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The Beauty of Bézier Curves

The Beauty of Bézier Curves

Freya Holmér
16 HN recommenders · discussed 2021–2026
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About this video

Freya Holmer explains how Bezier curves work, from the helper-line construction to their uses in animation, text rendering and shapes. It uses visuals from her Unity Shapes plugin and was a SoME1 contest winner.

Why it appears in the archive

HN repeatedly calls it one of the best math and graphics explainers on YouTube, praised for bridging game dev and math.

AI-generated summary and labels from the source dataset; verify important details against the video. Source & credits.

From the Hacker News discussion

progbits · 2021-11 · strong rec

Probably "The Beauty of Bézier Curves" [1], one of the choices by 3B1B, comes closest. It is already a relatively large channel although usually focused on game dev tutorials rather than math explanations. This video bridges those two areas and is absolutely beautiful. [1] [VIDEO]

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eveningtree · 2022-01 · strong rec

Another beautifully explained piece on bézier curves is: The beauty of bézier curves by Fréya Holmer [VIDEO] Found this via a contest by Grant Sanderson, and it absolutely blew me away(and most people I forwarded it to)

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armchairhacker · 2022-07 · strong rec

Bezier curves. Cubic bezier curves (generally the most common type) are represented by cubic polynomials x(t) and y(t) (or just one polynomial P(t) where the coefficients are vectors). The first derivative gives you the tangent and normal. The second derivative gives you the direction the normal will gradually become as t increases. The third derivative gives you the change in this change (the fourth derivative is zero). Curvature is also computed from the first and second derivatives: K = det(P', P'')/||P'||^3 Other kinds of bezier curves are similar. In quadratic ones the first and second derivatives are normal and normal change but the third derivative is zero. In higher-polynomial bezier curves the third derivative changes over time as the fourth is non-zero, and so on. Source is a really interesting video on bezier curves which I highly recommend: [VIDEO] .

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viggity · 2025-02 · strong rec

If splines/beziers are of any interest to you, I could not recommend these videos from Freya Holmer enough. [LINK] [VIDEO]

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viggity · 2025-08 · strong rec

Anytime béziers are mentioned on HN, I feel compelled to share these absolutely incredible videos from Freya Holmér [LINK] (73 minutes) [VIDEO] (24 minutes)

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amtunlimited · 2025-08 · strong rec

I'm really glad the article links to Freya's "Beauty of Bezier Curves" videos, it's genuinely one of the best math/graphics/explainer videos ever made [VIDEO]

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jedimastert · 2026-04 · strong rec

Related, I think Freya Holmér's "The Beauty of Bézier Curves" is in the running for one of the best educational videos on YouTube. [VIDEO]

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nrjames · 2021-08 · rec

While not Manim generated, I came across this video explaining Bezier curves yesterday and thought it was pretty awesome. [VIDEO]

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