Circular tower with crenels and merlons

[Mornagest]

Hi,

In a surge of creativity... uh... *coughes* Excuse me, I restart !

I'm trying to make some elements for a city map. The first difficulty for me is to create a credible circular tower (I would copy-paste it several times on my map, then connect them with walls,of course) and I was wondering if that trial would seem OK for you ?

I am not completely satisfied by the result ; I wish I could render it more "drawing" than it is actually (because I used real pictures for the textures of the pavements and crenels/merlons). Is there a way to change this with GIMP (some distortion or anything like this) ? I'm not totally accurate with the software...

Oh, and I guess there "could" be some stairways

Thank you for your answers !

[Bogie]

Good start, but here is what I see: The real photo of the floor doesn't match the computer generated look of the walls so I made the floor more granular and textured. Except for the upper left where there is some inside shadows, the walls look like they are on the same plane as the floor, so I put an inside shadow 360 deg.

On the second set I added Stairs. You could just also have a trapdoor instead of stairs.

tourcréneaux.pngtourcréneaux Stairs.png

[Mornagest]

Hi Bogie,

Thank you for your answer ! Stairs like this would fit, I guess.

I wonder how you do this 360° shadow inside the wall ? I use the shadow effect in the GIMP but it acts with only one side of enlightenment, not from the sky...

Same question with the granular effect on the pavement ; any distorsion used ?

As I would like to use the same effects on my future walls, it would be easier if I knew how to do this...

I've had another idea, to make merlons one or two pixel(s) larger to get a perspective effect more evident... I will try this.

Thank you once again !

[amberroberts09]

Good start, but here is what I see: The real photo of the floor doesn't match the computer generated look of the walls so I made the floor more granular and textured. Except for the upper left where there is some inside shadows, the walls look like they are on the same plane as the floor, so I put an inside shadow 360 deg.

On the second set I added Stairs. You could just also have a trapdoor instead of stairs.

tourcréneaux.pngtourcréneaux Stairs.png

Good concept....

[Mornagest]

New trial with some other features ; I gave relief on the pavement and crenels/merlons textures, and made the merlons a bit larger to give a reinforced perspective effect.

I tried to get a circular shadow as you did, Bogie, but couldn't find yet...

I read some of your techniques with Jfrazierjr about stairways, I will try them.

Thank you !

[Bogie]

I use an older version of Photoshop CS1, don't know the equivalent GIMP functions.

To make the shadow, I cut the floor and walls apart so I could work with them separately. On the walls I used Outer Glow to create the shadows.
For the floor I used one of the filters: Texturizer - Sandstone on a low setting so it just added a hint of texture. Then reassemble.

[Mornagest]

Ok ; I'm working with different layers for walls and pavement so I can easily make some trials, but I didn't find yet.

Uploaded a new version on my previous message ; the old one was a bit creepy, but I still get a thin black line around the walls because of the relief effect. I do not think it is THAT important because the final map will be a bit de-zoomed so such details may be unseen...

thank you once again !

[Mornagest]

Yet another trial WITH stairs...

I think it is almost done ; as the goal is not to be ultra-realistic, I think it is decent enough... ?

I hope I didn't forget any other important element...

Edit : I wonder if there must be a circular shadow. Considering daylight is illuminating from upper left, I think it is more logical that there is no shadow on the lower right corner of the pavement... am I right ?

[Bogie]

Looks good, the edge over the stairwell would be a safety feature and it reinforces the drop-off. My only nit-pick is the top stair opening gets to narrow.
In the real world you are correct that the inner shadow would not go 360 degrees around, but by putting in that shadow it gives the eye the impression that the floor is lower than the wall. Without it, the floor looks level with the wall.

[Midgardsormr]

Actually, there may be a slight shadow all the way around. Although the wall may not be blocking direct light, it will block a little bit of the ambient scatter. This will be most pronounced if you assume an overcast day. In 3d rendering we call this effect ambient occlusion, and it is very useful for small contact shadows and making things look just a little bit more well-integrated in the scene.