Hey Adam. Thanks so much for putting this together! It was a big help. There are a few areas I would have to do differently to stay within the classical rules for constructing the column, but I think you've given me some really great direction that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. Would it make sense to use a 20 sides for the capital and base, and then use SubD to smooth it all out instead of adding more space between the shaft and top like you did? (It's nitpicky, I know, but as an architect these little intricacies matter)
Indeed. This is why I made a part 2 which involved SUbD. The problem is that you have to model the entire fluted area differently in order for SUbD to work cleanly. As I said in the video, it's cheating it to use Curviloft to cure the ugly connection. The other way to do it would be to model the whole tapered column without fluting (with the same segments as the base and capital) and then use a boolean operation to cut in the flutes. The down side with that is that it messes up the geometry. It looks visually okay to present out of sketchup, but if you want to unwrap it and texture paint it, it's too messy for that. In part 2 I'm showing how to model it cleanly with all quads and how to unwrap it for painting in Substance Painter. Here's a sneak peek. - www.dropbox.com/s/vmc5t29naz3qkoi/Doric%20Column.png?dl=0
Here is what I was able to come up with. I only used 20 sides on the base and capitol, but for my purposes, it should work out ok. I've made some changes to what you did in the video, to fit the design with what I would use in one of my homes; but I wouldn't have been able to do this without your help! Thanks so much! www.dropbox.com/s/tjxkzl5347xdzwc/Doric%20Column.skp?dl=0