Round Caps Fill for Beveled Curves
🔥🔥 Now In Development 🔥🔥
Check out what is happening here: wiki.blender.org/wiki/User:HooglyBoogly/Reports/2020/
I also recorded a video of the most common workarounds and their pitfalls, you can find said video here: youtube.com/watch
Hey Blender Community, I'll try to make this one as witty as possible... naaaah, I'll just get to the point:
Currently it is quite annoying to set up curves with round caps (half spheres as we are in the 3D space). To set this up by hand you need to keep track of the curve resolution, which is variable and need to align mesh spheres perfectly to the curve.
This will also not get you the desired result as mesh and curve are separate objects and do not match their vertex normals. This results in a visible gap, even if the vertices are aligned perfectly. To make curves more viable in everyday motion design projects, the ability to easily fill the ends of curves with caps and with rounded caps should be mandatory.
Currently you can only fill beveled curves if you have a custom bevel object, this is also misleading and more complicated than needed. This feature would also request that you can simply fill the basic circle bevel at any time. Take a look at the mock ups I added below:
NEW CURVE PANEL WITH FILL CAPS DISABLED:
NEW CURVE PANEL WITH FILL CAPS ENABLED AND RESOLUTION 0:
Nothing new here.
NEW CURVE PANEL WITH FILL CAPS ENABLED AND RESOLUTION 4:
Notice that the normals of the Cap should be flat to display a clean cut.
Note how the round caps extend over the curve by the bevel radius. Please also note that the normals still have issues in this mockup graphic.
Thank you for your time, reading my request! Feel free to ask/add anything that comes to mind in the comments!
Best zugga
UPDATE: September 1st
I added a small video how I fake this functionality with the Animation Nodes Addon. Be aware that this does not include some of the proposed features. The most dominant caveat being incorrect normals at the caps seam. You can find the video here: youtube.com/watch
UPDATE: September 2nd
Mockup gif, showing proposed behavior for the Bevel End Slider:
UPDATE: September 15th
I added a youtube video explaining some of the workarounds
I added the screenshots with imgur, I hope they do not break apart if so you can find the screenshots with titles also here as backup imgur.com/a/Hgw5a7A imgur.com/a/LJGMIAe imgur.com/a/hQcGyPy
There is also another post of a similar request from November 2019, here: blender.community/c/rightclickselect/8Fdbbc/
40 Comments
The best would be to exose a curve to control the shape of the tip of the cure, That way we could have any shape we need and create as many preset that we want !
Thanks
Adding an example that shows a tapered tube by varying the radius of the control handles:
Thank you for everyone who is already supporting this request!
Cool!
While we're on the subject it'd be cool if as well as those rounded caps the current flat caps worked without the extra bevel object as you mention, but also to be subd ready with a couple of support loops too. :D
drive.google.com/file/d/1FO1bq90v1uOsW48-obngXJGUmVhoUnLj/view
Aidy. :)
* @Aidy Burrows * Thank you Aidy for your the suggestion. Added to the big list of things! :)
next we can use them for booleans!
* @Jerry Perkins * While this would be cool, a close surface around a Curve object is still not Mesh Data. But "Bool-Everything" should be on the horizon as soon as the blender volume objects gain more traction.
Is there any progress on it? Looks like dev just lost interest and nobody get worried about this.
I was wondering the same thing :(
Took the liberty of copying the Animation Nodes node-setup from this video: youtube.com/watch
.blend here: cc0.manujarvinen.com/files/Curve_RoundCaps_AnimationNodes2.1.8_CC0.blend
Thank you, Alexander!
* @Manu Järvinen * Perfect, I just didn't have a good way to share the file. I'll add your link under the video, too!
Looks like a good idea!
This ☝️
We need this!
a must have!!!
The old Blender wiki archive link doesn't work anymore. Here's a snapchot from the web archive. But it doesn't look like any significant development ever happened, so I don't think we can call this feature "in development":
User:HooglyBoogly/Reports/2020/ - Blender Developer Wiki
Amazing attention to details. Thank you!
* @rpserge * Thank you, I hope I can add even more.
Action is happening on this: wiki.blender.org/wiki/User:HooglyBoogly/Reports/2020/
* @ Grady * Thank you, I should have put this in the header already! Doing so right now.
Awesome!!! Go for it!
Yes please! :D
How about more caps like an inset hole?
I like this! The question is, what if there's a bevel object or custom profile ( developer.blender.org/D8402 ) used for the curve? That would raise the complexity quite a bit!
But it would probably be okay not to support those situations for curve caps.
* @h.goudey * as shown in the mockup, there's a
fill capcheckbox. I guess it could be just fisabled if needed.Thank you * @h.goudey *. The custom bevel currently enables flat fill caps. This should more than sufficient. Usage wise it's all about being able to render "thick" paths with endcaps and round endcaps as learned from other design software. Another example iin 2D would be contours with straight and rounded stroke ends.
I'm trying this out. "Just" have to get it to make faces now!
It also works with extrusion.
* @h.goudey * OOOOHHH MYYYY GOD. Thank you for looking this! I was building an example in Animation nodes and was seeing an error, where I do not space my subdivisions right along the bevel. But your's looks exakly how I'd imagine it :) If you need any UI support later, let me know. I can tinker around with some layouts for you, if it helps.
Hi, @h.goudey thank you for being so kind and look into this proposal. Can you tell how this is going so far?
Since I started working on this I've done a lot of different work on curves. One of my goals has been rewriting the internal curve system to be more understandable and expandable. That's where my interest in curves has led me recently anyway.
So, I'm working on nodes in geometry nodes that should be able to do the same thing and more. Actually, in 3.0, effects like this are already relatively easy to set up with a curve to mesh node and a curve end points node.
Yes I would like this as well. I hope the request gets implemented.
Great idea!
I'd also see a custom profile option, as in the reworked bevel modifier.
* @-L0Lock- * Yeah, maybe this could even share some code. <3
* @-L0Lock- * I think Hans has already been working on that: developer.blender.org/D8402
All this is easy to realize by using the Skin modifier on mesh edges. To make the edge shape smoother as well, add a Subdivision modifier before and after the Skin modifier. Press Control + A to resize vertex radius.
* @Metin Seven * While this is a nice workaround this is not a curve object. Curves can be tessellated on the fly, using viewport and render resolution that are finer to control than subdivisions. You also loose the bezier handles of the curve, to easily add broken tangents. Your described method will also not produce exact circular shapes. Smooth, yes, but not circular. Last but not least my request also adds the option to add sharp, flat caps to any beveled curve. Even if I'm defensive, I really appreciate your workaround. ❤️
"In Development" is definitely not an accurate tag anymore.
There is a built in solution now: youtube.com/watch
Hey Alexander, thank you so much for your effort on this one, I hope this comes with Blender very soon. Here is my take on how I approach rounded caps curves: youtube.com/watch Sorry, my English sucks, so I had to use a text-to-speech service. Stay safe :)