Modeling

• Topology

Before starting a composition compile reference images and make a basic sketch of the final composition in terms of disposition and arrangement.

Start by boxing out the different elements with very rough primitive shapes until the entire composition is boxed out.

Pay attention to the scale of items and their proportions in regard to other elements.

Take every element piece by piece into several level of details : rough, medium, fine. Cycle the entire scene through a level of detail before moving on to the next.

Inset faces and extrude them and scale them down along the normal to get quick good looking volumes.

Loop cuts CTRL + R are a fast way to add topology but don't add too much to stay in low poly.

Beams are useful elements on buildings to join parts together and hide overlaps.

Use the Mirror and Solidify Modifiers to speed up workflow on basic shapes and apply them only to break the symmetry and add finer details (destructive modeling).

Moving vertices around a little randomly and rotating/scaling loop-cuts helps to give character really fast and break the initial rigidity of shapes.

The Proportional Edit tool can be handy in some cases.

Use Select Random and Randomize to immediately add a lot of chaotic, uncontrolled randomness to the entire mesh.

Blender converts everything to triangles when rendering.

Quads are easier to work with because they can be easily loop cut.

N-Gons are shaded correctly as long as they are on the same surface.

Generally best to model with Quads.

If all vertices of the quads are not all on the same plane they will be shaded weirdly. Select all and scale to 0 along local appropriate axis.

When creating linked duplicates with ALT + D any changes made into Object mode are instance-specific but changes made in Edit mode update all instances.

Proportional editing O helps a lot to move/rotate parts of meshes together.

Duplicate elements SHIFT + D and detach P (to create primitives that will become roofs, windows, doors, etc.)

Apply all modifiers on a multiple selection with Convert > Mesh.

Trees and landscapes can be sculpted with a finer mesh and then decimated using a modifier to bring them back down to Low Poly.

To scale down a shape that goes in multiple directions (like a twisted beam), switch to Edit Mode and use ALT + S to scale along the normals with every vertex selected.

Use CTRL + RIGHT CLICK to extrude along a path given by your clicks. This is very handy for extruding along crude curves created on the fly (handles, etc.)

Sometimes its simpler to use a plane then knife your shape roughly through it making use of mirror modifiers for symmetry and to create thickness

Use the knife again to break down N-gons into quads

• Go into side view and flatten each sides after adding the randomness. They often tend to stick out too much which doesn't look very good in flat shading.

• Having the stones slightly overlap each other helps to avoid light sources leaking through the wall.

• Add dents by beveling a vertex and joining the two unconnected center vertices

Use CTRL + P to parent a selection to the active object (opens the parenting menu).

It's handy to parent a selection of meshes composing an object to an empty to be able to move the empty to place and move the object easily afterwards.

When placing such empties, be wary of the origin point of the empty as snapping to faces afterward will use that empty's origin.