Tips on modeling a house?

fortheweekend_

Herro!

I'm working on a project with a few friends of mine, and i'm alright at modeling a medieval house exterior, but id like to see how other people do it for reference, because i still need to work on my skill a bit more.

Also, we have decided to have the interiors built into the exterior, so less loading screens if you know what i mean, and ive never bin succesful in merging the two, the screen gets too cluttered and i cant cut the holes for the windows and doors properly any tips?

Thanks

Mark Dygert

What program(s)?

3dsmax?
Maya?
Silo?
UnrealEd?
Wings3D?
Blender?

fortheweekend_

whoops! 3d max.

Mark Dygert

Quick Trim/timbers: In edit poly select an edge (or a few) click "create shape". This makes a spline, apply the sweep modifier to the spline and turn on generate mapping coordinates.

Using a spline you draw out the parameter of your building in the top viewport then apply sweep, algin the pivot so the shape sits at the bottom of the spline, and play with the parameters to adjust the thickness. You can apply a custom shape and get a jump on some trim.

ProBooleans is quick way to cut holes in things.

Put the inside and outside on separate layers, making the other easy to hide when working on either or.

Make a few cuts and use FFD to warp the building, the roof, some walls.

fortheweekend_

Thanks, i just tried it out and my god its 100% more effective that what i have bin doing! thanks heaps!

fortheweekend_

Okay im stuck on the proboolean part, i have the interior and exterior, i have the windows extruded in a bit past the the interior, and i just get invalid boolean errors, and i cant delete the proboolean bit :S

Mark Dygert

Inside of ProBooleans there is an option under Sub-object Operations to Extract Selected, if it gives you an error saying it can't extract base shapes or some such nonsense change it to copy. It won't ever let you remove object 0 so you'll always have to copy that one.

You can also click on each object that has been added to the ProBoolean and it will show it in the modifier stack, so if you used a box, you can click the box in the Sub-object Operations box, and then go change its height/width properties to change the size of the cut. It basically gives you access to any of the shapes so you can change them at any time.

Also ProBooleans works best on closed meshes (the STLCheck modifier can help find openings), and requires two objects. Kind of like using a cookie cutter, you need the dough (your walls) and the cookie cutter (a separate box the size of your windows).

fortheweekend_

thanks again, i got it to work, my god it made my life 100% easier, Im finaly slowly learning all the modifyer options, and ive bin doing things the hard way for way to long!

thank you!