Eye

Sonic Drawing (Coloured)

Sonic Drawing

Car Final Scene

Graphics Tablet Gateway

Sonic Line Art

Final Concept Art

Halloween Scene Final

Halloween Render 2

Lego man Render

Halloween Render 1

Chess Board Render

Concept Art

 I first concept art was a simple tower with a hut and well as a simple/basic layout for the design my model would be based upon. My second I decided to try and draw a medieval house just to further my understanding of the architecture and design.









My third concept was when I decided to create a castle surrounding my lighthouse with a bridge connecting my towers. The fourth was my initial thought of how I would shape the tower that would be my actually lighthouse. 





















My final concept was the design I decided to stick with (despite the copy being not very visible) I stuck to this concept for my final model and changed assets such as the tops of each tower from cone to cube and the addition of a dock and a central tower.

Evaluation of my project

I believe that I achieved my goal of portraying a theme/story through the use of a render quite well. I think that anyone would be able to tell that my lighthouse theme was medieval thanks to my research on medieval architecture and colour being portrayed successfully in my scene. As shown in my screen grabs and concept art, over time my design changed.

The biggest change was probably the switch from the cone shaped roofs to the more realistic cubed roofs. I did this as I believed that the cone shaped roofs gave a more toy-like look for the castle a decided to change it to look more like a real medieval. I'm glad that I chose medieval as a theme as I already know a lot about that period and find that type of architecture really interesting and fun to design for. I also found it quite easy as I already knew what type of design it would need before I even did my research. Next time I want to choose a theme I'm unfamiliar with so I will focus more on my research and concepts over my ideas I had before, also it would challenge and push me more to create a more effective render.

I found the assignment reasonably ok. There were times where I found certain things difficult like such as making things symmetrical, making a fire and creating a realistic looking landscape for my lighthouse to be on. However, I enjoyed designing and drawing concept art for my lighthouse. The actually modelling I had mixed views on as there were times where things came together really well like my walls however I had difficulty with creating my windows and texturing them effectively.

I think that I transported my concept art well into 3D on Maya as all my main assets that I implemented were easily transferrable into 3D space. Obviously some things like the walls and towers were easier to create but the central tower was a little bit more difficult.

Overall, I believe that I have been successful in creating a medieval themed lighthouse that effectively portrays my research and concept art in a 2D render. My final thoughts are that to improve I would make a more realistic looking model with either texture or maybe a tweak to certain design aspects.

My renders

This was my first attempt at a render for my scene but I felt like it didn't give a good angle for my lighthouse as parts of it you cant see and the colour seemed very dull.

I tried to change the angle to make it more visible and it worked, however is till felt that the lighting didn't compliment the scene very well. 

This is my final render for my scene. I made sure to capture enough colour and light to make it look more appealing. I also used the rules of composition such as, rule of the odds with the 3 mountains which makes the scene more interesting and it gives a sense of it being more natural and less planned and avoid the middle by having my lighthouse positioned slightly to the left of my render, this gives the viewer the chance to focus on other things beside just the lighthouse such as the mountains or the docks . I made sure that the main assets of my scene are all clearly visible and the light coming from it can be seen easily in terms of coverage and the direction its coming from.

Castle Designs

Textures for my Lighthouse

I used this texture for my windows as plane glass was rarely used in large, important structures in the medieval era, so I used stained glass.

 I used this texture for my balcony fencing, my dock and its support, the bridge across the castle and its supports, and finally the spiked posts surrounding my fire source. Wood was a material that was regularly used in medieval  building.

 I used this texture for the tops of my walls and the tops of my tower. Brick was used regularly in medieval times.










 I used this texture on the crown crest.

I used this texture for my ocean.

 I used this texture for my balcony.












I used this texture for the background of my lighthouse.











I used this texture for my courtyard.









I used this texture for my walls and tower.

 

Creating my Lighthouse

This screenshot shows the initial creation of the tower for my lighthouse. All I did was insert a cylinder and cone into Maya and sized them appropriately. I then placed the cone on top of the cylinder to give the medieval tower look shown in my mood boards.

