As I have done lots of work before in Photoshop for concepting, I have given myself limited time to complete the task. With this in mind, gather reference images is the most important and relevant thing for me to do. I'll be working again in Maya to create the assets and with the experience I now have of the program, I feel confident that I can use my time well to putt this off.
Being heavily inspired by the environments from Lord of the Rings, as I was with the character I created, I've decided to base my ideas loosely on some of the environments in the film. Although I will be creating my own works, I do want to use these as an influential foundation for my work.
My initial thought is that I want to create something like a castle. Something with many levels that can be fortified. Something with intricate stairwells, many arches, a large front wall and some kind of village inside or just outside the walls. Some of these images show the kind of thing I am looking to include in my own work.
The image above has some interesting stone work near the top of the walls. With the small arches created at the bottom I think it gives a very interesting look to it. Although this is very obviously a model, I think the simplicity will be a great factor to include in my own work with my limited knowledge.
This image shows the focal point being more of the towers at the edges than the door. I think the scale really shows off the overall sense of size well. I ideally would like my piece to not be so square but instead to feel very forward facing and mysterious. The towers next to the door do seem like something that I would love to include.
Straight from the Lord of the Rings, the Helms Deep set showcases many of the things that I want to showcase in my own work. With the simplistic wall at the front and the many levels of people being able to walk behind and around it. I think this sense of community within the walls is important, having somewhere people could actually live whilst being protected is something I would like to include. The arches at the back make an interesting addition as well, having this as a separate hall built into the side of the mountain. The addition of this mountain setting gives a different perspective aswell. This was there is no back to the castle, but just a forward pointing front.
This image again reiterates the inclusion of a mountain setting. I think having a mountain included in the foundation for my environment is important. Not only does it frame the environment well, but it gives it viability as a scene.
This image is a shot straight from the game Skyrim. Knowing I want to include many stairwells in my scene, this image showcases many of the textures and applications of the stairs as finished objects. Having these concealed entrances at the top of the stairs gives another dimension to the image. I feel this stone work would be a very useful reference in my own ceration.
The image above is from the Lord of the Rings MMORPG and of all the entrances looked at so far, I think this will heavily inspire my concept work. The overall stature of the piece is something that i'd love to convey. With the entrance surrounded by these walls makes it seem very well protected and almost like a choke point if used in battle. With the spires on either side it uses levels well and I think that, as the thing I am focussing on is the environment and not so much the people or props, this use of levels will really show off the piece.
As with the piece before, using these towers and walls to surround the castle entrance is something that I find very visually interesting and I think it is something necessary to conveying my overall purpose of the piece; to have a protective home, but also something that looks visually unique
This image above is a lot more outlandish than the others, but the make up of the walls themselves are something that is very interesting. The use of pillars to create the basic form is something that is not seen on many of these other images above. Thinking ahead, these may be rather easy to create in Maya, much in the same way that I created the weaponry by using a blocked polygonal cylinder and extruding some of these faces.
As i've set out in my proforma, I will create at least one piece of concept artwork to show my intentions for creation. I know generally I would produce much more for a piece like this, but I think with my limited knowledge of Maya thus far that it's important for me not to feel as though I need to stick to rigidly to my plan. As with the character model, much of my concepting was done within the program, and I think that will most definitely be the case with the environment.
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