Magic Texture Development

Environment Details: The Great Charter Stones

“The people, or whatever they were who made the Great Charters, put three in bloodlines and two in physical constructions: the Wall and the Great Stones. All the lesser stones draw their power from one or the other”.

There are six Great Stones and two were just being broken, broken with the blood of his own sisters, sacrificed by his Free Magic minions as we approached. I saw their last seconds, the faint hope in their clouding eyes, as the Queen’s barge came floating across the water. I felt the shock of the stones breaking and I remember Rogir, stepping up behind the Queen, a saw edged dagger striking so swiftly across her throat. He had a cup, a golden cup, one of the Queen’s own, to catch the blood, but I was too slow, too slow…”

Rogir had jumped from the barge and was wading to the Stones, holding the cup. His four sorcerers were waiting, dark-cowled, around the third stone, the next to be broken. I couldn't reach him in time, I knew. I threw my sword. It flew straight and true, talking him just above the heart.

The cup dropped, blood floating on the water like oil.

She smelled the reservoir before she saw it, somewhere around the thirty-ninth step. A chill, damp smell that cut into her nose and lungs and filled her with the impression of a cold expanse.

Then the steps ended in a doorway on the edge of a vast, rectangular hall – a giant chamber where stone columns rose up like a forest to support a roof sixty feet above her head, and the floor before her wasn’t stone, but water as cold and still as stone. Around the walls, pallid shafts of sunlight thrust down in counterpoint to the supporting columns, leaving discs of light on the water. These made the rim of the reservoir a complex study of light and shade, but the centre remained unknown, cloaked in heavy darkness.

“It’s about waist-deep” = The Water

But the quiet slosh-slosh of their wading seemed very loud, echoing and spreading up and out through the cistern, adding to the only other noise – the regular dripping of water, plopping loudly from the roof, or more sedately down the columns.

The luminous light came from a diamond of protection, the four cardinal marks glowing under the water, line of force sparkling between them.

In the middle of the diamond, a man-shaped figure stood, empty hands outstretched, as if he had once held weapons. Frost rimed his clothes and face obscuring his features, and ice girdled the water around his middle.

Lirael (Book 2)

The reservoir was a vast hall of silence, cold stone and even colder water. The Great Stones stood in the darkness at its centre, invisible from the landing where the palace stairs met the water. Around the rim of the reservoir, shafts of sunlight came down from the grilled openings high above, casting cross-hatched ripples of light across the mirror-smooth surface of the water. Tall columns of white marble rose up like mute sentinels between the patch’s of light, supporting the ceiling above.

The water was, as always, extremely clear. Sam dipped his hand in it as helped his father untie the barge that was moored at the end of the Palace steps. As the water trickled between his fingers, he saw Charter marks sparkle briefly. All the water in the reservoir absorbed magic from the Great Charter Stones. Closer to the centre, the water was almost more magic than anything else, and was no longer cold – or even wet.

The barge was not much more than a raft with gilded knobs on each corner.

Out there in the centre where no sunlight fell. The Great Charter Stones glowed with all the millions of charter marks that moved in and on them, but most of the time it was only a faint luminescence, no rival even to the filtered sunlight.

The barge passed between two columns and Sam’s eyes slowly adjusted to the strange twilight. He could see the six Great Stones ahead now, tall monoliths of dark grey, their irregular shapes quit different from the smooth masonry of the columns and only a third of their height. And there was the other barge, floating in the centre of the rings of Stones.

Extra

For a moment nothing happened. Then other marks caught the light and the golden flames spread to cover the whole Stone, roaring up like a crown-caught wildfire. More marks leapt to the next Stone till it kindled too, and then to the next, until all six Great Stones were ablaze, and streams of bright Charter marks flew up and across to weave a tracery of light like a dome above the two barges.Looking over the side, Sam saw that the golden fire had spread underwater too, forming a crazy maze of marks that covered the reservoir floor.

