Firemarble mounts

[D'nial]

This is my first piece of concept art and my first effort to make some worthwhile contributions to the Guild of Writers. I chose to design some firemarble light fixtures because they're small projects, but they give a good sense of how I want to develop D'ni areas artistically.

My sketching abilities are not quite what I would like for them to be, but hopefully most of it is easy to understand. Some of the small diagrams did get botched a bit, but everything else seems to look okay.

My first effort with Blender (once I've become competent with it) will be to model these fixtures. I might then put them into an actual environment, giving me a crash course in programming light sources. After that, it's onto my first Age. I hope that all of these designs get to make an appearance in some of my Ages.

In the meantime, I'd like to hear your thoughts on these designs. Do they feel like a part of D'ni artistry? How sound are they structurally? Are there any parts of my concepts that are unclear? Will any of these be difficult to implement in Uru?

Thanks in advance.

firemarble 001s.jpg (174.32 KiB) Viewed 4333 times

[rubimai]

D'nial--Purely from an end-user point of view, these look great! I especially like 1, 6, and 9 (if I got my numbers right...). I look forward to seeing some of these appear in future ages. Nice work!

[Gehn, lord of ages]

Very nice. I like 2, 7, and 9 best. 3 seems a little too human (the round edges, squarish shape, and textured sides perhaps?), and I think the pattern on 4 would be a little more symmetrical if it was D'ni (reminds me a lot of Exile currently). 7 and 9 might fit better if they didn't have as many right angles (the D'ni seem to avoid right angles - pentagons might work better than rectangles, then). I think 10 could also use some more detail in the "arm" part (if it was to be in D'ni itself - it seems a little too utilitarian for the cavern or any other similarly styled Age).

What size is 5 supposed to be? A small light, like ones used to light a lawn, or something closer to the size of a street lamp? If it is the second, then maybe the actual practical part of it (the lighting stuff) could be shrunk and some more decorative or symbolic stuff stuck around it. And the comment between 1 and 2 - which design is it referring to?

But anyway, very nice work.

[D'nial]

The first bit of notes concerns light one.

3, now that I look at it, didn't quite translate onto the paper the way I wanted it to. My initial idea was to have a diagonal tube coming out of the ceiling with the firemarble halfway between each end. The design as I envisioned it, however, seems pretty sound.

The design for 4 is indeed inspired by an Exile motif (the bit of metal/stone that hangs down the side of J'nanin's central tusk). Perspective got a bit messed up here; I meant for the "rivet" dot to be in the middle of the firemarble, as seen while facing the wall directly. I also tried making the motif completely symmetrical, but didn't much like any of the results.

5 is a streetlamp. The actual sketch is only a detail of the top. I drew a figure to the right of the sketch showing the size of the streetlight relative to a human.

I don't see a way to make parts of number 7 curved or change the angles. I designed that one on the basis that D'ni would tolerate right angles from time to time.

9 I don't like so much anymore. If I do keep it around, it'll be a more rounded design.

I will take your suggestions for 5, 9 and 10 into consideration, though.

[Gehn, lord of ages]

For 3, maybe it would be better just to have firemarbles or other light sources attached to the walls themselves. Just put a decorative design over them that reflects all the light back to the wall (something that looks somewhat like 1 or 2, but pointing all the light towards the wall).

4 does have a rather thick design to work symmetrically (it would overpower the design, in my opinion), so maybe asymmetrical is the way to go.

I think 5 would look very good as a small light, about a foot high at most, sort of like [url='http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solarlight.JPG']this light[/url] (in purpose only), or to be put on the tops of walls or cliff sides to shine light down below (in even lines).

For 7, yeah, I can see how that would be hard to have without right angles. It would work for specific Ages, I guess (along with 8, which is in kind of the same style).

A few pictures I'll put in for general inspiration
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lampa_ze_sklejki.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint-Quentin_Art_Deco.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sconce.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burrell's_Field_main_entrance_lantern_close-up.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ConstructionLight.jpg

[D'nial]

firemarble1.jpg (60.25 KiB) Viewed 4219 times

I actually modeled the first one. My overwhelming greatness as an Age Writer is assured!

[Justintime9]

I had some free time and decided to model lamp #6:

[D'nial]

Hooray, I'm popular!