May Entry: The North East Towers of Jocelyn Castle

[Torq]

Here is a version with background, including blur and a weak cloud layer below the level of the action. Since including the background I've had to compress the file much more to get it under the limit, so there is a significant drop in quality.

After the challenge I will post a hi-res version.

Torq

### Latest WIP ###

[jfrazierjr]

Me thinks I have found the entry I shall vote for....

Nice work Torq, that is really cool. I like the "roof" line below the main turret, it's a rather nice effect and very realistic. Great job on the flagstones for the floor, those are sweet... did you do those by hand or use a mosaic filter in PS? And the broken stone/mortar showing the underlying base roof material is really a great artistic touch that makes the floor come alive (thought they don't look quite deep enough inset to match the tiles that are laying around thickness wise).

One thing about the background though, the scale make it seem as if the "camera" is about 10 stories up. Not a complaint, just an observation.

[ravells]

Superb work, Torq! Really sweet entry!

[Torq]

Me thinks I have found the entry I shall vote for....

Great job on the flagstones for the floor, those are sweet... did you do those by hand or use a mosaic filter in PS? And the broken stone/mortar showing the underlying base roof material is really a great artistic touch that makes the floor come alive (thought they don't look quite deep enough inset to match the tiles that are laying around thickness wise).

One thing about the background though, the scale make it seem as if the "camera" is about 10 stories up. Not a complaint, just an observation.

The Flagstones are just a texture I got on the CGTextures website. It had a few seams though that I fixed manually. Its all done in Gimp and I applied a slight bump map to try and take away the very flat feel.

The drop shadow between the flagstones and the underlying cobbles is different in size from the drop shadow cast by the removed flagstones. I will fix that.

I was trying to create the impression that this castle is unbelievably tall, but maybe I went overboard a bit.

Thanks for the kind words.

Torq

[jfrazierjr]

I was trying to create the impression that this castle is unbelievably tall, but maybe I went overboard a bit.

You achieved that very well.. of course, you could play off of that and make the castle a flying castle and just leave as is...heh...

Thanks for the kind words.

Your very welcome.

[Redrobes]

Thats 75K of pure sweetness right there.

Edit -- do you want to put another WIP tag in... Seems a shame not to !

[RPMiller]

Thats 75K of pure sweetness right there.

Edit -- do you want to put another WIP tag in... Seems a shame not to !

I added it for you Torq.

That there is an incredible result given the allowable size and would definitely give the players fits as the moved about their tokens realizing that one misstep would send them to their doom. Doom, I say. DOOM!! Ahem. I'm done now.

[Torq]

Thanks RPM. The scary height thing is definately part of the plan. I am a bit of a vertigo sufferer myself so I wont be without empathy when I use this in a game. I am running a game using the Iron Heroes D20 system, which specialises in heroic and stunt filled combat, with characters performing all manner of unimaginable feats, so disaster will be a real possibility.

Torq

[torstan]

Given the strength of the shadows on the tower roof, it would be good to have some shadows on the blurred lower levels from the towers. There is a small shadow, but given the length of shadow a battlement is casting, the towers should both cast long dark shadows across the lower terrain.

Otherwise I have to agree with the others. This is a fantastic achievement within the strictures of the mapping challenge.

[Chgowiz]

Wow, that turned out really really cool!

Chgowiz