Section 03 · 4 entries
Curves
Smooth shapes from a handful of numbers. Every entry is one problem the grid created and somebody solved.
Photo: RazorArt asset kit
- 03.1 · long read
Bézier
Pierre Bézier published the curve for car bodywork, and it survives because four points describe a smooth path that is easy to compute and easy to drag.
- 03.2
de Casteljau
The algorithm that evaluates the curve by repeated straight-line subdivision, worked out at a rival firm and unpublished for years.
- 03.3
The control polygon
The handles are not on the curve; they pull it, which is why the interface feels the way it does.
- 03.4
Splines
The name comes from the flexible strip a draughtsman bent through fixed points, and the mathematics describes the same behaviour.
The other sections
21 entries in all
The grid, and living with it.
Making marks interactively.
Measuring something the eye does.
What the hand actually holds.
All 21 entries in one table, with the section and the problem each one solved.