Architectural House Plan Layout

This articles was created from my postings on a community forum and was not created as a complete step by step tutorial. It does however, show various stages of progression with some brief outlines as to how it was created in modo. These images and steps should help demonstration one method of how to approach building a house in modo.

This entire series of steps in is shown in detail below with the images and a recorded video capture showing the process on a very simple model is also available in the link below that shows it being built in modo.

ArchViz Tutorial Window Trim from Floorplan.avi – 18.5 MB

This video uses the TechSmith EnSharpen codec available for download here.

Step 1

I started with a simple floorplan of what I wanted which is shown here, and I traced out using a grid snap all the walls. I kept everything with thickness so its easy to extrude up later.

If you don’t have a floorplan image you can easily find one online or get one from this site (which I used for this model)

Step 2

Then I extruded up the walls and sliced everything horizontally so I had edges at the window heights. Added the same for the doors so I could simply remove those polys in the model instead of having to bevel everything. This keeps all the doors and windows at the same heights really easily as well.

Step 3

Dropped it in a render to easy see the full view and to to look for overlaps and open gaps. So far, everything looks just fine.

Step 4

Then I started on the windows and doors. These I simply Removed the polys in the spots for the windows and doors from both sides of the walls. I selected the edge loops left in the holes and I bridged them back together so it was cut through everywhere needed.

You can also simply select the two polys on either side and bridge them together and modo will form the hole for the window. The same was done for each doorway.

Step 5

Another brief render to check how things are shaping up.

Step 6

Next, the windows need to have some trim provided so I selected the poly loop in one window and recorded a macro of bevelling out one window casing. In the macro, I set part names for the trim and then as well for the glass panes so that it can be surfaced later.

Step 7

I had to shift the panes and the thin trim against the glass for each window as well as shown above since I’m not sure how that could berecorded int he macro, since I had to change the selected polys. But, it was simple to do one each window had its trim.

Next, each of the windows had their polys selected and the macro was executed again to form the trim boards, glass and materials just like that in the recorded macro.

Step 8

So, then I wanted a little detail around the home for the landscape so here is how it was coming along, with that added to the render. You’ll notice also the garage door has been added here as well.

Step 9

Next, I wanted to finish all the doorways. I perform the main door and deck door by using the same bevelling technique as in the steps and video above. The patio was done similarly but with a sliding door, I wanted to ensure it would open and still look realistic with the slots for the door and glass panes. Here are the pics as it was built.

Two rails for the sliding doors to fit into. Added the glass doors themselves as well by bevelling them into place with the same polys copied from the door trim. I’ll position these using morph maps so its just a slider to open and close them, that way its in the object, not the render scene for future setup.

Step 10

The roofline was next on the list and was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I would now recommend that some of the alignment tools be used from vertexmonkey.com for this as it would make aligned the faces/edges way simpler. The process I used was a little more manual than that and here was my approach.

Step 11

OK, adding the main roof now, I decided I’d box out the ceiling, one for each main slope. That was split along the center line so I could drag up the proper slope from that edge.

First I extruded it up to give the roof box some depth around the trim of the roof line (not sure what that’s actually called). Then dragged up the center line of each slope to 30 deg since that is the angle I want. I used the protractor tool as a reference guide only and just eyeballed it in this case. I’m sure you could use fixed rotation around that point now as well and then snap the center line back in place with the alignment tools (and scripts).

Step 12

Some additional vertex adjustment and tweaking is neccessary to finish off the roof alignment and edges. A little more pushing vertexes around and you can get your roof line smoothed out to a point similar to this.

I then added some polygonal trees and other details for the landscape and put out a few renders.

Some other details have been added here as well like the doorways.

Step 13

And I’ve just started on the back deck / railing which I want to make more open since the home owners would not want to obstruct the beautiful view. So, it will of course be glass as well.

Step 14

Nothing real difficult added here. The railing is just a bunch of posts that have a small bevel slider in them with a box for the glass inserts. Here is the railing I created.

Step 15

Next the trim around the roof edge needs to be added so that the shingles will overhang the roof.

I did this by adding an edge slice and then the poly loop below the new slice was shifted in slightly.

Step 16

Added the eavestroughing around the home as well plus the downspouts. The eaves were built by making one section with one end cap on it. Then they were mirrored and repositioned where any crossed sections as corners were left to overlap, and then I sliced the two sections at 45 degrees with the slice tool. Then merged those points to join em up. Nice and easy.

Step 17

The downspouts I modelled one cross section and sliced it along the Y-axis about 10 times to make a couple of simple bends by rotating the points one slice at a time. Only had to build one and then copy it where it was needed.

The different sizes are simple to make by just shifting the points along the selection axis.

Step 18

Well its time to add some textures, materials and paintings now for the house to help complete it. Obviously this can be done a thousand different ways and this tutorial won’t cover any of that. Here are some images though from this completed house.

::GFXZoOM |source:ethereal3d.com::

Canoe

This articles was created from my postings on a community forum and was not created as a complete step by step tutorial. It does however, show the main steps needed to create the object and shows the progression and images along the way. Enjoy.

