Destroyed watchtower

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Since my previous Rampaging Panda project got a bit clogged up in technical difficulties, I’m working on something else for now, a ruined watchtower, shown from the inside with a view to the outside. Most of the modelling is done (exluding splinters etc). I’m planning on filling in the view with a matte painting (the sky is a placeholder and used for lighting).

Tell me what you think.


Might need more rubble :stuck_out_tongue:

Looks nice to me. I am working on something similar, but on a larger scale. I know the feeling.

I am guessing you are using or intend to use cell fracture for the splinters and debris.

Since I did an extensive amount of research, I can say that wood and wooden columns in particular, rarely break is such even manner, like the one standing right side near the cavity in the wall.

If you haven’t used it yet, I encourage you to try out cell fracture. It might give you a more natural feel.

Thanks for the advice, I’ll look it up.
I was planning to ad splinters at a later stage using simple planes with cutout maps.

Looks to be a cool project. I wonder if you should consider adding some windows since it is a watchtower.

I feel so stupid now :o
I had one window, but it was where the hole now is. But yeah, more windows, definetely :smiley:

So I’ve added another window :p. I could only really do one without completely messing with the composition I had in mind, but I believe it helps.

Here’s my latest test render, to show that I’ve been doing something, even if it isn’t that much. Note that only the stones, the standing wooden beams and the iron bits have been given decent textures so far, the rest is just for the colours.

I changed the HDRI for now to get some more neutral lighting with which I can check my materials.


Some things I’ve already noticed: the iron material needs to be darker and the red banner draws too much attention (should have known when I decided to use red). I’m trying to prevent unwrapping as much as possible. There’s probably some tab or window I haven’t found yet, but unwrapping in Blender seems quite hard compared to 3DsMax.

As much as I hate uv unwrapping, you really need to do it in this scene on some of the objects… the wood beams that make up the main frame of the roof desperately need it, as does those copper looking rectangle cubes near the green things.

You’ve put enough time into the project and it would be a waste in someways not to texture it properly. From what I understand, UV unwrapping is one of Blenders strengths. But like anything else, you have to put the time into learning how to properly do it.

Personally, I don’t think the flag draws too much attention, I think it was a nice addition to the scene.

yup, they’re the ones that still need it, right now they’re more like color test (i quickly gave them something for color). only the standing beams near the wall and the stone blocks have “decent” textures so far.

I like the idea, but to render this scene with daylight seems like your missing a great opportunity for nice fire lighting from those torches, the shadows would work nicely with that debris as well. On a lesser note, wouldn’t the boulder go through the floor? Or perhaps expose a level beneath it?

I suppose it woul, but I liked the idea of seeing the boulder stuck in there. The way I “built” the tower has an additional stone ring in the center, which might have stopped it. Or the boulder had already lost some momentum by crashing through the wall. I don’t know, I just liked it as a visual element :stuck_out_tongue:

The current lighting is mostly being used to test the textures and materials. Once I’m done with that I’m gonna experiment some more with the lighting. The scene could end up as an already destroyed and abandoned watchtower or as a sort of "action shot (without any actual action :stuck_out_tongue: ) during a siege, with fires still burning outside etc. We’ll see :slight_smile: .

An update:
(had to unwrap the beams indeed, couldn’t manage it just with the nodes)


Whoopsie, some stones peaking through in the bottom corners.

Edit: and a flying rooftile >.<

Have you thought of a particle system for debris? Simply ‘paint’ a group of vertices and use that for the ‘density’ field. Would provide a lot more authenticity…I’m not sure that hand-placing debris will ever give it the random look you want.

Also, I would consider either an HDRI or background plane for the sky. The ‘blurred’ skyline seems distracting to me.

Otherwise, your texturing has improved quite a bit.

A bit stuck with what I want to do with the background, hmm…

Yeah, I was thinking about doing something like that one of these days. I’ve tried dropping the debris by using physics, but the damn things just kept bouncing around forever without staying on the ground :stuck_out_tongue: (not I’m quite new to Blender and entirely new to physics).

The current background is just a placeholder used for lighting, it will be replaced.

A lighting test. Any idea what could be messing up the flag, and what the little dots are?

(flames would be added in post production)


Try turning off caustics, I suspect your new lights are generating reflection and unless you use a ridiculous number of samples, will produce ‘fireflies’. Otherwise, I like the improvement…completely changes the feel of the scene.

As for the flames, you can add smoke/fire physics in cycles that can produce fairly realistic results…plus, you can apply an emissions shader to the material and have it produce pretty good lighting effects with little to no post-processing.

This was a concept model I made recently using the method described above:


Latest test render:


Tried adding flames in Blender itself. Got some results, but until I can make it look decent enough I’m gonna stick with adding them in post production.

Added a lot more rubble by using a hair system. Ended up placing it all on the floor by hand anyway and other noobery :stuck_out_tongue:

Added some dust to the floor, which you can’t really see here, gotta tune it up.

Fixed the flag, apparently there were two duplicates of the flag in the sameplace, d’oh…

Added some random colour variation to the beams and stones. The stones ended up a bit extreme and too dark, gotta tune that down. Somehow they even seem to be less reflective…

The fireflies were still there with caustics turned off, though in fewer number. Gotta experiment with sample size to see how I’ll spend my render time.

Oh yeah, here’s a quick 5 minute mock up (ok, 20 minutes…) about what I might do in post. Remains to be seen o.o


Quick update, working out the kinks. I’m a bit worried the flag doesn’t really show itself, might have to some creative lighting.


The first render looks a lot like a game called myst thumbs up

WATCH in 1080p
check out what i’ve been working on. feel free to look through my channel, I have more videos.

A little volume lighting test:


Losing the background a bit too much…