Nice video. As a 3D CAD guy, I use NURBS because its output is geared towards accuracy for mass manufacturing. My go to software is Rhino 3D NURBS / Sub-D modeller. I also use Blender as well, but for clients who requirement is visualisation, not manufacturing.
Way late on ny response here, but if you're still interested, Rhino is very user-friendly and intuitive; the user manual and website have tutorials to get you going. @diyguild1327
For the math nerds, Polygons use matrices/matrix multiplication/arithmetic with coordinates internally. Which is linear algebra. You effectively define the points and link the points, You can generally define these as matrixes using a,b,c terms. [a b c...n]. There is an inherent level of direct manual control with these at the cost of inherently smoothness and accuracy. NURBS are using matrices(and "Linear" Algebra) as well internally but their entries are not like polygon model entries. NURBS effectively use *polynomials* around a spline using polynomial *interpolation*(if you animate in blender, you definitely know what this is). Entries of NURB matrices look more like [(a + bx^1 + cx^2 +.....+zx^n) (a + bx^1 + cx^2 +.....+zx^n) (a + bx^1 + cx^2 +.....+zx^n)] Notices each of these entries technically has their own weights to form their curve. This makes them explicitly more accurate than polygons mathematically for curvatures because NURBS can successively add and reweigh each entry to increase accuracy as needed in an exponential matter around their "B-Splines". This makes them far more accurate. And generally easier to control from a user perspective. The end result? Per curve, we only need to store the weights, the power/exponent level, and the spline data. From cad, you can effectively only mess with the spline data to make things easier for you. This also makes them easier to hold in memory for extreme curves vs polygons. NURBS in one sense can be defined as *Piecewise* weighted Polynomials around a piecewise linear function. This is why attaching nurb points can be...weird... at times. The entire polynomial has to be reweighted. This is also why they cannot be easily animated/not animated at all. With polygons, you move points in space. With nurbs, you are having to completely recalculate chains of piecewise polynomials and weights. If you want an example of what I mean by "piecewise polynomial", perform a boolean operation on a NURB model. It doesn't cut the NURB usually. It instead produces another one! NURB 1 exists as a function from (x1,y1,z1) to (x2, y2, z2). A boolean operation technically just *stops* that range/domain early, and inserts another NURB with it's own range/domain to fit what you want. It only worries about combining the weights at polygon conversion time. This is also why converting a NURB to a polygon often generates a silly around of polygons/verts. In order to achieve "mathematical smoothness perfection" with polygons, you need ALOT of polygons to balance the weight distribution. So converting a system designed to be visually "perfect" in smoothness will naturally generate a high polycount. Honestly though, in this day and age, many utilities you would find with nurbs can be applied directly to polygons. Nurbs are better for engineering and scientific analysis, as well as quick block out for curvature. I think there was a 3d VR sculpting software that exclusively used NURBS. Although I would be careful if someone is a general animator using NURBS. Never forget, NURBS are mathematical precise tools before they are modeling tools by definition. They are for engineers, mathematicians, and scientists. They are only for general modelers, game designers, and animators when they are *SKILLED* in how clean them up and operate them. I recommend Rhino if you can somehow get a copy but Moi is a good choice as well.
Thanks for this! I was hoping to find a discussion of the benefits of nurbs for some situations. It would be interesting if a tool could be developed that combines the benefits of each (polys and nurbs) and avoids the pitfalls of each.
Usually what happens with boolean operations is that the NURBS in fact stay the same, we just use so called trimming curves to "cut/trim" the input parameter space. This means the following: Our Sphere is actually a NURBS Surface, so 2 NURBS Curves that span a surface using the tensor product. And within that Surface space we can put trimming curves that cut out regions of the surface space. So you have a NURBS Surfaces that inputs 2 parameters, but outputs a 3D point: S(u,v) -> p(x,y,z). Then we define trimming curves, that input 1 parameter but output 2 coordinates in the NURBS Surfaces space. T(t) _> s(u,v). This means you define curves within the surface space, which then cut out regions of the NURBS. The NURBS is still fully there, you just tell the Renderer to not display the cut out regions. There is some very interesting stuff you can play around with this. Roughly 10 years ago I wrote my bachelor thesis about an Algorithm that converts any NURBS into a piecewise combination of cubic bézier patches. This bézier patches can then be rendered and trimmed very efficiently on the GPU, since they have a fixed number of control points (and some other very powerful properties). This allows for some very cool stuff, for example seemingly Level of Detail transitions, because no CPU calculation time is required to change the LOD, since all the calculation happens on the GPU, by pre-storing some suiting sampling nets in the GPU Memory. We used this approach to visualize Aircraft designs that are created using NURBS.
Nice Josh, it's definitely something I've been looking to get into, especially for those more free form and organic type of modelling, I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for these types of tutorials, cheers mate!
Moi is awesome......different but super easy to use. Josh, you would be the perfect person to do tutorials for this tool. While easy to learn ,Moi can be a little confusing if you are only used to sub-d workflow. Glad to see you giving Moi some of your time!
@@simpernchong i use blender for 3d printing and also for CNC milling machine , have you tried to design with blender for manufacturing ?! coz eventually after designing in a NURBs system , you will have to convert it into G code which relays on both polygonal and NURBs definition mathematically, am i right here ?
I’ve just become interested in NURBS due to playing with older programs (Bryce & infini-d) and Ive found it VERY difficult to find good learning resources. I’d love to know more about file formats and rendering engines for these programs. Thank you for covering this!
Thank you so much for making this video. So stoked to own MOI. This really explained a lot of things for me. So cool watching you use MOI. I also just Love Blender. Thanks Josh.
Nurbs is a greater option, but only if you have to make files for 3D printing (infinite resolution is way better than subdivision for smoother surfaces). However, if it is animation or something else, welcome to the life of eternal misery.
@@dev.swarnakar in my world legit all products or cars come as Nurbs/CAD for animation or render. I personally never encounter poly modeling for animation unless it’s something abstract maybe. But I usually just render real world stuff.
We use Rhinoceros at the company I work for which is an extended version of MOI (Actually Rhino came first) but I can tell you modeling with nurbs makes thing sooooooooo easy, until you have to take things out of the software and need it to be polygons xD
yeah, exporting is the problem, i still struggle to export from rhino to blender, using the quad remesh and still not getting the expected result everytime
@@onerawartist Maybe look into buying Exoside remesh plugin. It's nearly the same remesher as Zremesh by the same guy with some differences. Quad remesh is horrible.
@@onerawartist MoI have excellent export capability. Far from perfect, but better than other solid modelar. Usually I export as N-gons mess, and then slowly fix issues..... or simply get rid of Ngons in C4D, get little messy geometry, but shading is ok. and if you prepare modei in MoI, UV is very easy and fast.
Cool video thanks. The point is, at the end, you have to convert the nurbs MOI "geo" into polygons for a game engine by example or for your HP. You will still end with the polygons problem for the HP ^^
I've owned MOI3D since version 3 and now have ver 4. Love MOI3D as well as 3D Coat. Would love to see more MOI3D stuff. Michael Gibson who created MOI3D was one of the original developers for Rhino3D. Cheers from Nova Scotia...
