SHORTCUTS: C4D SPLINES
Master the options for spline control handles
Master the options for spline control handles in Cinema 4D
Splines enable you to work with a greater degree of precision than other tools, and also allow you to use imported paths from external software such as Adobe Illustrator. The downside to using imported paths is that you don’t have access to the same toolset. Likewise if you draw your paths natively inside Cinema 4D, you might find that you don’t have the level of control you thought you might. In actual fact, the spline tools in Cinema 4D are powerful and easy to work with, even if you forgot to do something in your workflow.
Imagine you are drawing a shape that needs to have smooth transitions between segments (imported or drawn). Well, you either select the point between segments, then right-click and choose ‘chamfer’, dragging in the viewport to set the radius (or numerically in the attributes). This is more precise than changing the interpolation but is less versatile, as it creates multiple points.
Of course, the other option is to change the spline type itself. That can work for some situations but does affect all points along your spline, so choose wisely.
01 My Spline is too harsh!
Check out this spline. The overall shape is pretty close to what I want, but the transitions from one segment to the next are too hard and I really need to soften them, to create a more organic and believable result.
02 three options to fix
The first option is to simply change the spline type in the attributes. This changes all handles along the spline; this could work but you might be better off choosing the handle type or using a chamfer. That said you can change them globally for the object, then select individual points to change back, if faster.