# Free Fantasy Architecture II (New Stuff 5/3/2005)



## KnidVermicious (Sep 24, 2004)

Check out Free Fantasy Architecture part I

So, after being away for a year, I find myself drawn back into doing fantasy architecture projects. Here is the wizards college in Ambergate, part of KidCharlemagne's Crystalmarch campaign.


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## KnidVermicious (Sep 24, 2004)

Here is a plan view of the wizard's college. Each square is 20'x20'.


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## Knightfall (Sep 24, 2004)

Welcome back, Knid. Looking forward to seeing some great new images from you.

KF72


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## Eosin the Red (Sep 24, 2004)

Hello Knid,

I was just looking over your old cyberstreet thread the other day wondering if married life had gotten the better of you....like it sometimes does to me.

I have a request if you are taking them? If not enjoy the description that follows. 

*The Pit of Gorgos*
Sages have speculated on the cause of Gorgos Pit for as long as they have known of its existence. Located near the Trollstone Mountains and just east of the border to Middea, the Gorge (the physical pit) is rarely ever seen by the eyes of commoners. 

The gorge takes just under a day to circumnavigate, if one walks along the top of the Shining Walls. The walk is not for the faint of heart - the walls are themselves over 300 feet tall. The walls were built by one of the Elder races long before men settled the region but were abandoned during the great conflicts that destroyed them. Most common folk avoid the area, believing it to be haunted, and many cry out in dismay when they approach for the first time. The Shining Wall has two exterior walls; the inner wall is made from subtly different shades of pale stone. Standing only a single pace from the inner wall is the outer lattice. This is an intricate weave of stone meant to provide many open spaces for the life like statues that seem to be struggling to break free. Jutting from the back wall these statues protrude through the lattice giving them a semblance of motion and depth. Use of shading and multi-hued stone is extremely frightening, especially to one uneducated or unprepared. Many scholars and artists have devoted their lives to rendering and cataloguing various aspects of the wall.

From the heights of the Shining Wall you can look into the heart of the abyss, a wound so deep it could not have been made by any known force. The pit has the appearance of a penetrating wound, as if something plunged into or out of our world. It is irregular, and the edges are jagged, although they have softened with time. You cannot fathom the bottom, even from such a great height as the walls, but it is possible to make out a stairway cut into the rough stone that begins near the northern tower. Before the stair has navigated half the gorge it is lost into the depths.

The Shining Walls are manned by some of the most elite fighting men in the world. They protect it from those who would plumb its depths. The warriors are selected from the great knightly orders on the continent of Relestia, and if rumor is believed some come from beyond our lands. All who serve on the Shining Walls are given gold cloaks that mark them for as long as they care to wear it. 

It is said that the journey to the bottom takes more than a full day. Few other than the Muldegians Wizards who come every five years are allowed into the depths, so the truth remains unknown. The eldritch order always leaves a few of their kind behind to assist the knights in their endeavors. When the wizards come it is always during the holy nights when both moons are full. They bring with them infants and toddlers, each man and woman carrying one into the deeps.  It is widely believed that these children are born with a Talent for sorcery and whatever occurs in the Gorge that is related to their powers. The children that are carried in, will walk out within a week or they will not walk out. It has been noted by several disreputable sources and by the Synod that the numbers going in are always more than those returning.

A town has sprung up around the base of the Shining Walls. It normally works the other way – the town builds a wall around them, rather than building the town around the wall. Most of the people dwelling in the town are families of those who guard the walls. Some are former guardians. 


The whole thing is way to big to map. I was thinking about the single gatehouse on the top of the wall with a small section of both the inner and outer wall visible. 

Anyway, here is to dreaming   It is nice to see your return.


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## Eosin the Red (Sep 24, 2004)

BTW - stunning college.


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## KnidVermicious (Sep 24, 2004)

Eosin the Red-Yeah, I'm still taking requests but I don't have nearly as much time as I used to, so things will take longer for me to finish. The wizard's college took about a month and a half.