Things I would like the Diorama to contain

• Six Charter Stones  (two broken) with moving Magic symbol texture 
• A large ornate circular plinth thing 
• Pillars and water 
• A golden goblet with blood

Environment Details: The Abhorsen's House

Outside
It wasn’t a very big island, about the size of a football field, but it rose like a ship of jagged rock from the turbulent waters.

Limestone-white walls circled the islands, the height of six men. Behind those walls was a house. It was too dark to see clearly, but there was a tower, a thrusting, pencil silhouette, with red tiles that were just beginning to catch the dawning sun. Below the tower, a dark bulk hinted at the existence of a hall, a kitchen, bedrooms, armoury, buttery and cellar. The study, Sabriel suddenly remembered, occupied the second to top floor of the tower. The top floor was an observatory, both for stars and the surrounding territory.

It was Abhoren’s House. Home. She could see a sort of wooden landing stage leading up to a gate in the white wall. Treetops were also visible behind the walls, winter trees, their branches bare of green raiment. Birds flew between trees and tower, little birds launching themselves for their morning forage. It was a vision of normality, of a haven.

The gate swung open, pitching her on a paved courtyard, the beginning of a red brick path, the bricks ancient, their redness the colour of dusty apples. The path wound up to the front door of the house, a cheerful sky-blue door, bright against whitewashed stone. A bronze doorknocker in the shape of a lion’s head holding a ring in its mouth gleamed in counterpoint to the white cat that lay coiled on the rush mat before the door.

Inside

A fire burned briskly in a red-brick fireplace and wood panelled walls gleamed with the dark mystery of well polished mahogany. A blue-papered ceiling with silver stars dusted across it, faced her newly opened eyes. Two windows confronted each other across the room, but they were shuttered, so Sabriel had no idea what the time it was.

She was admiring the tiny, repeated silver key motif on the black surcoat in the mirror that backed one of the window shutters.

Dinner was in the main hall of the house. A long, stately room that took up half the ground floor, it was dominated by the floor to ceiling stained-glass window at the western end. The window showed a scene from the building of the Wall and, like many other things around the house, was heavily laden with Charter Magic. Perhaps there was no real glass in it at all, Sabriel mused.

She had no memory of this room, so it was a delight that she saw that it was totally walled in glass, or something like it. The bare beams of the red-tiled roof rested on transparent walls, so cleverly mortised together that the roof was like a work of art.

A large telescope of gleaming glass and bronze dominated the observatory, standing triumphant on a tripod of dark wood and darker iron. A tall observer’s stool stood next to it and a lectern, a star chart still pilled across it. A thick, toe wriggle-inviting carpet lay under all, a carpet that was also a map of the heavens, showing many different colourful constellations and whirling planets, woven in thick, richly-dyed wool.

Extra

Wallmaker\ royal line Surcoat – It had the golden towers of the royal line, but they were quartered with a strange device she had never seen – some sort of trowel or spade in silver.

 Clayr/ Abhorsen Surcoat – On the coat were the golden stars of the Clayr quartered with the silver keys of the Abhorsen.

Things I would like the Diorama to contain

• Sky-Blue Front Door and Bronze Lion Door-knocker
• Red brick path and white washed walls
• Old well sealed by wooden doors
• Stained Glass window, design relevant to story
• Tower/ Observatory (If i have time)

The Old Kingdom (Abhorsen) Trilogy

This is the series of books that I decided to choose, the books are by one of my favourite Authors Garth Nix. For my final Project I have chosen to do make two Diorama's of environments from the world within these books.

Proposal:  What do you intend to do?

To improve my knowledge and understanding of realistic rendering, specifically Physically-based rendering (PBR). I will be using substance designer to create materials and textures assets in high detail using procedural texturing. I will use these newly learnt techniques in my workflow to create two dioramas portraying environments based upon the books The Abhorsen Trilogy that I read as a child. Each Diorama will contain a variety of assets that will be researched, these are; material, form, history and its relevance within the books.

