Let's model a column in Blender - a step-by-step tutorial on non destructive workflows (pt.1)

in the next couple of videos we are going  to take a look at how to build a Corinthian   column like the one you see here step by step  and non-destructively so let's get into it   to start let me show you the references that I've  gathered for this project and by the way you can   find all of them on my Pinterest account so first  of all this is what we'll try to emulate and this   first reference here which is intended to be used  from the front will be pretty useful when trying   to replicate this concept of the elevation on  the diagonal we will start by building the base   pieces that you see right here so the base column  this inner piece and the top of the column and then   of course we will add all the different elements  that we need in order to close the composition   to help in the process I placed an additional  reference to be used from the front which will be   instead useful when trying to assess the correct  proportions between the different items of our   Capital lastly I took my first reference rotated  it and placed it so that I can use it from the   top and this will be used to check whether  the proportions between our column and the   top of the capital are correct we can proceed  by building the base column and these columns   here have a particular feature in that they are  fluted columns where flutes are nothing else that   this little grooves that you can see right here now  Corinthian column typically has 22 24 flutes and   my reference in particular has 24. so to model  it I'm going to shift a and add a cylinder and   I'm going to bring the number of vertices down  from 32 to 24. we can now tab into edit mode and   into x-rays mode as well and we need to resize  our mesh in order to match our reference and   we will need as well to rotate it a bit in order  for our faces to be pointing the right direction   I will then come out of the x-rays mode select the  top and bottom faces and remove them I'm as well   going to shade smooth the mesh and at this point I  can select everything and press I to inset and then   I again to inset individual faces leaving just  a little gap between each active selection and   with this selection still active from the top I'm  going to hit alt e to extrude along the normals   and then I'm going to change my Gizmo to normal  and my Pivot Point to individual Origins and this   will allow me to scale each selected face along  its own x-axis I will then switch the Gizmo back   to Global and scale up with the selected faces  also on the z-axis at this point all we need   is to add a subdivision surface modifier and  usually three levels of subdivisions will do   and we can run an edge Loop right in the  middle and hit Ctrl B to Bevel in order   to have the same distance from the top of  our column to the first Edge Loop and from   the bottom to our second Edge Loop we can  finally select the different Edge Loops   surrounding each flute and crease them all the  way up to one in order to sharpen their look another thing I like to do here is  to add an additional Edge loop at   the top and also at the bottom of course in  order to redefine the shapes of the flutes   then I will also add an edge Loop right in the  middle and this will help us in redefining the   scale of the column because at a certain point  of course we will need to make this taller so   you may be tempted to just scale it on the  z-axis but as you can see this is going to   destroy the proportions that we built so far so  what we can do instead is to go into x-rays mode and   into face select mode and with B we can select  the lower half and just push it down in order   to redefine how tall the column is without  losing any of the proportions that we built   I'm going to leave this as it is right now and  we will take a deeper look at it at a later stage   let's now model the top of the column and to do so  I'm going to enable one of my frontal references   and actually this one here and all we need to do  is to tab into edit mode and enable x-rays then   select the top Edge Loop and proceed to extrude up  and scale up and also run an edge Loop if needed   scale down and bevel to make the curvature a  little bit smoother select again the top Edge Loop   E to extrude scale it up a bit and then extrude  it up and every time you need to make an edge   Loop look sharper you can just select it and then  hit shift e and crease it all the way up to one I'm then going to select again the top Edge Loop then  e to extrude let's scale it up a bit extrude up   again e to extrude and right click  to cancel and let's scale this down   run an edge Loop right in  the middle and scale it up you can then of course play around with how  you placed your Edge Loops in order to change   the look of the column and finalize it and also  take a look at the edges you creased and see if   there is anything else you want to crease  like this edge loop here at the bottom   and as you can see here we have something  a bit harsh to look at in terms of shading   so probably we can remove this Edge Loop here  select this at the middle and double press G   in order to slide it a bit in the center and yes I  think that would be it for the for the column   to model the top of the capital I'm simply going  to add a cube and scale it down on the z-axis and   move it up a bit then I will add two Edge Loops  in order to form this kind of cross right here   and then again from the top in X-rays  and in edit mode I'm going to scale it up   right where I would say these points here on  our reference are touching the sides of our   Cube which is no more a Cube by the way we can  then select the edges at the corners of our mesh   and then again from the top with x-rays on  we simply need to hit Ctrl B and bevel them   according to our reference I will then select  these Edge Loops that we added previously and   I'm going to scale them down but not on the z-axis so I'm going to press s and shift Z scale them down   a bit and then again bevel and this time