Advice on creating curved pagoda roof for WIP?
ScottA
Surveyor
So I've just picked up a big project that is Asian themed, and my one quandary is how to create those curving, pointed roofs used on pagodas and shrines? I am at a loss. Any suggestions? Anyone have any experience with something like that? (Stock photo included purely as an example). I would appreciate any suggestions or tips and tricks anyone might have to accomplish what I need to do. (It will be seen from above, of course, so the curve wouldn't have to be as pronounced/obvious as the side view, but I still want to be able to indicate it somehow).
Comments
I haven't tried the blend overlay effect yet. It might do what I'm looking for.
I have to find better dragon statues for roof decorations, too. I've gotten this far, and its okay, but I'm not overly happy with it. This little pagoda is just a portion of a larger map, but I still want to get it right.
I do think the proportions of each story are a bit steep; pagodas tend to have a broad top roof and not as much widening as it goes down (a result of RPG proportions?). Adding something to represent the hoju and suien would be great, too.
I really had to keep scrolling back up to check out those carvings and how they add so much.
I guess you also have a dark inner glow on that sheet.
Nice work Shessar!
@Scott
I drew the poly using lines and a curved path. Exploded all. Then lint to path to turn it into a poly with fill set to the desired roof fill.
Mirror copy to make the squared shape.
I turned the left and right into shaded polys, leaving top and bottom as is.
Black inside glow to add more depth.
There may be more efficient ways of doing it (see sue's post). This was just the steps I took as I experimented.
Hope this makes sense.
I might be reading this wrong, but the steps up to the base of the temple seem to be standing above it and on top of it. Maybe its the shadows?
Nice work on the building too. I think it portrays exactly what you were shooting for. Wonderful!
As some may know, my younger brother Steve suddenly and unexpectedly passed away in mid-October. We were two completely different people with different interests, different circles of friends, different lifestyles, and career paths, etc. The one interest we shared was gaming and played RPGs together with friends since out teens (MANY years ago!!!). As careers and families evolved we gamed less until we stopped altogether. Then about a year ago, Steve's wife volunteered me to teach her nephews how to play D&D5E (I guess because I've worked in the game design business for over 30 years). In any event, we were gaming together again with a new generation, and it was wonderful. Our original group played the same characters for many years so when I started our new campaign I used the same world but generations in the future where the exploits of our old characters impacted the world of these new, young characters. I had a whole over-arching storyline I was working on. But then we lost Steve in the autumn and everything sort of ended or is at least on hold for now.
Anyway, I told Steve's wife that the only things I'd like to have were his dice and his folder of characters and notes. That would be the perfect remembrance for me. I was at their house on Halloween, and as I was leaving Steve's wife handed me a large plastic bag. Steve's little dice bag and his character folder were in there, along with a long white plastic bag. It turned out that the long bag contained a rolled up poster of a giant sheet of graph paper that had been professionally laminated. On the paper, in 3" measures, was my brother's long-played character's monastery (he played a monk), all detailed out to the last tree, statue, etc. in pencil and marker. Both sides. One side was the ground floor and grounds of the place complete with gardens, ponds, secret passages, and the little pagoda, and the reverse side was the basement, second floor, and attic. Every room detailed and labeled! I had never seen this and did not know it even existed. I have no guess as to how long it took him to measure and draw everything out or when he did it. The laminate is yellowed and the pencil on the graph paper is faded, so it must have been many years ago. Corny as it sounds, I feel as though I have found my own treasure.
So I have been painstakingly recreating what Steve drew out on that graph paper. Carefully counting 3" squares and exactly duplicating what he did to stay 100% faithful to his vision. Nothing changed, nothing left out. I have added some additional details, but nothing that changed anything he did. It has been a labor of love, and I work until my eyes ache too much from counting the little graph paper squares and work to make out the fading pencil lines.
So here's where I am so far. It been many, many hours of hork, and there's many more to go. But so far I'm very happy with it.
Maybe you should show his wife and his kids, so they can see the world he created lives on?
At this level, a lot of details are lost, but its pretty intricate (there are koi in the pond swimming at different depths, sliding doors on most of the rooms, etc.). One thing that I am debating is whether to put the furnishings in each room or just label them?
Personally, and based on the numerous setting plans I've created for myself down the decades in similar fashions (i.e. from hand-drawn on graph paper through to CC3+ versions), I'd be inclined to add as much furnished detail as seems appropriate to each room, and label it as well (if typically with just a letter or number keyed to a separate list, or more usually a full description). But that's just me, of course ;D
And I think I probably will add the furnishings. Again, this might be a bit tricky as CC3+ doesn't have many Asian symbols, and some things just aren't the same, but I'll do the best I can (I'm notoriously OCDish about details and correctness).