BA6 | Specialism #10

Temple Pillar | Part 1

Okay so in my last post I showed you all the research into visual influences/inspirations and references that I found. Unfortunately I began modeling and nothing seemed to look “right”, I wasn’t conveying the correct a3esthetics in my environment. I started one rather rocky pillar which I must admit I was trying to do from my imagination and it just didn’t look right. I then went back to my research and picked out the pillars that I felt inspired by the most and tried to find a balance between them visually so that I could combine them together and create my own pillar. I began a second pillar but felt that it wasn’t organic enough to fit in with my scene, even though it looks pretty much identical to one of the pillars in my photographic visual references of jungle temples/ruins. So, I began another one, again trying to balance reference material and imagination in the hope that once combined the model would look right.

Temple Pillar Attempt #1

 

 

 

I then began the second pillar which was more simple in structure; just like the ones in the real life photographs in my visual references. Mainly a tall rectangle with simple extruded stone areas for shape and clarity. I began this model but still it just didn’t feel right, nor did it stick with my “trying to do organic modeling” agreement.

Temple Pillar Attempt #2

At this point I was thinking of ways to keep the model true to the reference images I had gathered because that was the reason I found them, but also trying to consider how on earth I would make this basic extruded model look organic and personal.

Temple Pillar Attempt #3

I decided to start over once again but this time make the shape a little fatter so that the overall pillar would look like a basic extruded square. I added a small bevel to the edges of the extruded shape and began to add in edge loops so that I could extrude areas of detail. 

It was at this point I STILL wasn’t happy but realised what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to make a massive cracked area where rock would have chipped away. This would test both my modeling skills and add a personal aesthetic to the model overall. I began using the split polygon and cut face tool to literally draw out where I wanted the crack to be. 

 

I then simply deleted these faces. To begin filling up the newly created hole in my model and ensure that it wasn’t just a flat plane which filled it, I started selecting edges and extruding them, reshaping and editing them as I went along so that they all began to meet in the middle. 

I would then simply select the verts and merge them together so that the newly created faces started to form the cracked part of the rock. 

 

All I had to do was keep extruding edges and merging verts as I continued to poly plane model the rest of the cracked area of the pillar. I did have to use the split polygon tool sometimes to correct some faces which didn’t have proper geometry. 

When the edges all pretty much met in the middle, I decided to use the fill hole to fill the small part (this didn’t alter the geometry of the cracked pillar as it was a small area). I then used the split polygon tool to finish adding the edges to model the final areas of the crack.

…and ta-daaa! The final outcome. One nice cracked away pillar looking lovely and organic ;)

Final Pillar (I think!)

I say “I think” because I am hoping the textures I apply to this pillar will help the rest look organic and real. I want to polish it off really nicely. However, I may have to add more cracked areas in terms of modeling. I will see how it goes, for now I will say it’s “done”.