In the end, experimentation is key and you’ll be able to fall back on splines whenever you need a curved war horn, whip animation, curved table leg, etc. All of these curves can get the same result, but some may find using Beziers easier than using a Path for a particular purpose. Experiment around with the other types of curves in the Shift + A menu (like Beziers) to see whether those fit your modeling needs better. For now, just know that splines/curves are a tool in your arsenal that can help make modeling certain types of objects easier for you. If you just want to use Blender to make game art right now, then you can start with this tutorial.
If you have no experience with Blender and want to build a low polygon full textured game model then this is the tutorial for you. I know I haven’t gone through the use of constraints to lock objects onto a curved path yet, but that’s something we can discuss in future chapters. Sometimes developers will use Blender to create a 2D or 3D asset for use in a separate game engine, like Unity. However, they have a lot of potential for creating unique objects that utilize curves in their structure. This line contains multiple vertices which will affect the direction of the spline. This will generate the arrows for your eyes to see better. Note: If you don’t see the arrows, click the Overlays icon (Red Box) and check the box at the bottom under “Curves”. This will generate the below object, which looks like arrows connected along the line (Green Box). Use Shift + A to bring up the dropdown menu for generating models and click “Curve > Path”. Let’s use “ Path”, which is one of the 5 types of splines/curves you can generate.
A spline can be used to force the car to move on a certain curved path without having to animate each frame of the car.Ĭhapter 1: Getting Started with Blender: IntroductionĬhapter 2: Things to Avoid When Starting OutĬhapter 3: 3D Blender Step-By-Step Tutorial: How to Create a Simple Vase in Blender? How do you make a Spline in the blender? For this, imagine the object is a car and you want to constrain it to the path of a race track during an animation sequence. If you want to see the polygons like in my gif, enable Wireframe in the Overlay menu.
Click Apply, if you want to edit your geometry manually after. Add the Decimate modifier set to Collapse, and turn down the ratio.
Splines can also be used to determine which direction a particular object will move by constraining that object to the curve. One way to simplify geometry would be to use the Decimate Modifier. Think of objects like a Raging Waters slide, a magical scroll, an archway, etc. To summarize, these splines/curves can be used to generate specific types of objects that utilize curves in their structure.
Since this tutorial series is nontechnical in nature, I’ll simplify the basics of spline modeling as much as possible. You may have heard of spline modeling involving Nurbs, Beziers, etc. Spline modeling is, in short, modeling against curves. Chapter 4: Spline Modeling What is Spline Modelling?