10
Constructing the little house
I start building the smaller house, employing the
same technique that I used for the fence. I use the rough
mock-up of the building as a guide, and lay boards on top
of that until all of the walls are covered. I make sure to
generate enough colour variation to make the building
look interesting, and add small nails to the boards using a
combination of the Sphere Clay tool and clone-repeating.9
Installing the picket fence around the perimeter
I switch to the Cube tool to make the fence, editing the tool until it matches
the proportions of one of the wooden boards. Then I stamp it in place with Guides
enabled to make sure it’s angled correctly. Next, I use the Cube tool in Subtract mode
to create a pointed end. I turn on Surface Snapping in the Guides and use a small
brush to sculpt in the details of the wood, before colouring it with the Spray Color
tool. I repeat this process for the other elements in the fence and then clone away!
8
Copying and repurposing elements
If you draw and sculpt every element in your scene as individual, highly detailed objects, you’ll quickly hit the limit of the Thermometer.
This is an important tool that enables you to gain a quick overview of what elements in your scene could benefit from being optimised. You can
activate the Thermometer in the Guides section of your tool bar. Alternatively, you could choose to sculpt a few detailed elements and then clone
them. You’d then be able to carry on almost indefinitely without receiving much feedback from the Thermometer. And by rotating, mirroring,
scaling and styling these elements, rock can be turned into stone, stone to water, and so on.
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