I was not referring to own workflow problems, Brian. I think that learning SubD is generally tough for people with a patch by patch Nurbs background (same is true for the other way round) – and I expect that using a Hybrid concept will even cause a higher learning curve. Models made with traditional Catmull Clark SubD methods remain surprisingly deformable as a whole, until the end – they indeed hold a lot of valid shape variants in one workpiece.
Then again such models do require an unexpected degree of topology pre-planning. Combining new elements with existing geometry may turn out as a mayor challenge – one possibly needs to rebuild everything one had so far. I have posted a sample of such a case here, years ago.
Runnie, a fellow user further down that thread took that challenge and he indeed needed to redo the whole topology.
From an educational standpoint though, first looking at traditional Catmull Clark methods is great imo – it makes differences to Nurbs, strong and weak points most obvious.
Working successfully with a hybrid Nurbs+SubD approach would not only require a lot of tools which are not yet available in Rhino. One also needs an Editor who already knows well the strengths and weaknesses of both methodologies and who has developed the skill to decide what approach likely works best in a given situation.
This recently posted clip sells some of my points quite well: It’s Author likely has decent Nurbs and some SubD background and he checks out some new (and pretty advanced) SubD tools in Alias with the camera running. It’s actually great, that this clip has quite a few issues:
Features aren’t discoverable, operations do fail. The modeling progress, compared to Maya, Blender or similar seems terribly slow. Distinct differences between modeling principles appear oddly blurred. The result of the modeling session is all bumpy. Now imagine reactions: What do those say, who’ve just begun with Nurbs Modelling? What does the Surfacing master say?
Thanks for the feedback. Please post any specific suggestions you have, after working with subd in the Rhino 7 WIP, in a separate topic here on the forum. Minimizing the post to a single issue or request is always best too. This makes it easiest to convey the info and opinions to our developers who are actively working on these tools. I’ll do my best to boil down your larger concerns here into individual actionable reports as well. Thanks again.
You can take a look at this guide for transitions, I would also like to have match compatible between nurbs and sub-d like T-Splines had, but in the meantime this definitely helps.
