How to Model a Road or Highway ALONG A PATH in Blender!

In this video, we talk about how to create a road that follows along a curved path inside of Blender! This can also be modified for things like fences, walls, or other curving objects as well!
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Introduction
0:34 - Creating our road profile
1:31 - Adding our road path
1:49 - Using Freehand spline to draw a curve
2:27 - Deforming our road along the path with the curve modifier
2:54 - Adjusting object origins for better fit
3:33 - Fitting the length of the road with the array modifier
4:00 - Fixing array in the wrong direction with apply rotation and scale
4:30 - Adjusting array and curve modifier order
5:09 - Creating our highway supports
6:40 - Copying supports along path with array and curve modifiers
7:20 - Changing your highway path by adjusting the curve
7:50 - Support the CG Essentials on Patreon!

[@TheCGEssentials]

Hi everyone! Let me know how you're using the curve modifier in the comments below! :)

[@KlauV]

I haven’t been using it... 🤦🏻‍♂️I didn’t know what it did, now I do 😁 and I’ll be using it soon for something. Thank you 🙏🏼

[@thegwolf]

Hey there First, thanks for the useful tutorial! Second: I think I'm doing something wrong because my road is banking in the turns, like a nascar track and I have no idea how to make it stop. :P

[@loki_ytb895]

hey what's you change the scale of the plane i don't understand sorry

[@strezz1560]

cool, but it's a pity you didn't show, how to apply textures on that then... I'm strugling with that for some hours already, trying different combinations of seams, but the results are not good... would be great to have some video on this

[@macnavi]

Didn't know I could move just the origin, manually placing it where ever I want. Even the small tips in each video, where I think I already know how to do it, are brilliant. This makes every video worth watching completely.

[@TheCGEssentials]

Glad it helped!

[@anatolykondratiev2116]

Really! Just have got the same experience )))

[@ZacharyWhite25]

Holy cow, that would save tons of time. I model baseball stadiums. I could so use this modifier for the steel support systems in my ballparks. Thanks for the tip and tutorial!

[@dementedsoul7805]

this is probably one of the best tutorial series on youtube. it's really important to understand basic modeling before getting into anything else

[@alejandrovallejo4330]

This is SUPER useful to model cities, scifi cities specially. Thank you so much!

[@heyroots2082]

Your tutorials are very helpful,please never stop...please

[@deadspirit6]

Am working on a city concept and this tutorial has helped me a lot..will surely try this out

[@donmojo632]

You are amazing. Thank you for this magnificent tutorial 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾💎🎈

[@davidtalbot5514]

To move curve in the Z axis without twisting, for hills etc: 1. Click on the Curve Data button in Properties panel (2nd from bottom) 2. In the first panel called Shape , row 4 says 'twist method' 3. Change to Z-up

[@bratpfanne8232]

Epic tip, thank you!

[@YYZ342]

Thank you! Easy to follow, you are not going a hundred miles an hour, which is great! Clear explanations. Subscribed.

[@DELottProductions]

I used this to make tank tracks and it worked perfectly, great tutorial!

[@BlenderFan]

Very helpful tutorial and thanks for showing. Happy blending with blender.

[@garioxstudios]

I love your tutorial I was able to make a road for my car animation thank you and love you bro

[@GiuTor73]

Very very useful and easy to reproduce! Thank you!

[@mikehughesdesigns]

This is the first time I heard about subwindow stack setting the order of operation! thanks! (I need to read the manual more...)

[@alizee3687]

Thanks, great work I built my first road and Bridge ever in Blender, and I used a cube instead of a Plan and it still worked great.

[@OliverBevan23]

Super helpful! thanks for the tutorial

[@SamarthCat]

Thank you so much, really helped me m my racing game!

[@deimos2k6]

Wonderful! I was just searching for this... Many Tnx!

[@mohamedeljbel]

im just starting and tNice tutorials video was perfect.Well explained and easy to follow for a beginner.I never understood soft soft till i watched tNice tutorials.

