WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.300 Hey welcome back, it's Ben here! Remember you can 2 00:00:02.300 --> 00:00:06.300 always slow the video down, because I talk a little bit faster than Mikey. So 3 00:00:06.300 --> 00:00:10.300 I'm going to be introducing what are Bezier Curves. We'll be telling you why 4 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:14.300 we're using them for our pin, and then, you'll be drawing your first Bezier Curve! 5 00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:18.300 So what are Bezier Curves? They are perfect mathematical vector 6 00:00:18.300 --> 00:00:22.300 curves. They can be scaled infinitely with no loss of detail, 7 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:26.300 and that means that you can create a very simple, smooth, and elegant look 8 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:30.300 but only if you use as few as possible. Let's just 9 00:00:30.300 --> 00:00:34.300 click on to this Wikipedia article in your notes, to show you. A couple of 10 00:00:34.300 --> 00:00:38.300 examples of Bezier Curves, there's one on the right there. If I scroll past all the math, 11 00:00:38.300 --> 00:00:42.300 you can see some others moving here. They're defined, basically, by a start point, 12 00:00:42.300 --> 00:00:46.300 an end point, and then, these blue control handles in 13 00:00:46.300 --> 00:00:50.300 this diagram. And between those start points, end points, and control handles, you've got 14 00:00:50.300 --> 00:00:54.300 fantastic control over the shape of your curve, so let's go 15 00:00:54.300 --> 00:00:58.300 and see how we do this in Blender. Here's where Mikey left you, looking 16 00:00:58.300 --> 00:01:02.300 at the front view of your pin, with a cube there in the scene at 17 00:01:02.300 --> 00:01:06.300 the origin, and what I want to do, firstly, is just scale that cube! 18 00:01:06.300 --> 00:01:10.300 In the X direction, we want the cube 1.2 units 19 00:01:10.300 --> 00:01:14.300 like that. So now we have two forms of reference, we have a bounding 20 00:01:14.300 --> 00:01:18.300 box of the cube sitting there in the scene, and then, we have, of course, this background 21 00:01:18.300 --> 00:01:22.300 image that we've setup. Fantastic! I'm just going to move 22 00:01:22.300 --> 00:01:26.300 this 3D View over the top of the Timeline View, like that, 23 00:01:26.300 --> 00:01:30.300 dragging downwards just to give myself some more screen space. So 24 00:01:30.300 --> 00:01:34.300 without further ado, let's add a Bezier Curve so you can see what it does! There's three ways 25 00:01:34.300 --> 00:01:38.300 of doing that. One is from the Create menu, you can click here 26 00:01:38.300 --> 00:01:42.300 Curve, Bezier. Or you could do the Shift A for add and that would bring 27 00:01:42.300 --> 00:01:46.300 up your Add menu and you''ll find a Curve menu, or you could go to the 28 00:01:46.300 --> 00:01:50.300 Add menu, down at the bottom here and that's actually the same menu upside down for some reason. 29 00:01:50.300 --> 00:01:54.300 Fantastic! So let's add ourselves a Bezier Curve, 30 00:01:54.300 --> 00:01:58.300 but before you click away anywhere else, remember when you first create things in Blender you want to 31 00:01:58.300 --> 00:02:02.300 be a little bit careful down on the bottom-left here. And remember, if this pane's not showing you 32 00:02:02.300 --> 00:02:06.300 can make it show with the little plus sign. So if you've pulled that 33 00:02:06.300 --> 00:02:10.300 all the way down, like I do all the time, that little plus sign will bring it back up. So 34 00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:14.300 before you submit this curve to having been created, make sure you 35 00:02:14.300 --> 00:02:18.300 Align with View. The reason for that is, in our case, we want to make a 36 00:02:18.300 --> 00:02:22.300 curve purely in the X, Z plane, we don't want it 37 00:02:22.300 --> 00:02:26.300 extending in Y at all. OK, we want a 2 dimensional Bezier Curve, they 38 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:30.300 can be 3D in Blender. So there you go, you have this squiggly thing here which 39 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:34.300 you can drag around with the Right Mouse Button. When you do, you'll notice it 40 00:02:34.300 --> 00:02:38.300 goes right through, in 3 dimenstions, the middle of that reference cube. 41 00:02:38.300 --> 00:02:42.300 So we can sort that out by just moving the reference cube backwards. 