First Post- Got Inspired by LOTR critiques Appreciated

#1

Hey all,

This is my first ever post so forgive any stupidity on my part :slight_smile:

I recently had a chance to see LOTR: Return of the King and became rather inspired by the scenes with Gondor in them, thus I wanted to make a CG something or another with similar architecture, I havn’t gotten too far yet, and am a novice when it comes to lighting and texturing, but consider myself decent at modeling, anyhow tell me what ya think and critiques are welcome :). Here are a couple of renders:



I plan on adding some stuff on the right of course but all I have had time to do is the door so far. I am not sure what the final render is going to look like, as this whole project is open to about any kind of change, I am just modeling as a think of things that fit.

BTW- Everything was done in Lightwave 7.5

If the pics are not working I made a quick website at Geocities and you can see them all here, just paste this link into your browser.
http://www.geocities.com/halfling85/CastleProject.html

#2

Looks very cool, but because of the aliasing problems you can clearly see that it´s Lightwave, hehe.

Keep it up, lovely details, looks very, very promising!

#3

Looks cool. Because of the clean modeling i can tell its lightwave. Looking forward to seeing some textures!

#4

I have done some more work on this thing and here are the pics. I was checking out the renders and I think I see what you are talking about as far as anti-aliasing… Alot of the details on the buildings are blurry in spots, which is rather annoying, I would like to consider something else to do a final render in… any suggestions?.. Critiques, Comments, and whatever else are welcome as always.

Here are the new pics showing the new parts of the model I have gotten done.



If the Images aren’t showing up in here for some reason other than me exceeding my bandwidth then you can see them (plus a few other shots of the old and one more of the new) here:
http://www.geocities.com/halfling85/CastleProject2.html

#5

How architecturally true are you attempting ot make these shots? the base idea is good, but a lot of the marble/stone kind of building usually has a much different feel to it. A lot of the “paneling” effect you have is more common in wood than in large stone buildings.

Look at Andrea palladio’s “The Four Books on Architecture” for some great details of stone work and detail in this regard.

#6

looking good so far…i think you can maybe make some of the panel borders metallic and the inside some other kind of stone/marble or something, should allow you to use the existing style and be believeable architecturally…my 2 cents

#7

The style looks good in my opinion. As some others have put it, there are several approaches to achieving a certain stone look. I guess the real trick in making it look realistic is if you pose it into a realistic style. For instance, the tower with the stairs leading up to the next level seems somewhat bare and unproductive. Maybe if additional paths/walkways lead to/from the tower or perhaps stairs leading off in another direction would be more suited. Granted this is a wip… I don’t expect perfection… yet :wink: Either way, I like the style, and like you said, you’re workin’ off inspiration, so continue with that flavor! Keep up the good work.

#8

Haven’t seen the film yet, but I definitly like what you’re doing here!

Just let your imagination flow, it’s coming good :slight_smile:

#9

but a lot of the marble/stone kind of building usually has a much different feel to it. A lot of the “paneling” effect you have is more common in wood than in large stone buildings.

Thx for the critiques, especially about the paneling, I actually learned how to do the paneling from a Mansion Hall tutorial that in fact was using wood as the base. So now I am in somewhat of a predicament because I want to keep the paneling but I want to stick with stonework, any ideas on how to remedy this are appreciated. I also found a site to look at for some ideas on basic stonework, you can check it out here:
http://www.drstoneworks.com/default.htm

…i think you can maybe make some of the panel borders metallic and the inside some other kind of stone/marble or something, should allow you to use the existing style and be believeable architecturally…

If you wouldn’t mind expanding on that a bit, I really think I could use what you are saying perhaps, I am not sure if I want to use metal or not though but if it fits I might do just that. The base was originally going to be a type of gritty sandstone and not so much marble or the type of stone you see used in say a traditional medieval castle.

Maybe if additional paths/walkways lead to/from the tower or perhaps stairs leading off in another direction would be more suited…

It is definately nowhere near complete but I had originally intended to leave the tower by itself, Now i am considering making it central, I am still going to leave the uppermost level alone but I might add either rope or stone bridges leading off from the first level onto other (perhaps larger) buildings.

I really appreciate all of the feedback, I will try and get some more done/changed on this.

#10

The stuff you added looks awesome. Is everything in this city going to be connected, or is there going to be seperate buildings with different styles?

#11

Classical Stonework… where to begin…

Well, first off, columns. Columns were rarely cut from one piece of marble, especially back in the day. They had very set proportions dependent on the type and style of column. There are five major column types: Etruscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. Each has very specific elements and sizes in proportion to it’s height. Right now the columns look like a doric style, but they are far too slender to be doric.

In general, stone work had three areas:
Rustication along the bottom levels, smooth block work and columns in the middle, and entablature and detail work at the top.

Like this or this

Rustication could vary in stule and stregnth, but it generally continued until the base of a column

Most stone work itself is very much large blocks either as b locks of stone or as “revetment.” Many of the roman structures were marbale revetment on concrete and brick buildings. [of note: poured concrete technology was lost at the fall or Rome and not rediscovered until the 1800s.] Being that this is stone blocks, it should have some kind of joint work evident, but only when close up or in humid or rainy climates. Look at pictures of the Washington Monument for examples of how this might look.

