[FCG] Dres Architectural functional sketches 2

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:32 pm

This is the second round of functional sketches for Dres architecture. Once again we will stay close to TurelioÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s designs.

Upper Class Buildings
Upper class buildings will not be modular. They should be similar in basic shape and look to the regular buildings, but with more elaborate floor plans. They shouldn't be too large or complicated of course. We need about 6-10 different designs for different manors to place in cities, and also some sketches for the tall and narrow tower homes as seen on top of the cantons in [url=http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/7979/drescantonlineup1copyav7.jpg]this image[/url].

Other unique buildings
Other buildings that need designs:
- Council hall. [url=http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/9748/drescouncilhouse1.jpg]TurelioÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s concept[/url]. I wouldn't say it's mandatory to stick with this one, but it is a good design.
- Silt strider port (similar to the ramps we find in hlaalu and redoran architecture)
- Cantons. The cantons won't be modular and we will go with Turelio's designs. Further functional art is not needed in this case. The ones I think we will want are [url=http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/8040/drescanton1.jpg]this one[/url] and canton 1 of [url=http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/7979/drescantonlineup1copyav7.jpg]the lineup[/url].

cire992 · Post by **cire992** » Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:48 pm

Again, I just want to mention that these functional sketches aren't really useful. Between Tur's sketches and the engine's grid system it's pretty easy to figure out what to model.

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:28 am

That means it is especially the upper class buildings that need concepts and floorplans, as well as the temple and strider port.

Why · Post by **Why** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:08 am

Myzel wrote:temple

I thought temples were supposed to be velothi, or do you mean a grand High Fane-y temple for on a canton?

cire992 · Post by **cire992** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:53 am

Myzel wrote:That means it is especially the upper class buildings that need concepts and floorplans, as well as the temple and strider port.

If it makes you feel better, than draw whatever you want. But the concepts are the only things I pay attention to. The floorplans you guys draw are useless and inaccurate as references and are redundant anyways, where as 3/4 sketches show me what you actually want as a visual result. Each of the architectural sketches from the first thread could be pretty much summed up by 2X3, or 3X3 L-shape etc.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 2:11 am

Why is correct.

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:23 am

I thought it had been agreed that Dres would need their own temples more fitting to their architecture?

Anyway, Cire, are you saying that you need no concepts for any of these? How are you planning to model manors then?

Adanorcil · Post by **Adanorcil** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 12:14 pm

Anyway, Cire, are you saying that you need no concepts for any of these? How are you planning to model manors then?

What Cire means to say is he needs sketches of what they look like with regards to details, not so-called "functional sketches", because for this kind of model, such things are utterly useless. We were all taught addition and subtraction in elementary school, and that's all one needs to figure out these models.

I understand Cire didn't cast a glance at previous "functional sketches", because, if anything, they can only make the modelling process harder by being the wrong scale or being mathematically imperfect representations of something so simple it makes a sketch superfluous.

So draw what the houses should look like, but don't spend any time making those orthographic blueprints, because any sane modeler will not use them.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Wed Feb 10, 2010 5:45 pm

I feel like everyone is on the exact same page, but for whatever reason they feel the need to explain over each other.

Myzel wrote:I thought it had been agreed that Dres would need their own temples more fitting to their architecture?

That was jettisoned extremely early.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:40 pm

Has there been any decision on a color palette?

Thrignar Fraxix · Post by **Thrignar Fraxix** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:46 pm

Myzel sent me these, but sload thinks they are a bit neutral

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/8708/drescanton2.jpg
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/4089/trdrescolors2.jpg
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/4018/trdrescolors3.jpg
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/497/trdrescolors4.jpg
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/1553/trdrescolors5.jpg
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7559/trdrescolors6.jpg

Edit: Alternate ideas by Morden.
http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/5750/drestower2.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8458/drestower3.jpg

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:18 pm

I'm not a fan of Mordens "black and white" one, the second one looks alot better but it looks quite bland without the colour bands from the schemes Myzel did.

