July/August Challenge Entry: The Arcane Academy

Hi mates,

I liked the idea of this challenge and so I decided to come up with something.
Severel attempts went straight into the bin. But finally I found a way being worth to be followed.

Here is my latest WIP of 'The Arcane Academy'. No Lables so far. Currently I have some trouble
deciding if i should fill in a lot of textures and work on a semi-realistic setting
or if I keep it simple (of course not empty) being able to add a lot of information and some artwork...

What do you think? Realistic or artwork style (e.g. some kind of old parchment notebook with a lot of notes)?

>Moe

### Latest WIP ###

Firstly I want to say that the structure is very interesting and as you said, worth putting a lot of work in to it, congratz! And my personal opinion is making it more artwork style, I believe it fits better with this kind of structure (as you said with parchment and notes, really interesting).

I vote parchment and notes, too. Anything looking this intriguing needs some sort of story! Please =)

Sorry folks,
It tourned out to be no sketch style...

I fooled around a little with some texture work and I liked it that much, that I'll continue from this point.
Nevertheless I still like the notebook idea.

What if I came up with some additional blueprint version (like this one) arranging both together for the final version?

Todo list:
- Add textures to empty rooms
- Add signs of usage
- Add furniture, small lightsources
- Add light layer
- Add lables
- Write background information

Here's my latest WIP (low quality). I am thankful for any kind of criticism!
>Moe

### Latest WIP ###

Wow! I got to say Moe, that this is quite magnificent on first view(don't have time to scrutinize closely). I think I know who's winning this go around...or at the very least who is getting at least one of my votes...

I rescind my biased suggestion for a sketchy look and will remain more open to digital textures in the future. Thank you. ;) I especially like the colors you chose for the center room but I'm not sure the green and purple really fit as they are. Perhaps they could use some toning down? Looking good! The elevation view would be interesting to see side by side, if you have time. Good idea. As an afterthought, the stairs (all of them) might benefit from some shading; it's difficult to tell what's up from down. Good luck with the challenge (though I have to agree with jfrazierjr).

Oh crap moe.. Your gonna make this hard for me aren't ye'?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by eViLe_eAgLe

Oh crap moe.. Your gonna make this hard for me aren't ye'?

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I hope so - I put so much time in that damn thing... testing this... trying that - hopefully it is no lost labour ;-)

It tourned out that the texture work had only been a basis to set up a proper parchment style.
My latest WIP includes a lot of changes and is probably half of the finished map. Some background information about it:

The Arcane Academy is a long forgotten enclave of education for wizards. It has been a thousand years since it's walls tumbled down during the Second Eclipse.
Recently Robard van Erestria, Archmage of the Blaze and Lord of Lytant found an old folio with floorplans of the Arcane Academy. Since he knows of it's powers, hidden within the unique architecture which concentrates the arcane sources of Ahr, the First God, Robard decided to take this chance to rebuilt the Academy.

Robard had been warned by the great council of wizardry of summoning old god's powers into the world of Teneran. The council is convinced, that it was the Arcane Academy itself as it shelters the spirit of Ahr - also known as the Orcus' Guard - which led to the Second Eclipse.

But Robard ignores them. He is driven by the vision of initiating a new era of magic education and follows his plan by all cost.

The final version is ment to include a new sketch by Robard showing his thoughts and annotations. This could be in the form of a blueprint discussed in an earlier post within this thread.
I welcome any kind of criticism!

>Moe

### Latest WIP ###

This is really coming along quite nicely.

Nice. Very nice. What steps did you use to change the style? I'm sure I could fiddle it out eventually, but if you wouldn't mind sharing. =) Something to do with a sketch filter and overlays?

Had to laugh when I read the bit in the lower right... thought it would be another piece of backstory (you could go somewhere with that).