Smooth shape transitions in Blender using lofting
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- It took me longer than it should to have found out how to do lofting in Blender (Hint: It doesn't get called lofting frustratingly, even though that is what it is). So I wanted to make this for those on the hunt for it as well knowing the correct terminology and even if you aren't its a cool technique.
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There are quite a few making blender videos here that know blender well but don't teach it well. You explain everything and make it logical and easy to understand. You are by far one of the best channels for learning blender.
Wow, thanks! Lovely to hear.
you r the real blender hero..
thanku for the quality tutorial..
Thats very nice of you to say. Thanks so much Muhammad
guys like you really just make the world a better place. thanks.
😁👍🏻 Thanks so much
Really liked the almost real life example you shared. And the context of what lofting is outside of digital 3D and how it's used for boats and aircrafts was a great way to think about it. Thanks for this.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. Really appreciated and glad you enjoyed the video 👍🏻
Best explanation of lofting, and avoiding the common issues. Also the example of the jet intake duct at the end is worth staying for, wonderful efficient bit of modeling bringing in the bevel and inset commands. If I could subscribe more than once I would.
Thanks so much. It's always great to hear that the additions being put in the tutorials are helpful as I'm always unsure if it's worth the extra video time. Really appreciated 👍🏻
Great vid, popped up in my feed just when I needed it :D
😁 Glad to be able to help.
So good! I've been looking at bend videos but I didn't know the term I was looking for was 'lofting'. Thanks so much.
😁 Thanks man! Hope this will do what you're looking for. Enjoy!
You are a great teacher and this is a great tutorial. Thank you very much.
Thanks a lot 😁
excellent!
Thanks 😁
Thank you for this excellent tutorial! Just what I needed! 😜👍
😁 My pleasure and glad to be of help.
Very nice workaround for lofting 👍, I still hope they would add curve or nurbs lofting one day.
BTW I found that using loop tools relax on the corner points of the rectangle before bridging gives a nice chamfer look to it.
This way you won't create the extra loops created by the bevel.
Oh that's a really interesting idea on the relax feature! I'm going to be trying that out for sure. Thanks a lot! 😁 And maybe they will add some more featured to it at some point, that would be good!
Excellent again!
Thanks man. Glad you're still enjoying the channel 😁👍🏻
I have yet to watch a video that makes me regret subscribing. :) You do a great job, Thanks so much for the hard work you do. I know your modeling is mostly focused on 3D printing. I've used blender in 3D printing as well. But most of it was to make parts and replacement parts for various fixes around the house and mechanical stuff. Do you have a favorite addon or work flow for making dimensionally accurate objects? I know there are some simple and even advanced CAD addons but I've mostly just used the measure tool and the object info to size things.
Thanks so much, thays great to hear 😁 Most of the time I just use the standard tools for my dimension accurate work. You can find a video of and example of that here: ruclips.net/video/s3ieJwBHcI4/видео.html
Other than that I have heard good things about an add in called CAD Sketcher (I think it's free so could be worth a try) but I haven't used it at this point. I have spent some time using Construction Lines and I like that (and it can do some other really nice things). I need to do a video on Construction Lines at some point.
That is great Thank you
My pleasure 😁
Fantastic tutorial, I never even knew that this feature existed.
It's one of those "hidden in plain sight" situations but it seemed worth a tutorial as I love what it can achieve.
this is very useful info!
😁 Glad to hear it👍🏻
Well done!
Thanks
Thanks, Great Video!
Cheers
excellent. Thanks !
No problem. Thanks for taking the time to watch
Brilliant
Thanks.
very useful thanks
No problem 😁 Thanks for taking the time to watch and comment. 👍🏻
This is intriguing. Great explanation and I really appreciate it.
What do you think about using this technique to loft an actual boat or car body?
I think this might be complicated to make a more complex object/shape like a car. It might be possible but I think it would probably be easier to make objects to create the shape or use something like SubD
Impressive video. Btw, do you know if there is an automatic (addon) or semi-automatic way to turns SIMPLE existing object into a mesh. Basically you would select an Axis and the number of "slices" and the addon would cut the existing object into slices (optimally with the same number of vertices) which you then can edit individually and later loft together.
Maybe if could also automatically set the distance between slices. If there is a lot of "change" between slices, it would add more slices, if it is just a straight tube without changes, it would just set one slice at the beginning and one slice at the end of the tube.
I hope I explained it clearly?
Good question, and yes this kind of is and it's an Add On with SO MUCH more. There is a function in Hard Ops called dice that does exactly what I think you are asking by adding edges and vertices on a specific axis. It's really helpful for lots of different types of modification (for example deforming with a lattice). You can check out the add on here:
Hard Ops and Boxcutter discount bundle: blendermarket.com/products/hard-ops--boxcutter-ultimate-bundle/?ref=834
I could make a quick short on it if you'd like?
Thank you for this really concise and effective video! I tried it out myself and discovered that instead of beveling the edges, one could use the "Edge Flow" addon and activating set flow in order to get really smooths edges, tho they maybe be to smooth hahaha.
Disclaimer tho, sometimes the set flow the addon glitches. And you would need to add another object then enter the edit mode of the new object then delete it in order to "reset" the addon. Anyway, Thanks again and hope this helps! :D
Cheers. I've never used Edge Flow. Is it paid for? I'll have to give it a look 👍🏻
@@ArtisansofVaul nope! it's freeeee
@@user-fz3en2xj2j Thanks so much. I just found it on GitHub. Going to have to give that a look!