[@lumko9719]

A great Tutorial, thanks man

[@hrd8580]

Nice Explanation. Thank You...👍👍

[@joeabstractjoe]

Thanks for another goodie, Justin. 👏👏👍👏👏

[@NicoleHam]

Did you just save my life???? I think you did. THANK YOU SO MUCH. I had NO IDEA how to do this.

[@RealGaryGibson]

I found that I got a nicer line by editing the bezier curve itself rather than using the draw tool. I just extruded more points along the curve as I needed.

[@fullyleaded]

Really useful tutorial. thank you

[@qielanzhizi8622]

Thanks for your useful tutorial. For the beginners ,don't forget to adjust the object coordination after ratate.新手们要注意在旋转物体后，执行object-apply-rotation & scale,否则横断面和样条曲线很难按照同一个轴变形。

[@gijshabraken]

Excellent tutorial, I wish I searched for it earlier!

[@amygdala5475]

The video helped me thanks! One question: What would be the most efficient way to add exits to the highway?Can that be done from the same curb path?

[@antoonsorg]

Good tutorial nice work !

[@JohnnySix]

Very clever - the array + curve workflow also solves ( most ) of the issues when it comes to UV mapping too, which is the bane of all road builders :D

[@TheCGEssentials]

:)

[@ashleyteece4237]

Super helpful, thanks

[@cz4rplays424]

Great tutorial man.. Keep up the good work.

[@TheCGEssentials]

Thanks, will do!

[@tfyk5623]

this really helped thank you,

[@kgaming7599]

2:58 Easier to go into Object Mode > Right Click > Set Origin > Origin to Geometry :)

[@kylegaijin]

The problem is that "origin to geometry" would put the origin in the wrong location. "Origin to Geometry" would put the origin in a calculated center of the object mesh data where as you need the origin to be at a logical starting point of the geometry so that it works well with the curve. So the way that CG did it was not the most accurate method - but it *was* the easiest. I tend to go to edit mode, select some appropriate vetices or edges to set the 3D cursor- go back to object mode then set origin to 3D cursor for the most accurate placement.

[@kgaming7599]

@@kylegaijin Is it okay if I pretend I understood a word? lol

[@kylegaijin]

@@kgaming7599 Haha - ya - I wrote it a bit complex.

[@faheemshaikh3461]

You are Amazing Brother !!

[@viernesjericjamesc.1818]

Make a tutorial on how to create ruined building model. Love your vids man!!

[@medafan53]

The really useful thing here is that if you're animating a car driving along this road you can easily copy the path and align it for the car to follow the path of the road (it'd be nice if in a future update they improved the 'follow path' constraint to allow you to offset the object by XYZ, allowing you to animate from the road's base curve)

[@Tropicaya]

geometry nodes

[@kenmorris2858]

Awesome tutorial...

[@2fingacriminal]

hey good stuff man, really helpful

[@sAriTtina]

Hi! Great, fantastic tutorial :) I got an issue, creating a road climbing up the mountain. The road profile doesn't keep Z axis. It twists, as soon as I lower down the bezier points. Do you have any idea how to solve it?

[@ramanrafiq7888]

thanks alot man u have helped me so much

[@user-uf8vw8io9j]

your teaching Quality Great. Sir

[@ryanjstever]

This is great thanks. How do I get the pillars to stay straight when I move the curve in z space?

[@natepelham9028]

thanks for the info! how would you get the road to conform to terrain?

[@maloro5189]

Thanks for this.

[@55woo88]

hi thanks for the tutorial. i'm having trouble add textures to the road since they are separated by small plane sections and as I added road materials onto it it'll have some obvious lines between each section even after I applied the modifiers. how should i fix this?thx!

[@bandaidboy7806]

Thanks man this is a great tutorial 👍

[@TheCGEssentials]

No problem 👍

[@immortalwound9172]

very helpful, thank you

[@TheCGEssentials]

Glad it was helpful!

[@LucasEduardoRibas]

Very useful!

[@frisbeeproduction8030]

awesome.... thank you

[@yurixion1]

Thank you, very, very much!!!

[@eclairesrhapsodos5496]

Great! Be nice if you make tutorial on how to procedurally place decals/masks and scatter rocks/leaves etc in one tutorial.

[@zanderpander7779]

This is very helpful. 👍

[@TheCGEssentials]

Glad it was helpful!

[@raitttu]

how I can use this with height variation? There is a simple modifier to ajust the mesh height + array along the curve?

[@fullyleaded]

If you add a texture to the road will it repeat it as many time as the array modifier? Or is it possible to have road marking which arent dictated by the length of each array?

[@LeonardoGalotera]

Thank you very much for this tutorial. One question: if the terrain is not flat, what is the best modifier to use such that the road follows the contour of the terrain? Thanks!

[@UHStudio]

You can use a shrinkwrap modifier

[@Lync1111]

Hello The CG Essentials - I wish this tutorial had the full track. I am all over youtube searching for ways to create a complete track from someone explaining how to go from nothing or a drawing of a track, bring into Blender and complete a full racing track. Most people explain it do not explain it in a way that makes sense. I found you and like how you explain things just with this could have been a full from start to finish tutorial.

[@Numerosity]

In the array modifier, when I select fit to curve, I can't seem to get any more than 1 duplicate of the object. Any reason why it might be doing this?

[@bes5164]

geez I was looking at the video as if it was some kind of miracle! :O :D

[@TheCGEssentials]

:)

[@jettmgoss]

@TheCGEssentials is there anyway you can make a tutorial using the path modifier to make a road along the shape of a terrain? I would watch that in a heartbeat

[@dreamy97836]

Great tutorial, thanks! Would you know of a way to bank the road on corners using this method?

[@CertifiedDoc]

Each point along a Bezier curve has a Tilt parameter. You can set it from the menu on the right-hand side of the 3D view. It's under Item > Transform > Tilt. There's also a Radius parameter that allows you to scale the width of the road at each point.

[@ArdaSkc]

thanks for this tutorial

[@TheCGEssentials]

Thanks for watching!

[@user-ig9ol9vx1g]

awesome👍 tnx

[@tshepomofokeng8558]

Nice, very nice.

[@3dartistguy]

Hi I guess Im using an older version of Blender becuase when i go under the curve Modifier i doesnt give me that option to apply my shape to array along a path.

[@EliteInExile]

This is great, but what do I do for intersections? I'm trying to make junctions that I can place at ends of roads and then tack another curved road on the exits/ entryways for said intersection. I can't find anything on this, and all other methods involve using the skin modifier on a basic line

[@stupiddiary]

Urgent Question: how can i make the arrayed object at a certain point wider than normally? Lets say i want to build a racetrack and some curves are wider on the outside then other. At some points at the path the race-track is wider. But the racetracks sides should be the same height.

[@chrisharvey7461]

how do you get the editable version identicle over the aray so you can model the entire array in real time, mine are two differnt sizes and rotations

[@aytankhalafova5462]

Please, can someone tell me how to connect 2 crossing roads so that the bezier connects and get the letter X and the side ledges do not interfere with movement?

[@hijackedmusic1258]

Hey thanks for the tutorial!, how ever i wanted to ask you, is there way to do it the other way around ? Create path along roads ? i'm asking that because i created a track for a little game and i need to create path/spline along the roads for adding AI Traffic. Would be awesome if you had a fast way to do that

[@zurkio6179]

I know I am late to this video but would it be possible to create a tutorial on how to actually make interchanges for bridges? All tutorials I've found just focus on one singular piece :'D

[@XavierKX66]

Fantastique!

[@Mr.MuhammadAli]

Wow thanks

[@user-tr5uf3iq4h]

Thanks

[@mpjstuff]

How would you bank the road while keeping the supports vertical? Thinking out loud, perhaps duplicate the spline path, and twist one while keeping the one for supports only changing it's arc in the Z and X plane. Or I guess use the nodes.

