I’ve written before about why learning with a real problem is different from following tutorials. So, I’ve been thinking about how to give other people some of the project experience that taught me the most.
My solution was to give you a project.
That’s the idea behind my new course. I give you a brief which you can tackle as a whole or in parts. Then you can compare your approach with a detailed walkthrough of my thinking and scripting, like I’m right beside you showing you how I did it.
This is a peek at the project brief from the course.
Project Brief: The Winton Guest House
The building we’re working with is the Winton Guest House. It consists of six distinct structures, each with its own geometry, but connected to the others.
There are several different shapes to work through here. Some are fairly straightforward, while others take more thought. The useful part of the exercise is figuring out how to build them together in one script.
Where I started
When I look at a building I haven’t modeled before, I look for the “flow” in how the parts connect. I need somewhere to start and a way to use that geometry as I build the next part.
For this model, I started with the fireplace. It’s essentially a box, with another taller box above it for the chimney. That gave me a manageable piece of geometry to build first. From there, I could work outwards. I used the fireplace to position the living room, then the living room to position the garage. Each part gave me geometry I could reference as I built the next one.
Here’s how the different parts sit together:
The shapes themselves also become easier to approach when you break them down. Take the living room roof. I start with the living room outline at the top of the walls, make a smaller copy and move that copy up to the roof height. Lofting between the two profiles gives me the tapering roof.
Now I can change the roof’s slope by adjusting the height or the size of the upper profile. Those two curves give me a way to build and control a more complex shape.
I think the second bedroom is the hardest one, so I would leave that until last.
Of course, if you’d rather start with the living room, please do so. The fireplace is where I started, but finding your own order is part of the project. You’ll have to decide what each part of your script needs from the others.
Practicing your own modelling decisions
In the course, you’ll practice breaking down the building into shapes you can work with, choosing where to start and deciding how each part relates. You can try a part yourself, compare it with my walkthrough, then move on to the next one. Or have a go at the whole building first.
You can of course “cheat” by just looking at my walkthrough but that may won’t help you learn much. The whole point here is to be uncomfortable and make your own modelling decisions to get better at Grasshopper.
You should already be comfortable connecting components, using sliders and creating basic geometry. If you’ve learned those basics and want more practice deciding how to build a model of your own, consider taking the course.
Happy scripting!
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