A darker greyish band around the lower part could look good - along with some dark greyish entrances - I have some concepts for entrances I've been playing around with that I'll try to post soon here.

MMMowSkwoz · Post by **MMMowSkwoz** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:23 pm

Myzel's 2nd would be my preference from those.

Morden · Post by **Morden** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 2:05 am

I'm not a fan of Mordens "black and white" one

Its actually dark brown and white... my monitor brightness must be too high cause Sload also thought it was black.

I like Myzel's #2.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 3:29 am

Of Myzel's, I prefer the 6th, but I think the difference between them are too small to have any serious preference.

What I like about Morden's second one is that it distinctly differentiates between the first and second floor. What I don't like is that it basically only features two colors. I'd like to see parts of the darker brown made darker as highlights, like the corner pieces and the band between the two floors.

Post by **Haplo** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 5:06 am

What's wrong with the colorscheme of Turelio's atmospheric art? I think the Hammerfell mod spoiled us into a brown mindset.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 5:31 am

Turelio didn't include a color scheme and frankly you're crazy if you think it did. It was shades and that's it.

And no, Hammerfell didn't do shit. The only purely gray set in Morrowind is the Imperial forts.

jonarus_drakus · Post by **jonarus_drakus** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 11:14 am

I think Haplo is refering to the colour-sceme discusion thread, where people (myself included) took turelio's work and simply aplied colour over the top of it. There were several diferent scemes, all emphasising a 'natural blue' as the primary colour for the stonework along with deep purples/greys.

JD

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:21 pm

Turelio's color scheme.
http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/1353/richhouseconcept1c.jpg

I deliberately stayed close to that because I love those colors, plain and simple. I don't like blues or greens or purples. Maybe you're right and it is too neutral to look good in game, but I really want to stick with earthy colors and stay away from muted blue or green, which reminds me too much of mournhold.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 8:05 pm

I agree with staying away from blues or greens.

jonarus_drakus · Post by **jonarus_drakus** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:55 pm

when i said "natural blues/purples/greys" thats pretty much exactly like i meant! If i could have racked that image down myself i would have, so props for digging it up.

JD

Yeti · Post by **Yeti** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 12:11 am

If we're going with brown for the secondary color, what's wrong with the browns used in the Turelio image Myzel provided?

Nothing against your color scheme, Myzel, but the light brown you used doesn't look quite right with the gray, at least to my eyes.

RelinQ · Post by **RelinQ** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:36 am

I do agree with on on using neutral and earthy colours and I'd say your fairly close to a good colour scheme there Myzel.

Here are two textures I found a while back that I thought were an ideal colour range for Dres buildings:
[url]http://www.iconstonetile.com/media/stone_color/granite/07lg_bianco_antico.jpg[/url]
[url]http://www.iconstonetile.com/media/stone_color/limestone/04lg_walnut_brown.jpg[/url]

I think something within that red-ish purple/brown/tan look (like you have) could be good, It just needs the right amount of balancing.

(And just for the record, that site's textures arent too bad

)

Post by **Haplo** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:50 am

Turelio's art actually had several different colors, Sload. One is called grey. Another is brown. The windows had a color called green, since all the windows in Morrowind are green, ostensibly because they use the same kind of volcanic glass.

To be fair, he did use two different shades of grey; a lighter shade, often mixed with brown, for the structures' base color, and a darker shade for mural designs. Maybe that's where you got confused.

This project has always had an unhealthy obsession with peachy tans and light browns, though (read: entirety of Hammerfell, the damn website's color scheme, etc.)

Of the first batch of links TF posted, the only ones worth using is the first one, and maybe the 4th one if we are desperate to "brown-wash" this set. The rest are far too cheap/basic as shades of brown. Deeper, richer browns are better.

Do we have any Dres banners? Are they dark blue?

AngryNord · Post by **AngryNord** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 7:22 am

I'm a big fan of earthy tones. Morrowind's architecture made use of mainly browns, tans, beiges and a few other different shades of browns, and that's why I love Dunmer architecture. The only problem with their colour range (in my eyes) is that there is very little contrast between the shades, which meant that towns and cites in particular became boring and repeditive for me.

