CGSociety :: Reader Project: The Making of Medieval Airport
Dave Brinda, 10th August 2005
What if the art of flying had been invented during the medieval era? What would flying machines have looked like? What would a medieval airport have looked like? This was the premise of the 2005 Renderocity Cinema 4D Forum Contest, and the genesis of David Brinda's ‘ Medieval Airport ' project.
My concept centered around the idea of utilizing the natural forces available in the environment. The lift of hot air, the momentum of running water, or an updraft from a canyon wall. My design for the vehicles combined elements of a hot air balloon, and an old sailing ship. The idea was that hot air would provide lift, and the propellers would provide thrust and manoeuvrability. The smaller vehicles would carry passengers, and would land at various towers around the complex. Larger cargo ships would land in the water and drift down to the docks, and then be sent downstream to gather momentum for take off.
To realize the concept, I began with a rough Wacom sketch of the overall scene to flesh out the composition and to define what elements I needed to create. These elements were grouped into components, the background environment, the Castle Airport, and the foreground vehicle. Given the complexity of what I had envisioned and the short deadline of the competition, I opted to treat the environment as a 2D matte painting, and focus my 3D efforts on the vehicles and the airport itself.
Next, I spent some time researching these elements and gathering visual reference of thing like castles, old ships, and waterfalls.
Given the requirement that all modeling be done from scratch for the competition, things moved pretty quickly. The majority of the basic modeling was done with simple parametric primitives and Array objects, which allowed for rapid experimentation and development. Some of the more complex objects were modeled in separate files and then dropped into the main scene.
In modeling the main vehicle, I wanted the overall feel to convey both a nautical and aviation theme. I began with the ships wheel and a placeholder pilot. This helped me establish a consistent scale for the project and worked to maintain proper proportions as the rest of the scene was built. I blocked out the overall shapes for the round hull hanging from the balloon, and then progressively added more detail.
The airport itself needed to convey the feel of a medieval castle, complete with towers, turrets and battlement. The symmetrical design for the airport was important in that it provided two launch areas to accommodate a constant stream of traffic, similar to a modern day aircraft carrier. The modeling of the castle also utilized a lot of parametric primitives. The Array and Symmetry objects allowed me build up detail very quickly and keep things manageable in the editor. The river and waterfall were modeled from a simple plane and allowed for reflection of the architecture in the water.
