Work in Progress: Gothic Revival Cathedral (Part IV)

Another week has come and gone and here I am showing what I have done during the week.  I finished the main window, meaning the only objects still needing to be modeled in the spires or the top portion of the main building are detail pieces.  The door has been coming along nicely.For the frame itself, I am only missing a handful of detail items.  Once these items are finished, I can quickly model the door which just looks like an iron gate.  With the door blocked in and nearing completion, at least to an equal point to the spires or windows, the only major piece to add is the central spire.  I am hoping the central spire goes together quickly, so by next weekend I have a fully modeled cathedral.  Once I am done modeling, I am thinking of posting the finished image of the gray model on a few sites to get some feedback.  From the people I have shown in person, they have all been very impressed, so I am hoping to get something a little more constructive out of the internet.  While waiting for replies, I will try to get the building UV unwrapped.  After unwrapping all that will be left will be to texture, make a final render and a bit of post production work.  If I continue to work like I have been and nothing comes up in the foreseeable future, I would expect this to take until mid December.

Besides the cathedral, I have been working on one other piece.  It is nowhere near complete enough to show off, however, I am hoping to eventually offer the 3D model for sale.  I have thought about trying to work the cathedral into a 3D print, but it would be on a very small scale since the model is over one hundred meters tall.Hopefully when this project has a slow point for visible progress, my other project will be in a decent enough completion that I can show it off.  I have also been considering going back to a project which I nearly finished and see if I cannot just add the final details and get several pieces done at once.  With any luck, I would like to have those two projects finished by the end of the year to at least have something to show off for a year's worth of effort.

Well, I think I dreamt enough for this post.  Until next time,
~gunnah

Work in Progress: Gothic Revival Cathedral (Part III)

So I got a bit more done on the cathedral over the last week.  Not quite what I had been hoping to get done, but I do feel I made decent progress.  The most obvious change is probably the sky I added.  I had been hoping to put it off adding it for a little while longer, but there is not much point to doing so much modeling and not seeing it in the best light.  The spires are almost done, I just have some decorative elements to add which do not add a whole lot to the structure as a while, but I feel would be noticed if missing.  I also began adding the main building.  The top bit is finished, except for perhaps a decorative element or two.  The main window has been blocked out and I just started adding the window framework.  This should be finished easily this week.  Once the main window is done, I will move on to the front door.  This is one of the more ornate pieces and may take some time to get everything modeled.  The last piece of the building after that will be the main spire rising from the center.  Once all of that is finished, I will add a few decorative elements to really sell the piece along with the steps and fence in front of the cathedral.  This is probably a few weeks away and I will not go into more detail on what follows because that is even further away.

Hopefully, everyone is liking how this is shaping up and that it will look even more complete next week.  Until next time,
~gunnah.

Work in Progress: Gothic Revival Cathedral (Part II)

So last post I had been fairly brief about this new project and why I had moved away from the original Gothic cathedral.  Probably the biggest motivation to change was because my computer died and I had been unsure of when I would be able to re-access my old files again.  The good news is that this time around, I did not loose them, so I am not starting over from square one like the last few times my computer died.  But now onto what separates Gothic Revival from Gothic architecture.  The spires to the left are nearly done, I will briefly mention what is missing, but for the most part they are complete.  The obvious difference, much less ornate.  In my original Gothic cathedral buttress, nothing was bare.  In very few spots were there straight, flat, vertical walls.  If it were not an arch it were a pillar filling up the space.  These spires are quite different.  Outside a few windows, it is not until above the buttress that there is any sort of complexity.  Almost two-thirds of the height is taken up by an uninterrupted sheer face.  However, this simplicity makes the parts which are ornate stand out that much more.  Many of the stylings are quite similar between the two projects, especially the detail in the vaulted windows.  Hopefully, I will have the spires completely modeled for the next post just to show the difference between the two designs.

Now to quickly go over what is wrong or missing.  The windows near the top of the buttress need some work after looking at the image again.They just do not seem vaulted enough.  Also, the are suppose to sit flush against the wall, though I think this, if textured well enough, could make the model look better than the reference.  Next, the small corner spires are missing the cross on top.  Also missing the cross are the small little projections from the corner spires.  The central spires are missing a projection window about two-thirds the way up and a cross on top.  The brace going between the spires has a cut out in the reference, but I am unsure if it would even be noticeable in this image.

Once the spires are done, I can move to the main door and start filling in the gap between the spires.  After that piece is complete, the only piece left of this project will the the main spire, but that is likely a decent way away.  My goal is to get the building modeled and then texture, trying to keep focused on one task at a time.  Until next time
~gunnah

Long Story, Work in Progress: Gothic Revival Cathedral (Part I)

I will talk more about the new cathedral I am doing next week, I am just going to leave it at the fact I went from a true Gothic to a Gothic revival cathedral.  So far I have the lower two/thirds done of the front towers.  Now for why I have been silent all October.  Shortly after my last post, during that first week in October, my parents got me a new graphics card.  It is a real nice one with twice the memory of the previous and all kinds of other really nice bonuses.  However, when I went to install it, my computer started giving me problems.  I only got it to turn on twice before I could not even get to the BIOS.  It took me a little over two weeks to get the parts to repair my computer.  I still do not have everything the way I had it, but it is slowly getting back to normal.  So far the computer has been running for about two weeks and I have not had any problems.  While I know it is unlikely in the next two months, I would like to eventually return to the two posts per week style had had going so long ago.  I really feel that forced me to produce more.  Plus if I missed a few in a row it would not be a month between posts.  Well, I think I am done venting, until next time,
~gunnah