Swamps and mounds, medieval setting

[Hannes]

Fantastic!! The clothes are superb.

[Dune]

Next step; added some more veggies (still needs more) and a defendable pathway to the tower. I had to figure this out as there's little known. Reasonably easy access, but also easily disabling intruders to enter. They use trapdoors, but you can easily get some planks from the barnhouse and put them over the hole. A drawbridge pulled up from the castle would have been an alternative, but I chose for a simple ladder. Simply pull it up, close the door and shoot the bastards. Might change that later if needed...
Next will be a second drawbridge (left).

[Hannes]

Absolutely amazing!! This looks so photorealistic, you can almost smell the air.

[zaxxon]

It's one thing to build a World, but to populate it with a variety of expressive characters is truly remarkable.  I always enjoy the 'walk thru history' that you take us on in your imagery.  Wonderful work Ulco!

[WAS]

Wow! Love the lighting with the vegetation. Grass cutting populations and water boundary looks great too. 

[sboerner]

Cool models and wonderful detail in the vegetation. I assume the floating moss patches are procedural?

Though I wonder about that drawbridge. Maybe not much of an obstacle to someone willing to get his feet wet. Unless that moat is deeper than it looks!

Thanks for sharing the images as you work. It's fun to see this scene come to life.

[Dune]

Thanks guys. Yes, floating algae are procedural, just taking the water mask, inverting and adjusting, warp a bit, breakup by PF and colorize. I wondered if it needed some displacement, but haven't done so far.
The moats were first 10m wide, but the client (museum archaeologist) decided to use existing digs' data and make them 6m. I was thinking the same as you, how would it stop an intruder? Even if deep, they might have their swimming licence. Maybe it was more of a psychological barrier, which made the inhabitants feel safe.
The prickly shrub was a second deterrence, but there was the walkway, how else would the inhabitants reach their tower?
But perhaps the front bridge should be a little larger (while wood was scarce here in the boggy and low North of Holland, so it's all disputable).

[sboerner]

Probably very little in the way of stones, as well. Does that explain the church and tower being made of brick? I'm curious about so many details here.

[Dune]

The north of Holland (Frysia) was a very swampy area around the 14th century with lots of bogs and the sea could infiltrate the low land easily, depositing layers of heavy clay. People tried to live there and built mounds for their houses, cultivated the lands that were dryest. Front of this area is an old sand 'hill', towards the back/north it's getting very wet. The monastery was built on a natural rising too, across the water (sea influx area). 6km to the north, behind the monastery, the Waddensea begins, which I just fitted in the next version of the render.
The monks (and their workers), cultivated land, and dug up clay, which was baked into bricks, and probably sold. Interesting fact is that the people used to import big tuff stones from abroad, and the first clay bricks they made had the same size to make building and repairs easier. Later smaller bricks were made. These buildings were brick indeed, probably still the larger brick. There's heavy discussion on the church (which is different today), so I'm in the middle of it and need to make something acceptable for everyone
No real stones in that area, perhaps some rocks left behind by ice ages, but these might have been buried too deep under bog and clay.

[sboerner]

Thanks for the explanation. A history *and* geography lesson. I'm interested in early medieval European history, and have read about the Frisians (which is how I've seen it spelled). Fascinating stuff.

There's heavy discussion on the church (which is different today), so I'm in the middle of it and need to make something acceptable for everyone 

I guess that's one of the advantages of doing my own research. Though I bet you are privy to some interesting discussions.

[pixelpusher636]

Next step; added some more veggies (still needs more) and a defendable pathway to the tower. I had to figure this out as there's little known. Reasonably easy access, but also easily disabling intruders to enter. They use trapdoors, but you can easily get some planks from the barnhouse and put them over the hole. A drawbridge pulled up from the castle would have been an alternative, but I chose for a simple ladder. Simply pull it up, close the door and shoot the bastards. Might change that later if needed...
Next will be a second drawbridge (left).

This is extremely realistic. The water is perfect and the algae floating on the water well, it tops it!   Is the algae a similar technic like shore foam? Thanks for sharing this image Dune. 

[Dune]

Thank you. No, not the same technique, though it could have been, but I had a softish water mask anyway and just added some color adjust to get the edges of the water, then broke it up by PF.