The final stages of modelling the building took longer than expected – as is always the way – but I’m pretty happy with how things turned out. Besides modelling the last two sections of windows, I had to model a door area (which also includes windows, as you’ll see).
To avoid this becoming swamped in text, this will, again, be a mostly screenshot-driven post, showing various progress shots of this stage with some captioned comments.
First stage of modelling the mid dome section windows – defining areas for the windows in line with original design then using Extrude Face with a value of 0 to create the frame + glass outlines
The different elements that created the windows and frames – copying and slightly scaling down the outer surface and using it on the inside -> merging the objects, then bridging the relevant edges to create the frames -> creating two sets of EP curves (1 outer, 1 inner) around the frames -> (continued in next screen)
….then applying Surfaces->Boundary on each, then merging and bridging the edges to create solid windows.
The dome frames and windows were created using largely the same process, but quicker due to the simpler forms
The full complete dome frames – shown minus the glass to highlight the frames
Topology of the dome frames
Completed dome with windows added
Top-down wireframe view – illustrating the lotus-inspired design
Wireframe illustrating the top dome section and the lower arches which connect to the mid dome section
The lower dome windows – as with the other windows/frames in the dome, they were created with the same method. In this case I had to make sure they matched up with the interior section they would connect to at the bottom in order to prevent any gaps where light might leak through. Defining the frame areas required a little more time due to the complex curved form, and the implementation of a ‘lip’ to add more realism to the design.
That’s it for this modelling post – next post will deal with the doorway modelling, as well as the final tweaks, grouping, renaming…you know, the essential but fairly tedious tasks you do to avoid tearing your hair out later.
Worth pointing out that whilst the building modelling – one of the key tasks and indeed, purposes, of this project – is almost done, I still need to do the exterior area. Can’t have a building just sitting in the middle of a flat plain after all!
Well you could, but it’d look bloody odd.
Stuart McInnes 