9.5.2

OBJECTS MENU • NURBS • 217
NURBS
On the NURBS menu, you’ll nd some of CINEMA 4D’s most powerful modeling objects, including
Extrude NURBS (for 3D logos etc.) and HyperNURBS (for any type of model, especially smooth shapes,
such as characters).
NURBS objects are generators, meaning they use other objects to generate their surfaces. NURBS
enable you to create surfaces quickly and easily using simple curves or objects. For example, to create
a wine bottle you might draw half the bottle’s outline as a spline and make this spline a child of a Lathe
NURBS. The spline will then be revolved through 360˚ to generate the bottle.
In addition to helping you model quickly, NURBS are faster and easier to edit than comparable polygon
models that have thousands of points. For example, suppose you want to change the shape of a wine
bottle. In the viewport, drag the spline’s points to form the new outline. The bottle updates in realtime
as you drag the points, and in just a few seconds you’ve made the changes.
Although NURBS modeling is generally more powerful than polygon modeling, there are still occasions
when polygons are useful. For example, you must work with polygons if you want to use polygon
tools such as the Magnet. Therefore, before you can use one of these tools on a NURBS object, you
must rst convert the NURBS to polygons. To do this, select the NURBS object and choose Functions >
Make Editable. Keep in mind that the conversion is one-way only — you cannot convert the polygons
back to NURBS.
NURBS objects and hierarchies
The HyperNURBS object will affect only its rst child object. The entire hierarchy of that child object
is affected, unless a Stop Tag is added.
The remaining NURBS objects will take only the splines in the top-most hierarchy into account. Further,
the NURBS will only use as many splines as is necessary to generate the object.
HyperNURBS
For character designing especially, but for general modeling also, HyperNURBS is one of the most
powerful sculpting tools available to the 3D artist. With point weighting, edge weighting and the
subdivision surfaces of HyperNURBS, you can craft any shape at all — from high performance sports
cars to characters that you can pose and animate easily.