with Relax, the effect is even stronger.

04:06

So to avoid losing too much of your original work, then keep a low strength value

04:11

and just use Undo if you go too far.

Video transcript

00:02

I'm gonna show you three ways to tidy the CV layout.

00:06

And I'll start with the Planarize tool and have a look at this rear end.

00:11

There's an Edge Loop option here because Planarize works on edges, not CVs.

00:17

So if I pick those, I get a preview of the plane

00:21

and I can choose here if I want a Z direction plane centered on the selection

00:25

or a Best Fit plane that averages between the two end points.

00:30

But because I want this half to mirror across smoothly,

00:33

I'm just going to check in the side view

00:35

and there's still a little bit of twist there.

00:37

So I'm gonna choose View Based which works best when I'm in Orthographic

00:42

as it's created perpendicular to the view plane and between the two end points.

00:48

And if I zoom in these yellow lines show the Projection Type,

00:52

so Closest moves the CVs 90 degrees to the plane,

00:56

and Adaptive moves them in the direction of the edges.

01:00

So then I can just hit space bar to Planarize,

01:04

and you can see that the subdivision

01:05

isn't green because there's no construction history.

01:08

But because I can pick by edge loop, it's very quick to pick another,

01:12

do a space bar

01:14

and another and a space bar.

01:17

So that does a nice job of making that layout more controlled and regular.

01:22

And we can do a similar job with the Align To Curve tool.

01:27

So let's just say I wanted these CVs to be in a straight line.

01:31

So a straight line here would be degree 1.

01:34

I'm just going to use the simple Align option

01:36

and it's highlighted as the default.

01:38

So space bar will align all of those

01:40

without creating the actual curve or the history.

01:44

And then I can use my Shift to Add-select

01:47

and space bar again

01:50

and again, Shift and Add up to here and space bar.

01:55

So that's straightened out these three sets of edges.

01:59

And then on this hood area,

02:01

I'm going to want curved shapes, not straight lines.

02:04

So I can use degree 2

02:07

and I'll pick from here and Shift-Add to here

02:11

and then just do the space bar to Align

02:14

and I can select again

02:16

and space bar

02:18

and again,

02:20

and that does a really quick tidy up.

02:23

And the key really is to understand the

02:25

effect of different degrees on a curved shape.

02:30

So then finally, I've got a Smooth tool

02:33

and this has got two modes, Smooth and Relax.

02:37

So I'll start with Smooth and keep this Strength value reasonably low.

02:43

And then I just click and hold and drag

02:45

across faces to reduce the angles between the edges

02:49

and smooth out some of these zigzags.

02:52

And again, there's no history but the Undo works well

02:56

and I can reduce this Strength value

02:58

and then do it again more iteratively this time with a bit more control.

03:05

And if I do a Smooth on this middle section here,

03:07

it will soften that inwards, but it doesn't really change the layout much.

03:13

Whereas if I now switch to Relax and do the same thing,

03:17

then it does the same smoothing. But it also changes the edge lengths

03:21

and moves towards a more even distribution

03:24

which changes the layout quite significantly

03:28

Over here, if I use smooth it

03:31

improves the layout, but I've still got this angle here.

03:35

So I'll do an Undo

03:36

and this time I'll use Relax

03:40

and I get a nicer layout.

03:42

But if that's too much, I can do Undo again,

03:45

reduce the Strength

03:47

and then just do a series of small click and drags to get a more subtle result.

03:54

But be aware that even in Smooth mode, you can lose too much of your design shape,

03:59

particularly in the interior.

04:03

And with Relax, the effect is even stronger.

04:06

So to avoid losing too much of your original work, then keep a low strength value

04:11

and just use Undo if you go too far.

Transcript

00:04

Adding cutout details or holes using only the control cage

00:09

means that you've got to add a lot of geometry

00:12

which adds complexity to the subdivision.

00:16

The alternative is to keep the control

00:19

cage simple

00:20

and then create the detail on the limit surfaces using the NURBS trimming tools.

00:26

So I'll go back to my untrimmed subdivision

00:29

and I've created some curves here in this view.

00:33

And I'll start by using the Project tool to create some curves-on-surface.

00:38

And this defaults to the view direction which

00:40

would work as I am in this orthographic view

00:43

or if you prefer to work in perspective, then you can choose the axis.

00:48

So in this case, I'll project along the X direction.

