La Corbiere lighthouse |
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| [September 1] This weekend I figured out how to model the rocks. I'd already placed the extruded and scaled columns but
wasn't sure how to turn them into a rocky island. The first step is to change all the quads into triangles--it doesn't change
how the verts can be modeled, but it does help to see how the mesh can be manipulated. The next step is to select the
faces that the user will be closest too; these will require the most detail, so they need to be subdivided. You could subdivide
the entire mesh and then touch up the detailed bits, but I've got a lot of rock and most of it won't be seen that close.
Now comes the fun--go into vertex select mode, turn on proportional editing, and start shifting verts. I use random for most of the work, but smooth or sphere works great for shoving a lot of verts around. It also helps to vary the size of the selection range. The above shot shows the roughed in details along the stairs. This will be the area with the most detail--and verts--but it's actually really fun to model. |
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| [September 1] This view shows off the main part of the island. You can't see it here, but there's a rocky outcrop just in front of the white cube below the lighthouse; this was the most difficult part of the modeling, as I'd placed the cube too high and the mesh was messed up badly when I tried to shift everything down. I eventually got it all fixed, but it took forever. |
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| [September 1] A view of the bottom of the stairs. This shows the rocky details better and, even at this detail, the mesh is starting to look rocky. The entire environment is only about 11k verts so far--there's no interiors yet, but this is more lo-poly than I'd hoped with all this rock. |