we'll  probably need an extra Edge Loop okay and this   is fine I will then come out of the x-rays mode  select one of the faces at the top then go to   select select similar normal X and delete faces  and I'm going to do the same here at the bottom I will then select the top Edge Loop and press F  to add a single face select this bottom Edge Loop   I'm going to bring it up a bit and then again from  the top in x-rays mode I'm going to scale it down and finally I need to select these  shorter edges here at the corners and again from the top I'm simply going to scale  them down to approximately match the reference   switching to the frontal view I'm going  to enable this other reference here and as you can see I'm switching  among references trying to use   them to my own advantage and  not as cages I cannot escape when you're happy with the results that  you have you can simply shade smooth   and here we will need of course a subdivision  surface modifier and also a bevel modifier to   be placed on top and I'm going to change the  limit method to weight bring down the amount a   bit and increase the number of segments to two  and now I'm going to manually select the edges I   want this bevel to be applied to and bring from  the side panel the weight all the way up to one to model the inner piece I'm going to use a  cylinder again with 24 vertices remove the   top and bottom faces select everything  scale down move everything up trying to   match the other pieces of the column I  will then select this top Edge Loop and   bring it all the way up until it meets the  top of the capital I will then shade smooth   add an edge Loop in the middle and slide it up  a bit and I will then select this top face Loop   and extrude along the normals and again we  will need to use a subdivision surface modifier   with a bevel modifier placed on top I will set  it again on weight decrease the amount increase   the number of segments and manually select  the edge Loops that they want to look sharper   and by the way this is not the final shape of this  piece right here and the reason why is that once   we will have all the different decorations that  we need in order to complete the composition this   piece here will be a bit wider at the top and  it will also be a bit curved in order to follow   the curvature of all the different ornaments  that we're going to add but for the time being   I'm going to leave it as it is and we will  take a deeper look at it at a later stage   it is time to introduce our main guest which is  the acanthus leaf and this may seem intimidating   but especially if you're into classical  reconstructions you need to find a way to get   comfortable around these kind of shapes since they  are literally everywhere in classical compositions   we can start by breaking down the shape into  smaller components and what we can notice is that   the shape is symmetric around the center then we  would have groups of leaves on each side and you   would typically notice two to three to four groups  and then again a group at the center where each   single group is in turn composed of four to five  single leaves and what we need to pay attention   to in particular are the connections between  each group since these parts here are the one   that will give the major contribution in defining  the three-dimensional shape of our mesh along of   course with the outlines of each single leaf the  top section here is the one that will be bent in   order to give to the leaf its classical appearance  and in particular I'm going to model a leaf with   four groups of five single leaves in order to  mimic the reference that you see right here   to model the leaf I'm going to use this reference  that you see right here again to be used from the   front and actually I'm just going to model  one single group and I will then reuse it   in order to model all the other groups we will  build this as a flat surface at first and only   after that we will build its three-dimensional  shape progressively in a non-destructive way   to start modeling I will usually add a plane  right at the intersection between two single   leaves within the group and trying to model and  then I will simply add an edge Loop right in the   middle this would allow me to start extruding  these edges and start building the outline of   the leaf and the reason why I'm building the  outline of the leaf in this way is that it   will strengthen a bit the overall shape especially  when it will come to add thickness to our final mesh   when it comes to model the top of the  leaf I use this flow here so one face two and three which gives me a nice quad right  at the end and this may seem counter-intuitive   because it also gives us a flat top while it  should be a bit pointy but that's not really   a problem because in the end we will run an  edge Loop in the middle and this will allow   us again to re-establish the correct shape of the  leaf take all the time you need to get the shape   right even if it can be a painful process  at times I honestly find it quite relaxing   in any case I can assure you that it is time well  spent and that it will really pay off in the end once you've completed the outlines of  the leaves you can simply proceed to   extrude down the bottom Edge Loop  and remember that at any time you   can zero it out on the z-axis by  pressing s z and 0 to make it even with the first group of leaves being  finalized you can simply duplicate   it and position it on the other  group you want to model and with   the help of proportional editing you can  reproportion it based on the reference again make sure that the space between each group  which represents the connection that we will   model in a bit is as smooth as possible and make  also sure that the edge Loops of the different   groups are quite aligned in order to have clean  topology once these connections will be in place with the same technique I created the  last two groups of leaves and notice   that at this point the reference has served  its purpose so I'm no longer following it it is then just a matter of adding a mirror  modifier with the clipping option turned on   and start connecting the different pieces of  the mesh to create the central group you can   simply borrow one of the other groups cut  it in half and place it at the center so   that it clips with its mirror counterpart and  simply start re-arranging the vertices as needed once done to connect it to the rest of the mesh  the easier way would be to select this bottom   Edge Loop and just count the number of edges  here at the bottom it says it's 10 edges so we   can add an edge Loop here at the other part of the  mesh and increase the number of cuts up to 10.   