The goal of this lab is to learn how to use Bézier curves in Blender, which will be useful for creating realistic curved objects.
Logos in Blender
In this part we will create the Twitter logo (no comment on Twitter, but its logo is perfect for Bézier curves!) If you'd like to make a different curved logo that's fine too. Here is the shape to make:
Twitter logo (download this high-quality image, not the one below)
- Open Blender and delete the initial cube. Then from the Add menu select Empty->Image. Then in the Object Data tab on the right (looks like green 3D axes), find the Image Source line and click to load the image. You will navigate to where you saved the Twitter logo image and add it as a background image.
- Next, change the viewpoint to the 'top' view, and toggle the
perspective/orthographic view so that we're in orthographic view. You
should see the background image (zoom in or out as necessary):
- Next, we will add a Bézier curve. From the Add menu select
Curver->Bezier. You will see new curve added to the scene. Make sure
that you are in Edit Mode -- this will show you the control
points. Notice that there are six control points, arranged in triplets
at either end of the curve. Move the control points around by
selecting one and hitting G. Experiment until you see how they work.
Then place the curve's end points on the vertices connecting the top
part of the wing. (You can toggle the display of normal vectors along
the curve from the View Overlays menu on the top right, checkbox
called Normals at the bottom.) Manipulate the control points to make
the curve match the logo, keeping in mind that that the lines
connecting the controls points should be tangent to the curve.
- Now we need to make another Bézier curve, but keep it attached to the first one. To make the extra control point belong to the next curve, select the last control point (the far end of the bowtie) and right click. Select Set Handle Type -> Vector
- Then from the same menu select Extrude Curve and Move. You will see another curve segment with its own set of control points. Move these around so as to continue building the entire shape. Note that you can now move each control point independently so as to get sharp corners.
- To make the final Bézier curve for the head portion, select
the entire set of curves (hit A) and select Make Segment from the
right-click menu (or hit F). This will create the last curve, which
you can modify to match just like the others. (You may also need to
set the handle type of the first control point to vector.)
- Next, on the right under the curve tab click 2D, and then select
Fill Mode as Both. In wireframe mode you should see a set of
triangles filling the center of the shape:
- Next we change back to Object Mode, then from the right-click menu select Convert to Mesh.
- Now back to Edit Mode. Select the mesh and from the Mesh menu select Extrude -> Extrude Faces Along Normals (or E key). This makes our curve into a 3D object. Finally, in object mode on the right tabs, add a material change the color like we did in the wooden cup lab.
- Last step: render! (You can remove the image first if you want; we don't need it any more.)
Bonus: More 3D curves in Blender