Them stairs... an architectural object library - 3D-Palace Community Forums

contrafibbularities · #1 05-24-2008, 12:12 PM

This is supposed to become a library of wooden stair parts that you can mix and match to build stairs. There will be three basic components: balusters, newels, and handrails/wallrails. I've spent some time on research, and collected almost 1500 reference images, many of them high resolution, so I had a wealth of material to choose from. Consequently, the library is going to be quite large, and it will consist of more or less 250 individual objects when it's done. At least that's the goal.

Since realistic-looking stairs require quite a number of individual parts (e.g. at least two balusters per step), I intend to make this a library only for programs that can handle subdivisions. This should make scenes much more manageable, yet provide the desired detail and realism when rendering with HyerNurbs or SDS. The handrails/wallrails will not be provided as objects, but as simple splines, the reason being that this means much more flexibility and control when building stairs.

These parts will not exactly be low poly, but I'm trying to reduce the polygon count on the base meshes as good as I can without compromising the overall shape and detail that I want them to have.

Anyway, here are the first finished models as well as a simple example of an assembly. I'm not sure if the concept will work for others, but I sure have a lot of fun modeling these parts...

IslandDreamer · #2 05-24-2008, 11:27 PM

Excellent work! Will you offer the objects in a format other than C4D?

contrafibbularities · #3 05-25-2008, 11:07 AM

@IslandDreamer
Thanks!

Yes, the models will be available in .3ds and .obj formats, this library will not be limited to C4D users. The handails/wallrails will be available as .ai files (Adobe Illustrator), which can be used in most modeling applications..

contrafibbularities · #4 07-19-2008, 05:54 PM

I've just finished the handrails, plus some wallrails, 49 models all in all. This part of the object library is now finished. The handrails/wallrails will be provided as splines in Illustrator format (.ai) in the final library.

I've also made some progress with the balusters and newels, but I still have to do some work on them , so there's no update on those yet.

InProgress · #5 07-19-2008, 06:00 PM

Nice idea, so when's this library going to be available for download? Also, the models look good.

contrafibbularities · #6 07-20-2008, 11:17 AM

Thanks, InProgress!

I'm really not sure when the library will be available for download. 60 models done, app. 190 to go. It'll still take a little while, I guess, especially since I can't spend as much time on the library as I'd like to. But I'm working on it ...

contrafibbularities · #7 09-20-2008, 02:40 PM

24 more models completed here... It's taken me a while, and meanwhile the first balusters are starting to rot.

I've already prepared the basic shape of many more of these objects, but they still need to be tweaked with regard to their shape and polygon count. Slowly but surely this library is growing...