8

836 Chapter 8: Modifiers
Sequence of image s showing the spline ne twork, the
patches created by the Sur face modifier, and a shaded view
of a n alien character.
Additiona l D etails
• Splines are initially created using the tools in
Create panel > Shapes > Splines > Object Type
rollout, such as
Line (page 1–265) , Circle (page
1–268)
, Arc (page 1–269) ,and Section (page
1–277)
. Splines can also be created using the
Create Line command in an Editable Spline or
and Edit Spline m odifier.
• Splines are edited by applying an Edit Spline
modifier to the selec ted spline object or editing
parameters in an Editable Spline. Editing
splines changes the patch surface created by the
Surface modifier .
• Toaddsplinestoasplineobject,usetheAttach
command in the Edit Spline modifier.
• Within a spline object, splines need not be
continuous. A spline object may consist of
ten splines, for example. As long as the spline
vertices are coincident, or close enough for the
Threshold par ameter in the Surface mo difier to
weld them together, a surface wil l be generated.
Procedures
Example: Understanding valid splines:
1.
In the Top viewport, use Create
panel > Shape > NGon to create three NGons:
a three-sided, four-sided, and five-sided NGon,
each about 100 units wide.
2. Make sure that a
ll the splines for m one
object. DothisbyapplyinganEditSpline
modifier to one of the NGons and using Attach
to add the rema
ining NG on objects.