Last two days have been floor plans. This part is driving me a little nuts since it can be complicated, especially wall thickness, staircases, and multi-level rooms. I’m not gonna model the inside very much or texture it, but I want the building to be functional if I decide to go back later. This is the “skeleton” showing. After I have random rooms set up, I’ll do a little more research and make sure I have designated rooms appropriate for a City Hall in the 19th century, specifically for a city government in Virginia.

Did some work yesterday building the clock faces. There are a couple structural layers that I built. Behind the hands there is the decorative iron work attached to a supporting iron structure that mimics some of the lines of the front layer.

There are individual planes of glass in the center “flower” shape along with larger individual panes towards the outer part of the circle. The inner section has less of a frosted look.

Behind each face there are 12 spheres of light in place as temporary lamps. Because glass has to be replaced from time to time and is affected by the sun, I’m planning to add a subtle variation to different panes that can probably only be seen from behind. I can’t wait to add grime and textures to it! Ahh, delayed gratification…

Next up is setting up the final floor plan to look for any glaring mistakes in construction as well as making sure the entire structure fits into my city map plan.

I’d love to texture the building procedurally to have a variation in detail size, but I want more control. I’m not completely sure what direction I’m gonna go, but I may have to split the building up into many sections. I want dirt, drips, scratches, paint peeling – all that. I’ve been using Substance Painter recently, and I’m curious to see if I can integrate it in some way with such a large model.

Like I mentioned before, I got caught up in the clock design this weekend. Here is the final design I came up with. The faces will be 22 feet wide and be made of opalescent glass and iron. I plan to animate the hands in the future along with the machine inside. That’ll be a nice lesson for me in drivers, gears, and constraints.

Would love to hear thoughts on the design…

Started working on the back side of City Hall at the end of last week. I’m going on a little less reference than the front side since I don’t have an elevation drawing to work from, just the simple block shapes I had set up initially so there are more creative adjustments. I decided to add a colonnade/portico to the wings, but I might have them become additions that are built later in the building’s history, as if somebody discovered original architectural drawings that the first architect discarded. I’m also not sure if I will add pavilions at the end of the walkway or leave them open gazebo type structures.

I got caught up in the clock tower this weekend so that might be my next update. I’m figuring out what type of bells, chimes, and clock mechanisms are going in so that should be fun work. Lots of measuring and checking to see architectural milestones for the time period. I don’t want my building to be the biggest of the time.

Thanks guys! Until next time…

Down the road, I plan to add the building’s surroundings. Because this is a fictional history project, I’d like to build the area up in the timeline I imagine for the area with small houses popping up, followed by new roads and other buildings. I hope to use the area like a movie backlot where I can set up scenes to paint since this whole project is intended to get me back into traditional painting.

I didn’t mean to leave so much ground visible in the shot. Unfortunately, I want all of my progression shots to be at the same angle so maybe I can just crop them later.

Here’s a closer look at the entrance. The dual statues above the arch will be a native american and early Virginia settler.

Here is an update on the building with the sides in place. Needs windows still. Trying to decide how much style variation I want around the building. Also starting to think about motifs for sculptures and decorative stone work.

I’ve started work on the main centerpiece of Autumn, Virginia – City Hall. I designed this building in the Second Empire french architectural style, common for the 19th century when this building was “built.”

I’m constructing this building with extreme detail down to light fixtures and window panes so it will be a long project with headaches, I’m sure. Still, it’s worth doing, and I’m looking forward to it.

I modeled an early version of the building using the BoolTool in Blender before drawing the elevation so I could have something to work from. I’ll post some of those images later.

Here, though, is my current progress on the building so far, still considered the block in stage. I’d like to get the main parts in so I can see if I need to do any major changes. The back half of the building is not done yet. Once I have the blocking in done, I’m going to lay out the rooms. I want this to be as functional a building as possible since I’m always striving towards realism in my work. I added some simple lights inside just to give it a little life during the construction process. Thanks everyone!