I have a very complex image I need to make 3d and color…I cant figure out what I am doing wrong.

[Brian Jones]

the imported splines will only fill if the spline segments are closed. That file is going to need a lot of tweaking to make it work properly (it’s a nice image though). Some of the splines need to be closed and some will have to be connected – anything that needs to be solid with a hole like and “e” for example the inner hole in the e needs to be connected with the outer part to have the hole work.

[Raf Erosa]

So, what are the steps for connecting and reconnecting splines?

[Brian Jones]

now that I’ve had the chance to actually load the file in C4D and not just look at it in Illustrator it’s surprisingly close. In Illustrator I thought it would be much rougher with all the splines that are short segments with only two points (so there won’t be any thickness when it extrudes) and the splines crossing over each other so often. It has a nice ‘organic’ look to it with all the changes of width but it’s not a clean spline (in terms of construction) and it confuses the extrudenurb into giving those filled in faces in the front and back.
The way the splines are mashed around like that (close but not quite) I’m guessing a Trace was done on a graphic without a high enough number of points to preserve the full shape of the graphic.
Whichever is the reason a lot of individual points need to get moved, some I would combine – like the individual glyphs on the edge where there are 4 or 5 short splines next to each other – by selecting the splines then select Connect (right-click) or Connect and Delete which puts them all in one spline then you could reconnect the points with the point tools and make a spline which actually will extrude with some thickness.
It’s a nasty amount of work to clean it up and if you have an original graphic I’d retrace it. If that’s not how it was made it’s going to be a bunch of point by point work to make it right.

[Raf Erosa]

Yup.. lots of crazy points on that image…I am going to try a new method to get the image to look right. I have something in mind. But I need to know is there a way to lock or merge various layers? (Not just parent & child.)
I have each individual image just about right, just when i put them on the lay out, I need to have the images lock together or merged so they move at the same time.

[Brian Jones]

layers? Do you mean objects (spline objects)? Or are you talking about C4D layers? you can merge spline objects by selecting the ones you want to merge and using the Connect or Connect and Delete commands.
If you want objects to move together but you don’t want one to be a child of the other you place them both in the same Null and move the null, or you can use a Constraint tag or xpresso.

[Raf Erosa]

ok.. i cleaned up the object to my likings.. but now it is filling in the wrong parts of the image. It is filling in the body but the outline is transparent. I want the outline image visible but the body transparent. How to I select inverse fill?

[Brian Jones]

If all your Segments (individual splines inside one spline object – Segments in C4D terms) are in one object then C4D counts inward from the outside and fills in between the first and second spline, leaves a gap between 2 and 3 and so on. It might be that and if so you might have to pull parts out that need to go together so you can control the fills the way you need to.
The other possibility is since C4D only fills closed splines, are all the spline bits that need to be closed, closed? (probably)

I’d have to see your spline as it is now to know for sure.

[Raf Erosa]

Can you give me something more step-by-step? (As expensive as this program is, I would think there would be a simpler way to do this.) I didnt have this problem until I smoothed out the image. Every anchor is where it should be.

So if I have to go in a start editing splines, How would I do that? What options and buttons would i need to press? I need a more laymens explanation. I am not new at this, but I am not as proficient as I would like to be.

[Brian Jones]

no, it is not a vector editor, the place to do that is Illustrator etc. but it does have a fair amount of ability. You should be editing splines like this in the front view not the perspective view (but you are likely doing that already, I say it just in case). Editing in point mode and use the various point mode tools to get what you want. Once again you already probably know that.

Post your scene again and I’ll see if I can find out what the problem is otherwise I’m just guessing and there are too many places to look/talk about.

[Raf Erosa]

here is the screen shot of the front with all the point on the path.

Here is what i have tried so far to nurb:
-re-ordered the hierarchy -nogo
-grouped all paths into 1path via connect all. -nogo
-made 2 groups: Path 1 is the outer border, path 2 is the connected groups of all the stuff inside. Though it gives me even better curves..When i try to EX Nurb, it does not fillet or add caps. -unknown.