00:52

But the most important option is this Subdiv Select

00:56

because when it's asking me to select the NURBS surfaces,

00:60

I can just click once on the subdivision

01:02

and all the limit surfaces get selected.

01:05

So I'll say Go

01:07

and then it says "Select the curves" and I've got three here.

01:10

So I can box select those and say Project

01:14

and that creates a curve-on-surface which is drawn on to the limit surfaces.

01:21

But also the projection has gone all the way through.

01:23

And I've got one here at the front

01:25

and a bit here too.

01:27

So I can use this Limit Projection option here to reduce that.

01:31

And I don't need to be too accurate. Just make sure that it only covers the area I need.

01:37

So these five limit surfaces have curves-on-surface

01:41

and so the boundaries are shown dotted for these.

01:45

But I've also got these two spare ones,

01:47

which is why the Trim tool also has this Subdiv Select option.

01:52

So again, I can click on the subdivision to activate all the surfaces

01:56

and then select here.

01:58

And I don't want to keep that I'll do a Discard instead

02:02

and that then hides those two spare surfaces and trims these five

02:07

and changes the outline color to yellow.

02:11

And it's got construction history, so if I change the filet radius, for example,

02:16

the trimmed region will update

02:19

and I'll get a more controllable and precise cutout

02:21

shape than I could with just the subdivision vertices,

02:25

and any changes that I make will always update the trim.

02:30

Now with this circle for the badge area, I'm not gonna want to project that in X or Z.

02:37

So in project I can choose the Normal vector option.

02:40

So if I pick the subdiv it's gonna go 90 degrees to the surface. So I'll do a Go

02:47

and pick the curve and do a Project.

02:50

So I'll just hide the curve layer. So you can see the curve-on-surface here.

02:55

And then I can just do the trim,

02:57

pick the subdiv and Discard.

03:02

So I've added detail without adding complexity to the subdivision cage.

03:09

You can also Intersect to create curves-on-surface.

03:13

So let's say I've done a quick exploration of this roof wing

03:17

and I've kept the face layout simple and I haven't yet

03:19

worked out how to combine the two subdivisions along this join.

03:23

So I can intersect the limit surfaces instead.

03:27

And again, it's got the Subdivision Select options.

03:29

So I can just pick one whole subdiv

03:32

and then Go

03:33

and then the other.

03:35

And if I take the shading off, you can see that the curve-on-surface has been created.

03:40

Now for trimming the curve-on-surface has got to go all

03:43

the way to the end and here this one's a bit short,

03:47

but there's an option on Trim called Extend

03:50

and I'll use Selected which displays an arrow here where there's an issue.

03:54

So if I click on that,

03:56

it will delete the construction history, but that's OK.

03:59

So I'm just going to select here and say Keep

04:03

and it will be the same for this one.

04:05

This end is OK.

04:07

But I can see an arrow here as it's a bit short. So I can click on that to extend

04:12

and then pick this region and Keep.

04:17

So that's done a quick tidy up which might be

04:19

useful for a design review or a screen grab.

04:23

Now there isn't an undo with trimming, but we have Untrim instead

04:28

and this Last option will undo step by step.

04:32

So if I click here, it does

04:33

that trim from the intersection

04:35

but not these ones.

04:37

And then if I click again, it'll untrim in sequence.

04:42

Or if I do an Untrim All, then everything is untrimmed here

04:46

and here.

04:48

And it's good practice to delete any curves-on-surface you don't need for trimming.

04:53

And there's a specific Pick tool here

04:56

and I use that a lot, so I've added it to my marking menu as well.

04:59

So I can just box select and delete the curves-on-surface.

05:04

And finally, if you use these tools a lot, it can be useful to add them to your shelf,

05:10

particularly the Project tools in the different directions

05:13

and the Trim and Untrim.

Video transcript

00:04

Adding cutout details or holes using only the control cage

00:09

means that you've got to add a lot of geometry

00:12

which adds complexity to the subdivision.

00:16

The alternative is to keep the control

00:19

cage simple

00:20

and then create the detail on the limit surfaces using the NURBS trimming tools.

00:26

So I'll go back to my untrimmed subdivision

00:29

and I've created some curves here in this view.

00:33

And I'll start by using the Project tool to create some curves-on-surface.

00:38

And this defaults to the view direction which

00:40

would work as I am in this orthographic view

00:43

or if you prefer to work in perspective, then you can choose the axis.

