Folly Test Runs

Once I had an idea of what a folly was I started to work on creating a folly, at this point I felt confident that I could do a few iteration models to see how things went before creating a final model. So I did some quick sketches of some folly's that I liked:

The first two sketches where done from image research off existing follies, at first I wanted to create a castle wall type model, but after I was told we had to make up our own model and not copy it like the first half of the project. I decided to scrap that idea and create a tower type structure, but keep the main style Georgian. (I decided to work on 3D rather than 2D, that's why only a certain part is coloured in sketch 2).

This was the first folly I created, I wanted to go for a more organic feel to it by cutting away at the circular parts of the folly.  It has a basic shape to help create a strong structure, yet it's overall design is very boring. I would have needed to seriously go into it with textures to give it some life and help give it history. So I ended this piece here.

My second attempt at creating a piece of architecture that had been broken down and crumpled away did turn out a lot better in this piece.  However , there where a lot of N-gons in the piece and it took ages to fix that, and similar to the last piece it doesn't have enough to make it worthy of a final piece.  I did use this to experiment  with lights and shadows, as well as create a  mock turntable render.  This made creating the real video that much easier. 

This third practise folly my best mock model as I was able to UV unwrap it and texture it. I decide to keep this piece intact and chip away at it on the textures.  When creating the overall design I wanted to keep the idea small as it wouldn't take too long to texture, after looking through some gazebo's I decided to have a go at creating one, this one I decided should have a triangular roof.  Once the model was complete it was onto UV unwrapping it, after some help from the tutors, I was able to layout my UV's and begin texturing my model.  I wanted to aim for a sand stoney colour, but ended up with a more creamish colour more than anything else.  At that point I knew I wanted to do a Gazebo for my final model, and I wanted to give it an organic feel with broken rubble.  I got the idea of using Greek style architecture as a base for creating my final model.  I also played around with the normal maps to see the difference, it brought out the roof in a big way.