NURBS & Polygons

# 1 11-09-2012 , 04:35 PM

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For the past couple of weeks I've really been really enjoying Maya and its incredible features, but I've never stopped and asked, whats the difference between Polygons and NURBS. Does it effect the animating process? Or effects any other CG pipeline stage?
It might just be simple question but I'd love to know the in-depth stuff!

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# 2 11-09-2012 , 05:58 PM

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Well way back when Maya was released NURB's were favored. They were less cpu intensive to manipulate and more memory efficient. However, they require that all patches be four sided and as such had to be stitched together and tangency between the patches had to be maintained or you'd get creases, and visible seams. Texturing across patches was also an issue.

As processors and memory improved there was a shift to polygon modeling. It is less technical then NURB's, and easier to texture since you can layout uv's and can minimize seams as compared to NURB's.

I think it is safe to say that for the entertainment industry (movies, games, advertising) polygons and subd's are the preferred method of modeling currently. Game engines all use polygons so NURB's have to be tessellated to be rendered.

NURB's however, still have significant advantages over polygons in surfacing applications and are the primary form of modeling for engineering like modeling mechanical parts and surfacing applications for the auto, aero, marine industries.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 12-09-2012 at 12:05 AM.

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# 3 11-09-2012 , 06:11 PM

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NURB's are still very important though as you need NURB's curves to create surfaces of revolution, lofted and railed surfaces, which is how real world parts are modeled. Also, putting opennings into curved surfaces without having to deal with surface topology is far easier in NURB's. Attaching objects with fillets and create accurate rounds is also handled very well with NURB's.

You can use NURB's techniques to create clean accurate geo and then convert to polygones and with the new retopologizing tools you can create very complex surfaces quickly in NURB's and then rebuild them in polygons with very clean topology. That is if Maya's NURBs were more stable.

I should also mention it is far easier to rebuild and modify NURB's without effecting the surface then it is with polygons.

NOTE: added 9/11/2012

I should probably add that I see ultra high polygon sculpting now becoming increasingly popular for both organic and hard surface stuff in the entertainment markets. I am very impressed with some of the stuff I have seen on the hard surface side. This requires more traditional artistic skills and less technical CAD based skills then NURB, Subd, or traditional poly modeling.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 12-09-2012 at 12:11 AM.

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# 4 11-09-2012 , 07:29 PM

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Once again ctbram, I thank you! I understand perfectly and its given me a better picture of CG in a whole!
Would I be correct to say that you're a CG artist?

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# 5 11-09-2012 , 09:03 PM

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He's actually a baker. His pumpernickel is arguably the best I've tasted, you'll forget about that grocery store garbage. user added image

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# 6 11-09-2012 , 11:37 PM

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You'd think I was a baker to read all the typo's (smile). I corrected a lot of them. I type fast and rarely reread anything. I nearly gave me thesis grammar checker a stroke.

But to answer the question I was actually a structural engineer and surface modeler working in the automotive and aerospace industries. I then was recruited as a systems engineer for a couple computer companies including SGI (Silicon Graphics) and Sun Microsystems when they were at their peaks.

I was mostly working with the large national research labs focusing on putting together high performance systems for computationally intensive massively parallel and vector based applications.

I got involved with CG while working at SGI when I had the chance to work with Lucas Arts, and Pixar around the time of the Jurasic Park and Toy Story movies. I have done a lot of surface modeling and mechanical parts modeling in nurbs based packages like solidworks, catia, inventor, and a couple others. I picked up on Max and then Maya as a way to indulge my artistic inner child in the mid 90's.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 12-09-2012 at 12:13 AM.

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# 7 11-09-2012 , 11:55 PM

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One of these days I'll decide what I want to do when I grow up. Initially I wanted to be a pilot and got my Master degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Then got a job with General Dynamics - Land Systems Division and did mostly structural engineering work and software development for tanks, so I got a Bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a minor in computer science. Then I did my stint as a surface modeler for a consulting firm working for the major auto companies in Detriot.

Then I got picked up as a systems engineer for a small computer company selling systems for doing structural analysis and I did that for almost 15 years working for a number of companies like Convex, SGI, and Sun. Which are all out of business now along with a long list of other companies that we competed with - Pyrimid, Sequent, Thinking Machines, and many others.

I got tired of looking for a new company every couple years and went back to school in 2004 and completed my PhD in Medical Physics in 2008 with a focus on medical imaging and have done a couple research projects since then like working on a capacitance based antigen detecting biosensor, and developing software to generate code for field programmable gate arrays used in nano-scale microscopy.

However, if I was thirty years younger and could could do it all over, I think I would enjoy being a CG artist.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

Last edited by ctbram; 12-09-2012 at 07:39 AM.

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# 8 12-09-2012 , 09:56 AM

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Would I be correct to say that you're a CG artist?

Originally Posted by johnsonmax

He's great, just very modest user added image

Check out this tutorial he made, it might give you a bit more of an insight into NURBS.

Maya NURBS tips and tricks. SimplyMaya Free Friday Tutorial on Vimeo

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NURBS & Polygons

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