at this point we can select the two segments  and simply hit Ctrl e and Bridge Edge loops   okay so now that we have our flat surface we can  start building the third dimension and we can   do that by using shape keys now if you don't  know what shape keys are they're essentially   a way of re-arranging the vertices within your  mesh in a non-destructive way where you retain   the possibility of transitioning between the  different shape Keys which is good for animation   but also as in our case it is good if you want  to build a layer based system to keep all your   deformations organized and non-destructive as  a first step I'm going to rename my base shape   keys to flat and now what I want to do is to  take this portion of the leaves which are   overlapping with the rest of the mesh and  I want to push them a bit on the x-axis   so to do so I will create another shape key  and I'm going to call it L_DETACHED I can now tab into edit mode and select the  faces that I need and in this case I want also   to move the surrounding geometry so I will enable  proportional editing but as you can see as I'm   increasing the radius I'm also moving the group  at the top of the one I'm trying to manipulate   so I will use this useful checkbox which is  connected only that will allow me to move   simply the faces which are directly  connected to the one I have selected I will then repeat the same procedure also for  the other groups and remember that if you   have difficulties in selecting the face that  you want you can always switch to X-rays and   in this way it will be much easier to  select exactly the face that you need once done we can use the value slider to  transition between the different shape keys and we   also have this range Min and Max and in particular  we can change the max value to something higher   than one which means that if we need to we can  over exaggerate the manipulation that we just did   The Next Step would be to take the  connections between the different   groups of leaves and push them a  bit outward so again I'm going to   create another shape key and I'm  going to call it connections out and then I will tab into edit mode  with my connection selected disable   the proportional editing and I'm  going to move it a bit on the x-axis I will then create another shape key  and I'm going to call it Center out   and as I did for the connections  this time I'm going to select the   central piece of the mesh and I'm  going to bring it a bit outward I will now do exactly the same but this  time with the outlines of each single leaf and since they are essentially Loops I can   simply alt and shift and left  click to get them all at once and since I want the effect to be a bit  smoother as I'm moving toward the bottom   I'm going to press C to Circle deselect a few of  these face Loops in the lower half of the mesh you can notice that we need to move these  two leaves a bit more on the x-axis so I'm going   to select the relevant shape key and the faces  that I need re-enable back proportional editing   and I'm going to move them a bit more on the  x-axis to add thickness to the whole mesh I'm   going to create another shape key and call  it DEPTH then select everything and extrude   along the normals and I'm going as well to  select this bottom face Loop and delete it lastly I'm going to create a final shape key  layer and I'm going to call it ADJUSTMENTS and you can use it to move things around I  will use it to make my leaves a bit thicker with our shape keys is in place it is now time to  think about the overall shape of our mesh and   in particular I want to start working on the  bending so the easier way to do that is to add   a simple deform modifier set it on bend on the  y-axis and you can see that it is already bending   we can push the angle all the way up to 360 and  this is starting to resemble what we need notice   that the mesh is bending using as a pivot point  its origin point and this is usually fine but in   this case we need to have a bit more control  so I'm going to add an empty and within the   modifier I'm going to select as the origin this  very same empty which means that we now have full   control over the pivot point of the deformation  and you can already see that if we move it up a   bit the top part of the mesh is right where it  is supposed to be we only need to make sure that   the bending is happening only at the top while we  want the bottom part to be straight which in other   terms means that we want the modifier to have the  most of its influence at the top and then we want   this influence to gradually start fading as we  move toward the bottom which again means that we   need to define a gradient so I'm going to create a  Vertex group and I'm going to call it DEFORMATION I will then disable the simple deform  and subdivision modifier just for now   we can then switch to the weight paint mode and  here there is this handy tool which is the gradient   tool and with this selected from the top we can left  click and drag and you can do it a few times and now we can switch back to the object  mode and within the simple deform   modifier under restrictions just  select the newly created vertex group let's enable it again and let's enable  also the subdivision surface modifier   I will then increase the  angle to something like 450   and now we can play with the pivot point to  define even better the overall shape of our mesh   now the good thing about non-destructive