Hey guys, this is Aaron.
I wanted to take a look at a very fundamental extension today in the Bezier Curve tool.
This is a free extension available through the Extension Warehouse from the SketchUp
team.
This is an incredibly simple way to draw curves as opposed to lines, segments, or sections
of circles, which are curves but they're all symmetrical.
This will let you have a couple control points to control how you place your curves.
So I'm going to use the bezier curve tool to work on my new 2D component here.
I have my reference image loaded.
And I'm going to go up to Draw>Bezier Curves.
This is where the bezier curve tool will live when you install it into SketchUp.
And it's going to ask me first, to pick a start point.
So I'm going to do the top of my head first.
I'm going to click right here at the back of the ear, and now it says to click an end point.
So I'm going to try to do my whole head as a single curve.
I'm going to click right here.
Now it asks you to place your first control point.
This is going to choose how the curve leaves the first point.
As I pull this up I'm stretching the first point.
It's easy to think this is the curve I'm creating, but it's actually not.
This is the first half of the curve.
Once I place this point I'll be able to set a second control point.
What's important here is how the curve leaves that first point.
That looks good.
Now I place the second point, and I can fine tune to get that point just right, or I can
pull the curve through itself to make multiple curves along the line.
In this case, I'll follow the image.
That's a pretty good lookin' curve.
I'm going to pull a curve for my hair from here to here.
Again, pull down.
Just enough so that it does cross that line.
I do want to make sure I break and delete that later.
Right now I'm just going to keep that line like it is.
The other thing that is nice about bezier curves is the functionality from inferencing.
I'm going to click this point down here, and use inferencing to pull a purple line.
The purple line is the control point from the last end of that last curve.
So by pulling the purple line I know this new curve will stay in line with the last curve.
Do another one right here.
Now I'll use bezier curve to finish tracing the head.
Something here, none of my surfaces closed up because I have a bunch of wires shooting
off my face.
I can use inferencing with this tool, and should be.
When I draw a curve I want to make sure my points are on the surface, and my handles
stay on the surface too.
When my handle is purple that means I'm on the surface.
If I come off the face the purple handle goes away.
Make sure to watch inferencing, just as you would do with a regular tool to make sure
everything is drawn on the same plane.
Especially for a face me component of course.
That's my face me component drawn with bezier curves.
One thing you want to keep in mind, these curves look like smooth lines, but they're
made up of smaller segments.
Any given line shows up as a curve, if I explode that curve, it's actually 20 edges.
You will create a lot of edges when you use bezier curves.
If I put in a lot of detail it could make the model a little "heavy."
But it is a way to get smooth curves with just a couple of clicks.
That is Bezier Curves.
Thank you!