This chapter (Modelling Details) is basically a walk through chapter which has the
reader building a window, chair and a door, step by step. I enjoyed this chapter as it
actually allowed the use of some of the Blender features which chapters previously had
been limited in.
A brief description of level of detail was explained and why it helps to plan the
project so that only the things that will be needed will be modelled and any extraneous
details are not rendered or modelled. Also explained is the importance of the position
of the camera which was briefly mentioned.
Good use was mode of various modifiers and various faces and edge loops techniques were
used to model the Windows, Door and a chair.
Chapter 6 (Modelling Furniture) covers the techniques for modelling and planning and
organising furniture. A discussion is had to discover when it is better to make your
own models or use pre-made libraries of models. Various websites are mentioned that have
repositories of models for the user to import/open in Blender.
Strangely though the official Blender Model Repository is not included in the list of
urls included.
Instructions on how to append and convert various non Blender format files in ways that
allow them to be used within Blender are described and the append navigation techniques
are described.
The difference between Appending and Linking files within Blender is explained.
Unfortunately proxy objects don't seem to be mentioned and this would be very useful
when working with Linked files.
Next the chapter moves on to modelling a chair and a sofa and they are very simple
designs but it's useful for getting to grips with certain modelling approaches. A handy
use of the loop cut and the subsurf modifier is used to show how to make Subsurf more
controllable in term of what things it curves.
This chapter could of done with more models to build and more links to some of the
better modelling sites would also have been useful.
Another mistake I noticed was at one point it was mentioned that selecting vertices
that were obscured behind other vertice was only possible while in Wire display mode,
this is simply not true, "occlude background geometry button" allows this and it is on
the 3D Viewport header bar (it's the icon of a box).
