SurfDeform Mini-Tutorial

nfrrtycmplx

Here's a quick Mini-tutorial on how to morph complex geometry to simple NURBS shapes...

Here we have a simple sphere converted to NURBS, and a common situation you see in sci-fi models... a curved surface with several small depressions.



These are the wire-frames of the final objects.


This is the final modifier stack.

1.TurboSmooth - makes your model look awesome
2.SurfDeform - Morphs the Plane (Plane13) to the Nurbs Sphere (Sphere01)
3.FFD(box) - Makes a free form deformation box around the plane to simplify the points that have to be moved. I'm not sure this makes too much of a difference, but seems like the best way to do it. I didn't try this dense of a mesh without the FFD modifier.
4.Editable Poly - Herpa Derp.



With the Plane13 object selected as shown by figure 1, in the "SurfDeform" modifier I pushed the "Pick Object" button and selected the Sphere01 object, as shown by figure 2.

I then fiddled with the nobs... as shown by figure 3.



Here's a brief explanation in image form!


I hope this is helpful!
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This may be common practice, but I just figured it out today and wanted to share with the group. I remember Ghostscape showing me a way to do this a few years back, but it seemed more complicated than this, but also allowed for more complex geo deformation... @Ghostscape, you still got that tutorial? I remember being impressed by it!
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Razgriz

Thanks for taking the time to put this together, always good to get a refresher on the deform modifiers. They tend to be one of those tools I remember exist after I spent 20 minutes ruining a mesh by fiddling around with soft selection.

Question: Wouldn't it make more sense to always throw the turbosmooth below the SurfDeform and FFD, to avoid pinching on meshes that don't already have a lot of geometry?

nfrrtycmplx

very good point... I did a test and put the TurboSmooth just after Editable Poly and the result was actually better


On top, it bends the crap out of the mesh and the holes have soft bevels around them...

The way you suggest the whole thing is very smooth...

It's subtle, but better, If your mesh is more complicated it would be more noticeable

Thanks Raz

Razgriz

No problem, yeah, it's an easy thing to forget to do. I see it a lot on things like gun barrels, or anything that involves cutting holes into a plane that will become a cylinder - it needs to go Turbosmooth > Bend, not Bend > Turbosmooth. In fact I really see it often, which can be confusing, because the whole point of using the bend modifier (or similar deformers) is to avoid pinching.

nfrrtycmplx

I'm now trying to figure out how to morph something like that plane to a more complex mesh without having to make splines that represent the mesh topology

Also, this thing pinches at the top of the sphere pretty badly, definitely not the best way to do this, but it's fast.

Razgriz

Hmmm, well, the few times I've needed to do that, you can use Get Shape From Selection in the edge selection rollout to turn any edge loop into spline - so if you do think splines with be the best solution, you wouldn't have to make any new splines, just turn the topology of the mesh into splines.

Oniram

! this is awesome. thanks for sharing.

IxenonI

cool little tip. Very useful. Thanks for sharing

[HP]

Win, I must try this, it makes modeling round shapes much easier.

Thanks.

Baddcog

Yeah, I've never messed with surf deform either but have been using a lot more bend/taper/ etc.. modifiers than I did in the past, so I guess i need to mess with this more and learn some new techniques.

Quack!

This. Is. Awesome.

Quack!

And what do you know it, as soon as I learn of this I actually need to put it into use. Works great and has amazing amount of control.



This will forever be part of el workflow.

vivin

This is a nice technique! Anything similar to this in Maya?