Modelling Techniques: Creating a Rope

Being the Lazy person I am, I often look for the easiest method to do things while still keeping the level of quality pretty high. This next image is show how used blenders modifiers to create a Rope with a simple UV unwrap and texture. This can be useful for a number of different projects such as making vines, cables, rope and even roads or tracks.

Step 01 - First i create a hollow tube from a simple cube but you could use a cylinder if you want a smoother look. As this is for a game assets the 4 sides will be perfect. Then i mode the model so that its origin is at one of the ends of the rope segment. This will become important later.

Step 02 - After Creating the rope segment i then Unwrap it and apply a texture. The texture is designed to be tiles so as i array the rope the texture will tile near seamlessly.

Step 03 - Next i add an array modifier to the object and have to array along the Y axis. I also turn on merge so the end vertices are welded together. If the texture does not tile but it has been designed to then you'll need to adjust the UV unwrap so that is tiles. This is easily done with the array modifier turned on as you can see how the texture tiles allowing you to adjust it real time.

Step 04 - Almost done now but our rope is straight and we might want to coil it up or bend it. To do this i use the Curve modifier as it allow you to use a Curve Object such as a Bezier Curve to control the ropes shape. First i create a Bezier Curve and Delete the bent end of the curve this will leave a single point which will be the starting point of the rope. Aline this point to the origin, or tab out and press Ctrl+Shift+Alt and C and select origin to geometry. This is important as the rope will not deform as expected otherwise. Now add a curve modifier to the mesh and select the newly made Bezier curve and the influence, then change the influence axis to Y. Now when you edit the Bezier curve by extruding out from the single point you'll see the rope bends following the curve.

Step 05 - We are almost done, once you have your rope in the shape you want simple select the mesh in object mode and press Alt C to bring up the convert menu and select Curve to Mesh, This will apply all the modifiers.