BA3 - Concepting in Photoshop

After my attempt at creating a concept in ZBrush for my final model, I have been working on a concept in Photoshop to help me plan my idea. Below you can see the development of this concept.

This is the first concept that I created from my ideas that I have developed throughout my research. The castle is based on the Steampunk Style shown in Bioshock Infinite and Howl's Moving Castle, and the courtyard follows this style. The castle and courtyard is built on top of a huge Pirate Ship hull, similar to the pirate ship in Peter Pan and decorated in a similar style once again to Howl's Moving Castle, which has also been decorated with a face to add to the overall style that has been established by Disney throughout the years. By personifying the robot carrying the castle it gives it a much greater presence to the audience. The robot is powered by an steam engine to the rear of the ship with a number of chimneys similar to the engine room seen in Mortal Engines, which is also where I adapted the idea of the Tank Tracks from. The courtyard is also based on the Steampunk style, to create an oasis that separates the castle from the rest of the world, just as is seen in Agrabah from Aladdin. However, looking at this as a concept there were a number of issues that I addressed in my second concept below.

Above you can see how I developed this concept. The castle has been changed and developed into a much more circular design with more towers and details. There are less chimneys and more details on the hull of the ship. The path leading up to the castle has also been made longer to give more of a build up towards the structure.

I then added colour to the concept to help for my texturing phase of the project. I have asked for feedback based on this concept, and one of the main issues with it is the size of the castle. People have agreed that since the castle is the main focus of the piece it should be much, much bigger than it appears in this concept. Something else people said was that the design for the boat was very different to the castle, and so there should be more continuity between them. Finally, a few people thought that the tank tracks used for transport didn't fit with the disney style that I am trying to replicate. These changes have been made and you can see them below.

This is my final concept in 2D, and the one that I will be continuing on to the modelling stage of this project. I have taken on board the comments of my peers and made changes to the design, increasing the size of the castle, unifying the colours and exhanging the tank tracks for legs. I have also given the face on the front of the ship a comical nose, trying to follow in the stylised footsteps of Disney.

BA3 - Concepting in ZBrush

I've began to concept my idea for a Castle that moves from place to place across the world. I started using ZBrush since Mark has always said that it can be used to concept in 3D, so I thought I would give it a go. I've quickly created two ideas using ZSpheres which you can see below.

The first of these concepts was created based around the base of a Pirate Ship. I've adapted the legs from Howls Moving Castle onto the side of the ship to allow the structure to move, and the castle has been created out of a number of towers similar to that of Maleficent's castle that I looked at earlier. As you can see from the 3/4 view of the sculpt, the castle is connected to the rest of the deck similar to a Motte and Bailey castle.

This is the second of these concepts that I have created in ZBrush. The castle has been placed much more centrally with more symmetrical towers, and instead of being mounted on a Pirate Ship the castle sits on a kind of creature with four legs, similar to the Starwhale idea that I explored from Doctor Who.

Looking at both of these concepts, I personally don't feel either of them have much promise and I won't be continuing on with them into the next stage of development. I will next work on concepting my idea in 2D rather than 3D, however it was worth experimenting in ZBrush.

BA3 - Finalising my Idea

Since I've done a lot of research into Disney Castles and what makes them such beautiful and magnificent structures, along with all the research I have done into Mortal Engines and the idea of a moving castle, I've decided to put the two together! How original...

A moving castle, Disney style. Now with an idea like this there are a number of questions that arise such as how is this going to fit together? What elements from each idea will be used in the final model? So on and so forth, so I'm going to lay this post out like a Q and A session to work out all the little kinks in the idea.

1) What will be used as the base of the castle, what will it ride on?

Answer
This is a very good question. As you can see in this image of Mortal Engines that I have looked at in a previous post, there is a layer of concrete or stone that the city is mounted on. Howl's Moving Castle is mounted on what seems to be a boat hull with legs. This is something I will need to work out for my own model, as what I mount my castle on is critical for this idea. I have a number of ideas, and below I have provided a few reference images of what I could use to fill this role.

Possibility 1, a Pirate Ship. The image you see above comes from the Disney film Peter Pan; Captain Hooks ship is a key element to the plot of the film. I could adapt the boat itself to fit my own needs by removing the masts and adding tank tracks, legs or wheels (whichever I so decide), and this way I will still keep within the very heavily stylized world of old Disney films and would help the continuity of my final model. However, it is still falling into the same horizons and views of Disney, and I would like to explore other possibilities and ideas.

Possibility 2, no one said the castle had to stay on the ground. Here you can see a screenshot from Bioshock Infinite, showing the flying steampunk city of Columbia. This is another strong possibility for how my castle could travel across the globe, and would allow my castle to go everywhere around the world. The steampunk style of the city is highlighted in the propellers and helicopters that keep the city in the air.

