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CG Modeling 2: NURBS

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Abstract

NURBS geometry is used to create mathematically accurate curved surfaces, such as those in automobiles and airplanes. In film, the advantage of NURBS surfaces is that they render well and are more easily controlled for animation than dense polygonal meshes. In video games, NURBS are rarely used, but when they are, it is as intermediate objects made during the polygonal modeling process or as high resolution geometry rendered for cinematic sequences.

NURBS modeling techniques are meaningfully different from polygonal techniques. The difference between the two concepts can make it difficult to transition from one to the other, but when both are understood, they can work well together. On a simplified level, polygonal modeling is additive in the sense that a base object has points added to it, then moved, and more points added to it, and so on. With curve based modeling, it is more reductive.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Some applications allow editing of NURBS UVs, with restrictions.

References

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© 2013 Springer-Verlag London

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Paquette, A. (2013). CG Modeling 2: NURBS. In: An Introduction to Computer Graphics for Artists. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5100-5_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5100-5_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-5099-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-5100-5

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