Final Render

Evaluation

This is my final render after the adjustments I made. I also tinted the scene slightly yellow because the photo's I took for primary research also had a sort of musky yellow tint. This render represents the slenderness of the architecture much more than my previous render because the camera angle if from the floor - looking up. My final render delivers the same visual message as my research because during my research I noticed key features within the themes such as Gothic and Romanesque, which I then included in my final piece e.g cobbled stone walls, arches, spikes and the castling. It suits it's purpose as it provides a rotating light which guides in ships. It refers to my concept art 1 as it's pretty much the same however I added a few more features, such as the door and another window. If I had more time I would of added more detail such as gargoyles as they are one of the most recognisable features on this kind of castle architecture. I would of made them on Mudbox and then transferred it to Maya, duplicating it across the building. If I could change anything then I would make the grass base and the sky background more realistic. I also might of slightly sculpted the spikes differently to look more cone like.  

                                        Previous Render

This is my previous render which I decided I wanted to change because the camera angle doesn't relate to my research. The camera angle shown in my research tends to be looking up to the building to exaggerate the size as a main feature and this render does pretty much the opposite. So I'll re render this in a different perspective.

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.



Concept 3

 

 

 

This is my third piece of concept art and is based on the stone - hand made texture. As that was a commonly used material for their architecture because it was easy to get and use. I included the spikes as these were often seen in Medieval architecture.

 

Concept 2

This is my second piece of concept art, which is more revolved around the Romanesque/French style. It has a timber framing as that's the main feature of this style and also involves a structure at the top, beneath the light. The colour scheme is brown and a yellowish-neutral colour. The brown as it's a natural wood colour and the neutral shade because that's the colour they used with this style of architecture. It's a fairly simple design as in that period of time they didn't have complex designs because it was within their capability.

 

Concept 1

 



This is my first piece of concept art. It demonstrates how the front and side view would appear, they're pretty similar but the side doesn't have a window. I've included in my design some of my favourite features from the medieval architecture style; such as castling on the top of the building, spikes, stone texture and arched windows. I designed it so it would fit in the theme of a castle as that's what most of the buildings during that period looked like. I also coloured it with simple grey and brown colours as during the medieval period, the colour scheme consisted of similar dull colours.

 

Features

  

These are key Medieval features that I am considering including in my final design.