KyleBlasius

Hi folks, Apologies if this discussion has happened before. I did a few searches on the forum and couldn't locate anything relevant to my specific question, though if it exists, please point me in the correct direction! I'm a production designer, and am looking to create a 3-Dimensional "tree", if you will. It's sort of a spiral staircase that has been melded into a large tree trunk. My question is, what is the best way to learn how to do this? I consider myself proficient at 3D drafting and modeling, but not with organic shapes. When it comes to modeling a wall, a desk, or a crate, I can do it (notice these are all "square-ish" things) but when it comes to complex geometry and curves and rounded edges - especially creating large roots that may snake around the floor - I haven't the foggiest idea of where to start, or what tools I'd use. Are there perhaps tutorials or walk throughs that anyone could think of in regards to this? I've watched hours and hours of content on YouTube and haven't yet found anything that it very helpful to this specific task. Any help at all is much appreciated. Many thanks!

Ah, that did it! Odd, I had tried that before but It didn't work for some reason... not quite sure why? I must not have converted it to NURBS curves first. Ah well! I appreciate your help, folks! I've got about 20 facets to lay out now for dimensioning. Again, many thanks folks.

Hello, I've searched the forums to no avail on this topic... several had promising leads but are ten years out of date, and suggested plug-ins that no longer work. Is there a way to take a 3D facet - in this case, a triangle that I have extruded and then deformed to have a taper, meaning it's a simple four-sided facets (there are NO curves or rounded edges or anything, just the four solid surfaces) - and flatten it so that each side lays down correctly and keeps the correct proportions so that I can dimension it? The goal is to be able to cut out pieces to create dozens of different facets, but I need to lay out each side of each facet and dimension them correctly in order to do so. I've played around with converting the objects to 2d/3d poly, NURBS surfaces, and several other things, but I just can't seem to get them to break apart into four distinct facets, and then flatten out while keeping their correct dimensions - they all just flatten relative to my screen plane which isn't helpful at all. Any help on this matter is much appreciated. Thanks folks.