September 2017

School started up in the middle of August, so I slowed down on the project. However, there was a long weekend and a random vacation day in September, so I got a lot done!

The long-demolished smoke stack with a terra cotta cap. The smoke particles are from the UE4 starter content. 

Unhappy with the look of my 6x6 red floor tile, I learned how to create a custom normals map using Blender. This allows the use of a texture file to create detail in the surface of the tile (or any surface) instead of millions of polygons of actual geometry. I used the tutorial from Ionwe at https://youtu.be/o-OgkrWX94I. First, I had Blender bake a normals texture:

Then, I added it to the tile texture I made earlier: 

Not perfect, but much better!

This screenshot also shows the brick pillar I made out of individual bricks. This ended up taking way too much time, even with multiplying each brick course in Blender. 









These are the walls in the typewriting classroom. Around this time, I switched the floor from the maple texture from the UE4 starter content to the wood floor in the PolyPixel Freebie Pack. 







The doors and walls for the bathroom stalls are in the building plans, but the actual fixtures are not included. I traced the doors and nickel hardware, used unit conversion for the measurements of the marble stalls, and used a mixture of reference photos and imagination for the fixtures. I have no idea if the urinals or mirrors had Tudor arches, but it fits in context of the project!

Time to make auditorium seats! I used these reference photos:

... modeled them in Blender:

And finally, filled the balcony:

Using the same technique for the hall tiles, I made stair treads based on this reference photo: 

... and here they are on the stairs to the tower:

Lockers for the locker room:

I'm calling these the "stair walls." I'm not sure if that is the correct term, but I created them in Blender all in one piece. 

It is at this point that I started disliking how my early models looked, and gave them another try. This is my second attempt at the plaster work over the auditorium doors. This new model is the one upon which I based the plaster work around the windows in the auditorium as well. 

The brass rails in the auditorium balcony:

Just as it was in the bathrooms, the stalls are clearly marked in the building plans, but the hardware is missing. I used reference photos to create these shower stalls:

The building plans have details for a wainscot in the principal's office that includes Tudor arches, but I know from my experience in the building that it was not constructed this way. A quick trip to the school for a reference photo ... 

... resulted in the office partition, partially traced from that wainscot in the plans: 

And that's the end of September!