MOI3D also creates the cleanest wireframe when exporting to .obj for example... All other apps create a "triangle mess" while MOI3D can use quads or ngons and it just make your life 1000% easier when you need to retopology later in blender.
I've been learning fusion 360 lately after spending around 6 years with Blender. It's very satisfying to use nurbs software when it comes to stuff like filleting/beveling boolean operations. Nurbs software can be a great addition to your polygonal arsenal as it makes creating certain shapes just so easy and a lot of the time you don't even need to retopologize its results. But I definitely understand what you're talking about in terms of polygonal software being better to model in. Most advanced shapes are easier to create in polygonal software as you have a lot more tools at your disposal. And in my opinion you have a lot more control of the shape as well. I don't know how much knowledge you have within the image editing field, but Photoshop and Illustrator are definitely a great analogy for this.
Thanks for the video. I went from modo to Alias and like you said you have to forget everything you know about poly modelling to learn nurbs. They are worlds apart and each have their own merits and applications. For making real cars though Alias is still king.
look into something called plasticity. its standalone and designed for blender familiar users and easy to use much easier than moi. evolving now pretty fast
Small correction: Not quite infinite. While it _is_ precise enough that you won't have to worry about it, floating point numbers have limits. Otherwise, great video.
Hey Mr. Gambrell; is there anyway I can export it as subdivided, like with the subdivision modifier in Blender but like after it's applied? I was mostly looking at this as way to make doing high polys much easier for hard surface stuff.
Thanks for this vid. I'd like to know more about what the benefits of mesh modeling are over nurbs modeling. EG, is it easier (for the programmers, at least) to apply materials to surfaces in a mesh software?
Hey man, I’m just wondering, could you make a tutorial on making a guitar? There aren’t many good tutorials for that. Also, great video, I learn something new every time I watch your videos
Nice one Josh. Do you ever use a program like Moi to create models and then import into Blender. After experimenting I can see the cross over is pretty good. I find the precision of NURBS is fantastic, but do prefer the Blender workflow for rendering etc.
For example Rhino (which is nurbs) is the go to industrial design software. Together with keyshot. And like usually in car design you would go from a poly model (sketch even tho it's already a lot of work) to sth with nurbs (more accurate) to the final step which is Strak software (for example Alias).
It's used of CAD modeling. For example, when you need 3D blueprint of a car, or some mechanics and this kinda of stuff. Not like cool model, but actual blueprint, which will give you information about every point of it's surface. Or some parts. And this kind of stuff.
its a must when you need precision, real life stuff, production , cnc machines , 3D printing .. etc. thats when you need as much precision as you can get, and polygons can't provide that
I have Moi and would love to see some tutorials on it.I still get into trouble with fillets in Nurbs on complicated shapes where they won't calculate and also trying to make solids out of surfaces where they won't join.
Well. Usually you don't do this stuff. But you can try to export it to MaYa (I wonder, would it work in Blender?), then do retopo, like with sculpting. %) Well, you can try to convert these to polygons, but you'll usually get complete mess. But as I've said, you use this type of software for other things. Like CAD.
@@archiplanservices3746 Hi. XD I'm just not sure that Blender supports all these NURBS surfaces. But I've thought that this software can export objects as Poly objects.
You can export from Moi3D in Obj format of course then import in Blender. There's even a bridge between both softwares called BMoi3D Connector get it here : github.com/TitusLVR/BMOI_Connector
May I ask you, I want to make an embossed dish containing some booleans, and then I make a mold for it, which software do you recommend for this purpose.?
You got nurbs lines and surfaces on blender. I'm trying to figure out if one can do cad/cam with it. You gotta keep meshes out of your workflow for sure.
It's like vector graphics, you draw a curve and the computer is doing some math to decide what it looks like at every resolution. Thats why your logos and stuff should be made in a vector fromat so they can be put on a mug, a t-shirt or a billboard without losing detail :P (also i havent been involved in 3d modeling in like 20 years cuz I joined the army BUT I remember maya having nurbs options as well - dunno about now a days)
Rhino is awesome. They kinda invented geometry nodes with Grasshopper too (if math/procedural/parametric is your thing). Of course Blenders Geo-Nodes is gonna be more for motion graphics though.
So, I was looking at MoI for what you said before; does it include things like array and screw which blender has? Does it export model as high poly ready for baking?
Yep, it has array, circular array, etc, more than Blender has actually. Mesh export is based on your triangle count. You can make it as low or high poly as you'd like (for rounded surfaces, lower triangle exports will yield faceted edges).
@@JoshGambrell On export for high polys, the shading will always be right? Mainly I'm looking for something to make the high polys to bake to low easier. I may get this at some point in the future if it will alleviate the difficulty of making support/control edges and all that while still working enough to make things to bake off of.
Blender already has support for NURBS and metaballs, though they are limited to a fixed resolution (just like curves), and they don't support booleans. It would be very cool if Blender could change them to be infinite resolution and support booleans.
What's the relationship between nurbs and traditional blender with relation to exporting and importing? Can nurbs models be saved and imported as an OBJ or other format file for Blender and vice versa?
This is a very bad idea to export directly as an OBJ into a game engine. Nurb conversions produce extremely un-optimal meshes for real time performance as polygon models. It would need to be extremely optimized first in another program.
because blenders "nurbs" is garbage as of now. I dont understand why someone would use nurbs for cgi work where accuracy is not so important, for cad and making things in real world nurbs make sense but not with this type of software you would wanna use freecad, solidworks
@@mitri5389 don't underestimate Moi3D my friend, Michael Gibson the developer of Moi3D and Rhino3D in it's early stage intend to create a powerful software without a messy ui and affordable. It looks simple but so powerful at the end, so the only way to discover that is to use it intensively knowing what your talking about.
Im new to NURBS and im very curious about it. so can you guys give me a good example on what NURBS Modeling Exel at? like in my head i feel like making Hyper-Realistic Objects with Nurbs would be a Great Choice but from the comments, it looks like Poly Count is much less of a Headache to do. 3D Printing is one of the things i heard from the comments its a good choice. any other things?
I combine softwares, I can make something in a few minutes on Rhino it will come super clean and exact. But you are right, you need another approach. Sometimes I just start from scratch but even so is faster. Or another times Is easier to just grab some poliygons and move them than go back modify a curve and re project, extract and bevel something because of a little change. But you can use both.Some elements poligonal and another nurbs and mix them. How do you import iges files into Blender? Do you have to import as a poligonal object or is there a way to keep nurbs inside of Blender?
