Ruined Church now in progress

[Dave]

Continuing with my series of ruins, one of my next projects will be a wrecked church. So far it consists of two parts -- a bell tower and the nave. Right now I'm working the bell tower.

I wanted to make sure that the tower had walls on all four sides, which would've been problematic in terms of accessibility. While putting together my first test model, I solved the problem by making one of the walls removable. I'm just using little paper tabs that latch together, so you can slide the removable wall in and out easily.

It's a really simple solution, but it's something that makes it a lot easier to contemplate other interior+exterior models I want to design in the future.

I'll post some pictures when there's more to see, but it's a pretty big development for me and I thought I'd blab about it. I can't wait to finish the line-work and get started on the skins!

[Dave]

Here's my proof of concept for the new church bell tower. The top row shows the tower with the north wall in place. On the second row, the image on the left shows the north wall on its hinge, revealing the interior. The remaining images show the tower with the north wall removed for easy access. You can see there are three flights of stairs. The bird's nest will be reached through a ladder and trapdoor.



This whole tower would work nicely as a stand-alone model, so I'm going to think about that for a while. I think it's even cooler if it's part of the church, like in my original design. The doors in the tower's south wall would open right into the church nave -- one door onto the ground floor and the first story floor would open onto a balcony inside the church. I think that's too cool of an idea to pass up, so I'll probably continue in that vein.

[sharanac]

Great! We want whole church!

[pblade]

Definitely keep it as a "whole" project. The fact that the tower could still stand on its own would be just icing on the cake.

I'm just happily awaiting the ruined bundle, to make sure I don't miss any.

-Pb

[squirmydad]

Very nice, I like the swing away walls. I shall have to find a way to magnetize it.

I'm starting to get the itch to do some Elf buildings now, I am so jealous of your great textures though. I'm actually having trouble thinking of how to implement textures like that myself. I'll have to dig around your site, and here for more details how you format your textures to e seamless like they are.
JIM

[Dave]

Jim, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

[Dave]

Here's my final test build for the Ruined Church. I'm going to modify the near balcony edge, making it jagged, and I'll add some railings, too. Other than that, the geometry is complete and I have just a little bit of texturing work left to do. If I had to guess, I'd say this model will be released this coming Monday.

[Floyd]

Very nice looking design.

~F

[squirmydad]

Designs coming along nicely. I really like the simplified structures, and using the open edges for the detail.

As for questions,
I'd like to know what size and resolutions to have your textures at, and are they seamless? I know when I use textures for the figures I only made them larger than the figure, but I also didn't design them to tile.

It will take me a while to do large texture and building size images to use for textures. I'll see what I can buy first, and try it out on some Elf buildings.
JIM

[Dave]

Jim, I do all of my model texturing at 200dpi. I usually turn up the contrast a little bit on my 200dpi textures, compared to what I'd use for 300dpi.

The lower resolution keeps the final file sizes manageable, especially with multi-layered PDFs where a single page can run 3 to 7Mb.

At first I thought this was risky, since 300dpi is usually preferred for print media. But from my experience in the printing industry, I've found that the differences between 200 and 300, even on a laser color printer, are so slight that it doesn't matter for model buildings, especially when viewed from a couple of feet away -- the typical distance that people will be viewing paper models on the table.

I'd still use 300 for paper minis, where you want to preserve more detail and vibrancy.

My mainstay textures aren't continuous or tasselating. The entire texture is about the size of a single sheet of paper.

When I created my main wall textures, I started with a smaller section and duplicated it, then sewed the pieces together until I had covered enough area. So there's a lot of repetition in there, but I've tried to hide it by offsetting the different pieces, flipping them vertically or horizontally, and avoided copying distinctive features.

Features such as windows and doors will break up the natural tendency to look for patterns, so a bit of repetition isn't such a big deal after all.

[sharanac]

Any news on the church? I am waiting for it to finish my ruined town, and start playing....

[squirmydad]

May 6, 2010 14:00:49 GMT -9 Dave said:

Jim, I do all of my model texturing at 200dpi. I usually turn up the contrast a little bit on my 200dpi textures, compared to what I'd use for 300dpi.

The lower resolution keeps the final file sizes manageable, especially with multi-layered PDFs where a single page can run 3 to 7Mb.

At first I thought this was risky, since 300dpi is usually preferred for print media. But from my experience in the printing industry, I've found that the differences between 200 and 300, even on a laser color printer, are so slight that it doesn't matter for model buildings, especially when viewed from a couple of feet away -- the typical distance that people will be viewing paper models on the table.

I'd still use 300 for paper minis, where you want to preserve more detail and vibrancy.

My mainstay textures aren't continuous or tasselating. The entire texture is about the size of a single sheet of paper.

When I created my main wall textures, I started with a smaller section and duplicated it, then sewed the pieces together until I had covered enough area. So there's a lot of repetition in there, but I've tried to hide it by offsetting the different pieces, flipping them vertically or horizontally, and avoided copying distinctive features.

Features such as windows and doors will break up the natural tendency to look for patterns, so a bit of repetition isn't such a big deal after all.

Thanks for the tips. I'll see what can be had with royalty free images of walls and textures, I don't travel too much to get the kind of texture and building styles I want for fantasy buildings.

I agree too that 200 dpi is fine, probably for miniatures as well. But for commercial purposes 300 dpi is more os a high res standard that I liked to use, so I stuck with it for my own stuff. I think maybe for large stuff like tanks and buildings I'll try some 200 dpi work and see how it prints.
JIM

[sharanac]

Hey Dave,
Can you tell us when will this model be released?
I am a bit inpatient, because I have a great idea for scenario I like to test, everything is ready on the table, I have even rolled for the position of potential enemy forces, and all I need is the mission objective - ruined church (I plan to enchant it with the plastic bell left from the screaming bell/Plague furnace set...)
So please, hurry up with it
Thanks...

[sharanac]

Is everithing OK with Dave?
There are no signs of him for more then 2 weeks now...

[Dave]

I'm just about done with this one, and I expect to publish it within the next 24 hours.

I have a Facebook group (Dave Graffam Models Collectors Group) that I keep updated so you can see exactly where I'm at in the process.

Right now all the PDFs for this model are are done. I'm just working on the advertising graphics, which is really the last thing that needs to be done before I can release it.

I really worked my butt off making models since February, and I've taken things a little easier this month to recharge my batteries, reconnect with friends and catch up on some much-needed sleep. I'm also working on a tabletop RPG, which keeps me from burning out on models and exercises some parts of my brain that might go to mush if all I did was Photoshop.

Recently there have been a couple of great new papercraft releases from Fat Dragon Games and Lord Zsezse Works, and I'm happy to see those guys get lots of exposure without my usual flood of new models taking up space on the Wargame Vault front page. WorldWorks has also put out a beautiful set of modular medieval buildings.

They're all doing awesome stuff, and the quality of their work really pushes me to do better. If you can't wait for new models from me, consider picking up some of theirs.

Anyway, enough blabbing. I'm going back to work!