I aim to reimagine two particular scenes from this trilogy; because these aren’t illustrated within the book I will be interpreting the text to portray the scenes in the form of a diorama. One diorama would capture the penultimate scene set beneath the palace of an underground reservoir containing The Charter Stones and supported by ancient pillars. The other will be the main characters house named The Abhorsen's House which is located on a small Island on the River Ratterlin.

 I will be displaying these dioramas in Marmoset Toolbag 2 in the form of an interactive turntable, this will allow the user to navigate each model allowing them to view it from multiple angles.

Other Books from my Childhood

I finally took Mark's advice to look away from The Edge Chronicle series, the reason being is that the amazing illustrations of Chris Riddell have probably affected how I imagine and see the world and thus affect alot how I would build it my self. I really do love the style of the Edge-world that he portrays, its a unique dark qwirky environment. The picture above shows The Knights Academy, I didnt think about it when reading it, but re-looking at the academy illustration below it seems pretty eastern looking. At some point after the course I would love to go back and Model bits of the Edge world such as this. 

There are about 3 other book series from my childhood that could be interesting to model some diaromas for, this time these books have no illustrations ( minus front covers) so that im nothing but my imagination to go of. The first is Darren Shan's Demonata Saga which I imagine would come under adventure/ horror genre, they were so good. They are mainly set in modern day our world, but there's warewolves, magicians, and demons etc. One of the frist scenes that came to mind is an opening one, in which the main character opens the his parents bedroom only to find them decapitated by demons, half the room seems to expand of into a world of cobwebs, the other is torn up with three chess tables/ sets thrown across the floor.
Actually now I think of it although I love the books and not all of the interesting environments are grusome, I think I would rather do more of a fantasy world a than horro/demonic themed one.

Another series I read when younger
is the Wind on Fire Trilogy. The city in this is interesting as it's strictly class based and splite exactly into 7 rings of colour and class. The characters go on a huge journey to find an object 'the wind singer' to rid the city of evil. I remember loving these books, but I have no lasting memory of environmnets imagined from when I read it. So it's probably not wise to do these ones.

Feedback 2: Once again Lost

I had another Talk with Mark, and we wondering weather it was a good idea it use a book that is so highly stylised and illustrated already. As there would be lots of temptation to use Chris Riddles amazing illustrations of the Edge world as inspiration and reference for my Dioramas. Mark suggested strongly that I pick a new book/ story to do environmental dioramas for.

This made be sad as my heart was really set on doing Dioramas expressing scenes/ environments from the world of the edge chronicles, but I understood his worry's. However my friend showed me some work in which a student had made a 3D model of studio Ghibli's Howls moving Castle, and although it was obviously that, the modelling and texturing was all the students own work and skill.

Perhaps it would be possible to build upon the already existing media of Chris Riddell's illustrations in 3D as long as I made it very much my own by executing the 3D and texturing side things. Perhaps its the nostalgia of having reading these books when I was younger that attracts me to doing this, but if so the nostalgia would also effect any other fans of the edge chronicle's who happened to see my work.

I need to have a think which would be the best thing to do, Ill have a think about other books that I have read and interesting environments I could create from them. 'Sigh'

Project Idea Feedback

After discussing My Ideas with my Tutors and sharing them with the Class, We decided that I would be better of approaching the Edge Chronicle's idea. Once Mark said this I realised it was the one I was set on more anyway, although I thought the Borrowers game Idea good and would have been interesting with the different perspectives. Mark thought it best not to do as he realised that my inspiration had been sparked most probably by the release of the Ant-Man film over the summer holiday's.
I decided that five environments was probably going to be way to much, so I narrowed it down to three. Instead of whole environments I'm going to be designing and creating Diorama's, I describe dioramas as 'Snow globe scenes' so a limited sized environment that tells a story within it.
For now/ before Christmas I was thinking of concentrating on and experimenting as well as researching into stylisation.