Roman Hunt: Week 3: Castle

The rough layout of my castle was inspired by the Hornburg fortress seen in the theatrical adaptation of The Two Towers. Given my lack of proficiency with Rhino, I eventually opted to simplify the design of the right half by creating a prominent keep. From there, I added a barracks within the walls and a small village beyond them, as well as a series of strange pillars that were created through experimentation. Rather than being a literal depiction of a castle, the model is meant to be just that, a small decoration that one might place on a coffee table or somewhere similar.

As my introduction to Rhino, the castle was created through fairly simple methods, most of which involved little more than the basic manipulation of primitives. The four towers along the wall were created by experimenting with the Revolve command, was were the statues lining the entrance. The base was created by extruding a free-form curve.

My conceptions of the castle's tone shifted considerably as I experimented with the various materials in Keyshot. While I had initially intended to give the castle a sense of worn nobility akin to that of the fortress that inspired it, I ultimately found a darker, rather menacing color scheme to be more striking. To that end, I worked with browns, dark purples, blacks, greys, and crimsons, aiming to give the piece a somewhat sinister atmosphere. The village huts were made from a wood material, while the castle itself was made using a number of stone materials. The base was given a glass shader to emphasize that the castle is nothing more than a model, though its brown color is meant to suggest dirt as well.

Ghosted

Ghosted with layers

Keyshot Render 1

Keyshot Render 2