I really like your introduction to modeling, Jonathan, and your explanation of the modifiers. Very useful. However, I agree with another poster on here that this is way too complex for an unassisted modeling task. While I am not new to Blender, I am new to modeling objects that rely on array modifiers. I find that the introduction to modeling in the fundamentals and the introduction to mesh modifiers preceding this exercise is definitely insufficient to make new users comfortable with completing this task. Namely, because there has not been any actual modeling tutorials at all in the preceding material with the exception of the chain (which did not explain how to create the initial link). A step-by-step tutorial on creating the column (rather than a walk-through) would have been a nice addition to this section.

New users generally cannot propel themselves into full-on, unassisted modeling of such a complex object without first being shown how. If it wasn't for an ancient tutorial by Andrew Price (Blender Guru) on the subject of modeling a wheel that I had completed years ago, I would be completely lost as to where to start. Even so, I feel rather lost because I've forgotten most of the technique (which is quite particular for a wheel). On the other hand, if this was a exercise to model a chess piece, a cup, or a teapot, I could see that being a potentially unassisted task. However, looking back to some introduction to 3DS Max material, they actually show you how to model an apple, some planets, and then a chess piece to get you started and familiar with the modeling process. There really has not been anything similar yet in the learning flows on modeling. I feel the same way about the exercise following the Fundamentals of Texturing course. Without having painted even a single, real model by step by step instruction, we are unexpectedly tasked with hand painting an axe. This task is near-impossible without first watching the summary video of it.

I personally believe there should definitely be a step-by-step tutorial to establish users in modeling a wheel, and then task them with creating their own wheel afterwards. (BTW, if you do make a tutorial for this, I think the treads should be modeled as one piece with the tire wall, as Andrew Price did. This way the tire can be more natural if desired and avoid intersecting geometry.) :-)

Thanks for your time in reading this feedback; I hope it will be helpful. I really have enjoyed the material on CG Cookie thus far, your thorough explanations of Blender, and I look forward to continued learning on here.

-Adam

Hi,

love the videos so far, very well explained and easy to understand, even the harder courses. Keep it up, it's great fun to learn a new skill this way!

(edit: all the pictures apear compressed/streched, but to see them 'non-streched' just click on them)

1. This is my (very) basic model for the rim, with a non scaled empty assinged as the object offset in the array modifier.

2. When I now increase the count to 30 and rotate the empty for 12 degrees (360 (degrees) / 30 (number of dublicates)) it creates a circle.

3. Now, when I move the empty around, I can (as long as merge and first last is enabled) create a round outer circle, but then the inner faces overlap which creates a few     problems later on in the modeling and texturing process.

4. Another way would be to make the inner circle round, but then I have a different problem: The outer circle has a lot of gaps, which I could fill after applying the             modifier but it would take ages to fill all of them and I get a lot of triangles. 

So what is the best option here? Is there a way to avoid the overlapping faces, but not having to put a lot of time into fixing the mesh?  Or am I doing something completely wrong?  

Thank you for your time :)

-Why It doesn't even finish the loop?

-I tried all types of curves, even the one on the previous video? Why it doesn't do what I want???

I tried doing It in combination with the object offset, but It deforms and goes to nowhere, It doesn't make sense to me...

I ran into an unexpected issue that I figured out a workaround for, but was not sure how to correct well. When there an object that as an arbitrary example been scaled to say 0.333 in XYZ coordinates while the local scaling is 0.7. How might one swap these scalings between local and global. I want to preserve the total scaling which is 0.333 * 0.700, but I merely want the local to obtain the 0.333 scaling while the global scaling is the 0.7. 

This issue was apparent when 2 of 3 meshes and an empty object were at 1.0 scaling, but a 3rd mesh got a different scaling. In trying to apply an offset object (empty object) with the array modifier on the 3rd mesh the scaling got wacky. I was able to fix it by adjusting the empty object to the same scaling as the 3rd mesh, but it left the meshes with different scaling factors.