Nurbs primitives are smooth where polygons are hard edged if they had the exact same face count. The surface of a nurb is calculated by Bezier curve that makes a smooth interpolation from point to point. So instead of working with vertex points, faces, and edges, nurbs are transformed by altering control vertices and a hull that float above the surface. To expand on the mesh, isoparms are used to add more divisions and the surface patches can be torn and stitched together using tools in the Edit Nurbs menu under the Surfaces mode.
Curves are a good way to make shapes that can be revolved and lofted.
Subdivs are kind of a combination of nurbs and polygons. The cool thing about subdivs is that it gives you the smoothness of nurbs but allows you to change the level of detail of control points to transform without vastly changing the shape of the mesh. A Standard mode and Polygon mode gives you two different manipulation types to work with. As you mold your form from a general shape, you can step up or down the level of detail for not only the smoothness of the mesh, but also the amount of selection components you need to manage the form best.
Curves are extremely helpful for modeling all kinds of props. A curve can be drawn like a vector pen tool in open space or a mesh. Props like vases can have their basic shape worked out on one side, then revolved to create an object with a consistent surface all the way around. The hull of a boat can be built with just three curves defining the width, height and length so that the surface lofts and curves according to the spatial framing of the curves. Also, objects and meshes can follow, extend, or animated in the shape of a curve as well.
Right-clicking a mesh brings up a contextual menu to access an objects components.
When your working with a model it has this neutral gray for a default color. In order to make your object more appealing, a color or a texture must be applied to it. Under the Render Editor, the Hypershade allows you to modify the look of your mesh by applying shaders to it. Shaders are nodes that effect how the surface is rendered. Different shaders have unique looks and have their own controls that can be changed in its Attribute Editor, like color, specularity, translucence, etc. And if you decide to slap a texture image onto your model, you will have to adjust the UV coordinates of the mesh so that the texture does not warp or stretch in places that it shouldn't. This can be done in the UV Texture Editor, which contains a flattened mesh the references the surface of the selected mesh in the Viewport. This can be challenging to understand at first, but over time the shortcuts and techniques that you can learn can help to speed up the process.
