Castle Model Final Reflection & Renders

During the critique, a common suggestion I received was to add more windows as there were blank walls in my original model. I agreed with this strongly and focused on adding more detail into my design. Originally, it was suggested to add windows protruding out from the sides of the roof as well, but after adding my side windows I worried this would make the design too busy. Another critique I used was adding an environment around the castle. This inspired me to add the tree and the shrubbery. I added a base to ground the model that was inspired by bases used for mini figurines. There was material in my concept but I feel as though I expanded upon this by playing with grass textures to create my shrubs as well as combing 3D and 2D texture on the castle door. I found a lot of difficulty hollowing out my castle to make my windows functional as I did this late in the process. I would do this first next time. Sometimes my objects weren't in the same spot to bring up the selection menu despite me not being able to see them. Osnap allowed me to overcome this and I relied heavily on this tool throughout the process. Using shift+left click allowed me to select multiple objects at once, individually, and make my workflow a lot faster. As I learned the various tools on the program, I found it a lot easier to construct and manipulate shapes. The lighting was tricky to get right, but I loved how it brough out the dimension in the model and made it more realistic.

Progress shot showing how I cut window spaces as well as my bank of parts.

Example of one of my lighting setups. I used the sun as a tool and played around with different global locations to get different angles of sunlight.

This first round of renders used only the skylight at low intensity and one point light. I added more light sources and moved them around for my next couple renders.

Below is my original concept compared to a shot of my final design in a similar angle: