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Accepted superlolster's artist application Updated

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superlolster360 said:
thanks eriol i agree I'm currently working on the prancing pony and barrow downs and will hopefully upload some screenshots soon so i can show off more of my skills and yes i should have just edited this one instead of creating a new one
thank you :) :)
Click to expand...
update
Some parts of my barrows have been completed so i have uploaded some screenshots now of them. My prancing pony is still being made however all the framework and some of the walls have now been completed.
 
once again another update
The prancing pony is finished and I am quite pleased with the result. I feel it was a bit rushed as i got back of holiday 3 days before the next theme build began and i wished to get it done before the next theme build :)
 
Hey and thanks for the elaborate application! And also thanks to all who helped reviewing and giving feedback!

So, at last I come down to reviewing your app! I have checked out your TB's and here's some of the things I noticed on the two newer ones:

Prancing Pony:
  • The first impression is very good, the design looks very intricate and still not over-detailed. Great choice of materials, not too few and not too many.
  • My biggest critique on the exterior is regarding the use of logs. Make sure the way you use them is reasonable, this includes two things that you can still improve on:
    • If you have horizontal logs make sure the block are placed so that it actually looks like that (sideway bark). I would not use the all-bark logs in structures, use the regular ones.
    • Logs should only be used for straight things, no curvy roof edges. Additionally I would not recommend it for slanted straight parts either (as you did on the roof edges of the high roofs), it just does not look good on logs.
  • The chimney is way too big and too ruined; the less durable wooden parts are completely intact and straight and the chimney is totally crooked. Looks odd.
  • The interior layout is rather odd. Half of the entire build is used for stables. The stable part is two stories tall but the upper story is almost completely useless. Space inside a house is very precious! Better make the stables smaller and a proper second floor with more rooms or something else for an inn. Also the middle connector is a bit odd inside, such a bent floor is unusual and the corridor is very wide but completely empty.
  • The bottom floor could do with some windows.
  • The furniture could need some more love, here's some inputs...
    • You use a lot of bookshelves rather oddly (Are you using Eriador RP?). Do not place doors in front of bookshelves, i've never seen such a thing. Try to cover the sides with trapdoors or iron doors (look like planks in Eriador RP). Dont use bookshelves for the small cabinets next to the beds.
    • For shelves / cabinets with doors mainly use paintings for the doors.
    • Do not use poor beds and rich beds next to each other, only use those in poor areas / builds.
    • The rooms are generally very poorly furnished, usually a bed and a cabinet is all there is. Try to think of some other things you can add, rather make it cramped than poorly furnished. If you need more space you can make the rooms bigger. Generally I would offer different room sizes with different amounts of beds. These things are not so different from hotels you see these days.
    • On double-beds make sure you can easily access both from one side.
    • The corridor in front of the rooms looks very empty.
    • There's more than one sort of crate you can use for storages, and you can also use other things in general there. Try to think up what you imagine is concretely stored in that room and then try to represent that as well as possible.
Barrow-Downs:
  • Kudos to you for the tedious terrain work! Well done!
  • I like the shape of the barrows a lot, just the right sizes, not too cramped and not too vast.
  • The materials in the barrows are quite good, the only one I'd take out of the mix are the black shingles. They are really only meant to be used as black shingles. The stone mix looks very nice though!
  • Make sure to watch out that you have
    • no grass blocks ontop of grass blocks
    • no grass blocks below stony blocks (or trees)
    • no floating grass blocks (over entrances)
  • Add some weathered paths to the entrances (rough gravel, dirt)
Overall I can say you have a very good eye for material combinations and structure shapes, two of the most important Artist skills! What I would like to see from you is some progress on making nice and detailed interiors. Walk around Middle-earth and check out the houses there, you'll surely come along many ideas that you can use in your builds.

So, what would be nice is if you could go back to your Prancing Pony and try to work on the things I mentioned!

Thanks for the application and the effort so far! Keep the good work up!

~ Finrod
 
Finrod_Amandil said:
Hey and thanks for the elaborate application! And also thanks to all who helped reviewing and giving feedback!

So, at last I come down to reviewing your app! I have checked out your TB's and here's some of the things I noticed on the two newer ones:

