Primary Surfacing Video Series

Hello all -

As some of you may know, I’ve been working on a video series that focuses on the fundamentals of NURBS modeling. While I may be adding a few videos here and there to the final playlist over time, I feel that at this point the series is largely complete so I figured I do a little post about it. You can find the complete list of videos on YouTube by clicking here. Over the years, there’s been countless threads to the tune of “how do I learn to model better?” Often, many of us responding felt that there was not a good, coherent answer to that question. Lots of people, myself included, after doing the Level II coursework felt a little lost about how to progress after that. There are scores of tutorials out there, and the sad truth (in my opinion) is that many of them are not all that helpful, and many in fact are the opposite of helpful. This series is built on the belief that we can all become better at modeling through a clear understanding of patch layout, surface definition and matching. It is my attempt to free others from what I call a “curves in - surfaces out” workflow. And possibly to get people to stop using NetworkSrf as a primary surfacing tool. :slight_smile: It is, in essence, my attempt to answer the “where next?” question that many people ask after Level II. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed making it. It is currently, and will forever be free to watch.

-Sky

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Your videos use Rhino 5. Most Rhino users use Rhino 7.

By the way, it may be good idea to make video tutorial explaining that different commands are suitable for making different surfaces. For example, the video begins with a surface and explains which command is best suited for making this surface.

It may also be good idea to mention limitations of Rhino SubDs:

  • Edges of Rhino SubDs always have zero curvature. This means that hemispherical SubD surface is impossible to make.
  • Perfect circles and perfect cylindrical surfaces are impossible to make.
  • Sharp (conical) spikes are difficult to make.

If surface quality, and editability are your foremost concerns, for primary surfaces there’s only two commands to use - Loft (with correctly constructed curves) and EdgeSrf (same curve restrictions apply). Those are the only two Rhino commands that don’t blow up your surface definitions. So, if it doesn’t look like a loft, use EdgeSrf. Occasionally BlendSrf works, but only when point count and degree match on both edges. I explore this here:

All videos going forward will be on RH7, fwiw. As for the Subd stuff - I may make some SubD vids in the future, but really I see that as such a different animal - this series is really all about classic NURBS patch modeling.