Possibility 3, sustained by some kind of creature. I'm a huge fan of Doctor Who, and this particular idea comes from an episode showing the entirety of Great Britain, on a spaceship that is carried across space and time by a creature called a Starwhale. I could replicate this by having my Disney castle carried across the world by some kind of creature, and if I did enough research into monsters and animals created by Disney I could make sure that the house style is up kept throughout the model.

2) What kind of castle will be the biggest influence?

Answer

Even though I am basing my idea on Disney Castles, these ideas had to come from somewhere. For example, the castle in Sleeping Beauty is based on Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, seen to the right. Below I have got a number of castles that have been used by Disney as reference for their own creations, and which I could use as influence for my own moving castle. I have also included a type of castle that (as far as I know) Disney has not yet used and it would be interesting to develop in my own model.

Possibility 1, DunBroch Castle from Brave. Brave is a much newer Disney film, and is based in Scotland. DunBroch castle features heavily in the film, which is a Scottish castle and has been around for hundreds of years. In reality it isn't as complete as the version seen in the film, so there is a lot of space for creative development and visualisation that may be interesting to look into.

Possibility 2, don't use a castle? This is a very interesting idea, and is once again from Disneys Frozen. Elsa's castle is actually based on her signature snowflake from the film, and all the towers features follow the intricate and delicate lines of the snowflake. This is a very interesting idea, and could be developed from any abstract concept. For example, as I am running with a steampunk moving castle, maybe a Gear or a type of Tool would be good to base a castle on to create a more stylized and interesting model.

Possibility 3, Motte and Bailey Castles. I remember learning about this type of castle in Primary School, and to be honest with you I wasn't very interested as I'm not a big fan of history. However looking back at the castles themselves theres a lot of space for development, the castle itself is on a large hill looking over the village which has its own protection. This is an idea that could work very well with a boat or pirate ship base, if I choose to go down that route.

3) What kind of Bridge will be used in the Model?

Answer
Bridges are a huge part of this piece of work, and I want to make sure that I create the right kind of bridge to fit in with my scene. Now I'm probably not going to put the kind of modern and complicated bridge that you can see to the right, instead I will explore other options below.

Possibility 1, standard medieval drawbridge. This would make perfect sense to the idea itself, a moving bridge that would close when the castle was in motion and open to get on and off the structure. It fits in with the idea and is fairly simple to put together, but its a very standard idea with not very much style to it. With that said, the style of the model can be added to the structure within Maya.

Possibility 2, a bridge inside the castle walls. This is an interesting idea, as it would allow me to connect two sections of the structure in a way that is as fast moving as the structure itself. However, how much use is there in a bridge inside the castle? There would need to be a reason that it is there to help make the player believe in my model.

Possibility 3, a Light Bridge. A much more futuristic take on the bridge itself, this is a screenshot from Portal (not sure which version, as it looks like a Mod) showing a bridge made out of solid light. Very futuristic and heavily stylized, but the idea is so simple it can be executed in a number of different ways.

4) Where will the scene be set?

Answer
I could set this scene in a number of locations, and it all comes down to personal preference. The three possibilities for this are as follows:

A clearing in a forest

A Rocky Desert

A Cityscape

Cerberus Pistol - Untextured Render

An update on my progressing 3D Modelling skills, I give you the Cerberus Pistol using by Vincent Valentine in Final Fantasy 7 - Dirge of Cerberus. 

BA3 - Concept Research, A Moving Castle

This probably sounds like a very strange idea, but bare with me. I once read a book by Phillip Reeve titled Mortal Engines. The book is basically about cities that move around the world "eating" other cities in order to get supplies and resources for the people on the city. I really enjoyed the book and seeing the cover again reminded me of Reeve's story line and how inspiring his idea was to me when I read it. So idea number two is for a castle... that is designed to move!





As I have stated before my main inspiration for this is Phillip Reeve's Predator Cities Quartet, beginning with the book Mortal Engines. Below you can see a fan image of London; the city followed in the book.

The entire structure has a very steampunk atmosphere to it, with the huge column of smoke and the tank tracks that carry the structure across the world. In this particular image of the traction city the structure is separated into a number of different layers of civilization, similar to an apartment building or large block of flats. The chimneys appear towards the rear of the city to expel the smoke from the engine room at the bottom of the vessel, and the landing strips for the plans and helicopters that are described in the book are shown on the very top layer. Looking at this image of the structure I'll need to take particular care of how I organise my own structure as there is much less space and more components needed for a castle that moves around the world.

