Wednesday 6 May 2015

Texturing & Materials

Unfortunately the texturing has taken a backseat as my time management of this project has been less than stellar. However, with my observation research and the little time I have left of the project I will be able to showcase some basic texturing to give the assets alittle more life.




Original Textures Reference

Brick Texture Original
http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=2635&PHPSESSID=sphdsdcl6s39lfbq5cqme56421

Checker Floor Original
http://www.cgtextures.com/texview.php?id=96500&PHPSESSID=sphdsdcl6s39lfbq5cqme56421

Glass Images
http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=Ely+Cathedral+window&title=Special%3ASearch&go=Go&uselang=en

Saturday 25 April 2015

Testing Modular Design

So now the majority of the model is complete, I have gone over the assets and test them for any alignment issues, overlapping faces or gaps.

Thanks to a very methodical work habit and having prior experience with modular assets, I know some of the common mistakes to avoid or fix. Also the prior research into the subject before i started making the assets helped greatly.


Unfortunately due to time constrains I will not be able to create more variations of the assets which I was hoping would really bring life to the models. Its also the main reason why I had broken up each section into smaller objects, so I can switch and move around assets to help create more subtle changes and variations of the same modular section.

Thursday 23 April 2015

Clerestory

Moving onto the clerestory, which is the last piece before i got back on the mesh's and fix some issues I've spotted along the way and then move into texturing them.

The purpose of the clerestory is to get as much light in the building as possible as well as let air / smoke rise and cycle out of the cathedral.



 The general shape of the clerestory is fairly basic but the arch is smaller than the rest of the assets so I am forced to create it from scratch. I'll also have to make sure that I have mirrored over the pier and column correctly and that everything aligns the same as the Triforium level and aisle prior.



 

The models are coming along nicely atm and I will have to start looking at the materials I need to help showcase the assets and aswell and think about going back on older sections and adjust some geometry.

As far as I can tell, I've kept the pier and column running from top to bottom in alignment and everything is aligning nicely to create a very clean and polished look. I'll have to be careful when texturing to make sure no seams will be showing up as that will make the assets look very messy and take away from environment.



Saturday 4 April 2015

Triforium / Gallery Continued!

After looking back on my observations and reference images, I decided to go back and change a few details on the arcading pillar, the scale and width was slightly wrong and was making the openings of the arch either side very small.


I've also started on adding the back wall and window on this level. The window is of very similar if not exactly the same size as the aisle windows. Its hard to tell from images and each cathedral seems slightly different so I kept them the same to keep and the mesh simple at this stage.


I then added the roof to this level which gave a really nice look to the assets and started to make the collection of assets look like it could be one whole piece.

Thursday 2 April 2015

Walls & Triforium / Gallery

Creating back walls and the pillar was fairly simple. The pillars were the same style as the ones I had already created so it was a case of copying them over and putting them in the right place so that the columns and there deractive thin pillars were still visible aswell as making sure the groin vault edging aligned with the back pillars aswell.





As for the window, I had collected reference images of multiple windows and even some aisle that had alters or a stone tomb / coffin. I opted for creating the simple window version to begin with as I didn't want to over complicate the models to early as they were still prototype assets.
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Wednesday 1 April 2015

Triforium / Arcading

Now I have a good base for the aisle, I'm looking at moving into the triforium tier, also known as the gallery.

Unfortunately Ely cathedral won't let you go up there to take pictures from above but I got some reference images from below which are OK. My main focus for this section is to get the arcading in front of the arch opening correct as well as make sure that the pier and standard column mirror and align correctly with the ground level.



I'm happy with how the arcading turned out. It took a few attempts at different way I could make it but I ended up using the already made arch and scaling it down and removing some unnecessary geometry.

The arcading is actual separate from the main mesh but joined to the object group. I've kept it this was so it would be easy to change or alter later on, say if I want to add a broken / damaged pillar in its place.

I believe I've translated the look and style of the front triforuim well, based on the reference images that I collected.