Upsilon's concept art

Place where art is developed for our game.

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Post by Upsilon »

Version 4 will come soon, but right now, I'm very very busy....
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Post by Anonymous »

Hey, your tower is coming along nicely. The way things look now though, I've got one concern. Write in. How much of the detail in this tower will the gamer even get to see? From what I can tell, the only part that gamers will be able to see is the smooth part at the botton, and the Ramparts and the top.

Just a thought, The team at Bethesda gave the scale at which Morrowind was built at. I think they said 1/8th or 1/12th scale, I honestly can't remember. It's something I read once, along time ago. Perhaps if someone could post the scale Bethesda used you could rescale the size of the doors and windows to match the smaller size and see how that looks? That would be the look of the model used in the game, anyway.

I really like the direction you're headed, though.


btw Morgoth, Concept art is not just about conveying ideas. It's also about developing those ideas in the first place. Even if one got lucky on the first few tries, that design is nothing compaired to what you'd have after eight designs. If you doubt me. Try it. Design two objects. One in 3 tries and one in 12, and see for yourself. Then feel free to call it stupid.

-cheers
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Post by Morgoth »

Dax Allred wrote: btw Morgoth, Concept art is not just about conveying ideas. It's also about developing those ideas in the first place. Even if one got lucky on the first few tries, that design is nothing compaired to what you'd have after eight designs. If you doubt me. Try it. Design two objects. One in 3 tries and one in 12, and see for yourself. Then feel free to call it stupid.

-cheers
Are we talking 3d or 2d? If it's 3d, then sure, the more the merrier, but on paper concept artists rarely do more than quick sketches. Just look at Bethesda's original concepts for morrowind. Most of those are one shot pieces. I have more inspiration the first time I draw something then the second time around anyway. Concepts can always be taken farther by detailing artists, but it's the job of the concept artist to bring the general idea around to the moddeler. Hence the name "concept".
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Post by Arslan »

If the Adamantine Tower is included, I'd think it'd be better if the submerged levels were absolutely impossible to explore.

MK said the tower is quite literally a rocket ship. We shouldn't attempt to realize how epic this discovery would be, IMHO.

With that said, if it's a rocket ship it should look like one just a little more, don't you think? Retaining the image of one, but with modifications made to it so that it might be inhabited.

Just my two cents.
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Post by Arthmodeus »

Indeed. Akatosh rode the Adamantine Tower into Mundus, according to Gary Noonan.
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Post by Orix »

A rocket ship! Blimey, TES Lore just keeps getting more and more bizarre. Although I dont think we should limit the model of the admantine town to what our modern day concepts of a rocket look like, it would ruin immsersion, it should definately have a TES twist to its aesthetic. People shouldn't know its a rocket by just exploring it, perhaps a device of some sort though. And also, since its been built upon over time, it could easily still look like a tower from the outside.
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Post by Morgoth »

Yeah, I'm kind of turned off by the whole rocket thing myself. This is TES, if I wanted Halo in Morrowind I'd make a mod for it. There shouldn't be any sort of modern mechanics in TR.
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Post by Stalker »

People a god have ridden it to Mundus. He could have ridden a broom. And it doesn't mean a broom should have looked like one of those in Harry Potter movies or have a seat and a steering wheel.
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Post by Morgoth »

Stalker wrote:People a god have ridden it to Mundus. He could have ridden a broom. And it doesn't mean a broom should have looked like one of those in Harry Potter movies or have a seat and a steering wheel.


Yeah, true. So It could have just been a huge tall rock, and Akatosh decided to hop on and ride it into the ground near Mundus... I really hate this peice of lore, but it is solid lore nonetheless... I'll just have to live with it I guess.
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Post by Stalker »

The Akatosh riding a tower could be methaphorical. He could have used it as an elevator after all :) But I think it should be some kind of a tall thing which literally crushed into the land but still under 90 degree to it so it will stand strainght. No banners whatsoever.
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Post by Anonymous »

It could even be a natural thing, interpreted as a metaphysical one...like the Dragon Break. Nothing to do with dragons, just a volcanic eruption. It could be just a particularly awful storm in which it was struck by hany bolts of lightning.
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Post by Barthelemy »

edit to remove 'spam' content
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Post by Arthmodeus »

Stop trying to act like Stumpy.
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Post by battle_bison »

It sounds more like an order, like he's telling us to remove spam content or something. In any case, you're not stumpytheguar. Don't try to be.
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Post by Arslan »

Now that I think it over, I guess it wouldn't have to look like a rocket ship. Maybe it would've those thousands of years ago, but now after having been lived in for so long, it's probably been modified. Alot.

Still, I don't think we should let the lower levels be explored. :(
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Post by Anonymous »

Why would it be a rocket anyway? It was ridden by a god, which isnt usually literal. There are records of it being built by elves long ago.
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Post by CommonsNat »

Arslan wrote:MK said the tower is quite literally a rocket ship.
Excuse my ignorance, but who's MK?
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Post by Arslan »

MK said so himself.
MK wrote:I'm telling you there's been a rocketship in High Rock since we wrote the PGE.
Alright, so it might not be a rocket. But Bethesda might have something HUGE planned for it (the unexplored regions), and I wouldn't want Tamriel Rebuilt's interpretation of it to be totally different.