00:48

So in this case, I'll project along the X direction.

00:52

But the most important option is this Subdiv Select

00:56

because when it's asking me to select the NURBS surfaces,

00:60

I can just click once on the subdivision

01:02

and all the limit surfaces get selected.

01:05

So I'll say Go

01:07

and then it says "Select the curves" and I've got three here.

01:10

So I can box select those and say Project

01:14

and that creates a curve-on-surface which is drawn on to the limit surfaces.

01:21

But also the projection has gone all the way through.

01:23

And I've got one here at the front

01:25

and a bit here too.

01:27

So I can use this Limit Projection option here to reduce that.

01:31

And I don't need to be too accurate. Just make sure that it only covers the area I need.

01:37

So these five limit surfaces have curves-on-surface

01:41

and so the boundaries are shown dotted for these.

01:45

But I've also got these two spare ones,

01:47

which is why the Trim tool also has this Subdiv Select option.

01:52

So again, I can click on the subdivision to activate all the surfaces

01:56

and then select here.

01:58

And I don't want to keep that I'll do a Discard instead

02:02

and that then hides those two spare surfaces and trims these five

02:07

and changes the outline color to yellow.

02:11

And it's got construction history, so if I change the filet radius, for example,

02:16

the trimmed region will update

02:19

and I'll get a more controllable and precise cutout

02:21

shape than I could with just the subdivision vertices,

02:25

and any changes that I make will always update the trim.

02:30

Now with this circle for the badge area, I'm not gonna want to project that in X or Z.

02:37

So in project I can choose the Normal vector option.

02:40

So if I pick the subdiv it's gonna go 90 degrees to the surface. So I'll do a Go

02:47

and pick the curve and do a Project.

02:50

So I'll just hide the curve layer. So you can see the curve-on-surface here.

02:55

And then I can just do the trim,

02:57

pick the subdiv and Discard.

03:02

So I've added detail without adding complexity to the subdivision cage.

03:09

You can also Intersect to create curves-on-surface.

03:13

So let's say I've done a quick exploration of this roof wing

03:17

and I've kept the face layout simple and I haven't yet

03:19

worked out how to combine the two subdivisions along this join.

03:23

So I can intersect the limit surfaces instead.

03:27

And again, it's got the Subdivision Select options.

03:29

So I can just pick one whole subdiv

03:32

and then Go

03:33

and then the other.

03:35

And if I take the shading off, you can see that the curve-on-surface has been created.

03:40

Now for trimming the curve-on-surface has got to go all

03:43

the way to the end and here this one's a bit short,

03:47

but there's an option on Trim called Extend

03:50

and I'll use Selected which displays an arrow here where there's an issue.

03:54

So if I click on that,

03:56

it will delete the construction history, but that's OK.

03:59

So I'm just going to select here and say Keep

04:03

and it will be the same for this one.

04:05

This end is OK.

04:07

But I can see an arrow here as it's a bit short. So I can click on that to extend

04:12

and then pick this region and Keep.

04:17

So that's done a quick tidy up which might be

04:19

useful for a design review or a screen grab.

04:23

Now there isn't an undo with trimming, but we have Untrim instead

04:28

and this Last option will undo step by step.

04:32

So if I click here, it does

04:33

that trim from the intersection

04:35

but not these ones.

04:37

And then if I click again, it'll untrim in sequence.

04:42

Or if I do an Untrim All, then everything is untrimmed here

04:46

and here.

04:48

And it's good practice to delete any curves-on-surface you don't need for trimming.

04:53

And there's a specific Pick tool here

04:56

and I use that a lot, so I've added it to my marking menu as well.

04:59

So I can just box select and delete the curves-on-surface.

05:04

And finally, if you use these tools a lot, it can be useful to add them to your shelf,

05:10

particularly the Project tools in the different directions

05:13

and the Trim and Untrim.

Transcript

00:02

We can project curves onto a subdivision

00:05

and use the curves-on-surface to divide or split the surfaces.

00:10

I'm just going to work on a section of the hood

00:12

and I'll use the Object Lister here to show how the subdivision structure works.

00:18

So you can see we've got these eight faces here.

00:21

So I'll just do a projection in Z,

00:23

pick the subdiv, do a space bar for Go,

00:26

pick the curves, and space bar to Project.

00:30

So we get the curves-on-surface with history on these two faces

00:34

and they're shown here in the Object Lister.

