Note. Tutorial written for |2.30 < blender < 2.40| some tools are used differently with later versions (ex. Face loop select is now ALT+RMB (Right mouse button). I'll fix this sometime.
Start by deleting the default plane. Go to front view and add a new one. "Space -> Add -> Mesh -> Plane". Delete the upper left verticle, then hold the CTRL-key and move the remaining vertices as shown in pic below.
Select all vertices by pressing the A-key and move them away from the crosshair. IMPORTANT NOTE! The horisontal line determine how much the screw loses in radius each turn. So if you want an even spiral make sure that you move the object to spinn according to: "number of turns" * "horisontal length" from the crosshair. In my example I'm going to spin it three turns so I move my object 3 * 1 units away because the horisontal line is 1 unit long. See pic.
Now go to the edit menu (F9) and do the following settings. Then press screw. The steps determines how many steps the screw takes/turn (DUH!:)
You should get something like this.
Now, press '.' to select the crosshair as pivot point. Select all vertices. Press 'S' to get the size tool, then press 'Z' to force it to only change in the Z-axle, then press 0 (zero) and enter. This flattens our beutiful spiral
Change to topview (Num 7) and you can see the spiral pattern. If you have deselected the vertices select all of them again. Then press 'W' and choose "Remove Doubles".
Then press 'CTRL-N', still with all vertices selected. Check the box that pops up.
It's time to give our baby some depth. Press 'K' to get the knife tool and choos "Face Loop Cut". Move the pointer to one of the edges going away from the centre which gives you a line that follows the spiral. Left Click and now you can choose how far from the edge you want to cut. Now here you may , even though we did the last step, notice that the line does not go evenly throughout the whole spiral. If so, right click then Tab out and back in again then give it another try. Should work this time. Cut about 80 (20) % from the edge.
Then do a cut at the other edge, try to make it mach the first one. You now have something like this.
Press the K-key again to get up the knife menu. This time however we choose "Face Loop Select". Select the middle spiral but pointing just like with the Loop Cut tool.
Now go back to front view and extrude 'E' the selected vertices a bit. Pressing the Z-key makes it move straight and you can press and hold CTRL and SHIFT to get better control. Here I use 0.3.
From here on it's mostly alot of fiddling so if youre tired I'll wait a bit
...
Back? OK then let's move on. Move the 3D window so that you get a good view of the center, and yes, we have a hole. At the end of the spiral you can see a small wall that has emerged when we extruded (if you can't see it select "Draw Faces" in the Edit window) select the upper two verteces amd press 'X'. Choose "Edges"
Time to fill that hole. Start at the very center and start selecting 4 vertices at a time and then press 'F' to make a new face (ALWAYS try to get 4 as triangles makes Suzanne angry, and believe me you do not want to see her mad). Stop when it looks like the image.
Make sure you have the two vertices selected above selected and press 'F'. This creates a new line. Without deselecting anything press 'W' and choose "Subdivide". You now have this.
Now you can select the vertices and fill the triangle, only now it's not a triangle but a quad. However, this little trick provides os with a problem because we want fill the last little hole but we have to resort to triangles to do this. What we do instead is press 'K' again, choose "Face Loop Cut" and do a cut in the middle (50 %) of the spiral. Remember, holding CTRL down helps selecting where your cut should land.
Now we're just two quads from being done. But before you fill them select the bottom edge of the spiral (se image)and move it a bit up (front view) . About half the way is good. This will make for a smoother transaction. It should look like this.
Almost done. Fill the hole. Then select the two vertices in the middle of what we just filled. Go to top view and move them up (See pic).
Make sure that the vertices indicated on image below does not go outside the "line" of that area. If so move them towards the center of the "valley".
A little self praise is in order. TAB out of edit mode. Go to the edit window and press "SubSurf", select 2 subdiv. Also press smooth. Now look at your creation. If there are any strange black spots TAB into edit mode again . Select all vertices and press 'CTRL-N' to recalculate the normals. Then TAB out. If this was all you wanted to learn from this tutorial you can stop reading here as the next part is only needed to make the pedestal.
NOW STOP FEELING SO GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF. We who are still here, we have alot left to do. Deselect "SubSurf" and go back into edit mode. Go to front view and and select all vertices. Move them up a bit.
Make sure you have the crosshair selected as pivot point by pressing '.'. Press 'SHIFT-D' to duplicate all vertices. Right click (ONCE!) then press 'M'. Select "Global Z" and you have now have a duplicate on the other side of the croasshair.
Press 'W' and select "Remove Doubles" just to make sure. At the widest point of our thing start selecting four vertices at a time to make them a face 'F' (TIP. The easiest way is to go to top view and select to pairs at a time with the box tool 'B', try it)
Stop when you've come all the way round and you have something that looks like this.
TAB out of edit mode. Press set smooth in the edit window then enable "SubSurf". If there are any blackies du as before with the 'CTRL-N'. Congratulations! You're now finished with part one!
