Need help with imported SVG curves: Hiding seams between separate objects, preventing bevel bloat, reflections, and animation tips.
Hello everybody. I've been doing graphic design at a hobby level for many years now, but this is my first time using Blender.
I'm trying to make a logo animation that kind of resembles the Universal Studios intro. I'm imagining the camera starting at the center, sitting at the end of one of the stems, facing the middle. The camera would then move back along the path of one of the top curves, slowly gaining altitude until it captures the entire logo in the frame from a top-down view. Meanwhile, the bottom curves would be nonexistent at the beginning and would slowly grow until they touch the ends of the top curves right as the camera reaches its final destination.
It took me about 3 days of wrangling with the program and Gemini Pro (which led me down a useless rabbit hole full of wrong information) to achieve what you see here. Here is my workflow so far:
- A + X + Delete
- Import .SVG
- A + S + 100 + numpad (.) + numpad (7)
- In the Outliner (right pane), group the curves (Ctrl+J):
- 0 to 23 (counterclockwise) — name it "bottom"
- 24 to 47 (clockwise) — name it "top"
- 48 to 71 (stems) — name it "stems"
- Select the “stems” layer.
- Object Data Properties (Curves) > Geometry > Extrude, set to 0.01
- Repeat steps 5 and 6 for “top”, but set the extrude to 0.005, then G + Z + 0.5
- Repeat steps 5 and 6 for “bottom”, but set the extrude to 0.005, then G + Z + -0.5
- Material Properties > Surface: Glossy BSDF > Color: Gold > Roughness: 0.1
I am currently facing two obstacles:
- Seams: The areas where the stems and the spirals meet look unnatural, as shown at the end of the video. I need them to be completely seamless and smooth.
- Beveling: I want to apply beveling to the whole design to catch the light properly, but it bloats the geometry and kind of breaks the model. I need to maintain the exact thickness of the original imported SVG.
Additionally (not shown in the video), the curved ends of the stems facing the middle don't look right. When I applied an environment texture just to test the lighting, those curved ends had an unnatural, stretched reflection that looked like a barcode.
I sped the video up as much as possible while trying to keep it coherent, and I apologize if reading this took too much of your time. Also, if anyone has tips on the best way to animate those bottom curves so they look like they are actively drawing themselves or spiraling outward to meet the top ones, I would love to hear them. Any help or pointers to the right workflow would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!