00:37

So when I Trim, I'll pick the subdiv

00:39

and then I could select here to do a Keep

00:43

or move it over here to do a Discard.

00:46

And in the Object Lister, those two faces are now displayed as trimmed.

00:51

But if I was to Untrim that

00:53

and Trim again

00:55

this time, I can say Divide instead.

00:59

And if I shade that up and have a look over here,

01:02

it's created a second subdivision that's been copied from the first.

01:06

And if I give it a shade of color,

01:08

you can see that it's been trimmed to keep that small region

01:11

and the original has been trimmed with the hole.

01:15

But if I try to display the CVs with the duplicated subdiv, they don't appear.

01:21

And that's because of this H for history.

01:23

So the CVs on this one are driven by the CVs on the original.

01:28

So I can only display the original CVs.

01:31

And that means that if I make a modification,

01:34

both surfaces get changed in exactly the same way,

01:37

which is really useful.

01:40

And also they've both got history with the projecting curves.

01:44

So I can scale that a bit or move it

01:47

and they both stay updated.

01:49

But this duplication has implications when you Untrim.

01:53

So if we changed our minds and decided to pick both of those and do an Untrim,

01:59

you notice here that the copy is a full

02:01

duplicate of the original with all eight faces.

02:04

And if I turn off the original,

02:06

you see that the copied one has lost

02:07

the construction history on the curves-on-surface,

02:11

but it's still there on the original.

02:14

So it's good practice if you do Untrim to be aware that you'll have that duplicate

02:19

and to delete it.

02:23

So now I'm going to have a look at a more complicated example on the roof subdivision

02:27

and create some windscreen details using these curves.

02:31

And I will often take a copy when I'm doing lots of trimming

02:35

to keep a simple version of the subdivision.

02:37

If I want to go back to sculpting the basic form.

02:40

So I've got my subdivision note here

02:43

and I'll just do a Z projection again.

02:47

And that gives me the windscreen outlines on the roof.

02:52

So then when I Trim Divide,

02:54

if I want this main roof part to be the master,

02:57

then I pick the subdivision

02:59

and then I'll only select these regions for the Divide

03:03

but leave this main part of the roof unselected.

03:06

So then when I say Divide, you can see over here that that's been left as the master

03:11

and I've got these four extra copies.

03:14

So I can assign some different shade of colors to make that easier to see.

03:19

And that quickly gives me a lot of detail for visualization

03:22

without having to do all that splitting with subdivision modeling,

03:26

which would be a lot of work and add a lot of complexity to the control cage.

03:31

So then if I want to make a modification, then I can display all the CVs on the master

03:36

and history will probably work quite well with small changes.

03:42

But sometimes you get a trimming issue and you'll have to go

03:45

and do an Untrim and a re-Trim to sort it out.

03:49

And that's one of the main reasons why I'll often keep a basic version

03:52

for when I want to go back to sculpting the subdivision.

Video transcript

00:02

We can project curves onto a subdivision

00:05

and use the curves-on-surface to divide or split the surfaces.

00:10

I'm just going to work on a section of the hood

00:12

and I'll use the Object Lister here to show how the subdivision structure works.

00:18

So you can see we've got these eight faces here.

00:21

So I'll just do a projection in Z,

00:23

pick the subdiv, do a space bar for Go,

00:26

pick the curves, and space bar to Project.

00:30

So we get the curves-on-surface with history on these two faces

00:34

and they're shown here in the Object Lister.

00:37

So when I Trim, I'll pick the subdiv

00:39

and then I could select here to do a Keep

00:43

or move it over here to do a Discard.

00:46

And in the Object Lister, those two faces are now displayed as trimmed.

00:51

But if I was to Untrim that

00:53

and Trim again

00:55

this time, I can say Divide instead.

00:59

And if I shade that up and have a look over here,

01:02

it's created a second subdivision that's been copied from the first.

01:06

And if I give it a shade of color,

01:08

you can see that it's been trimmed to keep that small region

01:11

and the original has been trimmed with the hole.

01:15

But if I try to display the CVs with the duplicated subdiv, they don't appear.

01:21

And that's because of this H for history.

01:23

So the CVs on this one are driven by the CVs on the original.

01:28

So I can only display the original CVs.

01:31

And that means that if I make a modification,

01:34

both surfaces get changed in exactly the same way,

01:37

which is really useful.

01:40

And also they've both got history with the projecting curves.

