The Models

These are the models i was talking about, these where dug up from an old Han tomb recently last year and they show us what certain buildings looked like, I considered this a goldmine but at the same time not a great amount of detail can be made out nor any colour but nevertheless its a great start and gives me a good shape to start with finally

Development

This post will show my progression through this project using screenshots from beginning to end.

The backdrop house in progress.

First placement of blossom trees after importing the model.

Positioning the dummy trees som i know where the proper one will be.

Creating the grass.

An overview of the enviroment in its early stages.

The first screenshot, this started off with just 1 giant cube.

It should be noted that the high resoulution flower that I created for this tree diddnt work out, in fact the blossom above which has a much lower polygon count was also still too high, so to solve this problem I met Andy Love in a surgical and told him about my problem, he suggested to me to create a tree that imply wrapped a texture around a sphere using opacity, where you make a version of the texture in black and white which defines which parts allow light through it. This proved to be the most useful solution even though I suffered some grahical slowdown it wasnt as bad. Personally I felt it would have been nice to use the tree I intended, it would have looked really good.

One of the never used blossom textures.

The high res blossom before smoothing.

The shape I used to base my blossom on.

The default blossom texture made in Photoshop.

The dummy tree, first used to model the better trees.

The high res blossom from above, notice how it gets yellower in the middle just like some existing breeds of blossom.

Modeling the tree.

Attempt

I attempted to create a peach blossom, the result after using images and such as a referance was this.

The branches for this tree typically go straight up from the main branches, I read on the internet about how to create a tree using the Parray in 3D Max so this is the kind of branch I planned on using at this point though I am worried that even this branch alsone is too demanding and high in polygons so it might have to be changed, but that can be donte later. Also in the background you can see the tree model I want to use, i made it from a cube and extruded it, which is something new I've learnt.

Three Kingdoms Art

The Peach Gardens (Oath of Liu Bei (Yuan-te,) Guan Yu, Zhang Fei,) is a very important part of Chinese history it had extremely big effects in history and still effects us now, one of the most amazing things related to that is that the Triads in China base their idea of brotherhood on this oath, they even worship Guan Yu who was later called the God of War by the Chinese. Looking at the image above it tells us that other form of media are interested int his story, there are games you can buy like Romance of the Three Kingdoms or even Dynasty Warriors, the story have even been translated into children's storeys, cartoons, T.V series. In fact if you watch T.V lately you will see the trailer for battle of the Red Cliffs which is the battle of Chi Bi the most of the most epic battles in the book.

These painting show us another side/perception of the same story, but the traditional Chinese art may not necessarily be the most honest like most classical paintings. These painting would represent the whole event rather than a snippet of time captured in frame. But I'm not saying that their is nothing to gain from these pieces of art, it brings me even closer to creating some kind of environment, in the one above they have used the orchard as a backdrop where as others have the subjects stood actually in the middle of it, admittedly when i read the book i also pictured it like this.

This one is slightly more honest in appearance and has them stood with the orchard as the backdrop. This also appeals very strongly with what we consider them to look like today.

Reserch into The Garden

I didn't know this until now but apart from all the other stuff that this story inspired it also inspired many artists, a lot of them are simply inspired by the event where as some where inspired by the appearance of a peach garden which can be pretty beautiful. I personally think that especially during sunrise or sunset the pink and greens would complement a nice orange sky just like Eve Larson did in his piece Peach Orchard in Bloom. (evelarson.com)Funny that this was pretty much what I had in my head when I found it. The sunrise (or set i think its rise) has given the blossom a nice crisp orange glow, then this against the green foreground and the glarey and duller background really draws your eyes to the centre. This photo below by David Kocherhans which goes by the same name (David Kocherhans) has been helpful in gaining a good idea of exactly what those trees look like, this is very important because in order for it to look like blossom it needs to have the same typical branch formation (so how big it is, the length of the trunk, exposed roots typically, how high the branches start and their angle/shape (check here) over height up the trunk) and typical foliage so you think that it is a blossom tree even if its not life-like.
Three kingdoms art follows in the next post.

