Research Scans: Architecture

I started my research looking at different books and magazines for inspiration. I would like to create quite an architectural piece as I have not tried anything like this before and we can make the rooms or even exterior quite atmospheric and foreboding. I like the manor/castle kind of style for this reason. These first few images are from a photography book, I like the amount of detail in the exterior and the sense of large scale and history that comes from this type of building.

I then started looking at my computer game design books for inspiration of style. This first image is from the PS2 game Primal, and shows how a building exterior could look and the kind of thing we could hope to achieve. It also shows textures we could use for the Medieval style that our group has spoken about.

The next few images are concept art from Gears of War and Prince of Persia. I chose these images as I like the idea of the 'Destroyed Beauty', as it shows grand architecture that would once of been magnificent that for some reason has had bad things happen to it. I like this idea as it gives more depth and a narrative to the environment, almost making it a character in itself. This idea could be used for the change over time in the project brief if our group decides to take this route, and we could show a before and after of the buildings/rooms.

The Prince of Persia images are also very dark and atmospheric, and we could experiement well with the lighting to achieve this kind of effect. There is also an element of setting here, combining some element of nature within the architecture to give it different feelings and a sense of place. For example the type of plant life we may place in the environment will give a clue to its location as well as the style of the buildings.

These last two images are from the game Fable. I believe they combine the above ideas, using a grand castle like structure that looks powerful, it is set on the hill giving a sense of place, and the first image shows foreboding atmosphere. This is done with a great level of detail, which I would like to create in the group environment.