Another strong influence on this particular idea is the castle from Howls Moving Castle, a Disney film released in 2004. Instead of moving on tank tracks like the moving city of Mortal Engines, Howl's castle moves on a set of legs that are much too thin and frail to support the weight of the entire structure and move with it at the speeds it does in the film. Naturally if I was to adapt such an idea into my own castle I would need to increase the overall diameter of the legs to ensure that my model is more believable to a player. Looking at the structure as a whole, it seems to follow the basic structure of a boat; the hull is shaped more aerodynamically at the front and curved along the bottom similar to a boat, there is even a sail and a mast similar to a boat. However, that is as far as the comparison can go as the turrets at the front of the castle replace the deck and the chimney's at the side and rear of the castle replace the captains cabin. Another noticeable feature of the castle is the face in the front of the hull, which helps in giving the castle a sense of identity of its own. It's clear to see that, unlike the traction city in Mortal Engines, Howl's castle has a much stronger identity of its own, and is viewed by an audience much more like a companion, a different character even in the plot of the film. Whereas the traction city of Mortal Engines is more of a location.

Another moving structure that springs to mind is from the film Up released in 2009. This is a much more colourful and child-friendly idea of a moving structure, as it is literally a house with thousands of balloons being used to lift the house into the sky. The house in question is as standard as they come, with a small porch, plumbing, bedrooms and a number of knickknacks that you will find in an elderly mans house. What makes this so different to a normal house is the way that it takes to the skies with hundreds of thousands of multicoloured balloons. I'd love to take strong influence from this as reference, however modelling all of the balloons would be incredibly time consuming

BA3 - Concept Research, Disney Castles

We have now received our brief for BA3, and it's going to be a lot more work than before but I'm really excited. We are tasked with modelling a castle, any kind of castle in Maya along with terrain and a bridge which will then be put into UDK or Unity engine. It's a lot to do, but I can't wait to get stuck in! So lets start with the important stuff, the research.

The first of my ideas for this unit comes from a film I watched a few weeks ago, a film that I enjoyed so much I decided to watch it again the following evening. I am of course talking about Frozen; Disney's latest animated production. I was taken back to when I was a young boy watching Disney films at my nans house, and so I have been inspired to take a closer look at the films. More specifically, a closer look at the castles. The way the light reflects off the ice castle walls and the fantasy architecture captivates the senses and creates an incredible place to escape to as a viewer. However, I can't help but think there could be more there, because the castle is created on such a severe slope on the side of a mountain there is very little space for more architecture and I feel this limits the castle itself. With that said, the use of light is still beautiful for this castle.

Looking at Elsa's castle from Frozen got me thinking about other castles that have appeared in Disney films. So lets have a look into those.

King Triton's castle under the sea is home to Ariel and her family in the popular Disney adventure The Little Mermaid. The castle itself has been constructed incredibly well, the architecture almost mimics the motion of the waves around the structure and the entire structure almost resembles a grand coral reef. The caste is cleverly constructed to blend in with its environment perfectly, and this is something that I need to keep in mind with my own structure. Moving on, colour is also used to great effect for this castle. The blues and greens of the waves compliment the colour scheme of the castle extremely well, helping to show the castle in all its vibrance and life. The only issue with using this castle as reference is if I try and replicate too much of the structure I will create a castle that would be more at home underwater than on the surface.

Aladdin was arguably my favourite Disney film as a boy, which is why I will be looking at Princess Jasmine's castle in Agrabah. The structure itself was based on the Taj Mahal in India, and therefore the architecture has strong links to Indian culture and design. The castle itself is a magnificent structure made up of high walls and numerous towers and columns, decorated with beautiful bright colours illuminated by a single spotlight. However, I think there is more to it than that. The spotlight only lights up the castle, leaving the rest of the city in shadow of this incredible castle, which could be seen as separating the life of luxury that those in the castle enjoy, with great expenses and unnecessary comforts, with the people that live in poverty in the city in he shadow of the castle. This is a strong example of how a powerful theme such as poverty and social segregation in society can be displayed in a castle.

Maleficent was, and remains to be, one of the most amazing villains in Disney (in my opinion). Her appearance in Sleeping Beauty was nothing short of terrifying for a much younger version of me, and I was also captivated by her castle. The giant structure is ridiculously poorly positioned, it looks as though it would fall from the rock it sits on as soon as a wind blew the wrong way, but that actually adds to the atmosphere of the castle as it emphasises the sense of danger around the structure. Unlike the other castles that I have looked at for this idea, this castle is for an evil queen, and the colour scheme, location and even the weather reflect this perfectly. Even the sharp towers and the tiny bridge reflect the fear in the atmosphere surrounding this castle. This is a strong example of how to create an atmosphere around your castle, in this case an atmosphere of terror.

I've had a look at 4 different castles from some of my favourite Disney films. There are many more, but I can't look at all of them in this post so this will do for now. This is definitely a strong idea that I could run with for BA3, but I want to explore other options before I commit to this idea.