With consequential Blender is being worked on these days, and how the community grows and benefits the program and the foundation, I think it's not unrealistic to assume, that maybe one day they will implement nurbs modelling into the program, maybe as it's own render engine. Then you could simply polgonyze those models at preferred resolution over to the other engines, it would be a joy. Like, first constructing your asset with as many cuts and booleans and whatever you like without any resolution being in question, and once it's done, bringing it over to the other engines within the same program to work with shaders and textures and whatnot. Could be instancing or appending, where the original nurbs model stays availabale as it's own thing within the project file, but can be used and modified like a regular poly object in the classic engines. This would be an insane jump for Blender, also making it more and more attractive for many professional markets. We live in an interesting time. If we lived 25 years earlier, we had none of those possibilities. Appealing 3D graphics were unique to big movie studios and companies working with CAD. But the private hobbyist had no such methods. While today, a single person is able to produce full animated films with nothing more than a working machine, that could be as cheap as 500 bucks. Depending on how simple you'd keep your scenes, you could even create great stuff with absolute base computers. As I said, interesting times. Giving us so many possibilities is why I love the Blender foundation for offering such an incredibly powerful tool fully for free. It's kind of surreal.
Throughout the last couple years of getting back into 3D, I haven't heard ANYONE mention NURBS. I kind of assumed it had died at some point in the last 20 years.
So it's kinda what like vector graphics are to rasterized images? With vector graphics, there's a limit to how much detail you can realistically add though. What's the downside to nurbs modelling?
Moi3D is beautifully simple and intuitive to use, however it is pretty expensive. Fusion 360 on the other hand can be used completely free (with just a few limitations) and has a more expansive toolset more geared towards precision modeling.
Oldschool blender sometimes dies on fbx, especially from MOI. Best solution still MOI for the average user. But there is also FreeCAD, Fusion360, Alias, Rhino, VRED, DeltaGen and even Blender Addons for direct import. I think C4D also imports CAD directly. .step is the most common CAD exchange format.
@@DamianMathew Hello, what is the name of the addon used for importing .step in Blender? I've found STEPper on Gumroad but is there also an addon which comes with Blender?
Autodesk is never free. I’ve seen some Autodesk lawsuits on student and personal versions with big fines. Only for hobby work it is okay. Keep in mind fusion is pretty much all cloud based for a reason, THEY ARE WATCHING haha. Only Blender is really free. MOI is a great solution. It’s one time pay and the developer is super chilled.
@@DamianMathew well yeah but if you just want to try out cad why spend tons of money when you can mess around in fusion a bit to see if you like it (also yeah it used to be better then they put alot more restrictions on it, fuck autodesk)
@@barrettbachner8657 that’s exactly the trick. It’s like free drugs you know haha. I did a real transition from C4D to Blender and it was a pain, believe me. Also there’s trial versions of most softwares inkl MOI. If the trial goes 3 years there’s a reason cause once you go deep for 3 years there’s no way back xD that’s the main reason why people even use maya and 3DMax, cause they used it for 3+ years. Have fun learning a new software after that haha. So be careful how deep you get into the Autodesk Mafia
@@DamianMathew oh ofc, again i would only use fusion to see if you like it because its accessible and free, i actually went from blender to cad interestingly enough
Fun fact: long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, NURBS was used for... Organic modeling. Because they was smooth, while polytools wasn't that good. But excuse me, you're wrong. Ok. Not really wrong, but it looks like, you don't really understand what the NURBS are. (and I don't really know details of modern CAD software) But first of all: Blender and MaYa are not "poly based software". Even more, MaYa had quite advanced NURBS modeling tools in it. Blender... Well. It have NURBS surfaces, but it ends with their presence. Only difference with NURBS CAD software is that... It have more advanced tools in it. Ok. And it renders NURBS a bit different way. And that's another point. The way these software are handling display of Bézier Curves and NURBS. What you see in the preview... Actually is an illusion. Well. Kinda. That curve, which you've created in Blender is actually... Have same smoothness as one in that CAD software. The only difference it that Blender converts it to polygons, to display it in the viewport, but in reality, it's smooth. NURBS surfaces themself. Lol. It's kinda hard to explain. XD Because there are lots of details. But you can see how they look if you'll create a plain in Blender. Then subdivide it couple of times. The catch is that you can't manage loops with same ease as with polygons. It always must be something like grid. It can be deformed in any way (actually, that's how you get a NURBS sphere), but it always will be a Grid Plane. Another thing, but I don't really get it. It's about details. Like in NURBS expressions, there is parameter "power" (like 2 in power of 2). And higher the power, smoother the result. With Power 1 NURBS surfaces look like Polygonal, while... Power 2 gives strange results, while power 3 gives smooth result. And there is power 7. Which kinda gives the best results. Another interesting thing. Actually, that's how these "perfect Booleans" work: there can be NURBS curves right in the surface space of the NURBS object (it's called "Underworld"). And you can choose to "hide" part of the surface. ^_^ So when you make boolean operation on it, it copies object which you use to cut from another surface, creates (yep) another NURBS surface to create that Bevel. ^_^ Creates curves on both surfaces where "bevel" objects intersects with two objects. Then hides "unnecessary" parts. It's just looks like, NURBS modeling tools have became really advanced, in the CAD software. So they kinda hide all these technical details, from the users. And by the way. When you're rendering these scenes... You render all this stuff as polygons. Just really dence ones. Because... Any Raytracing engine just needs polygons to render stuff. And another fun fact: there is another type of surface: Subdivision Surfaces. These are like polygons, but with 13 levels of Subsurf on it. So you can model as with polygons, while getting really smooth results. Excuse me if all this stuff sounds like complete mess, but it's a really long story. And I've actually, missed tons of stuff.
> Another thing, but I don't really get it. It's about details. Like in NURBS expressions, there is parameter "power" (like 2 in power of 2). And higher the power, smoother the result. With Power 1 NURBS surfaces look like Polygonal, while... Power 2 gives strange results, while power 3 gives smooth result. And there is power 7. Which kinda gives the best results. (a + bx^1 + cx^2 +...gx^7). Power 1 nurbs(just a) are effectively polygons because all their store is 3-d coordinates using minimal interpolation. Nurbs achieve "perfect" curves by using weights along an axis(basically the spline). > You render all this stuff as polygons. Just really dence ones. Not entirely. NURBS use interpolation. > These are like polygons, but with 13 levels of Subsurf on it. These are very much related to NURBS in the fact that they use interpolation of vertice points to form. This is why they are so bad for performance to use in modeling software because it's doing the grunt work of both vertices and exponential curves, where as NURBS only worry about the curves until polygon conversion.
@@truesoundwave "Not entirely. NURBS use interpolation. " - I mean that before rendering, or during rendering (at least with raytracers), all these NURBS objects are converted to polygonal ones. "This is why they are so bad for performance to use in modeling software because it's doing the grunt work of both vertices and exponential curves, where as NURBS only worry about the curves until polygon conversion." - funny, but I didn't really had issues with these, in modeling software. But lol. The catch is that I haven't used them much. And meanwhile, some renderers, or rather translators? Using 3Delight you can check "export polygonal object as Subsurf". At least, it was the option. And yeah. Thank you for these details.
Yes. But only to save money, not because it’s better. Better is to remodel the thing, but mostly it’s cheaper to just convert it and auto retopo it. Also anything like a tree you can’t really do in NURBS.
