October 2017

October found some successes and failures in freehand modeling. The big take-away: modeling by hand is HARD! 

First, I scaled the successful door arches from last month to fit the auditorium windows. 

I also created an exterior auditorium door with a functioning/animated push bar. 

I started the Biology window in August, but got good enough at Blender to actually complete it this month. The difficulty came in extruding the corners, which I did not initially realize was a possibility. 

This is an abandoned attempt to model the tower ornament myself in Blender:

   

In the end, I used photogrammetry instead. This is the combination of 25 photographs:

It was time to start on the main entrance. The arch was traced from the Royer blueprints while the owl and ornament just below are photogrammetry .

I used a photo from the 1926 Rosemary to create the L-shaped desk in the main office.

The auditorium lanterns were tricky. I based them off two relatively unclear photos. I have been unable to find these fixtures in any contemporary lighting catalogs, or in any other building, which makes me suspect that they were created specifically for the high school. 

I made a trip to the school in late September during which I took many reference photos. Some of those were useful to create the wall in the Principal's office. I took over 40 photos of the proscenium that I hoped to use for photogrammetry, but the lighting was not sufficient to yield acceptable results. Instead, I modeled the crest in Blender manually. 

The pillars holding up the auditorium balcony are not in the original plans, so I had to use photos references to create them in Blender. They did not lightmap well (ie, the brown splotches), but they serve their purpose. 

Finally, I made a return trip to the Champaign County Archives to scan their copies of the original floorplans. These are different from the blueprints because they are not as detailed. My suspicion is that they were created by Royer's firm to show to the community what the overall layout of the building would be. I had photocopies of these from 2001, but they were photocopied at 100% onto tabloid paper, and none of them actually fit, so they are in halves. I considered rescanning the photocopies, but instead I scanned the originals on their large-format scanner. 

The ground floor plan. Note that the gym wing with the pool is included, as well as a space for a 3-story "future extension" which would make the building symmetrical. 

The first floor plan, again with the gym addition. 

Finally, the second floor plans. 

Remember, these floor plans include the gym addition. In 1914, the south wing of the building (on the right side of the plans) ended with the Men's teachers room. This photo from the 1915 Rosemary serves as confirmation. 

I created a simple easel in Blender, and used it to display the scanned versions of the floor plans as if they were there to direct first-time visitors to the new building. 

Over the month of October, I greatly improved my skills in Blender, but I know my limits! I can easily trace over a geometric design with acceptable results (the main entrance arch, for example). If accuracy is not important, I can also create something using a photo reference (the easel, main office desk, or proscenium crest). The detailed exterior limestone carvings, however, are more organic in nature, so I will rely on photogrammetry to reproduce them (the tower ornaments and owls).