Modeling a Low Poly House. Tutorial by David Goodman

Approximate time to complete: 1 hour

Level: Beginner to Advanced

Start with a plane 320x240 in the top view port. The segments should be set to 16 x 12 and line up with four grid boxes each. more or less

Select the polys that will comprise the general shape of your house. Don't worry about walkways, driveways, etc. at this point.

Extrude these polys up about 4 to 6 inches in scale. Just eye it for now.

Extrude up two more times. Make sure the first extrusion in this set is high (like 2 real world feet) and the second extrusion is not so high. This larger area will become a brick veneer wainscot later on.

The next up extrusion will give the window heights. The next two will give the space between the tops of the windows and the roof trim.

Select all of the top polys that make up the roof trim.

Extrude these polys to give a scale of around 1-2 real world inches. With these polys selected extrude (local normal) using the box click area so you can choose whether you will use "by group", "by local normal" or "by polygon".While the polys are still selected, open up the material editor and make a white material. Apply it and assign a UVW map of BOX. In the material editor rename the default material to "trim".

Select all of the polys that will make up the brick wainscot. Make sure you don't select or de-select the polys where the front door and garage door will be later.

Extrude to a real world scale of around 4 inches.

Select the polys that will make the porch, walk and driveway. Extrude up about 4 inches. Try to make the surface a little lower than the houses foundation.

Select two polys at the rear of the house where you want a fireplace chimney to go.

With these polys selected extrude (local normal) using the box click area so you can choose whether you will use "by group", "by local normal" or "by polygon". Extrude up 25 units 5 times. With the top two polys selected, BEVEL with these settings: Height = 0, Outline Amount = any negative number to give the appropriate thickness to the walls.

With the top polys selected, extrude down to make the holes.

Select the top group of polys and cut a line about 4 inches down from the top. Select each on individually and extrude out (by polygon) to make a nice lip around the top.

Select the lines in the porch and walkway.

Using the extrude tool, extrude the lines down about -1 and base width of about .2 - If it doesn't look right, then adjust to give a crack that appears to be around 1 inch wide.

Test Render

Test Render

Making the roof is a cheat since the goal was to make the ENTIRE model from a single plane. But this is just faster and makes more sense overall.

Start with a line and make a triangle like in the image. Position the triangle to the left side of the house, slightly past the walls to create an overhang.

Apply an extrude modifier and extract it until it overhangs the right side of the house like in the next image.

You can give it as many segments as you like. I used around 14 in case I want to do something with the roof later.

Another view of the extrusion.

Select the two end polys and extrude inwardly to where the faces line up approximately with the sides of the house.

While these polys are still selected, you can apply a UVW map and assign a texture or color.

Attach the roof to the rest of the house.

Okay, my eye wasn't quite on target when I extruded my house shape. The walls are not high enough to give a proper scale. So, go to sub-object mode and select the vertices as shown here. Move them up until the scale looks right to you. Don't worry about stretching the faces since we'll apply new UVW maps later anyway.

Select all of the faces that make up the garage entry.

Extrude them inward into the house as far back as you like without exiting the house's back wall.

Now with the garage door faces still selected, click on "detach". Name the new object whatever you like. I named it garage door.

Reselect the garage door and convert it to an editable poly. Select all of the faces and choose the Bevel selection box. Set the "by polygon" selection and extrude a small amount. Adjust the outline to get something similar in the image.

Apply a UVW map and apply a color or map. You can now move it back up to the front of the garage and re-attach it to the house or leave it as an animatable object.

Test Render

Select all of the faces where the front door will be cut in. Using the slice plane tool, create a door are trim and add lines where the actual door will be so we can make beveled panels later.

Select the polys around the door that make up the trim. Assign the "trim" material and a UVW map if you intend to apply a bitmap texture later.

Select the polys that make up your door and bevel them like the image. You can now add a UVW map and put a material or color to the door if you wish. I just used the "trim" color.

Test Render

Test Render

Select all of the polys where the windows will go. Using the slice plane tool, subdivide until you get a grid similar to the one shown in this image.

Select only the polys that will make up the window and apply a lattice modifier. De-Select "apply to whole mesh", choose "struts only from edges" and lower the radius to .5

Test Render with Windows

To add glass to the windows, simply go to sub-object mode "polygons" and select ALL of them. Add a "cap holes" modifier and collapse the stack. Go back to poly mode and select the polys where the window panes are. You can now assign a glass material!

To render like my final example below, you need to turn on "force two sided" in the render or make the wall's material two sided. Also, I traced a line around the interior of the house and extruded it into a box to make the floor.

Add some maps, do some more detail cuts and put in some lighting. You should get something similar to this.

Poly count: 2648

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