I normally work on both. Bevels and cuts are way cleaner. Shapes are way faster to create. And with the curves to mesh add-in you can drop it to blender and create the desired shape inside blender. The details are amazing. Even exporting to obj your loss percentage it is not perceived so much in rendering. Now... You'll have to work harder if you want to make that model game ready. Blender will just chopp it like a butcher... But... your ideas don't have limits.
Poly-based modeling is basically digital paper-folding or digital origami to create shapes and forms. This is a dead end approach because there are many fundamental geometry problems in folding planes to create shapes. These fundamental prblems are known as the mathematics of Origami, a sub section of mathematics. I have looked at NURBS modeling and its mathematical approach. However, there is also a fundamental flaw as well. NURBS modeling basically deals in surfaces or 2D when you are dealing in 3D. I have accidentally stumbled upon 3D modeling about a year ago and been questioning the way things are done in this field. There is a simple rule I have; if things are convoluted and counter-intuitive, then there is something fundamentally wrong. I can understand why it has started that way decades ago. But the transitions should have occured somewhere along the way. I suppose this industry has been highly isolated and insulated up until this point.
I used to make 3D CAD with solidworks. One of the best tools to make mechanical systems I ever used. Catia is cool too. But god can it be frustrating ! If you make simple systems without much curves, it's ok. But when you get on the big stuff, you wish that you could commit sudoku.
@@sevenseven31 because there's nothing to subdivided, the curves and surfaces would be interpolated the same way in a NURBS tool, unless you change the newly made curves in some way.
I have Moi, payed a lot for it, rarely use it, because I found it extremely buggy and they haven't updated it in eons. Too bad really cause it's like working in SketchUp but you can do amazing organic shapes.
Moi3D cost 295$ for a full version and 99$ for a student, so yes compare to Blender (without paid addons) it's expensive ^^^ Moi3D forum is one the most active on the web and the developer answers to any questions. Moi3D v4 final has been released in 2020 with new features like subd, have in mind that Michael Gibson is on in own to develop the software so yes it takes time for new releases but on the other hand so stable with no bugs except the hacked Moi3D versions you find on the net.
In poly modeling you define edges and surfaces through point interpolation, in NURBS based software you manipulate/define curvature directly, hence "infinite" resolution. But as great as that is for constructing functional parts with a few curved features, modeling parts with fluid shapes and varying curvature can quickly become a nightmare. Curvature continuity is a real b!tch. You'll end up staring at curvature combs and zebra overlays for hours like a crazy person, hoping you'll get the darn thing G2-ish before you run out of eye drops. And you can't hide your crimes, no subD or normal transfer available on this mission, mate. Fixing bool cuts and chamfers is therapeutic in comparison ^^.
funny to see a video about this topic from you after I discovered NURBS modeling myself two days ago. I wanna get more into Arch Viz and I found out a lot of companies and people use NURBS modeling for that. Now, I am feeling ambivalent about what I should focus on. Does someone have any experience with this?
Archviz is rendering, not necessarily modeling. Oldschool Architects only work in 2D so you need to model for Archviz. In this case it doesn’t matter if poly or nurb, just needs to be quick and look good. Modern architects work fully in 3D, so no modeling needed for the render guy. All the render guy needs to do is focus on interior design, light, materials or what ever.
@@DamianMathew oh hey Mathew, so you don't just respond to your own videos. I appreciate that. :) Would you say I should focus more on rendering, lighting, design, etc. instead of modeling?
@@redjohn4886 I’m everywhere haha to be honest, do what’s fun. That’s what you will get best at. But one thing I can tell you: a modeler from my experience is easier to replace. Also a modeler more likely will work with other 3D guys (lower budget). A render guy can shine with his unique style and also sell pictures instead of models wich helps working directly with a client (bigger budgets). But that’s really just my personal opinion. I’m sure people will also think the opposite.
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In comparison with 2D creations Blender is like photoshop for raster painting and moi3d is like illustrator for vector designs
Nice video. As a 3D CAD guy, I use NURBS because its output is geared towards accuracy for mass manufacturing. My go to software is Rhino 3D NURBS / Sub-D modeller. I also use Blender as well, but for clients who requirement is visualisation, not manufacturing.
Where did you learn Rhino from? I'm considering using it but I don't see a lot of tutorials and guides compared to something like blender.
Way late on ny response here, but if you're still interested, Rhino is very user-friendly and intuitive; the user manual and website have tutorials to get you going. @diyguild1327
For the math nerds,
Polygons use matrices/matrix multiplication/arithmetic with coordinates internally. Which is linear algebra. You effectively define the points and link the points,
You can generally define these as matrixes using a,b,c terms.
[a b c...n].
There is an inherent level of direct manual control with these at the cost of inherently smoothness and accuracy.
NURBS are using matrices(and "Linear" Algebra) as well internally but their entries are not like polygon model entries.
NURBS effectively use *polynomials* around a spline using polynomial *interpolation*(if you animate in blender, you definitely know what this is).
Entries of NURB matrices look more like
[(a + bx^1 + cx^2 +.....+zx^n) (a + bx^1 + cx^2 +.....+zx^n) (a + bx^1 + cx^2 +.....+zx^n)]
Notices each of these entries technically has their own weights to form their curve. This makes them explicitly more accurate than polygons mathematically for curvatures because NURBS can successively add and reweigh each entry to increase accuracy as needed in an exponential matter around their "B-Splines". This makes them far more accurate. And generally easier to control from a user perspective.
The end result?
Per curve, we only need to store the weights, the power/exponent level, and the spline data. From cad, you can effectively only mess with the spline data to make things easier for you.
This also makes them easier to hold in memory for extreme curves vs polygons.
NURBS in one sense can be defined as *Piecewise* weighted Polynomials around a piecewise linear function.
This is why attaching nurb points can be...weird... at times. The entire polynomial has to be reweighted.
This is also why they cannot be easily animated/not animated at all. With polygons, you move points in space. With nurbs, you are having to completely recalculate chains of piecewise polynomials and weights.
If you want an example of what I mean by "piecewise polynomial", perform a boolean operation on a NURB model.
It doesn't cut the NURB usually. It instead produces another one!
NURB 1 exists as a function from (x1,y1,z1) to (x2, y2, z2). A boolean operation technically just *stops* that range/domain early, and inserts another NURB with it's own range/domain to fit what you want. It only worries about combining the weights at polygon conversion time.
This is also why converting a NURB to a polygon often generates a silly around of polygons/verts. In order to achieve "mathematical smoothness perfection" with polygons, you need ALOT of polygons to balance the weight distribution. So converting a system designed to be visually "perfect" in smoothness will naturally generate a high polycount.
Honestly though, in this day and age, many utilities you would find with nurbs can be applied directly to polygons. Nurbs are better for engineering and scientific analysis, as well as quick block out for curvature. I think there was a 3d VR sculpting software that exclusively used NURBS.
Although I would be careful if someone is a general animator using NURBS.
Never forget, NURBS are mathematical precise tools before they are modeling tools by definition. They are for engineers, mathematicians, and scientists. They are only for general modelers, game designers, and animators when they are *SKILLED* in how clean them up and operate them.
