Minas Morgul - WIP

[daniel.nees]

Okay so I've been working on this one for about a week now whenever I get a chance. I've done a few Star Wars things but hardly anything from Lord of the Rings, so here it is; Minas Morgul (the dead city) from the Lord of the Rings - Return of the King. I've almost finished the modelling but I've included all the progress shots so far.







Only a few things left to model and then on to texturing...

[ryan.ware]

Screen left the far ground mountian/hill - are you going to detailing like you have done so far with the grounds around the base of the fortress?

looking good mate!

[william.shelley]

Looking great man, How far are you planning to take it ? Will you be texturing/lighting ect ?

[daniel.nees]

William, I'm definitely gonna texture and light it all up properly (I've already started and I put a progress render below).

Ryan, I am going to be adding detail but mainly through texturing (normal map etc.) because in the final lighting, it'll be very dim over there and you'll barely see it.

In this progress render, the lighting isn't right and the sampling is quite low (hence the graininess). Also the little rocks on the road / coastline are just placeholders.

[finn.spencer]

Keen to see more progress shots.

[daniel.nees]

Slowly getting the rocks done. I've done the larger ones and I'm just about to start on the smaller ones on top.

[ryan.ware]

Looking cool mate. modelling looks solid over all

a couple of things which you may wish to look into.

My biggest grip with it currently is the composition and framing of the camera.. I think you may want to consider re-framing your shoot or playing round with it a bit more. currently you have the top of the fortress cut off, this is a bit of a no no in portraits, particularly with cutting off the forehead or top of the subject matter and its feeling like it should apply to this. The fortress itself feels like its the main subject.

Good attempt at the rocks! I think you might find you are going to need to add in some sort of displacement. the textures dispite their resolution will just come across flatt some sort or displacement or, replicate what you have done with the mid ground rocks up against the walls.

the retaining wall along the path is the foreground is going to need some hero modelling that near to the camera. some chips and cracks or variation in the constant surface will help alot!
The ground in the path too will need some sort of displacement as well. its already looking pretty good for a flat image but I think you might find it will make it next level!

anyway, I will leave it at that for now!

seriously looking good and keep at it!

[daniel.nees]

After a generous break due to all sorts of crappy personal problems, I've started back up with this. I've almost finished with the fortress walls, then it's just the bridge, the water and the statues left to texture. Looking forward to lighting it properly

I changed the camera position (I agree entirely, Ryan) and I'll be tweaking the modelling a bit (particularly near the camera) as I start texturing the various items that need it.

[daniel.nees]

Finally getting back to doing this... Now I've done the water and the bricks near the camera (I have noticed the stretched UV's on the sides, it has since been fixed) and I played around a bit with depth of field blurring and volumetrics. (This will all look better with the proper lighting which I will be doing shortly).

[bobby.cairns]

thats looking amazing man makes me really wanna work harder and learn some of this stuff as im no artist