If the focus is to make Dres architecture unique and different to Velothi architecture, then I think that light earth tones and dark earth tones should be mixed together. To make buildings stand out but remain Morrowind like. Maybe mixing a darker brown with a light cream or tan would work, and possible adding highlights of whatever house colour Dres has. Just a suggestion.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:41 am

Turelio actually created several further color schemes after that one, which looks colorless to me personally. They were better and never posted.

Suggestions based on #6. Main change is to make the first floor more like Morden's second image. Also some notes: the image appears to include a slab roof, which is not part of the model, and it has a band on the first floor that should be upper class only.

AngryNord · Post by **AngryNord** » Sun Feb 21, 2010 9:52 am

Im no artist so I used Turelio's picture as a base, this is how I envision Dres architecture, but excuse my bad photoshop skills...

EDIT: Beware, bad resolution.

Yeti · Post by **Yeti** » Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:55 pm

No offense Angry Nord, but my first thought on seeing that was.....cake...

I think I'm being slightly won over by Myzel's #6, though maybe with a more "grayish" gray.

AngryNord · Post by **AngryNord** » Wed Feb 24, 2010 4:31 am

nah it's fine, hehe.

Euron · Post by **Euron** » Sat Feb 27, 2010 12:22 pm

Hi, I'm new here, but I've been following this project for a while and hope to get a bit more involved in the near future as much as free time will allow. I'll be getting a showcase off the ground soon for modding, but in the meantime I've got two Dres Arch. related questions as I've got a lot of free time for sketching at the moment.

1) Regarding the Pylons, has there been a decision made about the final design yet, of both the face, and the pillar itself?

2) Same question, but regarding the windows?

I've been over everything you've been discussing and have been messing with some ideas, borrowing heavily from Turelio's designs as requested, but I don't want to waste my time if a decision has been made which I missed, I'd rather work on something productive.

Oh, and I don't think this is the place, but is there still a need for frescos and/or tapestries/banners?

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Sat Feb 27, 2010 1:16 pm

A pylon has already been modeled, based on Turelio's concept. So anything you design will have to be pretty damn good for the other one to be thrown out, methinks.

Nothing has been decided on windows.

I don't think any frescoes or tapestries are requested at the moment.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Sat Feb 27, 2010 1:38 pm

Euron wrote:I'll be getting a showcase off the ground soon for modding...I've got a lot of free time for sketching at the moment.

I've been over everything you've been discussing and have been messing with some ideas, borrowing heavily from Turelio's designs as requested, but I don't want to waste my time if a decision has been made which I missed, I'd rather work on something productive.

By all means post sketches of whatever you have come up with, it can't hurt to see.

Myzel wrote:A pylon has already been modeled, based on Turelio's concept.

It has? I was planning on taking a shot at that myself.

Euron · Post by **Euron** » Sat Feb 27, 2010 1:39 pm

Ok good to know. The sketch I have for a pylon face is almost a direct rip off of his design anyway, simply with an open mouth, more sinister looking eye/brow arrangement. And while I love his design for the pillar itself, I decided to try one with a reverse angle, getting wider towards the top. Thought it might add to the feeling that they were looming over the player.

Meh, I may decide to post it anyway at some point just for the feedback, we'll see. In the meantime I guess I'll go dick around with window/door designs again.

Thanks!

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sat Feb 27, 2010 11:04 pm

Myzel wrote:A pylon has already been modeled, based on Turelio's concept. So anything you design will have to be pretty damn good for the other one to be thrown out, methinks.

You'd be wrong because the pylon that has been modeled is not a pylon. The point of the pylon is not to be a big column with a face on it! Like the pylons of the Ghostfence, they pour soulstuff. The model in question has no hole out of which soulstuff could poor.

Euron · Post by **Euron** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 4:23 am

ok, can i get some clarification on the intended purpose/placement of the pylons? As in, what form does the soulstuff need to take when pouring out? a sheet like the ghostfence, for a shield or wall? or beams of some sort? and where in the city will they be placed?