I recommend Rhino if you can somehow get a copy but Moi is a good choice as well.
Thanks for this! I was hoping to find a discussion of the benefits of nurbs for some situations.
It would be interesting if a tool could be developed that combines the benefits of each (polys and nurbs) and avoids the pitfalls of each.
Usually what happens with boolean operations is that the NURBS in fact stay the same, we just use so called trimming curves to "cut/trim" the input parameter space.
This means the following: Our Sphere is actually a NURBS Surface, so 2 NURBS Curves that span a surface using the tensor product. And within that Surface space we can put trimming curves that cut out regions of the surface space.
So you have a NURBS Surfaces that inputs 2 parameters, but outputs a 3D point: S(u,v) -> p(x,y,z). Then we define trimming curves, that input 1 parameter but output 2 coordinates in the NURBS Surfaces space. T(t) _> s(u,v). This means you define curves within the surface space, which then cut out regions of the NURBS. The NURBS is still fully there, you just tell the Renderer to not display the cut out regions. There is some very interesting stuff you can play around with this.
Roughly 10 years ago I wrote my bachelor thesis about an Algorithm that converts any NURBS into a piecewise combination of cubic bézier patches. This bézier patches can then be rendered and trimmed very efficiently on the GPU, since they have a fixed number of control points (and some other very powerful properties). This allows for some very cool stuff, for example seemingly Level of Detail transitions, because no CPU calculation time is required to change the LOD, since all the calculation happens on the GPU, by pre-storing some suiting sampling nets in the GPU Memory.
We used this approach to visualize Aircraft designs that are created using NURBS.
This also reminds me of Vector based vs Raster based workflow
Right
This is exactly what I was thinking!
Would love a basic modeling series on Moi
Nice Josh, it's definitely something I've been looking to get into, especially for those more free form and organic type of modelling, I'll definitely keep my eyes peeled for these types of tutorials, cheers mate!
Moi is awesome......different but super easy to use. Josh, you would be the perfect person to do tutorials for this tool. While easy to learn ,Moi can be a little confusing if you are only used to sub-d workflow. Glad to see you giving Moi some of your time!
I've been using NURBS for years. I wish Blender would add full support for them . . .
Blender's NURBS will not be manufacturable because it cannot be export as STEP or IGES.
@@simpernchong Isn't it the other way around though?
@@simpernchong i use blender for 3d printing and also for CNC milling machine , have you tried to design with blender for manufacturing ?! coz eventually after designing in a NURBs system , you will have to convert it into G code which relays on both polygonal and NURBs definition mathematically, am i right here ?
I’ve just become interested in NURBS due to playing with older programs (Bryce & infini-d) and Ive found it VERY difficult to find good learning resources. I’d love to know more about file formats and rendering engines for these programs. Thank you for covering this!
I would love to see more Moi 3D videos!
me too
Great video. Yes, please. More Moi content. In particular, it would great to see how you use Moi and Blender together. Thank you.
I get it, nurbs is just vector data vs polygons would be rasterized.
Exactly my thoughts as well! Adobe Illustrator vs Adobe Photoshop haha
Non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) is a mathematical model using basis splines (B-splines)
@@archiplanservices3746 yay, wikipedia!
@@kaustik185 absolutely so handy....
Beat me to it lol
So it's the 3D equivalent to a vector-based workflow?
Pretty much.
Thank you so much for making this video. So stoked to own MOI. This really explained a lot of things for me. So cool watching you use MOI. I also just Love Blender. Thanks Josh.
Something especially attractive about MOI is its very pretty onscreen renderer! :)
Aeaeaeaaeaeaeeaa finally!!!! SOMETHING ABOUT NURBS!!!! I'm reading and watching about Nurbs.... And I think NURBS is a great option sometimes....
Nurbs is a greater option, but only if you have to make files for 3D printing (infinite resolution is way better than subdivision for smoother surfaces). However, if it is animation or something else, welcome to the life of eternal misery.
@@dev.swarnakar in my world legit all products or cars come as Nurbs/CAD for animation or render. I personally never encounter poly modeling for animation unless it’s something abstract maybe. But I usually just render real world stuff.
We use Rhinoceros at the company I work for which is an extended version of MOI (Actually Rhino came first) but I can tell you modeling with nurbs makes thing sooooooooo easy, until you have to take things out of the software and need it to be polygons xD
Yup, I find poly based to simply be more efficient for me, with certain cases as exceptions.
yeah, exporting is the problem, i still struggle to export from rhino to blender, using the quad remesh and still not getting the expected result everytime
@@onerawartist Maybe look into buying Exoside remesh plugin. It's nearly the same remesher as Zremesh by the same guy with some differences.
Quad remesh is horrible.
@@truesoundwave i will check it out , thank you ^^. Im new to rhino and grasshopper i thought that was the only tool lol
@@onerawartist MoI have excellent export capability. Far from perfect, but better than other solid modelar. Usually I export as N-gons mess, and then slowly fix issues..... or simply get rid of Ngons in C4D, get little messy geometry, but shading is ok. and if you prepare modei in MoI, UV is very easy and fast.
Great video Josh 😎 I already use Rhino 7 and it's SubD function so I can bring Blenders poly work and convert it to Burbs.
Cool video thanks. The point is, at the end, you have to convert the nurbs MOI "geo" into polygons for a game engine by example or for your HP. You will still end with the polygons problem for the HP ^^
So wouldn‘t it be absolutely great, to have access to such a thing in Blender (that’s what I’ve been thinking since over 5 years).
glad to see you explaining this for the community ^^
Always wanted to get into this kind of modeling since I saw Vitaly Bulgarov using this in one of his older videos
I've owned MOI3D since version 3 and now have ver 4. Love MOI3D as well as 3D Coat. Would love to see more MOI3D stuff. Michael Gibson who created MOI3D was one of the original developers for Rhino3D. Cheers from Nova Scotia...
MOI3D also creates the cleanest wireframe when exporting to .obj for example... All other apps create a "triangle mess" while MOI3D can use quads or ngons and it just make your life 1000% easier when you need to retopology later in blender.
I've been learning fusion 360 lately after spending around 6 years with Blender. It's very satisfying to use nurbs software when it comes to stuff like filleting/beveling boolean operations.
Nurbs software can be a great addition to your polygonal arsenal as it makes creating certain shapes just so easy and a lot of the time you don't even need to retopologize its results. But I definitely understand what you're talking about in terms of polygonal software being better to model in. Most advanced shapes are easier to create in polygonal software as you have a lot more tools at your disposal. And in my opinion you have a lot more control of the shape as well. I don't know how much knowledge you have within the image editing field, but Photoshop and Illustrator are definitely a great analogy for this.
Thanks for the video. I went from modo to Alias and like you said you have to forget everything you know about poly modelling to learn nurbs. They are worlds apart and each have their own merits and applications. For making real cars though Alias is still king.
I learned Alias during university and I was used to Nurbs modelling...Switching to Blender is proving to be quite traumatic! 😂😂
look into something called plasticity. its standalone and designed for blender familiar users and easy to use much easier than moi. evolving now pretty fast
Small correction: Not quite infinite. While it _is_ precise enough that you won't have to worry about it, floating point numbers have limits.
