So, here’s my first design aside from following a few tutorials. I used my plans from a CAD program as suggested on a previous post. Took screen caps, copy to paint, save as .png, use as background… Different .png for each cutout height to make it easier (doors, low windows, high windows…)
I’m interested in how I could do this easier/better as I’m just learning. I have more hours in this than I’ll admit. For example the walls are multiple cylinders I cut off to be one vertice high because the circle makes a bezier spline type circle. Just discovered the Space-Add Circle when doing the roof…still not sure the difference between adding stuff via the drop and the Space bar but there is definitely a difference. There has to be a ton of easier ways to do this, imagine clicking the edges of all those circles to fill the walls with F…that’s what I did. Also, now when I hit smooth it gets a bit wacky. Lastly, I’m wondering how to tell the interior wall to extrude up the domed roof. Pretty crowded in there…is there a cut view window? Sort of where you make an imaginary plane anywhere you want and everything behind the plane isn’t shown so you’re not looking through it but it’s still there…wait a minute, H might work for that:p
Anyway, lot’s of newb feedback is welcome. I’m about a week into Blender and it’s a love/hate relationship so far :evilgrin:…soooo much to absorb!
I like this. It would make a great arctic science station gone horribly wrong (zombies sir, zombies…) for a game. One big tip that will fix a lot of issues: model with fewer verts, and use subsurf. Don’t ever apply your subsurf - just set it at different points for rendering a working.
First bit of advice - when hitting smooth, and it get’s a bit wacky? Press “A” to select all the verts (in Edit mode), and press Ctrl+N. This will recalculate all the normals, and you won’t see all of the wackiness anymore.
Also, it would be worthwhile to setup a camera and a lamp, so you can get a good idea of what you’ll be working with when you render.
Renders are also a good way of showing your progress on the forums, so that people don’t have to download your blend file to see your work. It’s just a little more convenient that way.
I did download your blend file, and I did a Remove Duplicates function, and the thing removed like 3500 verts, so you had a lot there that weren’t needed. I also added a basic clay material, and a ground plane. Here’s a very basic render, with a slight attempt to show scale by placing the camera low and pointing it upwards. I saved my changes in the attached blend file as well.
If you’re interested, you can learn some good modeling techniques from watching tutorials, which are all over the internet. Some of the best can be found at blendercookie.com and blenderguru.com.
Welcome to Blender, and welcome to the forums! Keep learning!
Well i fiddled around with this too.
First i removed the top dome and kept the bottom one, and added a solidify modifier on it.
I also did the whole remove doubles and recalculate normals.
I separated the different parts of this thing using the P key. and moved them to different layers.
And applied subsurf. I added bevel to the columns and walls, but it didnt work quite well for some reason, maybe its your modeling but maybe not. didnt add any lights but i turned on AO.
I was expecting to see an iron age roundhouse when i looked at this but I like the design you have barring the roof which is neither ‘one or the other’ in regards to its shape. It’s like it doesn’t know if it should be flat or domed and the result makes it look infeasible architecturally. If you’re going with an arched support system for the roof (looks that way from your interior render) then I would arch the roof more and increase its gradient.
The basic concept is an underground house that doesn’t look underground. In my Alibre design I have concrete window wells that come out horizontally about 6" below the window about 5 feet (they would be setting on dirt). Then they slant back towards the sides of house at about 15 degrees while also slanting back towards the top of the house (imagine a V with the bottom cut off that is laying back, sort of leaned up against the house. That way you don’t see the dirt or concrete window wells unless you’re right up on the window. Same thing with the front area with the large door and window area. That would be south facing with lots of open exposure for passive solar heat. The curved roof is to get a bit more support while also opening up the house with internal elevation. The intent is to make it so you don’t feel like it’s underground. The walls are designed to be made of Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) which are real easy to curve…the roof, that will take some engineering and may need more arch. All of the rooms are separated by ICF walls to add strength but also to deaden sound. The front area would be the kitchen, dining area, and living room. Three columns support the ‘hallway’ arch as it comes around where the wall stops (not in yet). The central area is a large game room or it would make an awesome home theater. Just tying to show that an underground home can be cool while not giving the feeling like a box buried in dirt.
but maybe not. didnt add any lights but i turned on AO.