01:44

So I can scale that a bit or move it

01:47

and they both stay updated.

01:49

But this duplication has implications when you Untrim.

01:53

So if we changed our minds and decided to pick both of those and do an Untrim,

01:59

you notice here that the copy is a full

02:01

duplicate of the original with all eight faces.

02:04

And if I turn off the original,

02:06

you see that the copied one has lost

02:07

the construction history on the curves-on-surface,

02:11

but it's still there on the original.

02:14

So it's good practice if you do Untrim to be aware that you'll have that duplicate

02:19

and to delete it.

02:23

So now I'm going to have a look at a more complicated example on the roof subdivision

02:27

and create some windscreen details using these curves.

02:31

And I will often take a copy when I'm doing lots of trimming

02:35

to keep a simple version of the subdivision.

02:37

If I want to go back to sculpting the basic form.

02:40

So I've got my subdivision note here

02:43

and I'll just do a Z projection again.

02:47

And that gives me the windscreen outlines on the roof.

02:52

So then when I Trim Divide,

02:54

if I want this main roof part to be the master,

02:57

then I pick the subdivision

02:59

and then I'll only select these regions for the Divide

03:03

but leave this main part of the roof unselected.

03:06

So then when I say Divide, you can see over here that that's been left as the master

03:11

and I've got these four extra copies.

03:14

So I can assign some different shade of colors to make that easier to see.

03:19

And that quickly gives me a lot of detail for visualization

03:22

without having to do all that splitting with subdivision modeling,

03:26

which would be a lot of work and add a lot of complexity to the control cage.

03:31

So then if I want to make a modification, then I can display all the CVs on the master

03:36

and history will probably work quite well with small changes.

03:42

But sometimes you get a trimming issue and you'll have to go

03:45

and do an Untrim and a re-Trim to sort it out.

03:49

And that's one of the main reasons why I'll often keep a basic version

03:52

for when I want to go back to sculpting the subdivision.

Transcript

00:03

The subdivision control cage creates NURBS geometry, not polygons.

00:07

And that means we can use all the NURBS

00:09

Surface and Surface Edit tools on those limit surfaces.

00:13

So to create a blackout for this wheel arch, for example,

00:16

I could use the Draft tool which is like the SubD Extrude.

00:21

And with many of the NURBS tools,

00:23

there is a Chain Select option that is particularly useful

00:25

for the number of small surfaces created by the subdivision.

00:29

So here I can click once and it picks all these edges,

00:33

I can choose a direction

00:35

and a length

00:36

and do a Build.

00:38

And then if I've got a blackout shader, I can apply that

00:42

and I get a useful visualization surface that

00:45

doesn't affect the complexity of the control cage.

00:50

One of the biggest causes of complex SubD geometry

00:53

is using the Bevel tool to create these rounded edges.

00:57

So an alternative is to start with a Crease instead.

01:01

And I'll just isolate the layer to make selection easier.

01:05

And then I could use Round or Surface Fillet.

01:07

So I'll select that

01:09

and then box-select across the whole edge

01:12

and that selects a few more than I need but it'll ignore those.

01:16

So I just need to do a space bar to Build

01:19

and that's trimmed the limit surfaces back

01:22

and built the fillet surfaces in between.

01:25

And it's easy to change the radius here

01:27

and Update.

01:30

So we end up with an accurate and adjustable radius edge

01:33

without adding more edges to the subdivision control cage

01:38

and it maintains history.

01:40

So if I modify the control cage,

01:42

then the fillet updates

01:44

and it can take a while.

01:47

So it's useful to use this H button here and choose Global Suspend

01:52

and then make the changes I want without waiting

01:55

for the surface fillet history to update each time.

01:59

And then when I'm ready for it to be rebuilt,

02:01

then I can go back here and turn off the Suspend.

02:05

And that means you've only got to wait once for the update

02:09

and you can see the fillets reapplied along the edge of those limit surfaces.

02:15

Dealing with holes is tricky with subdivisions.

02:19

So I could drop this trimmed vent surface, for example.

02:22

And here I've got some NURBS detailing tools

02:25

and I'll just use the first one which is Fillet Flange

02:29

and these tools have a lot of settings, so I'll close all those sections.

02:33

And again, here in the Control Options, we've got a Chain Select

02:37

and it's also worth checking the Trim setting which I'll turn on.

