Guild of Writers

Well, one thing we'll be needing to make this a complete Japanese garden will be stone lanterns; these can be placed along the paths throughout the Age for light and decoration. The Japanese actually liked to see them covered with snow too, and for that reason they are also called "snow viewing lanterns." For obvious reasons, however, we won't be using them for that purpose...unless the Age turns out like Eder Delin.

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So, would anyone like to give making an original stone lantern design a try? It will be an important element in the Age, especially if we ever decide to put in a day/night cycle.

Here ya go...

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I'm kind of divided on it... On one hand, the tornado look would be perfect lighting for a jungle, especially if the tornado is made of green stained glass. It's organically shaped, almost like a growth that developed on top of a lantern, and it would fit in perfectly with jungle foliage. On the other hand, the tornado lantern totally clashes with the atmosphere of Japanese gardens, which is dignified, harmonious and understated more than deluxe and attention-grabbing.

In a way, this lantern embodies the issue of the Age's duality...It's both a wild, uncontrolled jungle, and also a sort of controlled, idealized nature. Yet I had assumed that some parts of the garden were going to be left rather wild with dense brush and undergrowth, and others would be more sculptured with carefully placed rocks and plants... Perhaps what we need is a wild lantern for the jungle paths and a traditional Japanese lantern for the garden paths?

And by the way, great textures on the lantern sides there, ABguy--you made it look rough.

Maybe if the tornado lamp glass piece was made slightly squatter and you put a hanging branches sort of plant on top? :7

EDIT: Ok, I whipped up a mockup... Something like this (although I ditched the squat thing), but maybe some other more delicate plant, with tiny, dark leaves.

I do like the plant idea, Jojon! It's a fresh idea, and it looks great too. The more controlled restructuring of the tornado works as well, although considering the fact that these lanterns would go (I'm assuming) in the jungle a wilder look as in ABguy's design would certainly be possible as well. But I really like the plant idea. Now, the only thing that I would change about your lantern, Jojon, would be the overall shape; it reminds me of the shape of a modern, streamlined streetlight with the simple cylindrical base and the conical cap over the tornado. Looking at other garden lantern designs as the standard, it would seem that a garden lantern's shape ought be decorative first and functional second. The textures you used definitely made the lantern feel more decorative and old-fashioned, yet the shape felt modern, somehow...Did anyone else feel that, or is it just me?

I also threw together a quicky model of ABguy's design for us to take a look at in 3D; it's still pretty rough, as you can see (no sense in spending a lot of time on it in case we end up using a different design).

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I think it's great that we are brainstorming and improving our ideas; the tough part will be in narrowing our choices down to just two lantern designs!

A plant with tiny leaves that have a very interesting shape might be a good choice.

Just one note on using tiny leaves...You might have noticed in Uru how there is an outline around leaves, for example those in Negilahn? This outline is apparently unavoidable for our particular graphics engine situation, and while it isn't so noticeable with larger pieces of vegetation, it will stick out more and more if thin, tiny, or finely separated leaves are used. Just a heads up, something to keep in mind.

The simple cylinder+cone shape was actually fully intended, to make it understated, rather than "attention grabbing". :)

On the original concept and your draft model: to merge the things; maybe you could use the pyramid part as a growbench and leave the tornado sticking out of the centre of its own tiny forest? :)

The simple cylinder+cone shape was actually fully intended, to make it understated, rather than "attention grabbing".

My bad; I was unclear about what "understated" meant...Basically, in this context it just means monocolored and somewhat compact (see the pictures in the first post of the thread).

On the original concept and your draft model: to merge the things; maybe you could use the pyramid part as a growbench and leave the tornado sticking out of the centre of its own tiny forest?

Actually, I really like that idea too; makes me think of the minature bonsai forests.