Step 1

You need to first create two outlines to help define the canoe’s top edge and the side profile or hull bottom. This is shown with only one end of the canoe so we can use symmetry to our advantage later on.

These two curves can be created simply using the pen tool and then just making two point polys from the points and killing the main polygon or with the curve tools or purely manually point by point and create the poly string. The points should have similar spacing on each curve since we want to be able to patch (or sub-D) connect betwen these.

Step 2

Select the two edges by double clicking each one and then we will bridge between them to create the poly mesh outline of the canoe. The example shows 4 segments in the bridge using curve mode so that it patches the profile nicely between the two edges.

If you want to make some slight adjustments to the shape, you should use radial falloff (set to the same size as the full canoe and make some minor adjustments to the profile. This can be done later on just as easily so it is not that important at this stage.

Step 3

Next, the canoe needs to have some thickness in its walls, so select everything by double clicking a poly. Copy all to the clipboard, then flip the selected polygons (f key) and then scale everyone down by a few percent using the origin as the action center. This will provide some spacing between the walls. Then paste back in the clipboard (the outside surface)

Step 4

Now the upper edges need to be bridged so the inner and outer surfaces are connected. Select only the upper edges of both surfaces and then run the bridge tool with only ONE segment. You should end up with something like this.

Step 5

The edge of the canoe needs some detail added so select the new poly string between the edges you just bridged which are joining the two surfaces. Use the bevel (in grouped mode) to expand out, shift up, then shift up again. This should give you enough edges to weight for a detailed trim along the edge of the canoe.

Step 6

Switch to sub-D mode (hit TAB) to viewed the sub-D model. You may want to select the edges along the trim line now and add some weighted edges to them (active the subdivision weight map then hit W). Once you’re happy with the trim shape you may want to just amke some minor tweaks to the rest of the mesh to help smooth out areas or reshape the canoe a little.

Step 7

Next, we want to mirror the canoe but we need to ensure it will mirror nicely first. Select all the vertices along the Z-axis and set the Vertex map value (in the vertex menu) to 0.0 on the X component. Do the same for the points along the X axis but set their Z component to 0.0

Step 8

In order to help us texture the canoe using symetry in UV maps, we are going to prepare the UV maps before mirroring the geometry. However, we are also going to make the UV map bend along the end of the canoe which will be difficult to do by editing the UV map itself, however, it is fairly easy to alter the model first, then apply the UV coordinates to the morph map.

So, create a new vertex relative morph map called unwrapped.

Step 9

Then what we want to do, is straighten out the sub-D lines along the X axis so most of the bend is taken out by the morph. Only the end of the canoe has this problem and needs to be straightended out.

You may also need to change the vertical spacing of the sub-D lines so that there is a even spacing in the side profile as the actual area of each polygon row. In other words, the height between the horizontal edges, needs to be relative to the actual width on the canoe’s polygons. This will allow a planar UV map to be applied to this new morph map.

Step 10

Switch to your UV editing layout and create a new UV map, named “Wood Panel” without any default values. Load in your favorite wood texture into the background of the UV map to help you space out the UV texture. We want to now create the UV coordinates to the canoe walls, but not the trim along the top edge. So, select all the side wall polys but not the bevelled trim edge, and then hit the Create Map button. The map applied should be a a simple planar Z-axis with all automatic settings. Apply it and you should have something like the following.

Now, with the UV coordinates applied to the morphed object, you can unselect the morph map named “unwrapped” and view the original object. You will need to apply the new UV texture to your canoe as a material. Do this by opeing the material editor (F4) and dragging the image of the wood you have loaded onto the canoe’s material. This should apply it automatically as the UV map but if not, you can set its projection type and map name.

Step 11

You will now see how the texture fits the canoe in the 3D viewports. You should have your texture curving up the end of the canoe. You can tweak the UV map manually now to help smooth out any texture problems. Remember to view your model in Sub-D mode to see how the texture applies on the smoothed model.

Step 12

Finally, now that the UV texture is applied, we can mirror (Shift V) our canoe on both the X-axis and the Z-axis. Do this and join any unwelded vertices to clean up the mesh both on the inside of the canoe and the outside. Ensure that all the ends were properly closed up and the polys connected. You should have a nice looking canoe model now. You can do some additional shaping using the move tool with large radial falloffs to help expand out the base of the canoe.

Step 13

Another UV texture will be useful by creating it for the trim of the canoe. This can be done before or after you have mirrored the canoe, the example UV texture was made before mirroring but it should not make any difference. So, a vertex morph map is needed again to hlep unwrap the UV texture to make the complete surface of the bevelled wood trim to be flatteneed out for the texture application. This is easy to do on the model by selecting the edge loops in the wood trim and scaling it out away from the canoe to unwravel the wrapped trim surface so it is flattened out. Now, a new planar UV map can be added to this surface (make it a separate surface now) from the Y axis. This will create a UV map that is not rectangular, but this is very easy to fix now in the UV map itself by selecting rows of points and scaling them to line up or just by moving them point by point.

