Cliffside Fortress - WIP

[professorthunder]

This is the current floor texture I've mixed up, I think it's mostly the right amount of weathering for a slab like this, I need to add in more detail to break up the monotony. Every ancient fortress requires mysterious glyphs and carvings, so I will probably break the rooms up with some "granite" blocks embedded in the floor and then add carved glyphs.
Preview 5.jpg

Now that the plan is stabilized I need to start laying out the sub-basement alchemists lab level, and the upper two floors, the ruined bridge level being one of them.

[Gidde]

I like the floor, and the rubble, but I'm not too sold on the hand-drawn-type walls. Perhaps once the "guts" go in it might grow on me, though.

[jtougas]

This keeps getting better and better

[professorthunder]

I like the floor, and the rubble, but I'm not too sold on the hand-drawn-type walls. Perhaps once the "guts" go in it might grow on me, though.

Are the walls too "simplistic" or "cartoony" when they're hand-drawn? Is it the sloping glacis of the exterior walls that looks too cartoony? Compared to the textures, I know they're much simpler than the terrain. I'll try working on a more photo-real style on the glacis maybe... the top-down walls are going to need an upgrade too then.

[Gidde]

I think it's cartoony that's the problem. It's subtle though. I may have only noticed it because you asked so i specifically looked.

[professorthunder]

I worked on the wall textures a bit, and I think this improves it. I added in cracks and such to make it less monolithic and more varied in texture, as well as played around with the highlights and shadows to create some variations in color on the concrete. Hopefully this is an improvement.

Preview 6.jpg

I like my stair down into the pit, but my stair up... that's not interacting with the rubble quite right, going to have to half-destroy it or something to make it work. Additionally, I think I'm done adding rubble until I have the upper levels visualized and the amount of ruin going on up there.

I'm also looking for ideas on what sort of castle / dungeon props would remain after a thousand years of wild animals, and half-sentient monsters wandering around the place. (That's yet another challenge for my poor hand-drawing skills!) Also, my floors are too clean, going to have to grunge and crack them them up once I get props inside.

[Gidde]

Oh yeah, those walls look a ton better.

[professorthunder]

This will be the last update on this for a few days.

I'm at the stage on this floor where changes made will seem small, so I won't bore people. I'm working on the upper floor. I'll probably have 4 floors total with one of the floors being the roof. In this update, I fixed my stair up, and added in some wizard/keep-holder rooms along with some servant quarters and will add more in the retreat. I collapsed a room or two, which means they will need to carry through to the basement and alchemy lab.

Furniture and props are going to be hard on this one, as the hand-drawing is where I'm weakest. Going to try and finish this eventually, I switched from psd to psb which keeps me from hitting the 2gb limit that was crashing photoshop.

Preview 7.jpg

[Gidde]

That grid is really distracting me. Other than that, this continues to look awesome.

[Steel General]

I agree with Gidde, the grid is quite distracting on an otherwise great piece.