May Entry: The North East Towers of Jocelyn Castle

[Torq]

Here's the latest, weighing in at a measly 57kb. I am trying to finish all the detail on the action level before going into the blurred background effects.

Torq

## Latest WIP ##

[JFJohnny5]

Looking good Torq.

First, a question. I thought the map had to be at least 1280x1024?

Second, a suggestion. When you do add in the ground level, to really pull off a depth illusion, be sure to make it in different layers in Photoshop. Then blur each layer differently. The idea is this: objects farther from the focal plane (in this case the tower tops) will be more out of focus. So a tree top will be less blurry than a bush on the ground.

[Torq]

Oops. Yes, I forgot about that one. No wonder it compressed so much smaller. I'll iron it out in the next WIP.

Torq

[NeonKnight]

Looking good!

[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