Rivendell Fortress image - Age of the Ring mod for Battle for Middle-earth II: Rise of the Witch King

Thanks, I put a lot of tender love and care into this model, and while it will be having little changes here and there, I am incredibly happy with how it turned out.

Thanks!

And can you see the little staircase inside? Hehehe! =D

I'm glad I impress even Thorin Oakensheild, just don't umm, make a campfire on the floor! I haven't finished the forge's chimney yet.

Haha, thanks! I've been asked for this to go in a student magazine at my college in the "pure Art" section, so you are spot on Edna1. ;)

Definitely definitely. I would even consider myself an evil mapper. But somewhere along the line I picked up this guy called Wheellee, from ArdaCraft, an absolute legend when it comes to all things Rivendell, he helped me create the Rivendell map, and now is part of the inspiration for me accepting the task of creating the Rivendell fortress.

Thanks! I hope to become an education resource designer, I study graphic design and primary education here at college. And video games are a part of the future of education, contact me if you want articles about this.

Thanks!

Thanks Dennisl, credit goes to Mathijs for the original silhouette, you'll notice that his work takes silhouettes and outlines very seriously. The basic design is all his!

Thanks Cole!

I'm really excited when we get to see this model in action, stay posted!

I'm making more. ;) But if you desire, there is this Haeinsa for AoE III.
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Here is more shots for you Amandil!
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I.imgur.com

I distilled Rivendell architecture, as imagined by Alan Lee for WETA, into its core forms and styles and functions, what you see here is a compression into the mold of a fortress. There are very little external influences, mostly from Islamic architecture.

I have never seen Vivec City, but it is interesting, I'm getting an alien vibe from it. Tiers and domes is how I would describe the core elements of Vivec, and tiers and domes certainly feature on the Rivendell fortress, beyond that there isn't much else! ;p

And if you view the Rivendell fortresses carefully (I rendered both in the same scene), you could play spot the differences! Haha, I did some changes to the parent model just before rendering.

Hang some Hlaalu and Redoran Banners and you'll have it :P

And why so? I'd love to hear your opinion! =D

A lot of my inspiration and designs came straight from Alan Lee's concept art, and any screenshots or photos I could gather for colours and patterns.

This model is intentionally different from EA's Rivendell, and is different to a lot of other variations that you have seen in various LotR games. I've gone straight to the source, and beyond that, the concept behind the source so I could create something that no one has ever seen before, and yet seamlessly stand with what we see on the big screen.

Okay, I would go with the word magnificent. I guess it fits with it being a stronghold, a fortress.

You are correct in saying that most of the round Rivendell buildings (not including towers) are see-through, they are like park pavilions. This design, however, calls for a round structure, and the concept art that I drew a lot of inspiration from is on page 46 of The Lord of the Rings Sketchbook by Alan Lee (FG15, you may message me if you want a scanned image of the page). There is an alternative design for the House of Elrond, which includes a small domed section at the front, I had to extrapolate a lot of the design features from other, more straight parts of the architecture to keep the fortress cohesive. Thanks for sharing your opinion, I am taking another look at it, as a graphic design artist I am always willing to go back to the source of inspiration and draw more of the concept and feeling of what I am creating, and as I specifically develop the textures further, you will see more of the Rivendell aesthetic come in. I am not happy yet with the base stone blocks, I can hardly see them clearly in the render and in-game.

Thanks Balrog! I appreciate the work that mods out there have already created. I know that this fortress has come a long way and that it has a long way to go yet before I am fully satisfied with the design. For example, for a long time the uppermost dome, with the green scale tiles flipped between my two roof textures, and I almost created a third roof pattern just for it.

Colour theme flowed like a natural stream from the source material.

Yes! Yes to all of them! I am sure that wells, like the vanilla fortress are a planned addition. A certain statue with Manwe, the Valar, is going to become part of the model's texture at a much later date, and there will be statues as part of the final expansion. Mathijs is going to add, I suppose, a matching ground for the fortress in game. Lanterns are interesting. Banners are a definite too.

And you've found the difference! Yes, I think I prefer that variation over the other one. ;)

Thank you for the encouragement Kark-Jocke!

Not many other projects at college may cause me to fall asleep at my computer.

It is through my research that I guess that on certain large arches in Rivendell it is an image of Manwe seen as an angelic man, wings outstretched with shield in his right hand and lightning in his left. I wonder at it, and wish to use the carving in the model. As for Varda, who you say is Queen of Arda, and rightly so as she sits in splendour next to Manwe in Valinor, perhaps the elves lovingly place an image of her in their observatories for star gazing.

DieWalküre, you say "Art Gallery" and it is true that video games are an art form. Into works like this (and I carry myself away by answering everything on this page), I must always have in my mind how it will fit into game; all artworks here have a function, and the art must not give way to game.

I lie only a half in this gallery, because when I rendered the Rivendell fortress I used my raw texture PSD. The final model will use a picture half the size, a balance between game and art, and intended since to PSD's conception in Photoshop. Its called supersampling, and the results I've seen in-game are perfect. I only need more textures, I'll be busy.

Thanks! Haha, I don't know what you mean by old wolf...