Finally, the partial sphere at the top of your model is a good start, but is missing the transfer from the column capital through the entablature. e.g. The jefferson Memorial:

or the Pantheon:

I hope some of this helps you. Of course, you can go the oposite direction in saying “nope. gonna go outside the lines.”

I’m looking forward to where you take all this :slight_smile: GOod luck!

#12

Thanks very much for all of those pics, I think I am going to go back and spend a little time just redesigning/replacing the columns :). I am still unsure what to do as far as the paneling though :(. I went through yesterday and (painstakingly) selected all of the paneling polys and gave them a different surface name so that I could at least change there surface if I wished. But I am not sure if I should even keep all of the paneling, in which case I will have to go back and make some MAJOR changes. Not going to do anything drastic yet, so I will content myself to worry about some of the other stuff for now.

#13

Here’s some more detail on the classical orders:

http://www.traditional-building.com/article/column.htm

http://www.cmhpf.org/kids/dictionary/ClassicalOrders.html

http://www.archaeolink.com/ancient%20greek_roman_classical_architectu.htm

enjoy :slight_smile:

#14

I really love the style and feel of the model and I wouldnt bother posting if I didn’t like so much what I already see, but my only critique is that the stairs in the tower seem to go up to nothing right now, the walking area at the top of the tower is so small it doesnt seem like anyone could walk around much especially since there is no railing preventing people from falling back down the stairs.

is there going to be something up there? is it just for checking out the scenery? Is it a watchtower for looking for approaching armies? For observing the stars? What’s the tower for? If you can answer that I think you’ll know a little better where to go with it.

#15

Well, as of right now I have gotten the column’s changed over and am beginning work on the domes, making them look a little more realistic. Here is a pic of the old column next to the new column respectivly.

I designed the new column after the Dorian style of architecture because like you said the originals seemed to fit more with that style and it is a whole lot easier to model. I think the new column has a heavier more stonelike feel to it as well, so definately thx for pointing out the need to change that, the model looks better now.

As far as the tower goes, I am not sure what it is for yet, originally I had intended it as a lookout tower but as I am planning on having buildings that will be higher than the tower I do not believe that it will fit as being a lookout tower, then again I am not completely sure if the other buildings I model with be taller or not so, right now I officially don’t know what to do with it. I will definately add some railing on the inside though, thx for pointing that out, that is something that needs to be done regardless.

Thx for all the critiques, they are helping alot, keep em’ coming :).

#16

Columns are looking better.

#17

looks very good, it reminds me more of Star Wars though (Naboo)

#18

Nice start with that column. Keep goin with it :slight_smile: I’m subscribed :slight_smile:

#19

Well I have gotten a good bit of the model changed around and have tried to address at least some of the critiques thus far, your guys input has made this project look a lot better in my opinion. I have also added a completely brand spanking new building (a library I think it is going to be :slight_smile: ) . I havn’t gotten as much done as I would have liked because school has started back and I have a whole lot less time :(. But I think you all will like the changes. Here is a list of things to take not of…
Check it:
the New Columns have been incorporated into the model

Most of the domes have been changed to a new dome that looks more stonelike and rests much better on the columns than the old dome did.

Detailed stone lattice thingies attached to the columns for a more elegant feel.

Inside rail added to the second level of the tower…thus no more broken necks :slight_smile:

Um…New building :), it isn’t as pretty as the others :frowning: but it is still just a w.i.p. so anything can change.

On the new building, there are decorated panels in between the doors that I am thinking of also using the same technique elswhere later on if you all like it…

That is all I believe…Here are the pics





Edit:If they dont show up here or the links dont work here is the site:
http://www.geocities.com/halfling85/CastleProject3.html

To answer some Question I am sure you might have…:
Q: What the heck is the yellow cube thing sitting in some of the pictures?
A:That cube is the most important polys in the whole project…Meet Bob… and you say “What About Bob?” :), well Bob is your average person scaled down to just six polys and is roughly 5 to 6 feet tall in comparison to everything else, he is what I use to make sure building dimensions are correct. If Bob can’t go there something is wrong. Thus he is invaluable.
Q: Why is the paneling still there??.. and furthermore, why has it changed color??
A: I still don’t know what to do with the paneling, I am leaning towards keeping it, but so that I had more options with It I went ahead and (painstakingly) selected it all and gave it a different texture name. Thus it is easier to work with should I desire to make some changes…
Q: Why is there zero detail on the inside of the new building…?
A: I havn’t gotten to it yet and moreover the inside of any of the building will not be the main focus of the final product…
Q: Where is the new building going to be located in respect to the rest of the buildings?
A: Not sure yet, but it will definately be behind the bridge and tower, I know that much.
Well that is all I have to say, Hope you all like the changes and as always, critiques are welcome,
Half

EDIT:the pics where acting stupid (free hosting is horrible :frowning: ) so I just posted the links which I think will work…

#20

The new stuff is looking awesome. I like the details you added. Heres a site you can upload pics and its free. http://ashley.planetgeko.com/~renderst/4images/index.php