Prancing Pony:
  • The first impression is very good, the design looks very intricate and still not over-detailed. Great choice of materials, not too few and not too many.
  • My biggest critique on the exterior is regarding the use of logs. Make sure the way you use them is reasonable, this includes two things that you can still improve on:
    • If you have horizontal logs make sure the block are placed so that it actually looks like that (sideway bark). I would not use the all-bark logs in structures, use the regular ones.
    • Logs should only be used for straight things, no curvy roof edges. Additionally I would not recommend it for slanted straight parts either (as you did on the roof edges of the high roofs), it just does not look good on logs.
  • The chimney is way too big and too ruined; the less durable wooden parts are completely intact and straight and the chimney is totally crooked. Looks odd.
  • The interior layout is rather odd. Half of the entire build is used for stables. The stable part is two stories tall but the upper story is almost completely useless. Space inside a house is very precious! Better make the stables smaller and a proper second floor with more rooms or something else for an inn. Also the middle connector is a bit odd inside, such a bent floor is unusual and the corridor is very wide but completely empty.
  • The bottom floor could do with some windows.
  • The furniture could need some more love, here's some inputs...
    • You use a lot of bookshelves rather oddly (Are you using Eriador RP?). Do not place doors in front of bookshelves, i've never seen such a thing. Try to cover the sides with trapdoors or iron doors (look like planks in Eriador RP). Dont use bookshelves for the small cabinets next to the beds.
    • For shelves / cabinets with doors mainly use paintings for the doors.
    • Do not use poor beds and rich beds next to each other, only use those in poor areas / builds.
    • The rooms are generally very poorly furnished, usually a bed and a cabinet is all there is. Try to think of some other things you can add, rather make it cramped than poorly furnished. If you need more space you can make the rooms bigger. Generally I would offer different room sizes with different amounts of beds. These things are not so different from hotels you see these days.
    • On double-beds make sure you can easily access both from one side.
    • The corridor in front of the rooms looks very empty.
    • There's more than one sort of crate you can use for storages, and you can also use other things in general there. Try to think up what you imagine is concretely stored in that room and then try to represent that as well as possible.
Barrow-Downs:
  • Kudos to you for the tedious terrain work! Well done!
  • I like the shape of the barrows a lot, just the right sizes, not too cramped and not too vast.
  • The materials in the barrows are quite good, the only one I'd take out of the mix are the black shingles. They are really only meant to be used as black shingles. The stone mix looks very nice though!
  • Make sure to watch out that you have
    • no grass blocks ontop of grass blocks
    • no grass blocks below stony blocks (or trees)
    • no floating grass blocks (over entrances)
  • Add some weathered paths to the entrances (rough gravel, dirt)
Overall I can say you have a very good eye for material combinations and structure shapes, two of the most important Artist skills! What I would like to see from you is some progress on making nice and detailed interiors. Walk around Middle-earth and check out the houses there, you'll surely come along many ideas that you can use in your builds.

So, what would be nice is if you could go back to your Prancing Pony and try to work on the things I mentioned!

Thanks for the application and the effort so far! Keep the good work up!

~ Finrod
Click to expand...
Thank you finrod I will go back to my prancing pony and make them changes. I do agree I need to work on my interiors and I will change that accordingly and I will work on my barrows. Yet again thank you for your words of advice and hopefully soon this application will be updated again so you can see the changes made to the builds. Didn't realise how elaborate my app was but now looking back on it I guess I did write a lot :)
 
@Finrod_Amandil Ok update. I have made some massive changes to my theme builds as you suggested. I worked on my prancing pony's interior and the exterior also. As for my barrows i added some paths and some more vegetation. I realised i did it in the gondor 2 rp so thats why it looked strange in the rp it was meant to be in. Done many more builds in Dol Amroth over the past couple of days and worked hard on middle town today. I have been working hard on interiors so hopefully i have gotten slightly better :P
 
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Sorry for the long time it took me to reply!

I have checked out your improved Prancing Pony ingame. It looks a lot better! Unfortunately I have bad news and will only give you some further feedback on it, and not yet a promotion...

Prancing Pony:
  • Your main challenge that remains is to ask yourself "does this make sense?" You may have put some things that look nice, but if you think about it don't make too much sense. Here's some of those:
    • The carpets in the corridors on the upper floor look pretty random in shape. Think how a carpet looks irl. Those have always a very distinct shape, usually rectangular or round, not random bits of carpet scattered across the floor.
    • In many guest rooms you have put this sort of table: https://i.imgur.com/Rd3lnyA.png
      I have two questions on that: What should the lever depict, and what is the idea behind the stone plate?
    • Plants in the rooms are nice, but practically one should suffice, I've seen a room with 3 of them. Also rather use actual flowering plants, and not the saplings.
    • You have two small storages, which both have fire logs in them, more logical it would seem to have all of that stored in one place, resp. give each storage a specific purpose. Also use the whole variety of chests, crates and other storage the RP offers, also use some cheads!
    • Similarily, store all the hay in the storage next to the stables, and none outside or in other storages.
    • Why do you have a Gondor banner in an Eriador inn?
    • The well outside is filled to the brim. Look up what the idea behind a well is please, then you'll understand why that is odd: Castle well - Wikipedia
  • The "kitchen" resp. cooking area is really unpractical, like imagine having to prepare something there. You surely need a lot more space, and especially some flat counters to prepare food. My suggestion would be that you move the stairs to the upper floor to where the kitchen is now, and place the kitchen + storage where now the storage and stairs are. Then you don't have to use up so much space for the lower floor corridor and have room for a proper kitchen room.
  • The large storage next to the stables needs some additional pillar(s) to hold the floor above; thats too large of an area to be supported without an additional pillar or wall.
  • Floating stone is a no-go in most cases: https://i.imgur.com/u5ookcT.png
  • This inn is in a well-developed city. Make the floor more than just a large piece of mud!
  • You have two entrances that are very close together, I'd reduce to one; or alternatively, if you reorganise the lower floor as suggested above (moving the kitchen) you can make an entrance for the kitchen/bar personnel.
  • Make the lower floor floors out of a stony material, is a lot more durable than wood; in the upper floor wood is used bc its hard to support stone floors.
Farmstead:
  • Good idea to decorate/detail the fields with some random crops/flowers, but realistically seen a field is well looked after to max the crops outcome. So, unless the farm is abandoned, i would reduce such things to a minimum
  • Use the round windows only for 1x1 windows (2 next to each other horizontally we can debate about), looks odd.
  • If you have a 2x2 window, make shutters for all 4 tiles.
  • Visible grass blocks below pretty much any block is a no-go: https://i.imgur.com/2W7g2pa.png
    Use dirt or stone, or even another log there. Also no visible grass blocks below trees!
  • Cover thatch (roof material) from the inside. Overhanging bits need to be supported by planks.
Overall the quality of the farmstead is clearly lower than the prancing pony, you definitely can do better with your current skills!

