Balcony

As one final piece of modelling, I also added to the central part of the castle to make it seem a bit more detailed and also so that the ramp at the top of the stairs was not completely barren and the fire stemmed from somewhere interesting. I had previously altered Lydia's fire plynth to make it more decorative like the Bishop's staff at the British Museum. The symbol in the centre was also common during the Medieval time and I thought it would help give historical relevance to the piece.
The same can be said for the carpet I added behind the plynth. I realise that as the castle is derelict that the carpet would be in a worse state than this, yet the dark lighting would not make it seem this bright.



I did have to fiddle around to make sure the plynth was directly underneath the fire trail as it was easier to extend the verts for this rather than change the whole fire position. I think the end result looks quite effective and I am glad I added the extra details. I did use Sam's pillars from lower down the ramp for my rail for consisitency in the scene, yet added this stone shader to make them look older and give the scene age. I think they create an aesthetically pleasing image and one the whole it is better than if I had just placed the plynth on the ramp.

These are the textures that I used for the carpet and the base, both of which I altered on Photoshop to make them fit in with the style of the rest of the environment: