Wednesday, November 26, 2008

For the past few days I've been laboring over a tiny little model of the island. After poring over as much concept art and photos of landscapes and interesting architecture as I could get my hands on, I started sketching out a basic plan. Planning is something new and odd for me, as my masks and designs don't tend to have any more design steps than sketch->sculpt. Yet, that's currently what bothers me most about my island home, is that there was no planning involved and no forethought at all. I'm trying very hard to reign in the urges to wipe a spot clear and start building the new design, because I know as I keep working on the model, new problems and new ideas are going to spring up.

The model is just adorable though, seriously. Tiny little trees, tiny little columns, tiny little paths and tiny little views. The wonderful thing about planning out the sim in prims is being able to actually move my camera down into it, and see exactly how a view will be from any given spot. Right now I'm playing with the pallet of colors and textures, but here is my plan so far:



The basic layout, clockwise from the top left: my store (temple), market, fairy grove (alternate event area), towers (homes), old courtyard (fishing area and sandbox) bonzai island (my sandbox), and out on its own grand little cliff is the event hall.

There are still little bits of wood in there, because obviously it's not finished. I have grander plans for the columns and architectural details, but this is just an idea of the style and size of each structure.

That border around the upper part of the island is going to be a huge stone wall, like a levee, which is just going to drop off to a sheer cliff. I especially like the enclosed, cozy feeling a very large island can get when it's walled in, considering that an open island can feel a bit vulnerable. I also like the excuse for a slope, without a mountain.

This is by no means a surefire "the island will look like this" plan, but so far I managed to cram in a lot of fun stuff and I've accomplished most of the goals that I wanted from it. Feel free to offer feedback and suggestions on things you want to make sure I don't miss :)

4 comments:

Terry Toland said...

That is super cute, although it looks a little orangey-gold from what I'm used to seeing with the silvery-indigo of Illusions. But of course, colors are all up to you. XD

If I could suggest anything, perhaps intertwining stone with flora structure would be really cool to see. I'm not sure how many more prims that would use up, but it would certainly have a huge mystical feel to it if part of a tower was made of branches and wood.

Nef said...

I would love to do it overgrown, I'm figuring out ways too, but just be sure that if I can make it look good, I will!

As for the color scheme, I've always wanted the colors of the buildings to be creams and golds with purple touches. I like the warmth in contrast with the cold blues of the ocean, so while I'm not going to go for all out reds the golds are there to stay :)

Anonymous said...

*cue running towards you with the 2004 GDRHS chorus singing in the background through a field of dandelions* Siyu! Oh darling I was afriad to talk to you since the Ren Faire fiasco. I thought you'd be mad at me, so I was afraid to call you or comment.
I talked about you at length in my Social Protest and Civil Disobedience class last week- we were talking about new media and the protesting on SL over land price hikes came up, and my professor just couldn't believe it. And a bunch of people in my class are on SL, so I wrote your name and store on the board and told them if they ever needed an AWSOME mask or jewelry or just fun things for their avatar they should see you!
I've been thinking about you too- I got into playing Oblivion again, and against my most prefered character choices (short sword using female theif anyone?) I'm the head of the mages guild. I thought of you cause your characters in Morrowind were always magical folks.
So, about Illusions:
I love that you're being all phlanthropic and offering up treehouses! Aw, you're so generous. I know it was awhile back, but I adored your horn/antler line too.
So yeah, you've significantly impressed a classful of people at Unity. My professor didn't quite understand how it all worked, so I explained without a ton of detail how you live and how you can support yourself a bunch off of SL, and she was blown away!

So yeah, I apologise profusely and offer you a whole bouquet of dandelions and daisies.

PS- and what's this I see with somewhat of a WARM color palate?! Is my ice princess warming up a bit? I'm impressed!

Wuvs.

Anonymous said...

:O I love it! I do like the warmer tones, and a warm purple can fit right it! Good luck