Alright, thats quite some things to still work on! I would suggest giving the prancing pony a little more time to make it the perfect TB, but a new one would also be nice, to see what how well you can already build right away!
 
Com one Super, you're so close to be an artist.
I saw a lot of your builds and I know you can do it! Don't give up :).

-lolbroek
 
Finrod_Amandil said:
Sorry for the long time it took me to reply!

I have checked out your improved Prancing Pony ingame. It looks a lot better! Unfortunately I have bad news and will only give you some further feedback on it, and not yet a promotion...

Prancing Pony:
  • Your main challenge that remains is to ask yourself "does this make sense?" You may have put some things that look nice, but if you think about it don't make too much sense. Here's some of those:
    • The carpets in the corridors on the upper floor look pretty random in shape. Think how a carpet looks irl. Those have always a very distinct shape, usually rectangular or round, not random bits of carpet scattered across the floor.
    • In many guest rooms you have put this sort of table: https://i.imgur.com/Rd3lnyA.png
      I have two questions on that: What should the lever depict, and what is the idea behind the stone plate?
    • Plants in the rooms are nice, but practically one should suffice, I've seen a room with 3 of them. Also rather use actual flowering plants, and not the saplings.
    • You have two small storages, which both have fire logs in them, more logical it would seem to have all of that stored in one place, resp. give each storage a specific purpose. Also use the whole variety of chests, crates and other storage the RP offers, also use some cheads!
    • Similarily, store all the hay in the storage next to the stables, and none outside or in other storages.
    • Why do you have a Gondor banner in an Eriador inn?
    • The well outside is filled to the brim. Look up what the idea behind a well is please, then you'll understand why that is odd: Castle well - Wikipedia
  • The "kitchen" resp. cooking area is really unpractical, like imagine having to prepare something there. You surely need a lot more space, and especially some flat counters to prepare food. My suggestion would be that you move the stairs to the upper floor to where the kitchen is now, and place the kitchen + storage where now the storage and stairs are. Then you don't have to use up so much space for the lower floor corridor and have room for a proper kitchen room.
  • The large storage next to the stables needs some additional pillar(s) to hold the floor above; thats too large of an area to be supported without an additional pillar or wall.
  • Floating stone is a no-go in most cases: https://i.imgur.com/u5ookcT.png
  • This inn is in a well-developed city. Make the floor more than just a large piece of mud!
  • You have two entrances that are very close together, I'd reduce to one; or alternatively, if you reorganise the lower floor as suggested above (moving the kitchen) you can make an entrance for the kitchen/bar personnel.
  • Make the lower floor floors out of a stony material, is a lot more durable than wood; in the upper floor wood is used bc its hard to support stone floors.
Farmstead:
  • Good idea to decorate/detail the fields with some random crops/flowers, but realistically seen a field is well looked after to max the crops outcome. So, unless the farm is abandoned, i would reduce such things to a minimum
  • Use the round windows only for 1x1 windows (2 next to each other horizontally we can debate about), looks odd.
  • If you have a 2x2 window, make shutters for all 4 tiles.
  • Visible grass blocks below pretty much any block is a no-go: https://i.imgur.com/2W7g2pa.png
    Use dirt or stone, or even another log there. Also no visible grass blocks below trees!
  • Cover thatch (roof material) from the inside. Overhanging bits need to be supported by planks.
Overall the quality of the farmstead is clearly lower than the prancing pony, you definitely can do better with your current skills!

Alright, thats quite some things to still work on! I would suggest giving the prancing pony a little more time to make it the perfect TB, but a new one would also be nice, to see what how well you can already build right away!
Click to expand...
thanks again fin ill make those changes and I'm going to work on next weeks theme build so hopefully you will see something new. Hopefully ill take on your advice and improve everything :)
Also ask @barteldvn about the well he told me to add it as it would look better (apparently)
 
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