[@KoastLikeWhoa]

Lock the axis?

[@MoreLikeCappuccino]

Bro i just spent like an hour making a tunnel that curves slopes down, pipes signs ect along the way. I could of done this in 8 minutes?? Great tutorial!

[@TheCGEssentials]

Thanks!

[@robinschwarz9552]

Hi! For my studies I need to model a racetrack for a car. But it says that I need to model it with NURBS. Is this possible in Blender? Originally i thought that Blender is a poly-based programm...

[@coffeeshrubsest.9074]

Your the Best.

[@bubbybumble616]

IDK if you still reply to this video but how would I make banking parts? Like I want the angle of the road to change during turns.

[@SnailSpaceWTF]

Not at my terminal right now, so I can't experiment: but what is the point of the second Curve Modifier, does the Array NOT do all this?

[@TheRojo387]

This is good for fences and walls too.

[@breadop67]

Can this work for OSM data? For the cities I mean.

[@waltage]

vertical curve movement?

[@zenyfilmsrambo]

teacher i never find my Draw tool in my blender 2.9 please let me know how do i find the draw tool

[@0GRANATE0]

When I grab just the plane, everything is now connected somehow? how can I modify only 1 object?

[@Kshitij-Rajkumar-Yadav]

hey i did try using it but for some reaoson when i select the curve it only appears in -X axis and that way my road is perpendicular to what i actually need, pls help

[@ethankoh6851]

I'm late but you should change the X factor to the Y factor

[@lllllllllllllIIIII]

there is 1 problem: the array will deform supports, for them it is better to use a dupl

[@sulphurous2656]

even with a helper mesh?

[@stuartdoyle99]

Great tutorial, but I am having issues with applying the material on the road and making the array without it looking like each tile is repeating (and not seamless) . Can anyone help? Thanks! :)

[@Drisico]

You did apply all the modificeren?

[@Drisico]

*Modifiers

[@emironurlular]

Hello. Is there a way to make the road go down without bending the curves inward?

[@CertifiedDoc]

That depends on what you mean by "inward." If you mean that the road banks automatically when you adjust the height of a point, then yes. You can fix the bank of the road by adjusting the tilt of the control point. You do that from the right-hand side menu in the 3D view. It's under Item > Transform > Tilt in Blender 3.3.

[@itseveary5756]

u helped m,e thx

[@TheCGEssentials]

Awesome!

[@philipneumann9278]

I have a problem tho. Whever I go back to edit mode on a another mesh in the scene. The arrayed mesh wont follow the curve again but just goes straight again. But only in edit on another mesh. And the arrayed objects wont recognized as a mesh itself. I cant connect it like to make an intersection. Anyone with a little help maybe?

[@TheCGEssentials]

Modifier results don’t display in edit mode, so it’s actually working as you should expect

[@blender_padavan4225]

🔥🔥🔥

[@junjunyu]

Is it possible to export the paths and modifier to game engines like ue4 or unity？

[@dreamy97836]

go to the modifier tab and click apply if you want to use it in a game engine

[@Huffy1101]

I'm having an issuer with the origin point process, it throws the mesh across the map

[@TheCGEssentials]

Sounds like you might not have applied rotation and scale?

[@eucloismeta3723]

ok, so a highway is not flat, it goes up and down too, and this method ONLY works for flat roads. once you give the road some slope it will start deforming and bending sideways like it's a nascar racetrack. how do we avoid this??

[@Jeremy-hx7zj]

@2:10 you do something and I can't figure out what you're doing. and then after that I can't get the results you're getting. Can you please explain what happens in this section? I watched it 10x, you don't seem to click on anything and nothing seems to change, but you say you are "cleaning it up". Its extremely confusing.

[@Osamah001]

Shouldn't you apply Scale and rotation first?

[@TheCGEssentials]

Yes?

[@81mg61]

how instance

[@user-bo2jl3qr9k]

The hardest part is actually mapping the road intersections

[@themehmeh]

could you make an intersection model and just connect the curves to it?