Medieval defense line

[Dune]

A quick commission came up, have to do this really fast, finish this afternoon. A medieval defense system made up of ditches and lines of wooden poles. I have a couple of hours left this morning to make the heather a little more realistic, and some other small adjustments to the pops.

---Dune

[Henry Blewer]

The poles are a little widely spaced I think. American Revolutionary and Civil War defenses had the poles tilted out away from the defenders. This was to slow/injury horses I think.

[Dune]

My archaeologist tells me they were spaced out about 1.5-2 meters, they found discolorations in the soil. And this line was perhaps just to keep the cattle in (or out), I don't know exactly. They get what they want!

[Henry Blewer]

Ah. Different application than keeping out charging horses.

[Hetzen]

Great mask work as always Dune and an interesting dip into history. Do you think they wove branches between the poles? Like a fence?

[Dune]

Thanks, Hetzen. I just heard that this setup is completely wrong, so I have to redo the masks. But that's the fun of this, I don't have to paint all trees and leaves again! In this line, they only let prickly shrub growing between the poles to deter people from crossing.

This is basically a very simple setup, just 2 masks, one for the heights and one for the distant trees.

So this is no good 

[Henry Blewer]

But it is really cool. Your historic recreations are very interesting.

[Kadri]

Looks good  
You know this of course Dune , but you can make specific places more prominent in post by saturating or desaturating with masks and so ...
Especialy if you have little time.

[Dune]

I have some more time. Luckily, as I'm not satisfied. This is more what it should look like, but I want the ditches and embankments more pronounced (I already lowered the sun). They are 1.5 meters high/low, and about 6-10 meters wide (from left to right: ditch, embankment, zero area, embankment+poles), with poles spaced at 1.5 meters apart. It doesn't look right somehow, perhaps because of the rough grass. A few hours left to play with this....

[Dune]

Finished, just in time. Here's a reduced size image. The measure tool as well as a plane of certain measurements were very handy to check widths and depths of embankments and ditch. It all checks out!

[Hannes]

Looks great! I like the lighting very much.

[Henry Blewer]

Awesome. I wonder what your next project may be.

[otakar]

All of your projects are so interesting! And of course so well executed.