This is an external video tutorial. A great introduction to TurboSplines, created by Jamie Cardoso (renowned author, reviewer, computer artist & technologist)
It’s a quick overview of the main tools and parameters in the plugin, that shows you how fast and easy is to create amazing spline animations and effects with TurboSplines.
The following video tutorial shows the basic use of the main Spline Combiner tools.
It covers this 3 tools: Boolean Splines, Shape Cutter and Detect Intersections. Each tool has its own peculiarities but they are all very simple to use and understand.
The video was speeded up to make it more dynamic, but you can stop it as many times as you need to better follow the process.
In this tutorial we will learn how to model some ornaments in 3dsMax with Spiros, based on spirals and torus knot shapes, to make jewelry objects.
First, we’ll see how to create a bracelet with a triangular spiral shaped decoration. Secondly, we’ll learn how to make two different kind of pendants from torus knot shapes.
Before starting, let’s see which are the most common methods in 3dsmax to turn a spline curve into a volumetric mesh:
In this tutorial we use a different method for each of the three cases, but you can use the method that better fit your needs, or the one you are more comfortable with.
As you see in the image above, the bracelet’s triangular decoration was made starting with a simple spiral object created with Spiros.
Here’s the process:
1. In 3ds Max, open Spiros and create a spiral shape on the top viewport, with the size you like.
2. At the plugin’s UI, set the following values: Turns = 4.0; Knots = 13; Curve type: Line.
3. Now you will have a triangular spiral. Rotate it so that the triangle points upwards.
4. Edit the spline as shown in the image, to make all the sements perfectly parallel and delete the extra segment on the left.
5. Add a Sweep modifier. Use the built-in section called “Half Round” as the profile shape. This will turn the spline into a volumetric mesh.
6. Adjust the Sweep radius so that the mesh does not overlap itself, until it looks similar to the image.
7. Convert the mesh to Editable Poly to clean the geometry, remove undesired parts and add detail wherever you like.
8. Subdivide the mesh or add tesselation to increase the mesh resolution for applying later deformation.
9. Model the tube for the bracelet.
10. Place the triangular mesh on top of the tube and apply a Bend modifier to make the triangle conform to the tube’s surface.
11. Add any necessary details to finish the bracelet, apply materials and you are done!
Celtic Knot
The first pendant, a celtic knot similar to a flower with 4 petals, was made the following way:
1. In 3ds Max, open Spiros and create a torus knot shape on the top viewport, with the size you like.
2. At the plugin’s UI, set the following values: Foils = 4; Variant = 2; Star/Ring = 6.
3. Scale down the shape in Z axis to make it flatter.
4. Create a rectangle shape to use as the profile section.
5. Apply an Extrude modifier and make a very tall box, with 100 segments for starting. (The advantage of this method over using the Box primitive, is that you can set the number of height segments to a very high value)
6. Apply a Path Deform (WSM) modifier to the box and pick the torus knot as its path. Press “Move to Path”.
7. Go down in the modifiers stack and adjust the Rectangle dimensions to give the knot mesh a reasonable thickness and proportions.
8. At the Extrude modifier parameters, adjust the Amount and Segments until the knot looks closed and with a nice mesh resolution.
9. Zoom in the part of the mesh where the start and end of the knot meet. You will need to make both ends of the mesh match perfectly.
For that, go to the Path Deform modifier and adjust the Twist amount.
10. With 3dsMax snapshot tool, take a snapshot of the mesh. Then convert it to Editable Poly.
Now you can delete or hide the old mesh and path. You will work with the new object now.
11. Weld the start and end of the mesh. Perform some cleaning if necessary and then model any extra details you desire to finish the pendant.
Apply materials/textures and you are done!
5-Pointed Star
The making of the second pendant, a 5-pointed star (or pentagram), will be explained very briefly because the procedure is very similar to the previous objects.
1. In Spiros, draw a torus knot with the following values: Foils = 5; Knots = 5; Curve type: Line. (or choose 5 Point Star preset from the dropdown list)
Tip: You can make Star shapes with the Torus Knot tool by setting the same number in Foils and Knots, and set the Curve Type to line.
2. At the spline parameters, make it renderable in viewport and renderer. Set the section shape as Rectangular and adjust its dimensions as desired.
Now you have the star mesh.
3. Convert it to Editable Poly. Perform some cleaning and then add the necessary detail to the mesh.
4. Model the ring to complete the pendant and then put both pieces together. Apply materials/textures and you are done!
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. If you have any doubts or consultations you can leave a comment down here or write us through the Contact form.
Cheers!
There are many ways to get appealing spline curves to work with in 3ds Max.
Here’s a bunch of ideas to boost your imagination:
The standard parametric shapes of 3dsMax are generally not interesting enough to make nice splines for animation. However, with a little of creativity, you can get very nice-looking curves from them.
For example, a combination of overlapping circles or concetric circles arranged to fit a specific design or porpose can make an outstanding animation with very little resources.
Another powerful method is to use text shapes with interesting typography. Just convert them to splines and add some fillet on the corners to get a smooth deformation when using TurboSplines.
You can design your curves using a 2D vector software such as Adobe Illustrator and then import them into 3dsMax.
If your splines are imported with a lot of unwanted knots, gaps and other common errors, you can use our great Spline Cleaner to clean and repair them easily.
Natural and harmonic movement is an amazing source of beautiful splines. 3dsMax comes with a tool to convert any trajectory to a spline (see the Motion Panel). So if you already have animated objects or characters in your scene, use them as your source of splines.
If you want a tool capable of extracting trajectory splines from many animated objects, bones or even particle systems, try our free script called Trajectory to Spline.
Meshes with a smooth surface and clean topology are also a good source of splines. You can select edge loops that surround the mesh and use the Create Shape from Selection tool from the Editable Poly parameter interface.
Some 3dsMax primitives, such as the Torus Knot (in Extended Primitives) can produce mathematically perfect and beatiful intricate splines.
Another way of extracting splines from meshes is to perform a cross-sectional slice through them, using 3dsMax’s Section Tool, located at the Splines creation section.
There are a lot of nice plugins and scripts for making gorgeous splines. Many of them are free.
Go to Scriptspot.com and make a quick search in there. You will find plenty of useful spline generators.
A great tool for this our SuperHelix Free. Try it!
Of course you can draw your custom splines directly in 3dsMax. Just make sure they flow smoothly through your scene’s space.
You can use the Array tool to make interesting arranges of splines if you need to.
That’s all for now. If you have specific doubts or consultations, you can contact us through the contact form or leave us a message at our Facebook Page. Cheers!
Welcome to the wonderful world of TurboSplines! 😉
With this quick start tutorial you will learn how to work with this plugin and begin to familiarize yourself with its tools. For that, we will create a simple scene with some growing splines.
You can access the following image from TurboSplines Help section, clicking the Quick Start Tutorial button.
The instructions in the image guides you through the typical steps required to create a “growing splines” animation.
These are basically the steps to follow, even simpler:
Now play your animation and you will see your cables growing.
This is just a quick sample of the power of TurboSplines. Play a while with all the plugin parameters and you will be able to make your scene and animation as complex as you like.
Maybe at some point of this tutorial you wondered this: why can’t I directly animate my renderable splines??
Well, here’s a good news: you can! 🙂
The porpose of this tutorial was to show you an overview of TurboSplines’ workflow, but if you only need to make growing splines, there’s an extremely simple way to do that:
You we’ll get the same result in less steps, leaving to the plugin only the animation part. Then you can modify the meshes with TurboSplines since they will be now TS meshes.
We hope you enjoyed TurboSplines. Check out the other tutorials and videos for further learning.
