The first assignment Ive been given on my MA in environment art specifies that I am to create a model with its sole purpose being that it is a 'piece of art'. Although this is a games course the idea is that we prove ourselves as artists as opposed to just 3DSMax Jockeys, which I assume is a common problem with graduates. In turn this gives us much more freedom with this project in terms of polygon counts, texture sizes and other similar constraints, as this piece of work is not necessarily intended to be produced for inclusion in a game engine.
The idea I have came up with is an environment based on Nordic/Viking Folklore, in particular Agard, which was home of the Norse Gods and Goddesses.
You can read more about Asgard
here.
I've researched into other peoples interpretations of Asgard to get me started.
As you can see there isn't an accepted interpretation of what Asgard actually looks like, this is good as it should encourage me to be creative and original in my work and design Asgard as in my own way.
The next step in the design process was to decide upon an style of architecture for my piece, and after looking into numerous arcitectural movements from the past I have decided on the Byzantine empire's distinct architecture to base my design on. The vikings actually conquered and settled in parts of the Byzantine empire during their expeditions, so it would make sense that they might imagine Asgard in this way.
Here's an example:
I intend to use this architecture as a starting point but develop it into something which looks a little more 'viking-like'.