02:41

So then I can just click once and select the whole edge

02:45

and then I'll choose the fillet direction and the flange direction,

02:49

I'll just use the default settings and do a space bar to Build.

02:53

And that creates both a fillet and a flange in one go.

02:57

And it's a bit short, so I can increase the flange length here

03:01

and reduce the fillet radius

03:03

and do an Update.

03:07

So that creates quite a refined and crisp surface indent

03:11

again, without affecting the complexity of the SubD.

03:16

I've got a curve-on-surface here for a badge.

03:20

And this time I'll use the Panel Gap tool

03:23

and again, that has a Trim setting and a Chain Select if I need it.

03:28

But this is just one curve, so I'll pick that and say Accept

03:33

and I'll choose the inwards direction

03:35

and it's going to go on both sides so I don't need to change that one

03:39

and it creates a fillet and a flange on both sides.

03:43

And the gap here is a bit wide so I can change that

03:46

and I'll make this radius a bit smaller

03:49

and do an Update.

03:52

So if I want to put a different shade of color onto the badge,

03:55

then the problem is that this surface here is still

03:58

a single surface with just the gap trimmed out.

04:01

So I can't give it two different colors.

04:04

Now, I don't want to affect the rest of the SubD.

04:07

So with just this surface selected, I can do an Untrim

04:11

and then Trim again,

04:13

but I'm going to take the Subdiv Select off because I've got some

04:16

other curves on surface on the SubD that I don't want to trim to.

04:20

So I'll be a bit careful and just trim that one surface and do a Keep.

04:26

And then I can just pick that single surface, do a copy and paste

04:30

and then do an Untrim

04:32

and a re-Trim back to there.

04:35

So I will have lost history, but I can now pick it independently.

04:40

And a useful tool is Pick Surface Chain.

04:43

So I can say, pick everything that's tangent continuous from say this surface.

04:49

And then I can assign a badge color to just that part,

04:55

but mostly you won't need to do that trimming.

04:57

So over here,

04:58

I've used the Panel Gap tool to create the split line between the door and the fender.

05:03

So I don't need to separate the colors,

05:06

but if I want to keep things simple for this split line on the rear edge of the door,

05:11

I can also use the Tubular Offset tool.

05:14

And again, I've got Chain Select

05:17

and I'll go for Automatic trim.

05:20

So I can pick that curve-on-surface chain,

05:23

reduce that tube size.

05:25

And I'll make it quite small for a panel split

05:27

and say Build

05:30

and that's created a tube surface.

05:33

But I can switch to a groove

05:36

or most often I pick None just to trim away the gap.

05:39

And if you've got a dark background,

05:41

that's often good enough to illustrate the split

05:44

or you can switch back to just curves-on-surface and Update

05:49

and then do a Trim Divide.

05:51

And this time I would put the Subdiv Select back on so I'm trimming the whole SubD

05:56

and I could delete that center curve-on-surface or I'll just pick both and say Divide

06:02

and then I can just pick those divided parts and assign a blackout color.

06:09

So if you're familiar with the NURBS modeling tools,

06:12

you've got the option of adding details to the main subdivision concept model

06:16

without creating extra edges and vertices that make

06:19

it harder to make quick design changes.

Video transcript

00:03

The subdivision control cage creates NURBS geometry, not polygons.

00:07

And that means we can use all the NURBS

00:09

Surface and Surface Edit tools on those limit surfaces.

00:13

So to create a blackout for this wheel arch, for example,

00:16

I could use the Draft tool which is like the SubD Extrude.

00:21

And with many of the NURBS tools,

00:23

there is a Chain Select option that is particularly useful

00:25

for the number of small surfaces created by the subdivision.

00:29

So here I can click once and it picks all these edges,

00:33

I can choose a direction

00:35

and a length

00:36

and do a Build.

00:38

And then if I've got a blackout shader, I can apply that

00:42

and I get a useful visualization surface that

00:45

doesn't affect the complexity of the control cage.

00:50

One of the biggest causes of complex SubD geometry

00:53

is using the Bevel tool to create these rounded edges.

00:57

So an alternative is to start with a Crease instead.

01:01

And I'll just isolate the layer to make selection easier.

01:05

And then I could use Round or Surface Fillet.

01:07

So I'll select that

01:09

and then box-select across the whole edge

01:12

and that selects a few more than I need but it'll ignore those.

01:16

So I just need to do a space bar to Build

01:19

and that's trimmed the limit surfaces back

01:22

and built the fillet surfaces in between.