42 00:02:42.300 --> 00:02:46.300 Click on your cube up here in your top-right in 43 00:02:46.300 --> 00:02:50.300 the outline, and then, just push it in Y 44 00:02:50.300 --> 00:02:54.300 until it's behind the Bezier Curve. Fantastic! Now, let's select the Bezier Curve 45 00:02:54.300 --> 00:02:58.300 again! Here it is, there's your curve! Now, I want you to make sure that your Bezier 46 00:02:58.300 --> 00:03:02.300 Curve, when you first crete it, is at Y equals 0. This is very important! 47 00:03:02.300 --> 00:03:06.300 Once it's selected and created at Y equals 0, push Tab 48 00:03:06.300 --> 00:03:10.300 or go to Edit mode, both do the same thing. Now, 49 00:03:10.300 --> 00:03:14.300 you have control over those things you saw on Wikipedia! You can right-click 50 00:03:14.300 --> 00:03:18.300 the end point and drag and move it around. Now you see that it's moving 51 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:22.300 in X and Y. It looks like it's moving in X and Y, 52 00:03:22.300 --> 00:03:26.300 that is because we have Local coordinates selected, you need to be in Global coordinates. 53 00:03:26.300 --> 00:03:30.300 Blender is very confusing in a 2D view, because it actually changes this X, 54 00:03:30.300 --> 00:03:34.300 Y to X, Z. Sorry, this X, Z to X, Y! That's very 55 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:38.300 confusing. So let's be in Global coordinates! Now, when you drag 56 00:03:38.300 --> 00:03:42.300 around your end point, you'll see the Y is not changing or as good as not changing, the last decimal 57 00:03:42.300 --> 00:03:46.300 place moves a little bit. So sue me, that's OK! Let's also 58 00:03:46.300 --> 00:03:50.300 click on there with the Right Button, on the start point, and move it around and see how it works! 59 00:03:50.300 --> 00:03:54.300 If you missed the start point you may grab a control handle like I did. That's fine! So 60 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:58.300 the things that you can control are the start and end points here, by dragging with 61 00:03:58.300 --> 00:04:02.300 the Right Mouse Button, Left Button to place and the same 62 00:04:02.300 --> 00:04:06.300 with the handles. You right-click and drag to move the handle, and then, you left-click to 63 00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:10.300 place. The final thing you're going to need to know about this curve is how to 64 00:04:10.300 --> 00:04:14.300 add new vertex control points. How do you do that? Well 65 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:18.300 you click on the last one, like here, the end one, 66 00:04:18.300 --> 00:04:22.300 and then, you hold down Control and left-click the Mouse Button. 67 00:04:22.300 --> 00:04:26.300 So you hold down Control and left-click with the final end point selected, 68 00:04:26.300 --> 00:04:30.300 and that will create another point afterwards. And again, you can go in and 69 00:04:30.300 --> 00:04:34.300 grab and drag these handles. Again, keep an eye, up at the Transform, that this is all 70 00:04:34.300 --> 00:04:38.300 in the Y equals 0. So what we're going to do is we're going to outline 71 00:04:38.300 --> 00:04:42.300 the right-hand side of the pin. I'm going to start it for you, and then, I'm going to challenge you to finish it. 72 00:04:42.300 --> 00:04:46.300 Let's put the first control point up at the top here, place 73 00:04:46.300 --> 00:04:50.300 it roughly, that's fine. Roughly drag the control points 74 00:04:50.300 --> 00:04:54.300 around to where we want them, something like that, and now let's 75 00:04:54.300 --> 00:04:58.300 go place that first point precisely. I want it at X equals 76 00:04:58.300 --> 00:05:02.300 0, right in the middle of the pin. I want it at Y equals 0, in the plane of the screen, and at 77 00:05:02.300 --> 00:05:06.300 Z equals 1.9, precisely at the top of the pin. 78 00:05:06.300 --> 00:05:10.300 Now, here comes the art of drawing Bezier Curves! Where do you place the next node? 79 00:05:10.300 --> 00:05:14.300 Where are we going to move this guy to? There's lots of places you could put it, 80 00:05:14.300 --> 00:05:18.300 but I'm going to choose to put it right here, where the next of the pin becomes vertical. 