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 8:26 am

Like censers of magic. Go look at the ghostfence and note the big poles with white misty stuff coming out of them. Structures like those, isolated, without the fence part. Ancestors guarding Dres cities, Dres guards know summon ghost.

Nalin · Post by **Nalin** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:24 am

Sload wrote:Like censers of magic. Go look at the ghostfence and note the big poles with white misty stuff coming out of them. Structures like those, isolated, without the fence part. Ancestors guarding Dres cities, Dres guards know summon ghost.

I think I have a cool look in mind for these - can we take them further than just a face?

With regards to the size - smaller than the ghostfence pylons? (was thinking about 3/4 the size)

Myzel · Post by **Myzel** » Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:53 am

Sload wrote: You'd be wrong because the pylon that has been modeled is not a pylon. The point of the pylon is not to be a big column with a face on it! Like the pylons of the Ghostfence, they pour soulstuff. The model in question has no hole out of which soulstuff could poor.

Hmm, completely forgot about that. My mistake.

Euron · Post by **Euron** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 10:42 pm

Ok, so I've got a few sketches for y'all to take a look at. They're pretty rough at the moment but I'm hoping for a bit of input before I put too much more work into anything.

The first one is a concept for a pylon. The face is just the adapted one from Turelio's design. The thing on the opposite face is supposed to be a sort of wrought iron or stone lattice grate, I'm picturing a constant glow and fog emanating from them, like the soul stuff at rest inside the pillar. It would still come from the mouth when summoned. The cutout in the bottom holds a braizer dish type thing that would either have hot coals or and open flame in it. thought it would look cool at night and cast some interesting shadows on the rest of the pillar from below.

[url=http://s866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/?action=view&current=drespylon.jpg][img]http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/th_drespylon.jpg[/img][/url]

This one is just another example of how the base/braizer might look.

[url=http://s866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/?action=view&current=drespylonbasebraizer.jpg][img]http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/th_drespylonbasebraizer.jpg[/img][/url]

Here's another view of the face, and an example of the pylon without the open base.

[url=http://s866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/?action=view&current=drespylonfaceexample.jpg][img]http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/th_drespylonfaceexample.jpg[/img][/url]

THis is a more detailed view of what the grate on the side might look like. Still pretty rough. Note the upsidedown keyhole shape, that'll be important later.

[url=http://s866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/?action=view&current=drespylonsidegrate.jpg][img]http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/th_drespylonsidegrate.jpg[/img][/url]

Here's an idea for a Dres window, although I'm not sure if a window design has been decided on yet. Again, it's based on a keyhole sort of shape. I've got this whole keyhole design concept for the windows and doors, to give the place some continuity and also differentiate from velothi type designs. Having a bit of trouble with the doors still, but I like the window so far.

[url=http://s866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/?action=view&current=dreswindow.jpg][img]http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/th_dreswindow.jpg[/img][/url]

This last one is a quick idea for a stilt strider port. It's not exactly how I want it yet, but there's some aspects I like and will develop if the group consents, such as the stone lattice archway and the tunnel for the strider itself. I've also got some thoughts on how a few of these ideas could be altered to work as a foot bridge/walkway, or really as accents for any building or structure.

[url=http://s866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/?action=view&current=dresstiltstriderport.jpg][img]http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab221/EuronCrowseye/th_dresstiltstriderport.jpg[/img][/url]

Anyway that's it so far. Note all the borders and detail work, I just threw it in to show what might be possible and stuck to a basic triangle shape that seems to be what the concept art from bethesda for dres is based on. If there's an established style for ornamentation it will be easy to alter it to match.

Feedback please!!!

Katze · Post by **Katze** » Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:02 pm

I really quite like your concept for the strider port. In some ways it looks a little bit like a train station platform, but the idea of canopies on Dres structures is pretty cool. Could you perhaps provide a different perspective of the tunnel canopy over the steps?