Architecture Tutorials

  1. Tutorial Index
  2. General Half-Life 2
  3. Architecture
2D Skybox
Uses basic brushes to construct a 'sky' and gives the impression of being outside.
3D Skybox
Construct a detailed surrounding area to your maps, outside of the playable area.
Advanced Destruction
A really good guide on making a realistic broken wall.
Advanced Displacement
Some neat tips and tricks to using displacement, you may not have seen these.
Arch Tool
A look at what you can do with the Arch tool in Hammer.
Architecture Detail 1
A simple guide on how to add a curved corner to a room.
Basic Terrain Creation
Runs you through creating basic terrain.
Better Truss Supports
Aimed at the more novice end, a full guide on creating better truss like supports.
Broken Wall
An engine friendly method of creating a broken wall.
Creating Cliffs
A quick run through a technique on creating displacement cliffs.
Creating Domes
Domes don't just have to be models, create a brush based version.
Detailing Walls - Part 1
What to do with those bland walls in your map, from idea to paper to hammer- This is the first half of two tutorials on adding some pizzazz to your bland walls.
Displacement Sculpting
A look at the new displacement 'Sculpting' tool that was released with Left 4 Dead 2.
Door Ways
Often neglected but very useful, doorways help give the map a polished look and they are very easy to do.
Double Door Frames
Very similar to the above but shows you how to create space for two doors to open at once.
Lathing (Part 1 of 3)
Some advanced brushwork techniques - The spindle.
Lathing (Part 2 of 3)
Part two of the lathing guides, creating a vase-like object.
Modern Building Support Theory
Understanding how modern building supports can be applied to a map.
Practical Cliffs
This is an excellent in depth look at different cliff techniques.
Prison Guard Area
Takes you through constructing the prison guard booths seen in dm_lockdown.
Realistic Brick Wall Destruction
Creating realistic destruction effects.
Reset Displacement
A simple way to get your displacements back to square one without destroying them first.
Rounded Pipes
Using the Torus tool you can create rounded pipes from brushes, also explains how to optimise them.
Spiral Stairs
Try it again but on stairs.
Stairs
Detailed look at the best methods to creating a simple set of stairs.
Using Paint Alpha
Makes your displacements look much sweeter, blends two texture together.
Vertex Tool
If you need to make slanted brushes connect this tutorial will show you the best method.