3D Modelling a Tower - Initial Thoughts and Reference Gathering

Another thing I will 3D model is a tower. This is something I planned out at the same time as the Revolver, but since that model was more demanding, I haven't had to chance to start modelling yet.

Here is the reference I gathered. I started by finding towers from cathedrals from the neo gothic and classical periods. The cathedrals I searched were Ypres Cathedral, Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and various other cathedrals from around Europe.

I then went and looked at a few medieval towers to try and find a good base shape for my tower. Since the first page of reference I gathered was mainly for the spire of the tower, the second page I dedicated for deciding what the walls of the tower would look like.

I also added a third page in which I tried out an idea I had for the tower. Going off some of the knowledge on the wiki page powered by the fandom of the Dark Towers series by Stephen King, I decided that the tower would have a rainbow window in the centre. I decided that I would include this, as this tower is what I will use on the poster for the Professional Practice task 2 poster. Having a rainbow window to reflect the light on the poster is something that I'm interested in adding, so I based the design around this idea.

Here is the complete design. I decided the spire would have two layers to make it less usual and more fantasy. Further down the tower at the base, I decided to incorporate some flying buttresses, which I liked a lot about Ypres Cathedral. I made sure these were geometric and easy to model, so that I wouldn't have to spend too much time will fiddly details.

I also made sure that the geometry is able to be duplicated to complete the tower.

I took the image into Photoshop and started planning out how I'll make the geometry. I decided that the flying buttresses will be separate so I can easily duplicate and place them around.

I also planned out the tower segments, and how I would connect them together.

For the top spire, I've decided that I will use a cone and extrude some of the faces out to add more details to the roof.

With this drawing scanned in and ready to start modelling, I'll be sure to start modelling the tower whilst UVing my revolver.