Otherwise, great video.
Thanks Josh. More MOI info please.
Hey Mr. Gambrell; is there anyway I can export it as subdivided, like with the subdivision modifier in Blender but like after it's applied? I was mostly looking at this as way to make doing high polys much easier for hard surface stuff.
Thanks for this vid. I'd like to know more about what the benefits of mesh modeling are over nurbs modeling. EG, is it easier (for the programmers, at least) to apply materials to surfaces in a mesh software?
Hey man, I’m just wondering, could you make a tutorial on making a guitar? There aren’t many good tutorials for that.
Also, great video, I learn something new every time I watch your videos
Very cool video for those who are new to NURBS. Also, to use this video as a drinking game, take a drink everytime Josh says "infinite."
Nice one Josh. Do you ever use a program like Moi to create models and then import into Blender. After experimenting I can see the cross over is pretty good. I find the precision of NURBS is fantastic, but do prefer the Blender workflow for rendering etc.
I gotta try this
Thanks for video. Can you show what buttons are you using?
Please give an example? Because during the video I was really just asking myself "Okay that's really cool but what is it used for?"
You can make your HP in MOI but you still end to convert it into polygons for baking ^^ That's an example.
For example Rhino (which is nurbs) is the go to industrial design software. Together with keyshot. And like usually in car design you would go from a poly model (sketch even tho it's already a lot of work) to sth with nurbs (more accurate) to the final step which is Strak software (for example Alias).
It's used of CAD modeling. For example, when you need 3D blueprint of a car, or some mechanics and this kinda of stuff. Not like cool model, but actual blueprint, which will give you information about every point of it's surface. Or some parts. And this kind of stuff.
its a must when you need precision, real life stuff, production , cnc machines , 3D printing .. etc.
thats when you need as much precision as you can get, and polygons can't provide that
Can Moi3d handle large objects like architecture modeling scenes?
I have Moi and would love to see some tutorials on it.I still get into trouble with fillets in Nurbs on complicated shapes where they won't calculate and also trying to make solids out of surfaces where they won't join.
I'm most interesting to see how you deal with export meshes using Moi, especially how to do high and low poly for game assets
Obj format for example, Moi3D as an advanced Obj exporter.
Well. Usually you don't do this stuff. But you can try to export it to MaYa (I wonder, would it work in Blender?), then do retopo, like with sculpting. %) Well, you can try to convert these to polygons, but you'll usually get complete mess. But as I've said, you use this type of software for other things. Like CAD.
@@Soulskinner Hi,
Yes it works pretty well in Blender and for the geo, i agree with you about the necessary retopo step.
@@archiplanservices3746 Hi. XD
I'm just not sure that Blender supports all these NURBS surfaces. But I've thought that this software can export objects as Poly objects.
You can export from Moi3D in Obj format of course then import in Blender. There's even a bridge between both softwares called BMoi3D Connector get it here : github.com/TitusLVR/BMOI_Connector
Are you able to import those NURBS into Blender? If so, how does it look? Does it have the same smoothness?
May I ask you, I want to make an embossed dish containing some booleans, and then I make a mold for it, which software do you recommend for this purpose.?
broo I literally got your Material ad in your video lol
Need more video on moi3d
You got nurbs lines and surfaces on blender. I'm trying to figure out if one can do cad/cam with it. You gotta keep meshes out of your workflow for sure.
Are there ways to mesh a nerds model?
It's like vector graphics, you draw a curve and the computer is doing some math to decide what it looks like at every resolution. Thats why your logos and stuff should be made in a vector fromat so they can be put on a mug, a t-shirt or a billboard without losing detail :P (also i havent been involved in 3d modeling in like 20 years cuz I joined the army BUT I remember maya having nurbs options as well - dunno about now a days)
hey Josh one question, is it efficient to use a NURB system to bake details into a low poly mesh?
Rhino is awesome. They kinda invented geometry nodes with Grasshopper too (if math/procedural/parametric is your thing). Of course Blenders Geo-Nodes is gonna be more for motion graphics though.
So, I was looking at MoI for what you said before; does it include things like array and screw which blender has? Does it export model as high poly ready for baking?
Yep, it has array, circular array, etc, more than Blender has actually. Mesh export is based on your triangle count. You can make it as low or high poly as you'd like (for rounded surfaces, lower triangle exports will yield faceted edges).
@@JoshGambrell On export for high polys, the shading will always be right? Mainly I'm looking for something to make the high polys to bake to low easier. I may get this at some point in the future if it will alleviate the difficulty of making support/control edges and all that while still working enough to make things to bake off of.
Freecad's underlying modeller is nurbs based but it would be better if blender had a nurbs workspace
Blender already has support for NURBS and metaballs, though they are limited to a fixed resolution (just like curves), and they don't support booleans. It would be very cool if Blender could change them to be infinite resolution and support booleans.
They are also called Nurbs in Blender but it’s really not comparable to real CAD Software.
While I see the appeal of a smooth model, a low-poly one is more of my style. My strategy is to have the angular edges work into the art direction.
Thanks for video🙂
So basically, raster graphics vs vector graphics.
Modeling in CAD and then bringing the model into Blender, would that be a good workflow?
You can definitely use both softwares.
What's the relationship between nurbs and traditional blender with relation to exporting and importing? Can nurbs models be saved and imported as an OBJ or other format file for Blender and vice versa?
You can export nurbs and polygons as fbx files.
solidworks is beast of all cad nurbs software
Did you use RhinoCeros for nurbs modelling in comparison with Moi3D?
@Claus Bohm It's pretty simple if spend some time to grasp but it has many useful tools.
I had really like to know if this can be used as a game asset. (Exported as obj Or something)
Yup, export as fbx or obj
This is a very bad idea to export directly as an OBJ into a game engine.
Nurb conversions produce extremely un-optimal meshes for real time performance as polygon models.
It would need to be extremely optimized first in another program.
Well you don’t export directly of course, you would go nurbs -> poly -> optimize -> game engine
@@JoshGambrell oh oke. Thanks a lot man
NURBS are the vector graphics of the 3D-world. And like vector graphics they are good in their special field of application.
Josh.... Can we "blend" the two techniques? And about the Nurbs surfaces in blender? Nobody talk about this.... Why?!
Sure can! I do it occasionally. I might make a vid on it
because blenders "nurbs" is garbage as of now. I dont understand why someone would use nurbs for cgi work where accuracy is not so important, for cad and making things in real world nurbs make sense but not with this type of software you would wanna use freecad, solidworks
@@mitri5389 don't underestimate Moi3D my friend, Michael Gibson the developer of Moi3D and Rhino3D in it's early stage intend to create a powerful software without a messy ui and affordable.
It looks simple but so powerful at the end, so the only way to discover that is to use it intensively knowing what your talking about.
