Castle Research

After researching Castles extensively I decided that I really liked the look and feel of the more european style. My Initial idea was to go for a Frankenstein/ Draculas Castle kind of approach. I really like the architecture of the Harry Potters Hogwarts (the brown brick castle above), The multiple spires which vary in height and width have a strong visual impact on me. While researching many of the castles, just seemed to 'Happy looking' for what I had in mind. No photo seemed to capture the spooky gothic imposing structure I imagine in my head, so I went on to research artists to see how they're interpretations compared.

I really Love the top image, the way that the castle is built into the rock and has a bridge connecting to a lone Tower. Im pretty convinced in having my Castle carved out of the terrain/ surrounding rock/ ground. I feel that Castles are designed partly to be imposing, to deter enemies from attacking. I imagine the front face is vital for achieving this, so mine is most likely going to be very large, intimidating and interesting in shape.

I would really love my Castle to look like that of the left one, which is extremely Gothic in style, unfortunately I think that would be extremely hard to do, especially as Im just starting out in maya, so don't want to overreach. Perhaps it would be more wise to start with something less ornate for my first project.

The top left image is heavily stylised, I really enjoy the wackiness and higgildypiggildyness of it all. The background of it makes me think of a nightmare realm. I think that perhaps by making my Castle stylised ill be able to achieve a more interesting and unique piece. The bottom picture is concept art from the game Castlevania, I intend to look at more game concept art of castles. 

Above are all concept images for games. At the top is Devil May Cry gameplay which shows a very gothic styled castle, as I have already said I really like Gothic architecture but feel it may be interesting to stylise it into a less realistic way, such as the bottom image does which is a Rayman: Legends concept piece. I really enjoy the colour scheme of the left image which from Epic Mickey, to me the greens and purples give a sense of a magic yet there are enough shadows to still give an aura of spookiness. Its hard to see all the of the castle in the last image to the right which is from Alice: Madness Returns, but from what I can see I enjoy the tall narrow towers and the use of the heart symbol.

Looking for a more stylised cartoonie castle look I came across concept work for the animated film Hotel Transylvania. This work really portrays what I was imagining in my mind, a stylised gothic architectural castle, mounted on a mountain terrain. Its the kind of style I would like to aim for.