Just thought I’d post my latest ‘project’. This was done as part of my research into Motte and Bailey castles (I thought I’d go a bit further than just drawing one). This was done on a very tight schedule, hence it’s very unfinished. Below I’ve posted some renders that I’ve done with the BI render:
The Normans introduced them in England shortly after 1066. This was the first of many designs, later on the keep became circular so that attackers could not collapse the building easily, walls were replaced with stone, and so on. These early castles were mainly to ensure that Duke William could safely retreat back to France should things go sour and were also used to protect a number of William’s Barons, who he owed land. These were essentially ‘flat-pack’ castles that William brought over with him when he invaded… However, there are a number of details that are missing out in this model, for example a gate to get into the castle! Rather important detail… Don’t know why I forgot it.
Interesting, I guess Duke William didn’t anticipate flaming arrows or something like that. But it would keep an army out long enough to put your pants on and have an english muffin before venturing out.
I would vary the log texture more so you get less repeating. If they are UV mapped, you can offset the texture manually. If not, you can offset the texture in the material buttons. I think I have a couple of bark textures I have made for trees and logs, I will post them for you in case you want to use them to give some variance to your logs.
(edit) this one looked about right, what do you think?
(edit) this texture tiles, btw, so if you move your UV coords over the edge in the UV editor, it won’t matter because it will just wrap automatically.
Yeah, flaming arrows were certainly problematic! As I said, these were just built to secure retreat lines; not long after this the walls were replaced with stone, then stone keeps were built, then two layers of walls were built, etc, etc.
About the wood texturing, those spikes are effectively hairs:
This is what they look like in edit mode, so the spikes are hairs that pop out from each of the vertices. So I was thinking all I’d have to do was apply the particle system so that each of those was converted to a mesh, and then just rotate each a random amount.
About textures - I’m very bad at picking textures, and I didn’t have much time at all to do the texturing, so they do all look pretty bad. If you have any other wood plank textures like that, please tell me!
if you use dupliverts instead of a particle system, you can apply them and make them real. I have more wood textures, but really you can get endless variety from just one. here’s an example, using that single texture, and shifting the UV coords for each log:
You should make a change to the lens of the camera using 15 mm or 20 mm. Well just use that option, I think it will look better, if you’re in that world, I mean the position of you camera.
I was thinking of doing something to the sky settings to make the scene look a bit more realistic, but making the sky blue rather than grey just gives the whole scene a nasty blue tint. Any tips for the sky?
OK, I’m no longer working on this. I’m going to be starting to make a Spitfire, based on detailed schematics I’ve obtained, and another Motte and Bailey castle. This time it’ll have proper stone walls, however.