@@archiplanservices3746 no point in learning that
@@paulcg7566 It's intuitive ^^
Im new to NURBS and im very curious about it.
so can you guys give me a good example on what NURBS Modeling Exel at?
like in my head i feel like making Hyper-Realistic Objects with Nurbs would be a Great Choice
but from the comments, it looks like Poly Count is much less of a Headache to do.
3D Printing is one of the things i heard from the comments its a good choice. any other things?
I combine softwares, I can make something in a few minutes on Rhino it will come super clean and exact. But you are right, you need another approach.
Sometimes I just start from scratch but even so is faster. Or another times Is easier to just grab some poliygons and move them than go back modify a curve and re project, extract and bevel something because of a little change.
But you can use both.Some elements poligonal and another nurbs and mix them.
How do you import iges files into Blender? Do you have to import as a poligonal object or is there a way to keep nurbs inside of Blender?
u are doing same design, another software! will be cool to watch !
So, Nurbs is to Polygon the same as vector is to raster, got it!
With consequential Blender is being worked on these days, and how the community grows and benefits the program and the foundation, I think it's not unrealistic to assume, that maybe one day they will implement nurbs modelling into the program, maybe as it's own render engine. Then you could simply polgonyze those models at preferred resolution over to the other engines, it would be a joy. Like, first constructing your asset with as many cuts and booleans and whatever you like without any resolution being in question, and once it's done, bringing it over to the other engines within the same program to work with shaders and textures and whatnot. Could be instancing or appending, where the original nurbs model stays availabale as it's own thing within the project file, but can be used and modified like a regular poly object in the classic engines. This would be an insane jump for Blender, also making it more and more attractive for many professional markets. We live in an interesting time. If we lived 25 years earlier, we had none of those possibilities. Appealing 3D graphics were unique to big movie studios and companies working with CAD. But the private hobbyist had no such methods. While today, a single person is able to produce full animated films with nothing more than a working machine, that could be as cheap as 500 bucks. Depending on how simple you'd keep your scenes, you could even create great stuff with absolute base computers. As I said, interesting times. Giving us so many possibilities is why I love the Blender foundation for offering such an incredibly powerful tool fully for free. It's kind of surreal.
Throughout the last couple years of getting back into 3D, I haven't heard ANYONE mention NURBS. I kind of assumed it had died at some point in the last 20 years.
something like plasticity sounds great to get a shape then go to blender and run it through quad remesher. i guess that might work
Will this ever be implemented in games?
So it's kinda what like vector graphics are to rasterized images? With vector graphics, there's a limit to how much detail you can realistically add though. What's the downside to nurbs modelling?
will this nurbs model makes automotive design easy? and this nurbs model make render simple?
Moi3D is beautifully simple and intuitive to use, however it is pretty expensive.
Fusion 360 on the other hand can be used completely free (with just a few limitations) and has a more expansive toolset more geared towards precision modeling.
is there any way to somehow convert cad models into polygon models
Sure, export as fbx.
Oldschool blender sometimes dies on fbx, especially from MOI.
Best solution still MOI for the average user. But there is also FreeCAD, Fusion360, Alias, Rhino, VRED, DeltaGen and even Blender Addons for direct import. I think C4D also imports CAD directly.
.step is the most common CAD exchange format.
@@DamianMathew Hello, what is the name of the addon used for importing .step in Blender? I've found STEPper on Gumroad but is there also an addon which comes with Blender?
if your into this i highly suggest cad modeling, a free option is fusion 360
Autodesk is never free. I’ve seen some Autodesk lawsuits on student and personal versions with big fines. Only for hobby work it is okay. Keep in mind fusion is pretty much all cloud based for a reason, THEY ARE WATCHING haha. Only Blender is really free.
MOI is a great solution. It’s one time pay and the developer is super chilled.
@@DamianMathew well yeah but if you just want to try out cad why spend tons of money when you can mess around in fusion a bit to see if you like it (also yeah it used to be better then they put alot more restrictions on it, fuck autodesk)
@@barrettbachner8657 that’s exactly the trick. It’s like free drugs you know haha. I did a real transition from C4D to Blender and it was a pain, believe me. Also there’s trial versions of most softwares inkl MOI. If the trial goes 3 years there’s a reason cause once you go deep for 3 years there’s no way back xD that’s the main reason why people even use maya and 3DMax, cause they used it for 3+ years. Have fun learning a new software after that haha. So be careful how deep you get into the Autodesk Mafia
Last one: if anyone makes money, then it’s Autodesk, not MOI or others haha. ‘Free’ is just the bait.
@@DamianMathew oh ofc, again i would only use fusion to see if you like it because its accessible and free, i actually went from blender to cad interestingly enough
how you do that without moving your lips? ventriloquist?
Fun fact: long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, NURBS was used for... Organic modeling. Because they was smooth, while polytools wasn't that good.
But excuse me, you're wrong. Ok. Not really wrong, but it looks like, you don't really understand what the NURBS are. (and I don't really know details of modern CAD software)
But first of all: Blender and MaYa are not "poly based software". Even more, MaYa had quite advanced NURBS modeling tools in it. Blender... Well. It have NURBS surfaces, but it ends with their presence. Only difference with NURBS CAD software is that... It have more advanced tools in it. Ok. And it renders NURBS a bit different way.
And that's another point. The way these software are handling display of Bézier Curves and NURBS. What you see in the preview... Actually is an illusion. Well. Kinda. That curve, which you've created in Blender is actually... Have same smoothness as one in that CAD software. The only difference it that Blender converts it to polygons, to display it in the viewport, but in reality, it's smooth.
NURBS surfaces themself. Lol. It's kinda hard to explain. XD Because there are lots of details. But you can see how they look if you'll create a plain in Blender. Then subdivide it couple of times. The catch is that you can't manage loops with same ease as with polygons. It always must be something like grid. It can be deformed in any way (actually, that's how you get a NURBS sphere), but it always will be a Grid Plane.
Another thing, but I don't really get it. It's about details. Like in NURBS expressions, there is parameter "power" (like 2 in power of 2). And higher the power, smoother the result. With Power 1 NURBS surfaces look like Polygonal, while... Power 2 gives strange results, while power 3 gives smooth result. And there is power 7. Which kinda gives the best results.
Another interesting thing. Actually, that's how these "perfect Booleans" work: there can be NURBS curves right in the surface space of the NURBS object (it's called "Underworld"). And you can choose to "hide" part of the surface. ^_^
So when you make boolean operation on it, it copies object which you use to cut from another surface, creates (yep) another NURBS surface to create that Bevel. ^_^ Creates curves on both surfaces where "bevel" objects intersects with two objects. Then hides "unnecessary" parts.
It's just looks like, NURBS modeling tools have became really advanced, in the CAD software. So they kinda hide all these technical details, from the users.
And by the way. When you're rendering these scenes... You render all this stuff as polygons. Just really dence ones. Because... Any Raytracing engine just needs polygons to render stuff.
And another fun fact: there is another type of surface: Subdivision Surfaces. These are like polygons, but with 13 levels of Subsurf on it. So you can model as with polygons, while getting really smooth results.
