How would you model this loft extrusion type shape

[alias_marks]

Hey guys, hope everyone had a good weekend. Quick modeling question here. I'm trying to get this shape right but am having trouble getting it to bank right with lofts, sweeps, or path deforms... anyone care to take a stab at how to model this smoothly?

 

Ideally I'd like to keep it flexible, as a major point in modeling it is so we can look at it in 3d an potentially play around with chaining the path and heights etc.

 

Thanks ahead of time for taking a look and for any suggestions. Much appreciated.

 

 

 

Edit:

The challenge is kind of to make it line up with this floor plan as well... which has the shape kind of bulging and changing profiles along the way...

 

 

Mike

Edited July 12, 2010 by alias_marks

[Ricardo Eloy]

I guess I'd probably create a single face and go extruding an edge to form a rough version of the curve. Then, I'd turbosmooth it and apply a VRayDisplacementMod to create the volume and the holes (with water level) OR apply another edit poly so I could select the face loops that make for holes, delete them and apply a shell mod.

[Professor]

Another option: Create line, manipulate vertices into basic shape, make into renderable rectangle, convert to poly, rotate edges, turbosmooth, delete polygons. I created the attached image in about 20 minutes with this option. Rough, but generally the right shape.[ATTACH=CONFIG]38069[/ATTACH]

[alias_marks]

Hey guys, thanks for the tips. Using a face for a loft and then using the shell modifier was a much better option that the boxes I was trying to loft... thanks for the face + shell suggestion Rick...

 

Scott, thanks for taking the time to try it out, much appreciated. I started it the same way you suggested by creating a spline to outline the basic shape...

 

For anyone interested, thought I'd share how I ended up doing it...

 

I tried to stay away from collapsing to edit poly and deleting faces, and tried to keep it as parametric as possible so It could be changed rather quickly, as I knew my client was going to be interested in changing on the fly..

 

I used a multi shape loft without banking or contours, and built it from 6 different instanced cross sections. I then molded into place by changing the orientation of the cross sections along the loft - below*

 

 

At the end of the modeling I was able to jump between these two kinds of options below in a couple sec's and change modify at will..

 

 

 

Cheers guys, thanks again for the suggestions. Much appreciated.

 

Edit: bugger.. I hate how images get re sized smaller on photobucket or whatever so you can't see the full size screen grabs...

 

Added the loft settings attached...

Edited July 14, 2010 by alias_marks

[Professor]

Great! Looks good. I like your option of being able to change it at will. Good choice.