I have seen the way you model in Hash:AnimationMaster (see http://www.mmiusa.com/ookpik/tutorial/tutorial1.html) and was wondering whether there is a similarly simple way to model in Blender?
I think that the closest method is NURBS surfaces, but they look different in Blender than in Hash.
you can easily make the shape out of a curve (i’d prefer beziers for something like this) then alt-c and convert it to a mesh, then in top view, spin the object. (only works in edit mode) if you’re not sure how to do the spin function, im sure there are some tuts. You could do a few turns and use subsurfs or do many and just smooth it off. You could then extrude the arms out without too much of a hassle. Just ask if you need more detailed explanations.
Thanks banana_sock (i won’t ask!).
Your method would work but then the model would not act like a surface, ie. you move one vertex and the surface moves with it like with a NURBS surface.
well there are plenty of tuts on nurbs modelling, i’m just not sure if you can spin nurbs. It’s not a super difficult model, there are lots of ways to make it.