81 00:05:18.300 --> 00:05:22.300 And let me explain the rule of thumb that I've got for 82 00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:26.300 why I'm putting that point here. We want as few 83 00:05:26.300 --> 00:05:30.300 points as possible in a Bezier Curve, to keep it as simple as possible. 84 00:05:30.300 --> 00:05:34.300 Every point we add to the curve introduces complexity 85 00:05:34.300 --> 00:05:38.300 and takes away from the mathematical purity and elegance of that curve, 86 00:05:38.300 --> 00:05:42.300 so you want to use as few as possible. Now, if you were driving a car around this 87 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:46.300 pin, around the outside of this pin, let's start on the left-hand neck here. 88 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:50.300 Here we are steering right, steering right, steering right, and at the top, our steering wheel goes 89 00:05:50.300 --> 00:05:54.300 vertical. Imagine you've got a piece of white tape on a rally car steering wheel, this is an indication 90 00:05:54.300 --> 00:05:58.300 you need to put a new control vertex in. Now, we're steering right, steering right, 91 00:05:58.300 --> 00:06:02.300 steering right, and at this point, our steering wheel's gone vertical again 92 00:06:02.300 --> 00:06:06.300 and now the control point. Alright, now as I scroll down 93 00:06:06.300 --> 00:06:10.300 I am now steering left, steering left, steering left from the 94 00:06:10.300 --> 00:06:14.300 car's point of view, and at this point, I inflect and I go 95 00:06:14.300 --> 00:06:18.300 through and I start steering right. So you might want to put yourself another control point 96 00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:22.300 here and then get the handles 97 00:06:22.300 --> 00:06:26.300 where you want them. OK. 98 00:06:26.300 --> 00:06:30.300 Or you might decide, I don't need one there. I can go all the way down 99 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:34.300 to here, because this is the first time that the 100 00:06:34.300 --> 00:06:38.300 curve changes direction, because actually here, all of the time we're steering 101 00:06:38.300 --> 00:06:42.300 right, steering right, steering right, steering right. You see? So this is a really subtle point, 102 00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:46.300 it's very tempting to put a control point here, so that we can precisely 103 00:06:46.300 --> 00:06:50.300 define the width of the curve, but the disadvantage of doing that is, it's actually 104 00:06:50.300 --> 00:06:54.300 one more than we need. We only actually need a control point 105 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:58.300 here, because this is the next time the steering wheel goes vertical, and by dragging these 106 00:06:58.300 --> 00:07:02.300 handles, you can get around that curve. OK, so I've 107 00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:06.300 nearly done that for you now. Now, if you accidentally do what I've just done and go into 108 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:10.300 3D View, not a problem, check that your curve is flat in 3D, and then, just come back to 109 00:07:10.300 --> 00:07:14.300 Front view. So I've shown you most of it, but I want you to finish this off and 110 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:18.300 get it to spec, to specifications. So let's show you the spec slide! 111 00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:22.300 Finish the pin outline, only one half of the pin is needed. The top control 112 00:07:22.300 --> 00:07:26.300 vertex should be at precisely (0, 0, 1.9). 113 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:30.300 The bottom one should be at 0, so it's in the middle of the pin, 0 in 114 00:07:30.300 --> 00:07:34.300 Y so it's in the plane of the screen, and -1.9 115 00:07:34.300 --> 00:07:38.300 so it's precisely at the bottom of the pin. I want you to add 116 00:07:38.300 --> 00:07:40.966 just one more control vertex, actually, 117 00:07:40.966 --> 00:07:43.866 for a total of four, and then, make sure that 118 00:07:43.866 --> 00:07:47.866 all the vertices have a Y = 0 and see if you can get a good outline from 119 00:07:47.866 --> 00:07:51.866 that. So pause the video, see if you can outline the pin in four vertices total! 