The Millennial Guard

[Jexter]

Hey Addicts,

Recently it occurred to me that in my quest to clear space and mine building spots for my forever-ongoing project, that I have not made time to actually build anything in a very long time. I decided to spend a few days away from the server and start working on some concept designs in single player creative. I've been planning to build some additional statues to post at various entrances throughout Moria (about the name, my project started out as the Halls of Moria from LOTRs but has since morphed into my own fantasy build inspired by it. This will not be its permanent name).

My natural tendency is to make most of my builds overly symmetrical. I find this to be a handicap when building projects that have a more organic structure, particularly statues. I decided to take a different approach in planning this build to generate a look that doesn't look too "manufactured".

A tremendous amount of time went into building this statue, not to mention the preparation beforehand to nail down a design I liked in 3D Studio Max, my 3D program. I recently purchased a powerful plug-in for Max that features a useful utility for voxelizing models, essentially the process of taking a 3D object and turning it in to blocks. I found a generic model of a knight I liked online and went about heavily modifying its stance, weaponry and overall detail. The software utility allowed me to turn the finished model into voxels of a specific scale that was enlarged to comfortably fit within Minecraft's world height limit (the finished statue stands at 240 blocks). Each layer of the statue was then isolated during building. The entire building project relied heavily on referencing these blueprints in Max. A few of the details are not entirely clear in voxels, such as the lion featured on the belt buckle and shield. But overall I'm very happy with how it turned out! Looking forward to housing this in the Moria project soon.

Additional pictures of the building process:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-OJN2JMLeXOc/VS3YY5YPTkI/AAAAAAAABY4/1y1XN3SxC1Q/w2048-h1102-no/2015-04-13_14.58.30.png
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-vl_klkZAgNo/VS3YZTecPxI/AAAAAAAABX4/RJLGySU4MOI/w1149-h1225-no/2015-04-13_20.55.53.png
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6aZEyf_6zuM/VS3YZu8tF6I/AAAAAAAABYk/V9FsAZWpiIs/w1116-h1225-no/2015-04-13_23.56.27.png
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-kp7ClYQRwmI/VS3YZg6CyrI/AAAAAAAABY0/L1DtfA2DUsg/w1200-h1225-no/2015-04-14_20.22.25.png
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TVZlE_hYOlY/VS3Ya5LHwAI/AAAAAAAABYg/GV9E8M1QH-w/w518-h1224-no/2015-04-14_23.06.46.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-EDHUX8dmXs8/VS3Yaq3oJvI/AAAAAAAABYw/SuyCi-nREm0/w574-h1224-no/2015-04-14_23.05.55.jpg
3D model in Max before the voxelize process began.
Example of an isolated cross-section of 2 layers that include the arms and shield area.

 

[strikerpro]

Oh my gosh...that's amazing...

 

[bobcatfish9]

I always enjoy when folks mix 3d design software with minecraft and end with results such as above. I myself have tried, starting with sketch-up moving on to blender and finally up to 3ds max as well. Awesome work and talent you have.

 

[Jexter]

I always enjoy when folks mix 3d design software with minecraft and end with results such as above. I myself have tried, starting with sketch-up moving on to blender and finally up to 3ds max as well. Awesome work and talent you have.

Thanks bob, wasn't aware you had dabbled in 3D yourself. I used Blender many years ago back when it was first released, and Infini-D / Lightwave before that. For being a free and open source program, Blender surprised me with some of its capabilities.

 

[spongepunk]

how

 

[Jexter]

Recently completed the first statue on the server, with the intent of eventually having two flanking the gate to the underground halls. The arch will eventually be part of a huge cliff face, so as to appear carved out of the mountain. It was positioned in such a way to emphasize lighting on the finer details of the statue, and to darken the background so that the shape of the statue is clear and not washed out.

 

[jennythegreat]

This is ridonk. But also beautiful and amazing.

 

[strikerpro]

:OOOOOO <-- Thats my jaw dropping! This is amazing!

 

[Jexter]

After much planning and toil, both statues have been completed and framing of the mountain entrance has been underway. Finally the encapsulating shells of the statue are beginning to look more like part of a large scale build, rather than just random towers in the middle of nowhere. The pillar designs went through five or six editions in single player before I came up with one I liked. Couple of screenshots below:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/HgONFBdhS63pjATSYvhVfSEF6SRu20hDuqO-2-r3mf8=w2518-h1355-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/KIfrNyfSyopnSlwwPY_zqn90kBTDu7Xn9nfRTXNWaQo=w2518-h1355-no
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/f0aMrVb1L8GMwd2DlSnEOuwI9NIg_-N_TKIL3Emi8us=w2518-h1355-no

Eventually this cliff face will go all the way to near bedrock level, while the temporary dirt platform will be the elevation of the entrance floors. This will give the appearance of the pillars looking built into the mountain. The area behind the pillars will be a large cave, and I'm planning to build some kind of long causeway or bridge across a lake that leads to a fortified gate. More planning to do in SP before that materializes!

(One of these days, I'll decide to actually not be lazy and put together a new Follow My Build thread to replace the outdated Halls of Moria)

 

[leafsfan24]

:O Looks way better in that then on the live map

Amazing building and loving the outline. It makes the warriors look quite menacing

Keep it up, and keep on posting

 

[Electric_Current]

Jexter, you continue to amaze... I don't see how there people are able to build these huge statues without giving up... Maybe it's just me... Nice job jex!

 

[BenTen321]

Wowww it looks beautiful and wonderful.

 

[Jexter]

Got a nice screen capture of the new construction going on around the former Halls of Moria. Jenny and Munchy are in the foreground; thanks for all the digging assistance you and everyone else has provided lately!

And another (without shaders):

 

[cooliojulio]

Those shaders really brighten things up

 

[Doogledude123]

Looking great Jex! Only another 4 years to go

 

[tankxsy]

Omygoodness! How on earth can you make that?
It's amazing, please keep up the good work!
I want to see so much more