Chelsea Griffin - Week 1 - Castle

Concept

When I initially began, I was uncertain of what exactly my ideal castle would look like. I am pretty new to modeling and entirely new to Rhino, so I ended up just following the YouTube castle tutorial and messing around with different shapes. I knew that whatever I made, I wanted it to have a sort of lair-type vibe. I started off making the morning star balls and just kept coming up with ideas from there. I had an ellipse at the base of my model and decided that I wanted it to become an eye, as I really enjoy drawing and looking at eye art. I find eyes pretty profound and a lot of my work in various mediums has incorporated them in some way or another so it only made sense that they would be the center of my lair. 

Modeling Techniques

As I was learning about the Rhino environment, I found that I used the rotate and mirror tools quite often for the sake of symmetry. Pretty much every object, excluding the center eye, was mirrored or copied in one way or another. I utilized the pipe tool for the beams around the spheres, as well as the veins that lead into the eye. For the iris and pupil of the eye, I used the split tool as well as the extrude tool. I learned that I had to join these parts in order to avoid any naked edges. The scaling tool came in handy as well to create the larger spiked-beam-sphere centerpiece. The methods I used were fairly simple but I am satisfied with the outcome. 

Materials Used

Although my castle is abstract, it is still an edifice of sorts. As such, I felt the best materials would mainly be stone. I used granite for the iris and eyeball,since I imagine that that would be the actual living space of the castle. I also made the spheres a black granite for the same reason.The veins are mainly for aesthetic purposes as opposed to functional, so I figured it made sense that they would just be red glass. For the pupil, I wanted a sort of reflective pool, so I ended up using the coffee liquid material. The spikes are also mainly aesthetic, though I suppose they could serve as a defense. Either way, I felt using the glass effect worked well

Corrina Spurlin: Week 1 Castle

Ghosted painted black

Ghosted with Keyshot assignments

Concept

The main idea for this castle was based on how churches often look. A reference image wasn't used as I wanted the idea to be original and see how it turned out. To achieve the theme I included repeating archways with an ascending design. I kept the design more simple than complex because I wanted to combat the standard of how intricate some churches can be. The colors involved were used to also counter how natural-toned churches are. The church idea for the castle was meshed with the idea of making it look mildly human, which was accomplished by putting a sphere on top to represent a head.

Modeling Techniques

The main techniques I used when creating this castle were MakeHole, rotate, and scale. Translation was also involved whenever I changed the location of something as I wanted the design to be different. The MakeHole command was used in varying ways, as I sometimes used it to cut all the way through an object and other times only to cut into it part way. Rotate was used often in order to create the repeating patterns around the structure evenly. Scale was used to copy objects and put them in another part of the work, such as the rings, to make the piece balanced. 

Materials

I wanted to use materials that would allow for a general stylized feel, in order to continue the idea of having a non-traditional church-like structure. To accomplish this I only used smooth / sleek materials. The material used throughout has a metal-like texture to it, allowing for underlying tones that can be intriguing to look at. I used contrasting colors to continue the idea of having something different from a church, which typically can be monotone. 

Muhammad Martinez: Week 1 Castle

Ghosted black

Ghosted with colored layers

Keyshot with material - bird's eye

Keyshot with material - ant's eye

Concept
My original castle was inspired by the Weisman Art Museum with its use of partial cones and cylinders. Needless to say these designs were over-ambitious as a beginner to modeling. After a few iterations, I learned to compromise with Rhino to create something simple and interesting.

Model Techniques
This model exercised editing, rotating, and positioning polysurfaces. After plenty practice, I began quickly switching between viewports and getting a feel for thinking in three dimensions. ArrayPolar is a fun command that I played with in every castle attempt. This project gave me a solid introduction to the various objects in rhino.

Materials
Earthy materials like porcelain, red granite, and a paint matte gray were used for the buildings. Metals including copper, steel, and gold were used to add detail. Ruby was used for the rings, and everything sits on a glass base.

Christopher Rickett: Week 1 - Castle

Concept: The concept for this model was to make a kids style simple castle.  Then I started exploring the Rhino software and found a few tools that created a some cool effects. I took this simple castle, and gave it a more ominous defensive look with spikes that point outwards.

Technique:  the techniques used to create this model include both Boolean union and difference, as well as the Bend tool.  The Boolean tools were used to create the balconies in the castle towers as well as the cut outs in the outer wall section.  The bend tool was used to bend the cones to point outward, and then the polar array tool was used to wrap it around the various parts of the castle.

Materials:  The roof pieces were given a copper metal material and the castle itself is a cream colored stone as it might actually be if it were built in real life. The conical sections that are going up the sides of the castle and exterior wall have a tarnished scratched metal. I feel it gives it a slightly aged  look as well as look as though it has been through battle once or twice.