Uni Project: Asgard

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'.

Bit of 3D

I havent posted any of my 3D stuff on here yet, and since theres no time like the present, here we go.
This is a scene Ive been doing on and off for a fair few months. I just dont seem to have the time anymore for these things.
But anyway, it started as just a church but now Ive decided to expand it into a little village scene:
The majority of the work on the actual church is complete, I just want to pad out the surrounding area with trees, foliage and some grave stones and other ambient objects.
Theres also going to be a river running past the church on the left hand side, with a quaint little bridge crossing over it. Im quite excited to get all this stuff into the scene.

Pretty chuffed with it so far...

That angel took me two days... Christ.

Peace out.