Damian Walker

Personal Web Pages

First Steps in Architecture

Saxon church with tower.

Monday, 8th October 2012

For a brief time I was addicted to Minecraft. I'd use the game to build little mediaeval houses and towns, classic temples, windmills and other things: its "creative mode" is like having a virtual Lego set. The bonus when building things on a public server is that other players get to wander around your creations too!

After a while, I got fed up with Minecraft's limitations. I was also made an admin on the public server I played on, and was henceforth expected to protect the virtual world from digital vandalism, and to police other players - most of whom were a good 20 years younger than me. Suddenly my building wasn't that much fun any more. So I turned to proper 3D modelling.

My first project was a little Saxon church. Some of the churches built by the Anglo-Saxons had very simple box-like forms, and would make a good first project. After studying pictures of some churches, including the magnificent example from Bradford-on-Avon, I set to work.

These pictures include the church in various forms: the simple box-like form with a chancel, the addition of an apse and a tower, and a little village scene with questionable looking cottages.