Scenery modeling

Over the past week or so I've been modeling various parts of the house, courtyard and ballroom. Primarily the objects that the gargoyle will be interacting with. Rather then modeling an object and texturing it right after, we decided that it would be easier to UV map the objects after everything has been modeled. This decision was made so Dan.C would be able to start animation Chester as soon as possible.

This is the grave that i modeled for the court yard that will be duplicated 2 more times for the 3 graves in total. We decided to keep the graves quite simple, like a typical grave would be. Once I've textured it i will extract parts to make it look eroded.


Above are two images of what will be the ballroom table, it still needs some minor tweaks along with the texturing, but apart form that its more or less finished. I particularly like the table legs, as opposed to having just one leg on each corner.


Above are two images of one of the four towers that will spiral up above the main house to the dead princesses bedroom. I'm simply going to duplicate it three more times and re-work each tower to be different from one another, rather than starting from scratch each time.

Courtyard research

Here are a few images i looked at that could help the design of the courtyard, showing erosion and sculpture.



Having a bench being carved into a man is a really cool idea as it lets something quite random in a scene have a purpose.

Texture experiment

Here I've experimented in photoshop with a photo of a wall i took in Barcelona. All I've tyred to do is simplify it and apply it to a plane in maya, experimenting with bump map and specular mapping.

Research from Barcelona

During our time in Barcelona we took allot of photos of architecture and textures that could be used in our environment, or as reference material. Below are a few photos i took that i like and what we could possibly integrate into our design.




This photo is from inside a cathedral we visited. I really like the pillar design and the arches they sprout into at the ceiling. I also think that the lighting is particularly nice, with the yellows, reds and blues.

I really like this decorative door design, having the gold handles all over it as well as the gold plates.

We thought these gargoyles poses were how we imagined ours sitting in the environment, and the wings look really nice also.

I like the stain glass jutting out over the entrance of the shop, I'm pretty sure it was a light also that lit up at night.

Initial research: 3D environments

Here are a few 3D environments i particularly like, form what the group looked at, when researching 3D environments created by other people.

I really like how this has been heavily stylised to look like its cell shaded, the chunkiness and colours all make it much more engaging.

Bearing in mind that our story has a gargoyle, this owl creature is something that's really interesting. The Artist having mixed up the owls body with some human features, allows the character to express itself more so than it would have been able to with just a beak. as well as that i like the style of the model, quite chiseled and hard.

Abstracted rooms, with distorted interior could work well with our story.

Initial enviroment research

To begin we started by looking at photos of interior and exterior architecture, in theme with our initial idea of having the Gothic edged stylised environment.

Image taken by 'kmasda', DevArt.

Image taken by 'lenagnl', DevArt.

The angle this image is taken from is really interesting and is something that could be used as a POV shot from our character looking down the stairs if we were to model a staircase as elaborate as this.

Image taken By 'Nightline', DevArt.

I particularly like the dramatic lighting in this photo, contrasting with the traditional architecture.

Image taken by 'KevLewis', DevArt.

I like the light shining through the stain glass window in this hallway, i think stain glass could be a good way of projecting a particular mood in a room, in a way that natural lighting couldn't do.