A couple of questions about the Pit of Gorgos:

-The strange parts of the walls face outwards, right?
-Are the figures medium size? Humanoid? Are they at different heights or all at the bottom of the wall?
-When you say "lattice" do you mean a regular, symmetric lattice or a bunch of weird holes?
-Is the gatehouse part of the original structure or did humans build it later? It is on top of the wall rather than through the wall? How do people get to the top? ladders, stairs?

I think the structures should be fairly easy. I'll have to think about how to do the figures, though. AutoCAD isn't really useful for doing organic/living things.


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## Turanil (Sep 24, 2004)

Nice work!


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## Eosin the Red (Sep 24, 2004)

The strange parts go outwards.
The figures are probably pretty large - maybe double or triple human size.
The latice is regularly irregular - a pattern to it but hard to see.
The gate house is part of the structure and the people ascend a stair. Never thought about how they got up there 

I understand the little time thing - I got a gaggle of kids and work like a dog. I have enjoyed oogling your stuff, if you never get around to the shining walls I will still have that enjoyment. Not to mention that, you pointed out that I did not have a way up


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## Kid Charlemagne (Sep 25, 2004)

KnidVermicious said:
			
		

> The wizard's college took about a month and a half.




Of course, most of that was trying to get me to adequately articulate what I wanted...  !  

I'd like to publicly thank you again, Knid.  Great work.  The college will see lots of use in current and future campaigns.


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## Eosin the Red (Sep 25, 2004)

Kid Charlemagne said:
			
		

> Of course, most of that was trying to get me to adequately articulate what I wanted...  !
> 
> I'd like to publicly thank you again, Knid.  Great work.  The college will see lots of use in current and future campaigns.




Heck, it will see use in my campaign!


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## Jürgen Hubert (Oct 5, 2004)

Nice! I think I'll have to update my website again soon...

Glad to see you around again!


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## silentspace (Oct 5, 2004)

Incredible!  Can I ask how you made your images?


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 5, 2004)

Silentspace:

I create the models in AutoCAD and then I use a program called Piranesi to color them. Piranesi is made by Informatix and lets you use "artistic" styles rather than photorealistic style to render 3D models. It's super slick.

Usually the model-building takes much longer than the rendering for me. I find that building the models is almost like building an airplane model, but without the fun of gluing your fingers together.

I'm finishing up a top secret project for KidCharlemagne, and then I'll start on the Pit of Gorgos.


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## silentspace (Oct 6, 2004)

Really amazing.  Could you drop me an e-mail at silentspace@yahoo.com?


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## Kid Charlemagne (Oct 6, 2004)

KnidVermicious said:
			
		

> I'm finishing up a top secret project for KidCharlemagne, and then I'll start on the Pit of Gorgos.




You should be able to post what you've done for me after this weekend.  In fact, you could post the snowglobe right now, if you're happy with the model.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 6, 2004)

So here's KidCharlemagne's snowglobe. Nothing sinister, just a harmless snowglobe...of pure concentrated evil! Bum Bum Baaaah! Anyway, I'll let KidC tell the story as it unfolds.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Oct 6, 2004)

KnidVermicious said:
			
		

> So here's KidCharlemagne's snowglobe. Nothing sinister, just a harmless snowglobe...of pure concentrated evil! Bum Bum Baaaah! Anyway, I'll let KidC tell the story as it unfolds.




I'll tell some of it - as the PC's in my game know it.

My current game is taking place around a Hogwarts-ish University of Magic (the school, Knid posted in post 1 of this thread).  One of the legends of the school is that there once was a fortress of the local Prince of the Unseelie Fey on that location - actually on the Plane of Shadow, but at a very "weak point" in the connection between the two planes.  The founders of the school found this to be a less than ideal situation, and _somehow_ imprisoned the Unseelie fortress.

One of the local theories is that the Headmaster of the School at the time imprisoned the fortress in a snowglobe that now sits on the desk ofthe current Headmaster....  

...and my PC's know someone is trying to get access to the fortress...


