Byzantine forms tutorial (series)

Tutorials, Tips and Tricks
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Hi, I have been using Blender for many years now, and have modelled a number of famous medieval buildings with it. Primarily Byzantine ones… Mostly used them to provide mods for strategy games (eg Civilization III).

I thought of providing a series of tutorials, given I recently started writing about how to easily create the forms which are a bit more particular and not as intuitive to most modellers.

This first tutorial is on how to create a Pendentive, in four simple steps.

You only need a sphere, a cube, and a cylinder.

The Pendentive is the triangular-slice formation, carved out of a sphere, and used to provide elegant support for a dome. The most famous Byzantine monument that uses it is the Hagia Sophia. (a thread where you can see more of my model of that building, using Blender: The Hagia Sophia Byzantine Cathedral )

The images provided are of my model of the Hagia Sophia (my own work, using Blender) and the Pendentive form you will get in Blender when you complete the brief tutorial…

(my model and render of the Hagia Sophia; made with Blender)

(the finished pendentive, in Blender)

The article has roughly 600 words, and is hosted at https://hubpages.com/technology/What-is-a-Pendentive-form-and-how-to-3d-model-it :slight_smile:

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Would you kindly post your article here.
Cookie form is omitting viewing & i’m one of those who don’t take cookies from strangers. :wink:

TIA

No need to present your article anywhere else, simply provide a link to your archived document (pdf/rtf/doc), if you’d like.
& about “well known”, i did check - But, Facebook and history prove otherwise. Also, EU regulations did good, but seem as tho not many like to offer “No!” to cookies. < This, in practice, to me is more revealing than whatever written text claims.
1 Like
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Hi :slight_smile:

The reason I cannot post the full article here is that the article hosting site has a strict rule against “double posting”… So if I presented it here in full I would have to take it out from there :confused:

Anyway, it is a major article uploading site; quite well known. Eg here is the wikipedia page on it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HubPages

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Ok! Here is the second part in the tutorial series on how to model Byzantine forms :smiley:

In this part you can learn how to model a basic Byzantine-styled octagonal dome, in three simple steps. You will only need the following primitives: a sphere and a cylinder. The article also includes some (brief) info on how to manually model a perfect octagon (you don’t need to do so in Blender, but it may help to know how, if you want to include more particular decorative parts…) Have fun!

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Hi, this is part 3 of the tutorial!

In this part you can create a simple exterior of a Byzantine chapel, in four steps. Primitives used are: cube, cylinder and sphere, but mostly just the starting cube (considerable editing to create the sloping roof shapes :slight_smile: )

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Hello, this is part 4 of the Byzantine modeling tutorial!

In this part you will create simple windows, with surrounding openings. The tutorial uses the Chapel model, as an example of how to form the windows by using Boolean operations.

Tutorial has four steps, and the only form (primitive) used is a cylinder…

Have fun :slight_smile:


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Hello, welcome to part 5 of the Byzantine modeling tutorial!

In this part you will create a typical Byzantine Ambulatory. The Ambulatory is the stylized back part of a church; in Byzantine buildings they usually are made out of a central and two peripheral octagonal structures, which feature imposing windows and marble columns… The tutorial uses the Chapel model, as an example of where to place the Ambulatory you will be creating.

Tutorial has three steps. Primitives used are: cylinder and cube (mostly has to do with boolean operations using cylinder-based forms).

Have fun :slight_smile: Article is at https://hubpages.com/technology/How-to-3d-model-the-Ambulatory-back-part-of-a-Byzantine-Church