I then duplicated the same tower and spaced them apart to create a gap where I will be placing a bridge to connect the two with a fire/light source in the middle.

After, I created a square and sized it down to create a bridge to connect the two towers. After looking at it I realised that it looked odd floating in between and added more squares and sized/placed them to act as supports for the bridge. I also added a plane for my towers to sit on.   

I also created two balconies on each tower as in my research I found that medieval towers would usually have a this feature. I used cubes and cylinders to create this affect.

 I created walls with cubes to surround my lighthouse which will be in the centre of my structure. I then made a smaller cube and placed it on top of the wall, duplicated it and placed it along the wall to create a medieval castle look.

I created a central tower for the fire of my lighthouse to be situated, I added windows to both this tower and the towers surrounding it as well. I created the windows my making a cube, flattening it and raising the vertexes on top to create a arch. I created the crowns as a crest for my lighthouse. I raised the vertexes of a cube to create a crown shape then added spheres to act as jewels.

I created a flag pole and flag to match the crest on my central tower my shifting the vertexes of a cube to give the look of a flag. I also created the fire pit for my lighthouse and spike pillars to look more threatening and foreboding like a castle should.  

I created smaller windows to go around the large walls of my lighthouse. I did this my taking a cube flattening it and then adding edge loops, raised the vertexes to create spikes and placed appropriately.

I needed to create a form of making the light of my lighthouse rotate in order for it to be effective, I did this my flattening cubes and placing them around the fire pit. This would mean that the light emitted from the fire would be concentrated on the mirrors and then lighten an area. I also changed the tops of my towers to a more realistic shape from cones to cubes then extruded the corners to create a similar look to my central tower and being more like castles from medieval times. 

I then created a main door for my central tower by putting two cubes, elongating them and then cutting a tube in half to create a arch, this meant that their was a way to easily access my lighthouse. I textured it in black brick. I also crated two smaller doors made of flattened cubes for my towers surrounding my lighthouse. 

I then went on to texture my entire model using my mood boards, colour schemes and research to help me decide on what textures to use.

I created a landscape for my lighthouse to be situated on, I did this my texturing some cones and cubes in a mountain/rock texture an placing them accordingly around my model.

I also created a docking station by enlarging a cylinder then flattening it, I reused the supports I made for the bridge a cross my lighthouse, that was situated just in front of my lighthouse hanging off the edge, I will put a plane textured with an ocean texture to make it seem like the sea.

 

I made a back drop for my scene In an attempt to make my render look more realistic. I did this by texturing a sphere with a sky texture, then reversed it so it showed the texture inside the sphere as well.

I put all the background elements together and finally created a ocean textured plane to acts as a sea. I also added a spotlight coming from my lighthouse and a ambient light to act as the natural light source of the sun. 

 

Medieval Colour

Medieval Colour 

There is a false presumption that in medieval times were dark and dingy with wars lasting hundreds of years and other tragedies such as the Great Fire of London and the Black Plague. However, in medieval times clothing, buildings, food, celebrations were bursting with colours like red, orange, blue, green, and purple. There was a lot of variety in how things were portrayed which helped give more depth and create a more pleasing image for people to look at. Given all of the colourful things were usually expensive and were only used or owned by the richer upper classes of the time.  

How my Mood Boards helped me?

Lighthouse Mood Board

My lighthouse mood board showed me the general design of lighthouses for me to base my concept art and when I come to it, my final design. I learned that lighthouses are not always just the typical tower but can have other structures attached or near by (usually being a residence for the lighthouse keeper or supplies for the lighthouse to keep running). I also found out that they can be made of different materials as well as have different uses from the mood board such as some just being a goal/light to reach, whilst others were used as a warning sign/light for boats to avoid an area.

Medieval Mood Board

My medieval mood board showed me what my research meant about the different styles of medieval architecture of Romanesque and Gothic being quite differing ways to construct, but both were used during this period and has given me inspiration on what sort of design and shape my lighthouse is going to take. It backed up my research of simple shapes such as rectangles and materials such as wood and stone.

Mood Boards