Attached Link: Modeling Tutorial: Building A Round Starburst Window And Wall Structure (NO Booleans)

Quickly and easily model a round, intricate window design into a wall, without any need for messy booleans, or mesh cleanup.  This can be used to provide interesting architectural impact to an interior scene, or for creating some cool lighting effects in an indoor render.

While this tutorial does contain certain tools which are specific to 3dsmax, I believe that most of the techniques shown here can also be done in other modeling packages, like Blender.

Blender Users:  A friend of mine explained to me how you could achieve a similar  "Starburst" effect, like the one you see done with procedural topology in this video, inside Blender...

• Create a tube or cylinder cap as shown in the vid, then subdivide all but the outer edges.
• Apply a subsurf modifier, and finally a decimate modifier.  This will re-arrange the edges in the phyllotaxis pattern required.
• Extrude faces individually, and Ctrl-X to delete them.  The rest should be easy to follow.

I haven't personally tried it in Blender, so let me know if that actually works.

I have added annotations to this video to make it easier to understand the process, so be sure you have "annotations" enabled in your Youtube settings

Let me know if you have any questions, or comment on the Youtube channel.  Hope you find it useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm1jopN9t7k

Hi, guys.  Some good news for Blender users!  I went into Blender this morning and created the Starburst shape, just to be sure it could be done in that application as my friend suggested.  It's a few more steps than I thought, but here's how you would go about doing it:

• Create a hallow cylinder (this is done simply by creating a cylinder without end caps.
• Apply a solidify modifier, and adjust it to about the same shape as my tube in 3dsmax video.
• Remove all but the top end cap, and subdivide it once.
• Add a Subsurf modifier with 1 iteration of subdivision
• Add a Decimate modifier with 1 iteration under Un-Subdivide (that part is important)

Verify you have the starburst phyllotaxis pattern on your edges in Wireframe mode, then you are safe to collapse the stack, and proceed along with the video tutorial.  Everything else in the tutorial should be about the same as it is in 3dsmax. 

I've actually never considered following a 3dsmax tutorial in Blender.  I knew the two were similar, but I always felt I would become confused by it. Not the case here!  Once I understood the modifiers needed to get those flower-like edges, the rest was cake!

Great tutorial, and really interesting architectural design!  If you don't mind, I think I'll actually make an interior scene from this!

Calling all Blender users looking to follow this tutorial with ease!

I've recently discovered some amazing modeling tools for Blender which match some of the modeling tools you see being used here in 3dsmax!

The great folks over in the Blender Forum of this website are amazingly helpful and kind, and thanks to them, I've downloaded and installed some addons for Blender today that I didn't know existed!

I urge you to try out the amazing EWOCprojects script addons for Blender!  These great addons do NOT ship natively with the 2.71 Blender download, so you need to download them separately on your own, but they are FREE, and well worth it!

This package of addons includes tools like "StraightenPlus", which will allow you to instantly, automatically, straighten an edge loop along a model, in the same manner you see done by this user in 3dsmax!  Previously, this task was possible, but not simple, to accomplish in Blender.  Trust me, these addons are great!  When used together with the native Blender Loop Tools, you will have the ability to do just about everything you see done here in this video for 3dsmax, and possibly even more!

I downloaded the addon package from this website, 100% FREE...

http://www.ewocprojects.be/scripts.html

Hopefully, I linked that correctly.  Thanks to heddheld in the Blender Forum for this great tip!

Good info, HMorton.  Thanks for the heads up.  I'm glad you found the video useful.  I wasn't sure if the phyllotaxis (starburst) geometry would prove problematic in other software applications; it's a preset procedural option in 3dsmax.  In the end, it's simply a mathematical edge reconstruction that could be done with the right modifiers.  I knew Blender would be able to do it, among others.

Cool addons.  I'm sure others will find them as useful as you have.

I have a tendency to get carried away sometimes, but really they are a great collection of addons for Blender, and I'm still very impressed by them.  I will say that I did experience a couple crashes while using them, but all in all they are worth their weight in gold!

Great tut, btw.  Thanks!

Attached Link: Window To The Spirit

Quote - Wanted to share my render with you, and thank you for a really great tutorial.  I would have never figured out how to get a cool window shape like this on my own!  Thanks again!  Here is my render result!

That turned out really good.  Nice work on the lighting too.  Lots of atmosphere and drama going on there.

Thank you!  You are a very talented, and your videos are great!