Create cube (400x, 150y, 400z), with 16 segments in the x and z dimension.
Make it editable, select the poly tool (visible only switch off), select all (rectangle marquee selection tool or command>A) except outside row of polys, and change the 'x' dimension from 650 to 300.
Repeat for z dimension
Create a circle spline (radius 150, position (-100y)).
With the cube object selected in the object manager, go into point mode (visible only off), and select all but 2 outside rows of points on both sides
Next, select the move tool and limit the move tool to the y axis, and then move the selected points as shown in screen shot using the circle spline as a reference
Again, using the selection tool, select all but the outside row of points as shown in screenshot
Again, using the move tool and the spline as a reference, move the points so that they are positioned on the spline as shown
Continue selecting rows of points (dropping the outside pair each time), and moving them until they are on the spline, until you have completed creating a rough 'arch' as shown below.
The last step is to select the center most row of points and move it onto the spline as well.
switch to side view and rotate the circle spline 90 degrees on y axis (H axis)
enable point snapping and choose point mode. Then select rows of points and move them along the Y axis using the circle spline as a reference just like we did before
Delete the phong tag from our cube object
Notice problem with stair stepping of edges where the arches meet. To remedy this we are going to create a new edge where each arch meets.
First, select all the problem (stair stepped) polys and delete them
Next, choose the 'create polygon' function and create a triangle polygon as shown by selecting the points that form the circumference of the new poly (see manual for more info on creating polygons)
Continue creating polygons until you have created new edges where the arches meet as shown below.
If you now render the model, you'll see that all of the edges where polys meet are showing and need smoothing. If we reapply a phong tag, we see that we can't find an angle setting that works which will both smooth out the arches and yet leave everything else nice and smooth.
So, the solution to this problem is to use HyperNURBs with Cinema 4D R8s' new weighting tools. To do this, first drop the cube object in a HyperNURBs object and then select the cube edges (edge tool) as shown below.
Next, set the edge weighting to 100%.
The result should look like the image below. Now our edges are nice and sharp where the arches meet, yet the arches themselves are still smoothed.
Now we're going to extrude the columns. Using the poly selection tool (poly mode), select the polys that we want to extrude for legs as shown above.
Inner Extrude -10 meters, then extrude 30 meters, following with an inner extrude of 10 meters. This creates a simple capital detail. Finally extrude to the length desired for the columns.
Finally, using the edge tool, select the newly created edges as shown, and set the edge weighting to 100%.
Now we're ready to texture and light our model prior to rendering.
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©2002 Mark Simpson and Creativecow.net. All rights reserved.
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