This rectangular map allows a texture to be applied that can have the wood texture mapped along it straight but will bend accurately around the canoe’s edge.

Step 14

Last but not least are the minor details of the canoe such as the end braces, seats and portage brace. These can each be modelled fairly easily and added to the canoe since they are separate wood peices. The image below shows an example of one of the end braces which was created by copying the edges of the trim baord and manually created joining polys and then extruding it upwards several times to add edge detail.

Step 15 (Finally)

Finish the textures for the trim boards, and you should have yourself and decent looking canoe!!

::GFXZoOM |source:ethereal3d.com::

Puzzle Art

This tutorial outlines how to create the model of the objects shown here.

This tutorial is intended not for the absolute beginner with modo, but for someone who is at least familiar with all common 3D terms and the modo interface. The steps here should be easy to follow for most users of modo after familiarization with its user manual.

To start, an outline for the approach used here is to stencil into a plane the outline of the pieces, extrude the pieces up and then smooth out the edges with some bevels. So, create a flat rectangle to outline the puzzle you would like. You can just as easily use a different shape, an oval or something specific.

Create your outline

I used a simple square for my puzzle, so create the shape you want for yours. This one is on the XZ axis so it can be extruded up and layed flat on the Y-axis.

Outlining the puzzle pieces

This is very easy to do using the spline tools to draw some curves for the edges of the pieces. put your plane into the background layer so its outline is visible.

Bezier piece

Here is an example of creating the piece for the top left corner. The bezier has been tacked down to outline a nice puzzle edge.

Try to create your pieces evenly spaced within your whole puzzle and most of your pieces should be about the same size.

It is also important to try to make the connection tabs realistic. Most puzzles cannot have there pieces pulled apart so your connecting tabs should interlock well between the majority of your pieces.

Using Curves

The curve tool is another type of spline you might want to use for your puzzle edges. Use either the curve or beziers or even the sketch tool to outline the edges of each of the puzzle pieces.

Make sure you overlap the edges of each piece so that you can later stencil them onto each other and the background.

Completing the puzzle edges

Outline the rest of your peices using your preferred curve tools.

Make whatever adjustments are needed once you have the whole puzzle visible as well.

The overlap is visible still here for each curve which will be used to join up the pieces.

Extrude the edges

Next, we need to stencil our edges into our puzzle plane, so we can first extrude the curves on the Y-axis to get some depth. Extend will NOT work here since it works only on the control points and not on the smooth mesh of the curve.

Setup the stencil layers

Stencil into the plane by putting the plane in the background layer with the newly extruded edges overlaying it. You may need to move the edges or plane up or down to ensure they overlap each other.

Stencil

Perform a stencil boolean from the menu:

Geometry -> Boolean -> Solid Drill… Stencil

You should end up with a nice flat puzzle. If you properly overlapped all the edges, your will also have each of the pieces as polygons since the edges cut through each other when you make the stencil.

Remove stray points

Select the stray points that overlap each puzzle piece and delete them. Each of your curves will have have these at each end (exept outside your puzzle of course).

Create your piece layers

You need to put your pieces into separate layers now so they can be extruded and kept attached to only there own surface polygon. You don’t want the edges to join between pieces again.

Extrude your puzzle pieces

Select all your layers and give them some depth by extrude all the pieces.

Bevel the surface polygons on each piece

Now, we need to start smoothing out the pieces so we want to have some bevelling on the edges. Select the face polygons of each piece, select the back faces as well if you want them to ahve the same smooth bevel.

Your bevel should have a inset and shift about equal. A small bevel will be suttle with less problems on the overlapping and high vertex count corners.

Note: Often, while using the bevel tool with in inset, the inset edge will have overlapping points. These can be removed manually afterward to unwrap the corners and bevel edges or often it helps to reduce the number of points on inside corners so they do not overlap as quickly when you add the inset bevel. Also, you cna perform the bevel on all pieces at the same time if you wat them all the be identical without need to preset the toolpipe or write down your bevel settings.

Edge Boundary

Next we want to have the edges a little smoother, so select the edge boundary from the selection bar, by CTRL clicking on it. This converts your selected polygons to the boundary edges to save you having to reselect all these.

You also need the next edge loop selected beside the main face polygon so SHIFT-Left Arrow to add the next edge loop to the selection. Then SHIFT-Right Arrow a few times to move back the other direction and get the other side’s next edge loop selected.

Smoother Bevel

Finally, we need to smooth out these edge loops more so we can now bevel the selected loops. Bevelling the edges will add geometry for a more detailed round edge. The bevel follows the existing contour so will provide a nice round bevel.

You can set the round level according to the amount of detail you want. The left side shows bevelling at 0 and at 2.

Note: You may have to fix some overlaps on the polys after the bevel to correct the drawing on the N-Gon flat surface poly.

That should leave you with a nice looking puzzle with all the edges smoothed and each piece in its own layer, ready to be animated.

::GFXZoOM |source:ethereal3d.com::