The Process

This was my first bit of progress into my project outcome, I created the basic shape of the sculpture, including the light pole, spiked decoration and castling. From here onwards was to create the detail. 

This shows the rotating system for the light pole. I added two flat spheres to represent a crank handle at the base of the pole so that the light system could rotate - as a real lighthouse would.

This shows the top of the pole where I added a cone to represent where the light is being projected from, because if I just inserted a light, you wouldn't be able to physically see it as an object.

Here I added a sphere, made it yellow and intensified it's glow so that it would appear as a light. This screen shot also shows a render of this glow effect to show how it would appear in my final render.

Next I created an arched window, as the medieval style I was going for follows a theme of arched features. I then duplicated it to create the other.

I then put a bit more detail into the window frame, by extruding the faces and creating a Y shape. I chose this design as through my research I noticed it was a popular feature.  

I made this door in a similar way and added a door knob to the inside.

Then I added a plane for the base and extruded it as a soft selection creating smooth bumps to create a realistic surface.

This is the outcome after I textured everything. I created a brick texture for the castle and wood for the window/door frames as this is what they used for a lot of their architecture at the time. I also added an actual light into the light cone at the top of the pole. I textured the surface to appear as grass and added two upright planes to create a background and textured them to look like the sky. I found that where the two planes met, you could see where they met. So I flipped one of the planes to hide the joining seam.

I added an ambient light into the scene to create a general lighting.



This shows the render of my final outcome, I positioned it at an angle where you can see everything in an understanding perspective so that it looks more realistic. I then realised in my final render that there are no shadows which makes the lighting appear unrealistic. I then came to the thought that a directional light would work better as the direction of the light would create shadows making it look more realistic. Because I previously used an ambient light which creates a general lighting.

This is what the outcome render looked like with the directional light. I prefer this look so kept this light instead.