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## adwyn (Oct 8, 2004)

I was wondering if I could tempt you into illustrating the inside of a cathedral for my current game. 

The basic design is octagonal, with a wide double doored entrance opening onto a hallway that leads completely around the inner sanctum. Pillars seperate the hallway from a series of colliseum style steps/seats that lead down to an octagonal floor at the bottom. A series of tall, arrowslit style windows flank a balcony style stage that protrudes from one wall.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 12, 2004)

adwyn-Sure, the cathedral sounds interesting. I haven't tried to do an interior yet, so it should be a fun challenge. I've finished KidCharlemagne's secret project, and hopefully I can post those images soon. I've just barely begun on Eosin the Red's Pit of Gorgos, but once I'm done with that I'll start on the cathedral.


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## adwyn (Oct 12, 2004)

Thanks


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 14, 2004)

OK, some new stuff. Here's KidCharlemagne's University clocktower in the Plane of Shadow. Notice that this one goes to thirteen...

I'll let KidCharlemagne tell the story.

Actually, I would love to hear stories from anyone who used stuff from here or the old thread in a game. Someone posted a reply in the gallery (before it shut down) about how the crystal bridge featured in a big fight and the villain got impaled on one of the pointy crystal structures. I thought that was great.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 14, 2004)

And here is the evil Fey tower that KidCharlemagne's hapless PCs saw in the Shadow Plane. Unfortunately, he couldn't get them inside or up on the precarious bridge that he specifically wanted to include for a fantastic battleground. Stupid uncooperative PCs.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 14, 2004)

Here's a few more. In case it wasn't apparent, this is the tower that appeared to be in the snow globe.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 19, 2004)

Here are some of the previous renders in black and white. Slowly working on the Gorgos Pit.

Hmm. Some sort of board weirdness going on.


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## XCorvis (Oct 20, 2004)

Wow, these are great.

Any chance we can get them bundled up together in a zip file?


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## XCorvis (Oct 20, 2004)

Double post, darn it.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 21, 2004)

Thanks XCorvis.

Now let's see if this works.

Good. The board kept telling me the files were in progress of being uploaded so I couldn't upload them again, and I couldn't delete them. Luckily it just reset itself overnight.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 21, 2004)

Here are two zipfiles. I had to split them because they were too big. One has all the tower pics and the other all the wizard school.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 21, 2004)

A question:

I'm actually shrinking down these pictures quite a bit and converting them from bmp to jpeg. I realize I could post larger jpegs (the bmps are way too huge) and because of the nifty thumbnail feature it wouldn't slow the page loading. How big a file would be appropriate? I don't want to clog up Morrus's servers with gigantor images, but bigger pics might look better. 

Any recommendations?


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## XCorvis (Oct 21, 2004)

Groovy, thanks for the zips!

Just convert the bmps to jpegs, but make sure you don't make the quality too low. For your reference, bmps are huge because they don't have any compression. Converting them to jpgs should be enough, so even if you post the larger versions, you're still saving bandwidth (over the bmps, anyway).


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## Knightfall (Oct 21, 2004)

*Request: Castle of the Lost Star*

The Castle of the Lost Star is a large multi-towered fortress that sits nestled in the low mountain peaks (mountains are like ragged spires) that is magical in nature. The castle is normally invisible and only becomes visible when one of world's two moons eclispes the sun. Then the castle shimmers into view in all its glory. The castle is made from a dark stone that glows a pale blue light when seen under the eclipse. Otherwise, from inside the castle, the stone is blue-black in color.

The castle is the home of a retired bard, who use to be renown adventure throughout the lands of the Eastern Shores. As a result, the towers and walls of the castle are beautifully worked with gargoyles, fey creatures, and merry minstrels.

The castle is based on an old Dungeon Adventure called Castle of the Blind Sun, which I'm going to heavily modify for World of Kulan. I don't have a set layout planned for the castle so feel free to be as creative as you want with it.

Cheers!

KF72


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## Buttercup (Oct 23, 2004)

Knid, you're back!  Cool!

