Lots of distractions recently, but here is one of the most recent shots of the front archway. I’m having some normal issues with the low relief images within the frames, but I’ll have to sort them out later. I used a lot of harvest objects to decorate with including acorns, leaves, and vegetables. The area inside the wreath is darker because it’s a hole in the wall. There will be a stained glass skylight on the other side that I’m hoping will cast some color through the hole. The entire structure here is high poly, but I’m satisfied with the result. Next up, I’ll post an image of the top sculpture.

I finished modeling the roof cresting, but I don’t have a render of it yet. I jumped to another part of the roof, the flagpole! Even a seemingly insignificant part of the building, like the roof flagpole deserves some love so I researched this as well. I did my best to find authentic flagpole “technology” like the truck/pulley design at the top. The poles of the late nineteenth century were still made out of wood so that factoid will help me with texturing it. The flag is a 38 star American flag from 1877, a year after Colorado entered the Union. My building was constructed between 1881-1889, before the next flag change happened in 1890 when the Dakotas, Idaho, Montana, and Washington were added. I worked on an animation (first one I’ve ever rendered), but it’s pretty jerky. I had some issues with the cloth simulation because the rope is not a loop. The bottom end is connected to the flag, and the top of the flag is connected to the top end of the rope. I tried vertex parenting, but the bottom end of the rope had nothing to attach to. I would love some advice on having two objects pulling against each other in a cloth simulation. I also was curious about my rendering time. I tried out motion blur at .5, and while I understand that this would be taxing on my computer, it varied widely on render times. One frame took 8 hours while another took 2 minutes. I started it late on the 8th, and it’s still rendering (108/120). I’m assuming that my simulation was so jumpy that some frames included a lot more blur to compensate. Anyway, I’ll come back to the pole and animation, but for now I’m happy with the progress of the model. Next up I’ll be working on ornamentation design for the entrance archway. To the drawing table!

I wanted to show the drawing in progress for the archway ornamentation details I mentioned. There are quite a few classical details like cartouches, wreaths, and festoons. I’m looking forward to modeling them and seeing the clay renders.

Why have I not posted for a month? I have a new website design! This thing is faster, prettier, and more user friendly in general, even on mobile devices. I needed a complete overhaul in order to keep posting constantly and to get more fans. Take a look around and tell me what you think. Now that I have this done, I'm ready to get back to creating. I've been away from Welcome to Autumn for too long.

No more paywall! This was a tough decision to make because, while I want to reward my patrons for supporting me, I also realize that I need more people to see my content in order for Welcome to Autumn to succeed. I want this project to be open to the public so all of my work-in-progress posts will be made available regardless of financial support. The only exclusive, patron-only posts will be regarding concepts, possible story lines, and other brainstorming material. I've also revised the rewards and goals to better reflect my process, social anxiety to hangouts (still possible in the future), and new concepts like adding a wiki site - an online encyclopedia and reference dedicated to everything Autumn related made to look like a real city travel website. I hope these changes don't scare anyone off. Rather, I hope they bring in many more visitors to Autumn! Once again, thank you for your support. http://www.patreon.com/rickycolson

I've been scouting a real life location for my fictional city, Autumn, and I think I've found it. Sneak peak of the terrain! This image is a section of real Virginian topography where the downtown location will be. Disregard the green color. To the left and right corners are mountain ranges and a river is meandering like a snake to the left. The actual location will remain a mystery, unless you try and figure it out yourself, because my fictional city is supposed to represent a few different real life locations. This image will be used for sculpting the environment and generally setting up the mountainous background.

Moving back to the front of the house, here is the edited porch steps. I thought they were looking too similar to the rear steps with the balustrade continuing down to the ground level, so I converted the railing to a stone like design and lowered it close to the steps. You'll be able to notice it more clearly when the materials are applied. I made a change in design for the newel (decorative pedestals at ground level) to better match the proportion of the railing. Another detail I added, one that adds some visual complexity to the house, is the lattice (the criss crossed area underneath the porch).