Roman Fortress

[Dune]

It's more finished now, but I'm a bit hesitant to put it on the web. It hasn't paid itself back (unpublished yet, as matter of fact I 'pre-commissioned' this to myself, hoping for some archeological bureau to commission me to do it. It is based on a realistic watercolor I did before, which has been published, extensively). I don't want it stolen.

[otakar]

Maybe you can add some copyright notice as a layer (like the stock image databases do) and/or publish this in lower resolution. I'd love to see the final version. And good luck with the marketing - anything that makes you create more images to share with us

[Dune]

I hate to destroy a nice image with some letters across it, but there's no other way. If put in a corner it is easily cloned out. Small image won't do, as it is the details that make this an interesting image. I'll see...

[Henry Blewer]

There is a way to encode copyright info into the image. I use a paint program to create a full alpha brush. When the color palette is changed the info becomes visible, because the image/info is now part of the image.

[Dune]

Can you elaborate on that? I know how to make a brush and an alpha channel, but when you save as jpg, isn't it all lost again?

[JimB]

Dune, have you looked into the whitewashing of Roman fort walls with red painted lines delineating stonework? Which period is the fort from? Is there any evidence for some kind of training field outside the walls, or a bath house?

I also found this paper and website on boats at Zwammerdam:
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/cbaresrep/pdf/024/02402001.pdf
http://www.livius.org/zo-zz/zwammerdam/zwammerdam.html

A friend runs this website:
http://www.fectio.org.uk/sites/schip2003.htm

You should post this over at Roman Army Talk. I'm sure you'd get a lot of info and remarks there as well    A number of archaeologists and historians are members there, including MC Bishop, DB Campbell, both of whom I've helped out with illustrations for books and they're really into these kinds of reconstructions (Mike Bishop likes CGI a lot), and Jona Lendering (livius.org).
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/

[Dune]

Hey Jim, thanks for these links. Interesting. My information for this comes from distinguished Dutch archeologists, and they haven't mentioned the paintwork. Interesting idea, however. This fortress is (at this stage) from around 160 AD. There might have been training fields, but evidence of that wouldn't probably have survived. There was a bathhouse, at the eastern entrance, and I still have to make that (in XFrog).

I might post there, see what happens... it would be nice to get some commissions from abroad. They're British, I suppose.

---Dune

ps. Here's a small detail of what I painted 5 years ago...

[JimB]

Nice depiction of the bathhouse  

The RAT forum is an international discussion forum specifically on ancient military history, but there are fora for civilian discussion as well. Have a browse around. Most members are re-enactors, but it has a lot of members who are bona fide, published academics, as well as post-grad students, and the forum led to the periodical Ancient Warfare. Mike Bishop is regarded as one of the most authoratitive academics and archaeologists on the Roman military, for example, and is a regular contributor to RAT. His book Roman Military Equipment is a standard textbook which he wrote with JC Coulston. I got to know Mike through RAT and he's a great guy.

I'm not sure about the wall construction at this fort. Is it wood? If so, then the walls would just be plain wood looking I guess.

Here's a discussion on white walls: http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=28252

A couple of book illustrations I did for Mike Bishop and Ross Cowan (I'm into Roman re-enactment, so I love this stuff)   http://s331.photobucket.com/albums/l469/jimbowers/ILLUSTRATION/

I highly recommend Peter Connolly's books, "Ancient City", "Pompeii" and "The Roman Fort". He's a now retired historical illustrator who has also published papers and other books on the Roman and Greek military. His research knew no bounds and he actually tested his theories in real life, although some things have now been superceded by more recent research.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=peter+connolly&sprefix=peter+conn
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roman-Fort-World/dp/0199104263/ref=sr_1_48?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263995734&sr=1-48

The ships I posted may be Late Roman, by the way.

Seriously, they'd love to see your depictions. There are also many barabarii re-enactors and scholars there, including Germanics, and some mates who re-enact Batavian auxiliary (going so far as to learn some Frissian)  

Here's a digital archaeology firm that you might find interesting: http://www.digitale-archaeologie.de/

[Oshyan]

Wow, your TG2 work really captures the visual spirit of your paintings! Very cool.

- Oshyan

[Dune]

That's really interesting, Jim. Thanks a lot. Especially the German site is impressive. They're well ahead of me, especially with their 3D buildings, and animations (I don't have the animation TG version, so that's out of my league anyway). And I like your illustrations. Blender object + PS painting afterwards? Or was it all texturing on the Blender model, with a photographic background?
I've been searching for photo's of re-enactment scenes for reference, so I know what it's about. Interesting, although I'm not only into Romans. Occasionally I get commissions to do an 'old' landscape (or nature recovery 'new landscapes'). I first painted them, but since I discovered TG, I am hooked to its photorealism.

---Dune

ps. Thanks, Oshyan.

[Kadri]

Your background is showing , Dune 

Kadri.

[JimB]

Blender object + PS painting afterwards? Or was it all texturing on the Blender model, with a photographic background?

Poser > XSI > PS.