120 00:07:54.800 --> 00:07:57.533 OK welcome back! So 121 00:07:57.533 --> 00:08:01.533 adding in these final vertices! We firstly need to select, carefully, 122 00:08:01.533 --> 00:08:05.533 our end point. So make sure you're selected on the Bezier Curve, then you come in here, 123 00:08:05.533 --> 00:08:09.533 and right-click on the actual final control point. 124 00:08:09.533 --> 00:08:13.533 And then, these handles are really long, so I'm actually going to pull this 125 00:08:13.533 --> 00:08:17.533 handle in a bit, before I even add another point. Then, we 126 00:08:17.533 --> 00:08:21.533 hold down Control and left-click at the bottom, and there's my final point! Now, it all looks a bit funny 127 00:08:21.533 --> 00:08:25.533 in there right now, but that's OK, let's sort it out, let's grab the handles, and take control of this curve. 128 00:08:25.533 --> 00:08:29.533 So there's one, click, and then, 129 00:08:29.533 --> 00:08:33.533 here's the other handle, click. Now, you need to mess around a little 130 00:08:33.533 --> 00:08:37.533 bit, because Bezier Curves are very holistic, when you make a change to one part of the curve 131 00:08:37.533 --> 00:08:41.533 it changes the rest. But here are the things that are important! Number one, this bottom 132 00:08:41.533 --> 00:08:45.533 control point needs to be at precisely at 0, 0, 133 00:08:45.533 --> 00:08:49.533 -1.9 for when Mikey spins it around in 3D with you. 134 00:08:49.533 --> 00:08:53.533 This may be a good time to check your top control point is at precisely 0, 135 00:08:53.533 --> 00:08:57.533 0, +1.9. Fantastic! Next thing I want you to check is that 136 00:08:57.533 --> 00:09:01.533 the top of the pin is going to be actually flat, and the way to check that is that this 137 00:09:01.533 --> 00:09:05.533 right-hand handle here also needs to have a Z value. Whatever 138 00:09:05.533 --> 00:09:09.533 you choose for X is up to you, that's by eye, but it must have a Z 139 00:09:09.533 --> 00:09:13.533 value of precisely 1.9. OK, so then it's completely 140 00:09:13.533 --> 00:09:17.533 flat at the top. Coming down the curve it looks OK for now, we'll modify it in 141 00:09:17.533 --> 00:09:21.533 a minute. And we have a change of direction here, so we need 142 00:09:21.533 --> 00:09:25.533 to grab this control point and make this curve how we want it. It doesn't have 143 00:09:25.533 --> 00:09:29.533 to perfectly match this reference pin, by the way. And then, 144 00:09:29.533 --> 00:09:33.533 this handle here will adjust the curvature at the bottom. Remember the pin needs to be able to stand up, 145 00:09:33.533 --> 00:09:37.533 so you actually want quite a flat bottom, so I'm going to make this handle quite long, 146 00:09:37.533 --> 00:09:41.533 watching the entire curve as I do it. And the same treatment 147 00:09:41.533 --> 00:09:45.533 at the bottom. This bottom control vertex must be at 0, 0, -1.9, 148 00:09:45.533 --> 00:09:49.533 but importantly, it's right-hand handle must also be 149 00:09:49.533 --> 00:09:53.533 at -1.9 in the Z, then you have a 150 00:09:53.533 --> 00:09:57.533 completely flat curve at the bottom. So I'm leaving my pin different 151 00:09:57.533 --> 00:10:01.533 to the reference pin, because I want a squarer bottom on it OK, because I 152 00:10:01.533 --> 00:10:05.533 want it to be able to stand up a little bit better. So the final thing that I'm going to adjust here is 153 00:10:05.533 --> 00:10:09.533 the handles on this one at the neck. And 154 00:10:09.533 --> 00:10:13.533 look at that, that's pretty cool! When you're satisfied with your pin, then 155 00:10:13.533 --> 00:10:17.533 you can come out of Edit Mode, back into Object Mode, and I'm actually going to 156 00:10:17.533 --> 00:10:21.533 turn off the Background Image now, because it's kind of distracting 157 00:10:21.533 --> 00:10:25.533 me. There you go that's my pin outline, and 158 00:10:25.533 --> 00:10:29.533 I think it looks pretty good! So what we're going to do next with Michael is 159 00:10:29.533 --> 00:10:33.533 rotate that around 360 degrees and create you a full 160 00:10:33.533 --> 00:10:37.533 three dimensional pin, from this pretty curve. So congratulations, and I'll 161 00:10:37.533 --> 00:10:38.933 see you soon!