This is Project Number Two of Animation I. I used LightWave 5.0 to create the castle scene, based on the castle ruins I've explored in the Rheinland-Pfalz of Germany. The castles of Count Von Leiningen were a tremendous inspiration. The background image was created in Photoshop, with several castle and rock images, and a generated sunset image.
Like the marble material on the pillars? You can get this at Serious 3D.Com
For a larger version, click on the image.
Modeling a Brick Wall with LightWave
I stumbled upon this technique during long and tedious hours in Lab, and it proved to be quite effective.
First, make a box for your wall. Select (highlight) ONE face only, and Subdivide 4 or 5 times...depending on how fine you want the brickwork to be. My castle walls were done four times. Deselect, then select two squares at a time and Merge them (Work down vertically, every other row, making multiple selections to save time, then click Merge). Be sure to "stagger" or overlap your bricks from one row to the next, for a realistic effect.
Once done, Select your Subdivided face and click Bevel. My bricks were done at Height=2 Inset=4.Then, if you want a more rounded appearance, increase your smoothing ratio. Now your wall is ready for Boolean operations for windows, doors, and framing.
As cool as it looks, it's very high in polygons...keep this in mind if you're doing an animation...a simple texture map might be the better choice if your camera isn't going to show close detail of your wall.