workflows  is that you can change things around at any time   like in my case I have a bit of a harsh transition  right here so I'm going to go back to the weight   paint mode and I will disable again the simple  deform and the subdivision modifiers and this time   I want to remove some of the weight which is right  here so I'm going to change my brush from draw to   subtract and again with the gradient tool but this  time from the bottom I will left click and drag   and then enable again this simple deform and this  is looking a bit better as a final step to this   process I want to apply some macro deformation to  my mesh like for instance I want this top part to   be a bit narrower and I also want to move some  of the features around but again I want to do   that non-destructively in coherence with what  we have done so far so this time we are going   to use a lattice modifier so first step would be  to add a lattice which essentially is a cage that   encompasses our mesh and we will then add control  points to this cage and we will use those control   points in order to control the deformation  of our mesh you can add control points here   in the object properties tab of the lattice  and we can play with these values right here   so I'm going to add a few loops and then I'm  going to select my mesh and add a lattice modifier and I can simply select my lattice and now we can  start moving some of these control points around   and you can see that these allow us  to have a very organic deformation   and even more importantly we can of course  enable or disable the modifier but we also   have a strength slider that we can use in order to  control the amount of influence of our deformation so let me reset this ok and let's start moving things  around so I'm going to select like   these two top loops and I'm going  to compress them on the y-axis and then I'm selecting these two points  right here moving them down a bit   maybe select these two as  well moving them on the x-axis to give it this kind of curvature right here   then probably I want to select these control  points right at the edges and move them a bit   backward to give it a slight bend on the z-axis  and then I think I'm going to move as well   these two control points a bit backward on  the x-axis so something like this of course   you can play around and find the final  configuration that you prefer the most   I'm going to keep it like like this now  what we ended up with is a very flexible   system where we can change things around very  easily and more importantly we can do that   non-destructively by either using our modifiers  or the different shape keys that we employed and in fact in the end if we were  to let's say disable the different   modifiers that we applied as well as all  the different shape keys that we added   what we have simply is the flat surface  that we started with at the beginning   I'm now going to bring back my column and the  inner piece as well and I'm going to move my   acanthus leaf a bit on the x-axis and of  course when I'm doing so I'm selecting also the   lattice and the empty that controls the bending  through the simple deform modifier because these   three pieces right here need to travel together  because otherwise if you only move the acanthus   leaf you're going to encounter this kind of  troubles right here I'm then switching to the   front and I'm going to enable my frontal  reference and the x-rays as well and with   these three pieces again selected together I'm  going to scale and reposition according to the   reference that I have and in particular here I'm  looking at the height of the leaf and of course I   also need to position it on the x-axis and you  can see that maybe we need to rotate it a bit like so let's check again   the proportions and this should be correctly  placed I just want to do some minor adjustments   so with my lattice selected I'm going to select  every control point and move everything down a bit like so then I'm going to also scale it a bit on  the z-axis and scale it down a bit on the y-axis and again we can play around with a  different systems that we built like   I'm going to select this Pivot Point  right here I'm going to move it a bit and now once I'm satisfied I going to take a  look at the transformations for our ancanthus   leaf because we moved everything in object mode  so our origin point is right here and this is fine   but I want to apply the rotation I'm going to  hit Ctrl a and apply rotation and I also want to   apply the scale so Ctrl a and apply the scale and  again time for some minor adjustments and I could   really do this for hours and this non-destructive  workflow that we implemented is really helpful in   achieving the final shape that you want like for  instance now I want this to be a bit more bent   so I'm going to do that with my simple deform  modifier and again I'm going to tweak a bit the   Pivot Point then probably I see that these  connections are not exactly the way I want   them I want to ease them a bit so I can go back  to my layer CONNECTIONS_OUT and reduce the value   a bit and perhaps I also want these leaves  to be a bit thicker so again I can go in   my ADJUSTMENTS layer tab into edit mode  and do whatever adjustment I need to do and this concludes this first part  of the video where we mainly focused   on building the main components of  the column and we heavily focused as   well on non-destructive workflows  in building our acanthus leaf   in the second part instead we are going to see how  to model the other components such as the spirals   and how to use all these elements in an instanced-  based system in order to build the rings for   the leaf and all the mirror counterparts for the  spirals and the other ornaments in order to avoid   putting too much pressure on the workstation so  thank you for watching stay tuned and see you soon

Channel: hbitproject

Views: 137,842

Keywords: #blender, #tutorial, #guide, #column, #3d modeling, #shape keys

Id: 68oRQvV6GhY

Length: 29min 51sec (1791 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2023