I used the Fortress of the Frost Eagle in my previous campaign.  The players loved the place.  While they were there, disaster was looming, because there was a huge army of goblins, orcs and elves (of the evil, blood drinking variety) assembling north of the pass the fort guards.  Then the very pregnant baroness from their home province showed up, and explained that the Emperor's goons had assasinated her husband.  The baby she was carrying was next in line to the Imperial throne and thus had a huge price on his unborn head.  So, our heroes escorted her into the wilderness, away from the impending invasion and the Emperor's hit men.  

If we ever go back to campaigning in that world, I'll advance the timeline enough that the unborn heir is ready to claim his birthright, but first he'll have to wrest it away from the elves, gobilins and orcs.  Sadly, Frost Eagle Fortress will not survive.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 24, 2004)

The Pit of Gorgos.

These images are slightly larger than previous projects (10x10)


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 24, 2004)

Here is a view into the interior wall with one of the mysterious figures. The figure was done in Poser and brought into CAD,


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 24, 2004)

And here's a bonus pic of a different color scheme I was testing.


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## Eosin the Red (Oct 24, 2004)

Wow, that is insanely good.

I wish there was an "I bow before you" smiley.

Now, I need to find something to return the favor - first I need some sleep though.

Thank you again.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 24, 2004)

I'm glad you like it Eosin the Red. There's no need to return any favors. I really enjoy these projects. It's like building a model as a hobby, except someone is actually going to use it and appreciate it. It also lets me flex my rusty creative machinery, and it keeps me in practice on all these computer programs.

The best thanks would be for you to use it in a game and tell me how it went. Or maybe a Porsche 911 convertible. Candy apple red.


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## The_Universe (Oct 28, 2004)

*Yet another request...*

The Palace of Seven Towers is an ancient building, forged from mithral and adamantine before the memories of man. The towers are of varying heights, rising from the palace in a strangely irregular pattern. 

The palace itself is roughly rectangular, and the towers have the following pattern within. The outermost towers lie along the exterior walls of the keep, each a slightly different shape than the last. The middle tower is bordered by a small courtyard, an enclave of nature inside its metal walls, catwalks and/or skyways connect it to the rest of the palace. 

The Palace's main entrance is to the south, the main doors of the palace aligning perfectly with the gates of a similarly metallic curtain wall, with shorter towers of its own. 

O..........O..........O

..............O........O(North is up, south is down)

O......................O

The palace lies in Caer Albion, a city of many towers, itself. The capitol of three kingdoms in remembered history, there are some that whisper that Caer Albion is the first city to have risen on the surface of the world. It's secrets are so old that even legends have forgotten them. There's lots of leniency if you wish to include the city in pictures. The only important thing to note is that the city itself is surrounded by a wall, as well. This one is stone, rather than the magically created walls of the palace. 

Please and thank you and GOOD LUCK!

EDIT: Changed the tower position slightly to match my original notes.


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## KnidVermicious (Oct 31, 2004)

Ok, now I have adwyn's cathedral, knightfall1972's castle, and The_Universe's palace. Please, no more requests until I finish knightfall1972's castle, so I don't feel overwhelmed.

adwyn: Questions about the cathedral
-how big is the room?really huge?
-how high are the cielings?
-what style? when you say cathedral do you mean similar in style to a medieval european cathedral, or more greek/roman classical temple?
-stained glass? When you say arrow-slit style, do you mean literal arrow slits just for shooting out of or just tall and narrow?


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## adwyn (Oct 31, 2004)

The room should be about 80-100 feet in diameter. The walls would max at around forty or fifty feet in height, with a domed ceiling above that. 

The Cathedral is quasi medieval, and was built with defense as much as religious worshp in mind. The walls would be stone, possibly with tapestries added for warmth and to soften the effect of the stone. The windows were once arrow slits, but now have been filled with stained glass.  

Looking at the idea in more detail, there may either be balconies that once serviced the upper arrowslits, or just holes in the stone to mark where they once were. 

Again, thanks.


