Unit 66 & 67 - Basic Castle

Last weeks lesson with Chris we learned several important tools that we will be using on 3D studio max over the next 2 years. The tools we used were done by putting a editable mesh on the standard primitives and extended primitives we made using the basic tools from lesson one. We started off with a single cylinder then modified it using several tools; Vertexes, Edges, Faces and Polygons. After modifying the cylinder to look unique we used a taping tool that made the cylinder look like a spire, this made it look more like a castle straight away. Furthermore we extrude elements of the spire at the top to give the spire some battlements. Once the spire was completed we used the shift and move feature to clone it 3 times so it had 4 corner posts for our castles. Then Chris displayed on screen how to develop a wall into the spires. This part was fairly easy after watching the first segment. I created the wall and used the extrude tool at the top to have battlements like the top of the spires. Again I used the shift and move feature to clone the wall twice, this is important as we had to create a entrance to the castle. So after cloning the wall twice I made sure everything was in place and wasn't out of order, for one I had to rotate it 90 degrees as the castle battlements were based in a square figure. Once done I started on the front wall and used the polygon tool to lift the bottom half up to give the impression of a door being opened, I think it worked well but I wanted to do better, given more time I'm sure it could of looked a whole lot better. The castle was completed and I just added some more touches like having a green surface and a blue sky. The castle doesn't have a texture and is a plain gray colour, looks like play dough.

I enjoyed the lesson and follow Chris' tutorial well, as I've stated I believe if I was given more time I could of done a better job but still looking back it was good fun and enjoyable.

http://visualparadox.com/wallpapers/castle.htm

 

Here is a very well detailed professional 3D castle, the cloud over and foliage adding to the realism. A well detailed stone texture on the outside of the castle with battlements on top of the corner posts and small windows including a roof texture as well. The front gate is very well detailed with a iron look. Furthermore the shadowing is amazing adding even more realism to the piece. If I was creating a castle in the future with the skills I will learn I would put this kind of detail in to it to give it character and to give it just as much realism.