model 1 - part 1

HOW IT WAS CREATED 

I started off with the dome, it seemed that the dome had 8 sides so I set the  sides to 8 in the parameters alongside setting the cap segments to 2 as I needed it in order to make it look like a dome by dragging it up using a combination of both vertex mode and the soft selection.  The picture above is the evidence.

As I tried to mould it into a dome I realised I needed more polygons so I started agian with a higher cap segments.

I then selected the edge mode, selected a one And instead of having to select each and every one of them I clicked on loop.  The picture above is the outcome but it was not the desired outcome as i had to make the top part flat in order to put the statue.  I did this by selecting the vertex mode and then select the centre polygon and dragged the z up in order to get the top of the dome flat.  The picture below is the outcome.

In order to make it more curved I clicked on ‘Cut’ to add more polygons/edge at the top of the dome as the picture above shows.  I could have started again and added more cap segments like so:

Ultimately I decided to start again as the polygons I added were a mess.  As you can see from the picture above the polygons I added or ‘cut’ are not evenly spread out so that is the reason why I felt it would be better to start from scratch.

In the end I had to do it with 7 cap segments.  I used soft selection (falloff - 50) and moved the top vertex up. Once I was satisfied with it I deselected soft selection so I could get the flat area at the top of the dome. This is my result: 

 

Considering it was taking me a long time to get things done I figured I needed to get the foundation in place in order to get the details.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to weld two object together and for some reason it wouldn’t work.

MISTAKES

After taking a closer look at the building I realised I’d made a mistake with the tower at the end that was supposed to be next to the building as opposed to at the end. So I corrected that:   

I also realised that the building was facing the wrong way, I tried to correct that by selecting all objects and rotating them instead of selecting one object at a time and rotating (and some would require me to place them) but it wouldn’t work.  After, trying various other ways of trying to make it work I realised that I had select the objects via the click and drag instead of ctrl A or grouping them together.  But it still doesn’t look right as you can see in the picture below.  The only part facing the right way is the tower, named Campanile in my mood board.  This is a mystery that I cannot solve in time.

ALLTERNATIVE WAYS 

While I was researching how to make the dome curvier, I stumbled along a Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kbx6IxfH_rc) video about NURBS.  I found this tutorial to be useful to an extent, I dismissed it, then it got me thinking midway through the model that, ‘what if I could draw it in 2d from a bird’s eye view and change it to the 3d’.  Turns out that was extrude (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfpRrui4Kc4) and I was a little bit annoyed as I could have saved a lot of time had I’ve done it like that.

PROBLEM:

My big mistake was that I was spending too much time on the little details when I should have realised that it’s more important to get the work done and I needed to lay the foundations first i.e. putting the ‘body’ of the building together.  I specifically spent a lot of time on trying to figure out how to make the ‘target weld’ work.  For unknown reasons I was unable to.