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## KnidVermicious (Mar 31, 2005)

So. It's been 6 months, but I finally finished Adwyn's cathedral. Most of that time was because I was busy doing other things, but I also had to learn a bunch of new tricks to deal with interior lighting. This model was done mostly in AutoCAD, but then brought into 3D Studio Max to set up scenes and lighting.

This is just three different versions of one image. A "painty" one, the raw colored image before I make it "painty", and a black and white. I'll have more images in the next few days.

To Knightfall1972 and The_Universe, I'll get to your requests (very belatedly) but first I'm going to try another interior. This one should prove...interesting. Sorry it's taken me so long to update.


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## adwyn (Mar 31, 2005)

Those are great - I really owe you one.

It is amazing how much a picture can help clarify things.


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 2, 2005)

Here's another view. This is slightly distorted to capture more of the interior.


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 2, 2005)

This is an early version. I didn't like the stained glass windows. I have three more views to render. I should get them all by  this weekend.


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## Knightfall (Apr 2, 2005)

KnidVermicious said:
			
		

> To Knightfall1972 and The_Universe, I'll get to your requests (very belatedly) but first I'm going to try another interior. This one should prove...interesting. Sorry it's taken me so long to update.




No worries!


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 2, 2005)

Here's a view of the front door.


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## adwyn (Apr 3, 2005)

Again, thank you, I have a idea how much work this takes. And as to the stained glass windows, I agree that it looks better without. That's the sort of thing a picture shows so well instead of just throwing words together.

The next campaign I intend the cathedral to be the setting of the opening action and the final climactic encounter and these pictures wll really help.


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 3, 2005)

Here is a view of the dome.


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 3, 2005)

Another slightly distorted view.


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 3, 2005)

And finally, a view from one of the hallways.


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 3, 2005)

A bonus pic of the hallway. This is a picture of how Piranesi sees the depth of the images. I think its nice and moody. Looks like the church at night, when all the ghosts come out.


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 3, 2005)

And finally, these are the renderings from 3D Studio Max that I brought into Piranesi. These have the complex lighting. However, I did add more torchlight later in Piranesi because I wanted the room to look a little warmer and...uh...torchier.


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## eris404 (Apr 7, 2005)

Wow. All I can say is, wow.

You didn't post the other Ambergate images on KidCharlemagne's forum, did you? I don't think anyone from the Saturday group has seen the newer ones and most of 'em don't frequent here.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Apr 7, 2005)

eris404 said:
			
		

> Wow. All I can say is, wow.
> 
> You didn't post the other Ambergate images on KidCharlemagne's forum, did you? I don't think anyone from the Saturday group has seen the newer ones and most of 'em don't frequent here.




Right now, I'm the only one with access to do that...  I should give Knid access to that.  I'll get on that...

And BTW, I like the moody lighting pics - as well as the shadwoy hallway image.  Very evocative...  Does 3D StudioMax have the ability to add in atmospheric effects?


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## KnidVermicious (Apr 8, 2005)

3DS Max is incredibly complicated/complex. Very steep learning curve. Both 3DS and Piranesi can add fog effects, which I haven't really used yet.I have done some stuff with fire effects, and I know you can do volume lighting, where the light looks more solid, like a beam of light (or a spotlight) rather than a more diffuse light. 

One of the difficulties would be rendering that in 3DS and then transferring it to Piranesi. Which is another reason I haven't pursued the animation side of things, because I could only animate the models in 3DS without all the coloring/painting of Piranesi. So it would just be a bare model, or I would have to do all the photo-realistic material stuff in 3DS, which is probably more complicated than it is worth. Still, there is tons of stuff I haven't tried yet.


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## Kid Charlemagne (Apr 9, 2005)

I can imagine - I use a lot of video editing programs at work, and even that's pretty tame compared to things like 3DS, I'm sure.

BTW, after eris404 mentioned it, I went ahead and updated the gallery at my website with some of the pics you did for me...


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## Knightfall (May 7, 2005)

bumped up... so it didn't go off the second page.


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