Here is what I am talking about and this idea is the same for Carrara also. Spling is more than just loft lathe and extrude....etc.... It is how you get super smoothe, super difined organics without seams. This can be done with vertex modeling but let's admitt that it is far too tedious a process. So just imagine this:

1st, I created my outline, 3D of course, then I patched my quads, or tri's if that is what you choose. After I finished patching the one side, I mirrored the mesh to get the other side. Very simple process. This is an example of lightwave splining. In carrara, you can make the outline in the spline room and not even have to patch it as it does patches as you work. That is a very good tool to have as you are not limit to tri's and quads so you will have instantly smooth cross sections, but it gets confusing when creating you outline because there will be patches in the way, also the axis in Carrara can throw you off. Just make sure you stay oriented. Now in the modeller room, there is a patch command, but I have never gotten it to work. It always crashed the program. I have not used Carrara in a while but see if you can create your outline without polygoning your spline 1st. If you can, it will make creating the outline alot easier. The turn on the polygons when you are done and WALA! instant splined organics.

My big problem with the spline model is the 3rd dimension. I make the initial outline but I cant get it to extrude (is that word I want?) properly. Lets say I make a human head. I draw it and its extended. so I can then grab the line on the bottom to move it and set its thickness. I now have a flat extruded object. Next I can change the extrusion envelope. It then lets me adjust the extruded area (it puts up blue and green lines) but the orginal flat face that I drew out cannot be modified. Am I just missing something simple? Does this make any sense?

Are you modifying your spline in the Spline Room or the Vertex room???? I need to know so that I can better understand what you are asking

I will put up some carrara examples tommorrow to better show how I splined using carrara. I just get it back from my sister and reload it on my comp. Stay Tuned!

Thanks a million Tephladon, your help is greatly appreciated, I'll keep an eye out for your Carrara example tomorrow. Love and Peace Serge

All my problems happen in the spline modeler :)

Ok cutcopypaste I am a bit backwards on this, I can hold my own when it comes to vertex modeling just check out the message I posted here titled My Carrara made backyard pets (made completely in the vertex room). When it comes to spline that's another story (it kicks my but up and down route 66 without giving it a second thought), basically I suck. Anyway as far as you loosing the working box or should I say get disoriented. Go under tools, there's an option titled reset working box or drawing plane or something of sort. If you accidently clicked on control and clicked on a vertex, all that does is move the drawing plane to that vertex, that way when you draw another vertex it does not end up on the x or y plane as a sweep path. Move to drawing plane option helps you align your vertices. Exp: insert a sphere primitive in the vertex room (default settings), set view to front view, delete the vertex furthis to the right (now you have a hole in your sphere). Select all the vertices that makes up that hole. At the bottom left of your screen if you left your Carrara setting to default, there is a small working box. Click on the y axis (the right plane/your right facing the screen) notice a shadow of a grid appears on it. That means you have selected it. Go ahead and go to View pull down menu and move to drawing plane (now all your vertices are aligned). Hope that helped MODELING A DOGS SNOUT!(Sorry Folks, NO PIC) I'm at Work. 1. Go ahead and jump into the vertex room 2. Select the polyline tool 3. Picture in your mind looking at a dogs snout in the front view. 4. Set your working box view option to front 5. Use polyline tool and draw the outline/shape of a snout (as many vertex as you wish to achieve the desired shape). CAUTION do not use too much because you may want to keep the polycount down especially If you're planning on making a whole figure. Me personally I model my whole figure in the same room (Lofting and extruding). 6. Set view to Left view after you have drawn your desired shape. 7. Select that shape you've just made and move it with the mouse to the middle of your box. 8. Keep shape selected and hit (Control + D) on your keyboard to make a duplicate of that shape. 9. Go to your Selection pull down menu and manually move the new shape about negative 1" along the y axis. 10. Go to selection pulldown again and manually scale the new shape about 90% on all it's axis. 11. Repeat steps 7 through 10 about 5 to 6 times or as many times as you wish to achieve the desired length for the snout according to your taste. 12. Select all shapes and Darn, under the file pull down there is an option containing the LOFT. So go ahead and click LOFT and VOILA!!! Hope that helped everyone a bit and was not confusing. You may also use that same technique to model a car but, when it comes to the wheels area. You would first of all only resize each shape on the Z axis, and you would reposition the new shape to align so it may give you a flat surface for the hood of the car. Love and Peace Serge