Excuse me if all this stuff sounds like complete mess, but it's a really long story. And I've actually, missed tons of stuff.
> Another thing, but I don't really get it. It's about details. Like in NURBS expressions, there is parameter "power" (like 2 in power of 2). And higher the power, smoother the result. With Power 1 NURBS surfaces look like Polygonal, while... Power 2 gives strange results, while power 3 gives smooth result. And there is power 7. Which kinda gives the best results.
(a + bx^1 + cx^2 +...gx^7). Power 1 nurbs(just a) are effectively polygons because all their store is 3-d coordinates using minimal interpolation.
Nurbs achieve "perfect" curves by using weights along an axis(basically the spline).
> You render all this stuff as polygons. Just really dence ones.
Not entirely. NURBS use interpolation.
> These are like polygons, but with 13 levels of Subsurf on it.
These are very much related to NURBS in the fact that they use interpolation of vertice points to form. This is why they are so bad for performance to use in modeling software because it's doing the grunt work of both vertices and exponential curves, where as NURBS only worry about the curves until polygon conversion.
@@truesoundwave "Not entirely. NURBS use interpolation. " - I mean that before rendering, or during rendering (at least with raytracers), all these NURBS objects are converted to polygonal ones.
"This is why they are so bad for performance to use in modeling software because it's doing the grunt work of both vertices and exponential curves, where as NURBS only worry about the curves until polygon conversion." - funny, but I didn't really had issues with these, in modeling software. But lol. The catch is that I haven't used them much. And meanwhile, some renderers, or rather translators? Using 3Delight you can check "export polygonal object as Subsurf". At least, it was the option.
And yeah. Thank you for these details.
I wonder if NURBS will ever make it to video games and animation.
Yes. But only to save money, not because it’s better. Better is to remodel the thing, but mostly it’s cheaper to just convert it and auto retopo it. Also anything like a tree you can’t really do in NURBS.
I normally work on both. Bevels and cuts are way cleaner. Shapes are way faster to create. And with the curves to mesh add-in you can drop it to blender and create the desired shape inside blender. The details are amazing. Even exporting to obj your loss percentage it is not perceived so much in rendering. Now... You'll have to work harder if you want to make that model game ready. Blender will just chopp it like a butcher... But... your ideas don't have limits.
So this is analogous to svg or vector graphics. Sounds cool af
Poly-based modeling is basically digital paper-folding or digital origami to create shapes and forms. This is a dead end approach because there are many fundamental geometry problems in folding planes to create shapes. These fundamental prblems are known as the mathematics of Origami, a sub section of mathematics. I have looked at NURBS modeling and its mathematical approach. However, there is also a fundamental flaw as well. NURBS modeling basically deals in surfaces or 2D when you are dealing in 3D.
I have accidentally stumbled upon 3D modeling about a year ago and been questioning the way things are done in this field. There is a simple rule I have; if things are convoluted and counter-intuitive, then there is something fundamentally wrong. I can understand why it has started that way decades ago. But the transitions should have occured somewhere along the way. I suppose this industry has been highly isolated and insulated up until this point.
What about if i want to export as 3d model ???
So NURBs vs Blender is kind of like vector vs bitmap (rasterized).
Wonder why are there some "NURB" object in blender?
just my 50p in favour of Blender... you can use Nurbs curves and Nurbs surfaces in Blender. You have also primitives for it!
I used to make 3D CAD with solidworks. One of the best tools to make mechanical systems I ever used. Catia is cool too. But god can it be frustrating !
If you make simple systems without much curves, it's ok. But when you get on the big stuff, you wish that you could commit sudoku.
Imagine sculpting in such software..
CSG for the win
Can you use Nurbs models in a game engine? Can this be used for character animation?
You can't, I think it was the reason why nurbs were cast aside in the entertainment industry and it went all in on polygons.
can you put a video to compare zbrush and mol3d also
One is a CAD software other is sculpting software. I don't know how you can compare them.
zbrush you can add a high subdivision and mol3d you can't see the subdivision
@@sevenseven31 because there's nothing to subdivided, the curves and surfaces would be interpolated the same way in a NURBS tool, unless you change the newly made curves in some way.
Maybe I'm unable to understand what you mean, so can you please clarify?
i mean the concept is same as photoshop and illustrator but for polygon modeling
so NURBS models are kinda like the Vector image of 3D modeling?
I have Moi, payed a lot for it, rarely use it, because I found it extremely buggy and they haven't updated it in eons. Too bad really cause it's like working in SketchUp but you can do amazing organic shapes.
Moi3D cost 295$ for a full version and 99$ for a student, so yes compare to Blender (without paid addons) it's expensive ^^^
Moi3D forum is one the most active on the web and the developer answers to any questions. Moi3D v4 final has been released in 2020 with new features like subd, have in mind that Michael Gibson is on in own to develop the software so yes it takes time for new releases but on the other hand so stable with no bugs except the hacked Moi3D versions you find on the net.
More MoI3D please!
What about nurbs modeling in Blender?
Did you try Plasticity?
If you can, I really wish get more knowledge of this Bay you
i want to learn more kind of modeling beside polygons modeling but i dont know what there name is !?!
WHY THE HELL IS NO ONE USING "DS MECHANICAL"!!. It's nurbs based, completely free and powerful.
In poly modeling you define edges and surfaces through point interpolation, in NURBS based software you manipulate/define curvature directly, hence "infinite" resolution.
But as great as that is for constructing functional parts with a few curved features, modeling parts with fluid shapes and varying curvature can quickly become a nightmare. Curvature continuity is a real b!tch.
You'll end up staring at curvature combs and zebra overlays for hours like a crazy person, hoping you'll get the darn thing G2-ish before you run out of eye drops. And you can't hide your crimes, no subD or normal transfer available on this mission, mate. Fixing bool cuts and chamfers is therapeutic in comparison ^^.
thought blender have new nurbs option...
but moi3d ...sharpr3d is cool have great bevel option...
funny to see a video about this topic from you after I discovered NURBS modeling myself two days ago. I wanna get more into Arch Viz and I found out a lot of companies and people use NURBS modeling for that. Now, I am feeling ambivalent about what I should focus on. Does someone have any experience with this?
Archviz is rendering, not necessarily modeling.
Oldschool Architects only work in 2D so you need to model for Archviz. In this case it doesn’t matter if poly or nurb, just needs to be quick and look good.
Modern architects work fully in 3D, so no modeling needed for the render guy. All the render guy needs to do is focus on interior design, light, materials or what ever.
@@DamianMathew oh hey Mathew, so you don't just respond to your own videos. I appreciate that. :)
Would you say I should focus more on rendering, lighting, design, etc. instead of modeling?
@@redjohn4886 I’m everywhere haha
to be honest, do what’s fun. That’s what you will get best at. But one thing I can tell you: a modeler from my experience is easier to replace. Also a modeler more likely will work with other 3D guys (lower budget). A render guy can shine with his unique style and also sell pictures instead of models wich helps working directly with a client (bigger budgets). But that’s really just my personal opinion. I’m sure people will also think the opposite.
@@DamianMathew Thanks, man!