01:25

And it's easy to change the radius here

01:27

and Update.

01:30

So we end up with an accurate and adjustable radius edge

01:33

without adding more edges to the subdivision control cage

01:38

and it maintains history.

01:40

So if I modify the control cage,

01:42

then the fillet updates

01:44

and it can take a while.

01:47

So it's useful to use this H button here and choose Global Suspend

01:52

and then make the changes I want without waiting

01:55

for the surface fillet history to update each time.

01:59

And then when I'm ready for it to be rebuilt,

02:01

then I can go back here and turn off the Suspend.

02:05

And that means you've only got to wait once for the update

02:09

and you can see the fillets reapplied along the edge of those limit surfaces.

02:15

Dealing with holes is tricky with subdivisions.

02:19

So I could drop this trimmed vent surface, for example.

02:22

And here I've got some NURBS detailing tools

02:25

and I'll just use the first one which is Fillet Flange

02:29

and these tools have a lot of settings, so I'll close all those sections.

02:33

And again, here in the Control Options, we've got a Chain Select

02:37

and it's also worth checking the Trim setting which I'll turn on.

02:41

So then I can just click once and select the whole edge

02:45

and then I'll choose the fillet direction and the flange direction,

02:49

I'll just use the default settings and do a space bar to Build.

02:53

And that creates both a fillet and a flange in one go.

02:57

And it's a bit short, so I can increase the flange length here

03:01

and reduce the fillet radius

03:03

and do an Update.

03:07

So that creates quite a refined and crisp surface indent

03:11

again, without affecting the complexity of the SubD.

03:16

I've got a curve-on-surface here for a badge.

03:20

And this time I'll use the Panel Gap tool

03:23

and again, that has a Trim setting and a Chain Select if I need it.

03:28

But this is just one curve, so I'll pick that and say Accept

03:33

and I'll choose the inwards direction

03:35

and it's going to go on both sides so I don't need to change that one

03:39

and it creates a fillet and a flange on both sides.

03:43

And the gap here is a bit wide so I can change that

03:46

and I'll make this radius a bit smaller

03:49

and do an Update.

03:52

So if I want to put a different shade of color onto the badge,

03:55

then the problem is that this surface here is still

03:58

a single surface with just the gap trimmed out.

04:01

So I can't give it two different colors.

04:04

Now, I don't want to affect the rest of the SubD.

04:07

So with just this surface selected, I can do an Untrim

04:11

and then Trim again,

04:13

but I'm going to take the Subdiv Select off because I've got some

04:16

other curves on surface on the SubD that I don't want to trim to.

04:20

So I'll be a bit careful and just trim that one surface and do a Keep.

04:26

And then I can just pick that single surface, do a copy and paste

04:30

and then do an Untrim

04:32

and a re-Trim back to there.

04:35

So I will have lost history, but I can now pick it independently.

04:40

And a useful tool is Pick Surface Chain.

04:43

So I can say, pick everything that's tangent continuous from say this surface.

04:49

And then I can assign a badge color to just that part,

04:55

but mostly you won't need to do that trimming.

04:57

So over here,

04:58

I've used the Panel Gap tool to create the split line between the door and the fender.

05:03

So I don't need to separate the colors,

05:06

but if I want to keep things simple for this split line on the rear edge of the door,

05:11

I can also use the Tubular Offset tool.

05:14

And again, I've got Chain Select

05:17

and I'll go for Automatic trim.

05:20

So I can pick that curve-on-surface chain,

05:23

reduce that tube size.

05:25

And I'll make it quite small for a panel split

05:27

and say Build

05:30

and that's created a tube surface.

05:33

But I can switch to a groove

05:36

or most often I pick None just to trim away the gap.

05:39

And if you've got a dark background,

05:41

that's often good enough to illustrate the split

05:44

or you can switch back to just curves-on-surface and Update

05:49

and then do a Trim Divide.

05:51

And this time I would put the Subdiv Select back on so I'm trimming the whole SubD

05:56

and I could delete that center curve-on-surface or I'll just pick both and say Divide

06:02

and then I can just pick those divided parts and assign a blackout color.

06:09

So if you're familiar with the NURBS modeling tools,

06:12

you've got the option of adding details to the main subdivision concept model

06:16

without creating extra edges and vertices that make

06:19

it harder to make quick design changes.

Was this information helpful?

Subdivision modeling in Alias

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