Reserch into Han

It was very very hard to find information i want from that era, I'm worried i may be trying to be too specific. In other words everywhere I look there are rich supplies of information like http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artqa/2003-09/24/content_38809.htm which is a rich resource of info on what i want but i cant find the number one thing i am after and that is what a typical late Han dynasty house or estate looks like, because the peach gardens take place behind Zhang Fei's "estate" as it is worded in the book so it is going to be a crucial part of the scene.



I cant shun every web page and book though, i did learn lots of general things like the progress of the Chinese' history of architecture and how it developed. The picture above is an old house built on the Han style, it was named old Han house on the net but i cant find any proof that it has been around since 200 AD. It simply could have been what i presumed and its Han style. Nevertheless it does give more of an idea to me about what i can be expecting it to look like.

Vis 2.1

So for my project it is going to involve some Chinese architecture, Han dynasty to be more specific. so for this i have been researching into both subjects 1. Han dynasty architecture 2. Thoroughly looking at the section from the three kingdoms story and translating that into an environment. The following posts will show what i did.

Idea Developmet

So for my Visualisation project i chose to do the legendary scene from my favourite book Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It is the part where Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Liu Bei make an oath of brotherhood in the peach gardens behind Zhang Fei's estate, this scene is briefly described in the book as:

"The man said, "My surname is Guan, my given name is Yu, my style name was Shouchang, but then I changed it to Yunchang. I am from Xieliang in the Hedong Commandery. Because there was a man from a wealthy family who was acting like a big shot and bullying everybody, I ended up killing him. I had to become a fugitive, and have been living the life of an itinerant mercenary for the past five or six years. When I heard that this area was recruiting soldiers to go smash bandit rebels, I came especially to join up." When Xuande told the man of his plans, Yunchang was overjoyed. They all went to Zhang Fei's estate to discuss these important matters.Fei said, "There is a peach garden in the rear of my estate, and the flowers are now in full bloom; tomorrow, we should conduct a sacrificial ceremony to heaven and earth. We three should become brothers, joining forces with a common purpose, and later we will be able to accomplish great deeds." Xuande and Yunchang both responded in unison, "An excellent idea!" The following day, they prepared sacrificial offerings such as a black bull and a white horse. The three of them all burned incense, and performed double obeisance. They all took an oath, saying, "When saying the names Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, although the surnames are different, yet we have come together as brothers. From this day forward, we shall join forces for a common purpose, and come to each other's aid in times of crisis. We shall avenge the nation from above, and pacify the citizenry from below. We seek not to be born on the same day, in the same month and in the same year. We merely hope to die on the same day, in the same month and in the same year. May the gods of heaven and earth attest to what is in our hearts. If we should ever do anything to betray our friendship, may the gods in heaven strike us dead." Having completed the oath, Xuande was declared to be eldest brother, followed by Guan Yu, with Zhang Fei as the most junior brother. They made thorough offerings to heaven and earth, and then butchered the bull. They also brought out some wine, and gathered together all of the brave men of the county. They recruited more than three hundred men, so they proceeded to get thoroughly drunk in the peach garden. The day after, they gathered their weapons, but became frustrated that they had no horses to ride."

This oath brought together the three key people in the Three Kingdoms story and effects the whole history of china, it has also inspired a lot from art to secret societies such as the triads. I often imagined what it would look like myself and there are many representations of it some of old Chinese art of the event and some of what it likely would have looked like as described in the book, which is what I am aiming for also. As a virtual environment it ca be used as an environment for any kind of media that would want a virtual backdrop as the story is still popular today. For example a movie has very recently been realised based on the battle of Chi-Bi called Battle of the Red Cliffs, it is China's big current movie realise, and so follow ups are going to be made if it proves successful and as well as that there are many, many depictions of the story ranging from T.V series, cartoon series and computer games which cold all use an environment for such an important part in one of China's most famous historical stories.