Suceava Fortress

Marian · 3 Jan 2011, 22:18

Gaieus suggested a long time ago that I should try to model my local castle/fortress.
I don't know why but today I felt in the mood to give it a try and I realized how foreign modeling buildings is to me.
The goal is to have a medium detailed model of the fortress.
Any suggestions and advice are welcome as this not my forte.

Links with more photos of the fortress.
http://photos.mavericksonlineden.com/displayimage.php?album=129&pos=22

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Ecuadorian · 4 Jan 2011, 00:42

I like this.

Bryan K · 4 Jan 2011, 01:31

Well done! Now THAT'S a classic fortress/castle!

Marian · 4 Jan 2011, 01:36

Thanks.
Oh just in case...only the last 2 pics are made by me and in SU, the others are for reference.

Bryan K · 4 Jan 2011, 01:41

@marian said:

Thanks.
Oh just in case...only the last 2 pics are made by me and in SU, the others are for reference.

Oh.

Still, looking good.

Marian · 4 Jan 2011, 10:03

This is tougher than I thought.
Can't seem to find any good pictures of the real world model replica and there seems to be some discrepancies between the real model and digital model I use as reference.

lucifer1101 · 4 Jan 2011, 11:30

I will follow this closely just to see how it turns out.

Marian · 4 Jan 2011, 11:59

Thanks for the interest.

Gaieus · 4 Jan 2011, 12:34

Hi Marian,

This is a very nice challenge. Are you modelling it for GE (as well)? And/or a bit more detailed one including a reconstruction?

How accurate the terrain is - especially that I can see the fosses in the aerial photo but I doubt the GE terrain would be anywhere close to it...

Can you take good pictures of the existing walls (for texturing) or are you planning to texture it with some "artificial" textures?

Marian · 4 Jan 2011, 13:12

Hi Gaieus,

This is not specifically for GE, I want to do a reconstruction of how it used to look about 500 years.

I imported the terrain with SU8 but it's not very accurate, no fosses or leveling of the ground inside the courtyard. As you can see from the wips, I modeled it as if it was on level ground. I forsee a major restructuring of the model . I'll give the sand tools and SDS a try and reshape the ground.
The fortress is on a hill and some places are not very accessible to people and/or are in ruins so some things about how the walls were I can't see from the pics I have. I mean was it straight in some areas or did it have that uhmm bevel all the way around at the lower level? Did that bevel follow the terrain or was on a certain level...There will be a lot of eyeballing and improvisation on this project.

About the textures, I think I'll use some "artificial" ones at least temporarily. Later maybe I could take pictures of the fortress when I go home,or use some of the pictures on the internet and the few I have taken.

On an interesting note there are plans to fully reconstruct the fortress, but so far I haven't seen any work being done to it. Hopefully I won't be completely gray before it's finished.

Gaieus · 4 Jan 2011, 13:30

Well, I think once you start building it, you could think about a GE version as well. Not too much extra effort as you model it anyway...

Then look at this example of Aerilius where he made a version as it is now and as it used to be. He has some other, nice examples with interactive tours for the reconstructions, too. In that topic you'll find hints about how he created his artificial yet "convincing" materials for the reconstruction, too.

As for the parts unknown for the time being - just model them in a way that can be easily changed later when you find out.

Marian · 4 Jan 2011, 13:51

Thanks for the advice Gaieus.
Aerilius did a wonderful job with such simple geometry.
I don't have GE installed so I can't check but I found this model of the present day ruins on the warehouse. http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=4d7bdc4fc264fafc8f8c90535e31623a&prevstart=0
Unfortunately it can't be downloaded.

Gaieus · 4 Jan 2011, 14:13

Well, not a bad model but not the best I have ever seen either (more exactly, texturing is awful and since there aren't too many other details, this ruins the whole impression).
I'm sure you could do better!

(And install GE - it can be so much fun!)

Bryan K · 4 Jan 2011, 22:16

Keep at it Marion. It's looking good.

numbthumb · 4 Jan 2011, 23:16

I just thought someone might be interested in taking a virtual tour of the fortress:
http://www.360cities.net/image/suceava5#261.90,-33.20,70.0
(Marian has no need for that, of course. )

Gaieus · 5 Jan 2011, 07:39

Nice find, NTh!

Marian · 5 Jan 2011, 13:08

That't a great find Numb. That will be great for making textures.
Also found a link explaining how they made the 3d presentation of the fortress 6 years ago. It contains the pictures and angles I was looking for
http://journal.univagora.ro/download/pdf/334.pdf

Gaieus · 5 Jan 2011, 14:38

Now back to work, Marian!

Marian · 11 Jan 2011, 07:49

A couple of renders with a bit of progress and practice mostly.

Gaieus · 11 Jan 2011, 09:32

Looking good so far. Now comes texturing I guess!