[EDIT] @CommonsNat: Michael Kirkbride is one of Bethesda's writers, quest designers, etc.
Last edited by Arslan on Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by CommonsNat »

Ah, I see... Though I don't understand why a dragon god would need any kind of rocket ship to travel through space.
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Post by Arthmodeus »

It wasn't litarally a "rocket ship". Just a vehicle.
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Post by Anonymous »

SWEET SWEET :D Really

I wanne jump off :cry:
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Post by Sload »

Jale wrote:...like the Dragon Break. Nothing to do with dragons, just a volcanic eruption.
I'm surprised Stalker didn't catch this, the Dragon Break had nothing to do with some volcanic eruption. When the Selectives danced (I believe on the Adamantine Tower) in sync with time and tried to split Akatosh and Auri-El from eachother they broke Time. Akatosh, the human god of time, is depicted as the Dragon, so it was named the Dragon Break. This isn't some metaphysical imagination, people did things at once and did amazing things. Someone rode a ship between the stars, the Dunmer saw their boarders slither like snakes, Jackson did his Thriller dance, things just went crazy.
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Post by Stalker »

Actually I haven't read any futher posts.
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Post by Upsilon »

Okay, I finally got some time to make another adamantine tower concept. Since it looked a little bit too Lord of the Rings style, I made a completly new one. I tried to make it gracious and agressive, menacing at the same time. Again, it's for visualizing purpose only; this model won't be in-game. The texture and the polygons count are not really applicable. Also, don't consider the textures, especially the colors, they are only temporary. As always, please take the time to write me an honest comment.

[url=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/5717/adtowec214ev.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/3595/adtowec223uk.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://imageshack.us][img]http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/5480/adtowec232zu.jpg[/img][/url]

Thanks,

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Post by The Old Ye Bard »

new one looks great but it doesn't look like it countiues into the earth i think the problem is you've made the bottoms to big looks like thats supporting it but in theory the part of the tower that extends into the ground should support it but the entrance does look great :)
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Post by Saibot »

This new one's killer, but The Bard is right in that the base doesn't really look like it extends below ground. Unless ofcourse the rest of the tower is drastically different in shape than what can be seen. In any case I think it could be classified as "wickedly awesome".
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Post by Sload »

Looks very Redoran. Bretons have an architectural style similar to the "real" Middle Ages, so they would look rather Lord-of-the-Rings.
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Post by Upsilon »

Are you saying the base doesn't seem to continue underground? That's because I did an error and the tower isn't exactly ON the ground, it's a bet higher than Y:0. I'll fix it in the next version.
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Post by battle_bison »

They're talking about the fact that the tower goes very deep underground and like a fencepost, it can remain very straight at a very high height so long as it is underground enough to stay that way. It was apparently a rocketship that was flown into the ground by a god, so it shouldn't actually have a wide base.
One explanation for this, though, could be that it has been built up by people? It's been there long enough that they could have renovated it. At the same time though, it would be really cool if it looked almost off-balance because of a tiny base.
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Post by Stalker »

Sload wrote:Looks very Redoran. Bretons have an architectural style similar to the "real" Middle Ages, so they would look rather Lord-of-the-Rings.
The tower was made by Bretons ? Wow, never knew.
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Post by Orix »

Circa ME2500

Supposed date of construction of the Adamantine Tower on Balfiera Island in High Rock, the oldest known structure of Tamriel. Earliest historical date in unpublished Elvish chronicles.
I'm assuming its an Elvish structure, although in the timeline its not certain where in the ME the year 2500 would lie, whether it be before men arrived on Tamriel (Late ME), or mer (Middle ME), or even before both (Early ME), in which case the Orc could have built it, more likely than the Argonian or Khajiit, since Orsinium is closer to High Rock than Elsweyr and Black Marsh (obviously), or perhaps it existed even before that.

I cant work it out really. My guess would be that perhaps the gods made it purely to be a meeting place and to be Lorkhan's place of judgement and reckoning, although this raises the quesiton of why gods would need to build a tower on Nirn at all.

Whoever created the tower, it is the oldest known structure in elvish history, hence it could conceptually have any architectural style, which could have evolved into the current architectural styles (such as the view that the tower is a perhaps a precursor of Redoran style), or remain completely unique (in that it wasn't meant to look Redoran, it just happens to because of the familier shape and colour).

As long as it keeps with the lore about the smooth cylindrical core, although on the outside it could be rough surfaced or intricately patterened, since its bound to have been weathered, and yet is known to have been built upon again many times.
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Post by Anonymous »

I think it's cool :P, I like the bottum, but the top hmm the last one was better .. But I like it :D nice work!!
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Post by sirwootalot123 »

I actually drew a concept for this once, I doubt it's any good though.
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Post by Macar »

can anyone say, "thread necromancy"?
Last edited by Macar on Fri Apr 07, 2006 12:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Lud »

[img]http://i2.tinypic.com/t6zfox.jpg[/img]

Love that image ;)
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Post by Anonymous »

Someone was looking for this, it deserved a bit of reanimation.
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Post by Macar »

First of all; upsilon is no longer with us. Second of all; the adamantine tower is not a pressing isue.

[edit] Just saw the lore thread about this. My bad.
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