Anonymous at Thu, 27 Jun 2024 17:51:36 UTC No. 988407

>>988399
>these are FUNCTIONAL designs

🗑️ Learning architecture with a 3DCG focus? at Thu, 27 Jun 2024 18:40:06 UTC No. 988412

>>988407
They are functional, the hallway interiors are sometimes extensions of the exterior arches, as are the ceilings.
The windows on Raya Lucaria castle were build to give 2nd floor hallways illumination, and the outer pillars to give support to them.

At first glance i thought they were just fluff, but the more i try to analyze them, the more i notice there is a reason for everything to be in place.

Anonymous at Thu, 27 Jun 2024 18:42:52 UTC No. 988415

>>988407
They are functional, the hallway interiors are sometimes extensions of the exterior arches, as are the ceilings.
The windows on Raya Lucaria castle were build to give 2nd floor hallways illumination, and the outer pillars to give support to them.

At first glance i thought they were just fluff, random decoration with no meaning. While SOME were that, the more i try to analyze them, the more i notice there is a reason for everything to be in place, either for illuminate certain sections or as a basis for the interior.

Anonymous at Thu, 27 Jun 2024 23:39:10 UTC No. 988431

>>988399
Real buildings don’t look like that bro, just look at them at Wikimedia Commons snd their original designs are mostly guarded against invasion instead of being art.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Art_and_Architecture_-_Crusader_Castles_Art.IWMPST16958.jpg

Anonymous at Fri, 28 Jun 2024 00:47:16 UTC No. 988435

>>988399
You have to just be interested in this stuff and build general knowledge.
You absolutely can mix styles, Souls does it all the time. Gothic, baroque, empire style.
Real castles and shit do this too. A ton of castles in europe just go back forever and have been built up over time in lots of different style.
Learning about the history is actually important here, because things in history were placed for a specific reason, architectural elements tell a story of a time and a place.
I would recommend brunelleschi dome's by Ross King. There's engineering, history, and architectural elements that you'll pick up. It's a good story, too.
But in general just be curious, watch youtube videos about castles and cathedrals, when you learn about one thing use it as a jumping off point.
Artists who know a lot about this stuff, they just find it interesting and learn about it for fun.

Anonymous at Fri, 28 Jun 2024 04:54:27 UTC No. 988443

>>988399
I was working on gothic dark fantasy stuff creating authentic styled medieval architecture. Project was canceled but pic related is my work.
I started by binge watching an ~18hour TTC course on medieval architecture by William R. Cook for research to get all the vocabulary down
and have a detailed walkthru and explanation of how these things are put together so I knew the name and function of anything I was looking at.

After taking notes having done that that it was real easy to google for references for any of the specifics i needed to capture the look.

Anonymous at Fri, 28 Jun 2024 07:59:01 UTC No. 988451

>>988399
Those were most likely made in some 4-square program with a grid like this and then touched up by an environment artist, it's a 2 man job really.

Anonymous at Mon, 1 Jul 2024 18:05:58 UTC No. 988677

>>988399
I will tell you the answer as I might be one of the only professional environment artists on this board, whether you believe me or not is up to you.

This is 50% research, and 50% design knowledge.

Design comes first. You need to understand how to create hierarchy and contrast through varying up the elements of your work (shapes, sizes, proportions, textures, details). Everything is about ratios, you wanna have different ratios of things and avoid 50/50 so you can have a clear hierarchy when you view the thing. "First I see there's a lot of X, then a little Y, and a tiny bit of Z if I look really close." You don't wanna go overboard and schizo out with 9000 different elements either, pick a few things and reuse them throughout the design.

Look at Stormveil Castle. It has a mix of big, medium, and small towers. Most of the building is made of bricks, but there's also a gold trim present all throughout the design in smaller proportion. The brick is very minimalistic and flat, the gold trim is very noisy and ornate, with the same patterns (columns, arches, and spires) repeating throughout. Repeating these patterns rather than having 9000 different ones helps the design look like a coherent whole rather than the schizo mess mentioned above.

Now, the beautiful thing about good design principles is you can make designs out of anything. That's where research comes in. If you know the rules about combining visual elements in pleasing ratios, maintaining a hierarchy and working from big to small, you can pick anything for these elements as long as your picks mesh together well. So read up on your favorite architectural period, go look at some towers, arches and cornices, and treat them as building blocks to make your own designs with.

Anonymous at Mon, 1 Jul 2024 18:07:39 UTC No. 988679

>>988399
>pic
pretty good, yet, not perfect, but I'll cut them some slack because it's a videogame

Anonymous at Mon, 1 Jul 2024 23:53:10 UTC No. 988694

>>988443
>I started by binge watching an ~18hour TTC course on medieval architecture by William R. Cook for research to get all the vocabulary down
Might i ask for the name on said course? There is a lot of stuff by William R. Cook, but i am not sure what course you might be talking about.

>>988677
>professional environment artists
>Design comes first. You need to understand how to create hierarchy and contrast through varying up the elements of your work (shapes, sizes, proportions, textures, details). Everything is about ratios, you wanna have different ratios of things and avoid 50/50 so you can have a clear hierarchy when you view the thing.
>"First I see there's a lot of X, then a little Y, and a tiny bit of Z if I look really close." You don't wanna go overboard and schizo out with 9000 different elements either, pick a few things and reuse them throughout the design.
Yup, this is solid advice.
Did you went to college to learn environment art/design or did you learn by research?

Anonymous at Mon, 29 Jul 2024 20:55:01 UTC No. 990975

>>988399
Anon have you forgotten about your local library?
There are thousands of years of knowledge compiled at your fingertips with a library card.
The artists likely got a book or pdf on a subject and spent a few hours on a chapter with some instructions on style and construction techniques

the chair nerd at Mon, 29 Jul 2024 21:44:59 UTC No. 990978

>>988399
>3D CG artist take architecture classes?
Pic1
Gothic crenellations an machicolations are not a thing. Gothic style is precisely an architectural style without defensive characteristics.

Pic 2
Ecclectic pillars and arched statue basins with fake columns? What is this anothe monument for Mussolini?

Pic 3
Indoor gargoyles? Expecting much rain indoors?

Pic 4
Discount beheaded Notre Dame with an italian hexagonal based dome at the begining of the nave?

So to your question....3D CG artist take architecture classes? Not these.

If you want my informed opinion:
"Hurrr just model arches and add bullshit"
"Just search on google images for lots of references bro"
These are correct. You are the one that is retarded.

>>988677
>This is 50% research, and 50% design knowledge.
Yes.

Anonymous at Tue, 30 Jul 2024 06:28:32 UTC No. 991008

>>988677
>This is 50% research, and 50% design knowledge.
Why would you brag about being a super expert environment artist and then saying the thing that's the most obvious?
Like people don't really just wing it, do they? I can't imagine anyone seriously looking to make architecture like this is just gonna go "I'll make up some shapes and whatever happens, happens". They gather up a fuckton of reference material, (hopefully) visit a similar place in person if they can, and read up about basic principles.
That shit is common sense. Granted A LOT of people lack it, but I'd imagine anyone with the skills to pull off something like this would at least have some basic form of common sense.
Like fuck, I even took an extra class one semester just because it was relevant to a project I was planning to do (it was a history course on Meso-American cultures and shit). I wanted all kinds of info about designs and architecture and stuff. Never actually did work on the project though, since other shit came up.

Anonymous at Tue, 30 Jul 2024 09:52:03 UTC No. 991022

>>991008
different anon but no
the architecture you see here has fairly little to do with the real deal
none of these follow any "principles" or intricate knowledge, its like the definition of style over substance

Anonymous at Tue, 30 Jul 2024 20:42:58 UTC No. 991071

>>988415
you are asking two different questions here:
>how to mechanically model out the actual thing
>how to artistically design the thing in the first place

what you are seeing is the work of an extremely skilled level designer/environment artist. you need to just start doing it. design environments and structures. you will fuck them up, they will look terrible, and you will learn what not to do.

tl;dr git gud

Anonymous at Sat, 3 Aug 2024 11:49:52 UTC No. 991448

>This thread again

Anonymous at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 16:08:12 UTC No. 991756

>>990978
>What is this anothe monument for Mussolini?
It's a monument to female Mussolini (Marika)

Anonymous at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 22:43:13 UTC No. 991793

Lots of talk about studying medieval architecture, but I also want to bring up a different example.
Fumito Ueda (Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Last Guardian) said that he doesn't draw inspiration from real architecture, and instead draws inspiration from artists like Gerard Trignac (pic related) and strives to make architecture that does not really exist. Yet I think his games are the only ones that actually eclipse Fromsofts work with their "sense of place". Nothing is ever said about the history of the world in these games, yet I always feel a deeper history in them than I've ever felt in a fromsoft game. Something to consider.

Anonymous at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 22:54:10 UTC No. 991797

>>991793
>always feel a deeper history in them than I've ever felt in a fromsoft game.
For me, the issue with FromSoft games is what I'm being presented with. Gigantic structures, sprawling labyrinths, etc. Who the fuck built all of it? Elden Ring especially. For all GRR Martin's criticism of taxes in Lord of the Rings, he sure hasn't done a good job of convincing me that the Lands Between have (had) and can support a workforce large enough to build even one of those structures. Same goes for Souls games as well.
Like fuck they look cool and all, but even one of those buildings would be considered a human achievement, and they seem to be crappin them out en masse. None of them even try to have some hand-wavey explanation for it either, like magic. If there is, it's on the description of some fucking rusty cockring deep in a cave no one goes to.
>Legend tells of the construction crew of the Lands Between using this cockring to keep their erections going for hours
It's a videogame obviously, and I'm supposed to suspend my disbelief, but we're in a thread about realistic vidya architecture, and I just can't hold my tongue about it anymore.

Anonymous at Wed, 7 Aug 2024 22:55:59 UTC No. 991798

>>991797
demon's souls had very very believable utilitarian architecture