Convert Grease Pencil to Bezier Curves in Blender

Converting Grease Pencil sketches into 3D Bezier curves in Blender allows you to transform freehand strokes into precise geometry for 3D modeling, beveling, or animation paths. This guide provides a direct, step-by-step walkthrough on how to convert your sketch strokes into native 3D Bezier curves and optimize them for your workflow.

Step 1: Prepare Your Grease Pencil Drawing

Ensure your Grease Pencil object is finalized and clean before conversion.

  1. Switch to Object Mode.
  2. Left-click to select the Grease Pencil object you want to convert.
  3. (Optional) If you only want to convert specific strokes, switch to Edit Mode, select the desired strokes, and separate them into a new Grease Pencil object using P > Selected Points.

Step 2: Convert the Stroke to a Curve

Blender provides a built-in conversion operator to turn Grease Pencil data into curve data.

  1. While in Object Mode with your Grease Pencil object selected, open the top viewport menu and click Object.
  2. Navigate to Convert and select Path or Curve. Alternatively, right-click the object in the 3D Viewport and choose Convert To > Path / Curve.
  3. Blender will generate a new Curve object in the Outliner while keeping the original Grease Pencil object intact. You can now hide or delete the original Grease Pencil layer.

Step 3: Change the Curve Type to Bezier

Depending on your Blender version and defaults, the generated curve may be created as a Poly curve or a NURBS path. To ensure it is a Bezier curve:

  1. Select the newly created curve object and press Tab to enter Edit Mode.
  2. Press A to select all control points.
  3. Go to the top menu and select Curve > Set Spline Type.
  4. Choose Bezier from the menu.

Step 4: Optimize and Smooth the Curve

Grease Pencil strokes often create an excessive number of control points during conversion. To make the Bezier curve manageable:

  1. In Edit Mode with all points selected (A), go to Curve > Clean Up > Decimate Curve.
  2. Adjust the Ratio slider in the lower-left pop-up panel to reduce the point count while maintaining the stroke's overall shape.
  3. Press V to change handle types (such as Automatic, Aligned, or Free) to smooth out any sharp transitions.

Step 5: Add 3D Depth (Optional)

To give your newly created Bezier curve thickness and 3D volume:

  1. Select the curve and go to the Data Properties tab (green curve icon) in the Properties panel.
  2. Under the Shape section, ensure the curve is set to 3D.
  3. Expand the Geometry section.
  4. Under Bevel, increase the Depth value to add round thickness, or assign an object/profile curve to create custom geometry along the stroke.