One of the locations in my novel Elbert is a flying residence named Loyal House. In the story, the house is a replica of a temple on the planet Vidura, as is the Basilica of St. Denis near Paris. About a year ago, I went looking for a 3D model of St. Denis, which I found on 3D Warehouse, royalty-free.
The artist must have spent a lot of time on this. Subsequently, so did I. The model is made up of at least forty sections. I suspect Kuno H. used photos and elevation sketches to piece it together, evidence a higgledy-piggledy of unreconciled scales and rotations. This I discovered after attempting to apply stone textures to the model’s skin. The pattern would be plumb on one section, at an angle on another, small on one, large on the other.
Amazingly, of all the Blender tutorials on the Internet, nobody mentioned this could happen. I had to figure it out on my own.
I made novice-class progress on the concept, but I’d have to become an expert to get where I wanted to go. Meanwhile, Blender artists work wonders in seconds on YouTube — a spectacle I enjoyed this morning on a Zoom call to Egypt, during which time a very nice man named Mohamed Kassab showed me how it’s done.
The feature image on this post is part of what he made of my efforts. By the end of the week, I’ll have something to show off.
Watch this spot.
John Dyer Writes 
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