When I do the alt+s scale it creates a thickened shell instead of intersecting planks. This makes it impossible to seperate islands with l later.
Did you separate the arch of the cylinder from its ends before Extruding -> Alt + S? Starting at 18:45 in the video?
that was the issue thanks.
Could you give me some pointers. I am most interested in creating a 3d world with a level of detail similar to an early 2000's game. Low res textures and angular polygons. There was a very precise felling about those graphics. I am not seeing anyone modeling in that style, is it more difficult than making objects with lots of detail? Which tutorials do you recommend to start that learning?
Sure, I'd be happy to! I know the aesthetic you're talking about. One of my hobbies is playing through retro games from my childhood (PS1, N64, Gamecube..) Those games definitely had a specific, iconic look to them.
I think it's rare to see those kinds of graphics anymore because they represent limitations of past technology. Back then graphics had to be polygonal and sharp because game engines couldn't compute very geometry in 3D models. So the style was born out of necessity rather than choice.
Now we have much more powerful computers and game engines that hinder models' polycounts far less. This is why you see most people modeling higher resolution characters, props, environments, etc. Today we can "create what we see" so-to-speak. Back in the early 2000's we had to visually simplify and fake a lot of shapes due to the limitations.
You may find this youtube playlist enlightening. He examines the evolution of 3D game models through the years.
I recommend this course: https://cgcookie.com/course/creating-mini-tanks-for-a-mobile-game