Never know that this feature exist
It's oddly hidden for some reason. It definetly could be clearer.
Can this also be used as a substitution from curves? Let's say you want something that's more organic or something so it is "large than small than large" like alien eggs or something.
I was just thinking about this for using the bloody effect I said could be used as a feeding tube and I can't see why not. But when Blender works everything out it seems to do it in order on the X,Y or Z axis so you can't do a curve turning back on itself in one go.
Currently thinking about how i could use this to make bizarre hallways akin to say mdk 2 but more morphing between room puzzles etc
I'd love to see what you come up with!
Isn't it strange, that LoopTools comes with a function called "Loft", which doesn't exactly do a pleasing looking job? Nice to know how it can be done nevertheless, so a big thank you!
🤣 I hadn't even seen that as a function in Loop Tools 🤦♂️ I'm going to have to go and check that out now 👍🏻
cool this could be a good procedural(non destructiv) modifer option in the future how in 3dsmax...
That's a cool idea. I'm not an expert but there may already be a procedural way to do this. You can, for example, put a shape along a curve with a lot of controls.
... how do I loft two curves into a new object and maintain control over the original control curves?
You can't really, this needs to be as a mesh for it to work. I'm wondering if it would be possible with Geometry Nodes but I'm not sure it would be. Though.... there is an addon that can manage shapes from curves you might want to look at to see if it does what you need: blendermarket.com/products/curves-to-mesh/?=ref834
4:48
How handy that the triangle had more than 3 vertices and the square had more than 4
Did you watch the whole video? That's very clearly explained as well as how to easily achieve it.
Looking at lofting to make duct for 3d printer… many YTers do this with other programs that I don’t want to have to learn… not that I am good on Blender, 😖🤐
How do you make a hollow duct?
When you say hollow you just mean it's going to be thin walls? Just extrude the faces at the end, select all the other faces and extrude along normals (in the extrude menu)
@@ArtisansofVaul is there also a way to change the beginning and end shape… like going from a round fan to a square nozzle??
@@Aidan-tu4un you can use any shapes you want 👍🏻
Isn't a way to select the two loop and do something so both have same number vertexes counting them look painful 🤦
Of course. In the overlays there is a stats option which shows the number selected.
I can't rotate the flat shapes properly i have no idea awhat is happening
That's a bit tricky to help with without seeing more, but have you tried going side on any rotating that way?
@@ArtisansofVaul i fixed it eventually
@@ArtisansofVaul New issue: the vertices are the same but it's lofting the shape to the other side of the other one, I have a potential solution, but It involves being able to choose which order the shapes are lofted in and I don't know if it's possible.
@@h-Films Annoyingly it seems to loft in the order it decides. But you can loft one section, then select the next section and loft them individually to do them in a specific order.
@@ArtisansofVaul darn, well, thanks
What is that magic happening at 13:08?
That's Boxcutter. Amazing addon normally bought with Hard Ops. I've got detailed videos on it here- ruclips.net/p/PLnqmLZKRm5CajsNlyFbieVyGxzdbBN-jo
You can find the addon here-
Hard Ops and Boxcutter discount bundle: blendermarket.com/products/hard-ops--boxcutter-ultimate-bundle/?ref=834
Hard Ops: blendermarket.com/products/hardopsofficial/?ref=834
Boxcutter: blendermarket.com/products/boxcutter/?ref=834
ahhhh.. I was at the start of the video and paused it and tried by myself telling how the phak he bridged these without creating a mess, so i ended up in a more junky method than yours, Edit Mode> duplicated the (32 verts) circle 2 more times> selecting the desired number of vertices for triangle and square and using loop tools G stretch. Then i resumed the video and .... oooooh yeah that's how he bridged the edges -_-
That's still the best way of learning though. In the future at some point you'll have something you're trying to do and that method will either work or you'll think back to this and know two alternative ways 👍🏻👌🏼
1:06 What do you hit to bring up that menu? Things like this show you are too advanced to teach newbies.
This isn't really a beginner video to be honest. And I like to cover a range of different things, everything cant be kept basic or it would take too long to go through a tutorial/guide. Maybe I should say what level a video is at the beginning, do you think that would help?
In this instance that pie menu is from an add-on called Machin3 Tools and it is just a faster way to get into the different edit modes. If you don't have Machin3 Tools you can just press tab and then 2 to get into edge mode.
If you are interested in Machin3 Tools or my other settings I have a video on the basics of them here: ruclips.net/video/-D5XuwQOVhs/видео.html
And if you're looking for a more beginner friendly playlist to go through the useful tools and functions in Blender there is one here: ruclips.net/p/PLnqmLZKRm5CYlRZ6rjHT_eUKcJVC9FFhv
Hope that helps.
@@ArtisansofVaul Or I will just watch someone that explains as they go
Upvote switched to downvote, and unsubscribed due to not answering my question, of how do you get that menu to pop up.
@@DataJuggler I literally told you the program is Machine Tools and a video of where to do to see a good explanation of it. But you are welcome to do as you wish. If I explained everything as I went on every tutorial regardless of if it is a beginner tutorial or not videos would be hours long. But this seems not to be the channel for you.
@@ArtisansofVaul I never heard you mention Machine Tools until now. I shouldn't respond after a few beers, but it wasn't clear at all what you did. Still isn't.