Advice with modeling a Greek/Roman column.

oraeles77

I'm modelling a Greek Roman column, (in an ionic style, with volutes and fluting).

my plan is to make the basic shape then export it to Zbrush (where I'm still learning how zbrush works) where I can add more detail such as the spirals.

I tried playing around with the spiral curves in Blender but I found they were too tricky to use.

First question,

with the two different types of volute's topology which would you chose?

left or right.

(left one is where the round bit is just a box sitting on top of the topology, ziggurat geometry (?)) the right one is where the bits all intersect and are a single mesh (again, no idea what the correct word is for this)

second question.

here is the column. and I wanted to ask a question about about geometry cause my knowledge may be several years out of date, or just wrong. you may notice that the trunk of the column is made up of very long rectangles, which span most of the length of the column?

I was told a long time ago by a CG person that long rectangles aren't a good thing, their reason didnt make sense and they insisted its better to up the poly count and use more subdivision,  I assume its cause of artifacts or something but they never explained why so I assumed it was just their opinion.

third question.

I've made the column, I've made the volutes, is it alright just to join the two objects and leave it at that or would you intersect them? recently online, I've come across a lot of CG people who'd insist its fine to just leave the two objects intersecting, while when I first learned this stuff, people seemed to be keen to boolean/intersect it and turn the whole thing into a mess. so suggestions, what to do with this?

thank you very much!

Animas

Regarding that long quad question. Take a look at this thread (long quad is 2 long triangles ):
https://polycount.com/discussion/149068/need-some-clarity-on-long-thin-triangles  <--marks reply specially

musashidan

If you're taking it to zbrush then the topology doesn't matter as you'll be using dynamesh/scuptris pro and sculpting the spiral. But if you want to model the topology traditionally then I'd create a spiral edgeloop around the detailing using extrude to cursor -as you're in Blender.

Alex_J

you are having trouble figuring out what to do because you haven't first identified the goal. You have to know what the end product is going to be, and plan backwards from there.

So question one, where and how will this be rendered? For games? A static environment prop?

Then you figure your workflow from there. Will you build the low topology first, subdivide, add sculpted detail, and bake maps? Or use zbrush to go straight into the high, retopo, and bake from there? Or use subd modeling only in your 3d app? It may be worthwhile to do some experimenting with each of these methods, they all have their pros and cons. Personally I'd whip it up in zbrush first as most of the detail can quickly be made using radial symmetry, then retopo. This would save me any trouble worrying over topology for subdividing.

It looks like you intend to build the game model first, then subdivide it and add sculpted detail for baking. So then your topology must be built to support subdivisions. From there you may use that same low-mesh as your game model, or you may need to edit it for optimization after your have made your hi-poly. Most likely the little spiral extrusions up top could be baked with floaters or you subdivide a lot to get enough geo to sculpt them. In that case, just mostly even quads is what will do you good.

As your topology right now must support the subdivisions, all you have to do to check it is activate your subdivision preview.

oraeles77

Animas said:

Regarding that long quad question. Take a look at this thread (long quad is 2 long triangles ):
https://polycount.com/discussion/149068/need-some-clarity-on-long-thin-triangles  <--marks reply specially

so its not a problem then?

Mark Dygert

Depending on how you plan to work, you probably want to break up those long thin polys so they subdivide well. Something close to evenly quaded is probably preferable but it really depends on what you plan to do and how much detail you want to put where. If you're going to really rough up the pillar then more quads will help, if you're going to mostly leave that alone focus on the crown.

Personally I would drop the inset/bevel and model the spiral into the base shape, but that's just my personal preference based on my experience with creating these sorts of things.