...So I've Been Building SomethingI've really enjoyed looking at locations for this Blog, and there's one I visited a couple of weeks ago that made a particular impression. Souls of Dreams is a beautiful sim, but not so different from some of the others I've talked about recently, so I decided to keep it for another day. The significant aspect of the sim is it's small dock area, which reminded me quite strongly of some of the images of my home town at the turn of the twentieth century. Grangemouth was important as it was the Eastern terminus of the Forth and Clyde Canal, a late-eighteenth century sea canal linking the East and West coasts of Scotland. The canal can be seen in the above image, with a lock controlling access to the dock. The thing is I'd been looking for a project, and some sort of "model" of the old port seemed worthwhile particularly since the area had been completely redeveloped in the 1970's. I began working from the lock gates, as they seemed a defining element, but it soon became clear that sourcing building was going to be an issue... Some aspects of the scene were easier to suggest, I was particularly pleased with this barge and steam tender. I even devised an off-sim extension for the canal to give some impression of distance. Most of my builds tend to start from a concept rather than a firm design, and as the project grew I was aware of a degree of "mission drift". While the prototype location was still suggested by the scene, it was actually beginning to look more and more like one of the many fishing villages on the Fife coast, so I decided deliberately to emphasise this. That meant the end of the location -specific canal, but since it was eating prims, that freed resources for a bit more fun elsewhere on the build. Populating the harbour space had also been a challenge, there are some impressive period boats out there, but the limitations of primage and building on a 64m x 64m sky platform precluded them. The little trawler however, seemed perfect and set the tenor of the scene very well, though it was a bit of a prim-hog, which eventually led to it's reluctant removal! The canal section had provided some sense of the extended space around the harbour, and with that gone, there was a need for some "backfill" to replace that. This came in the form some simple block building that certainly had a suitable colour palette for the scene, and don't look out of place, especially if you don't look too closely... This is the third build on my 64m x 64m home parcel, The other two are the Beach House at ground level and my little country estate, which you can learn more about on the My Own Spaces page. Both of those builds are permanent so there was always going to be a limit on the prims available for this build. There was never going to be a lot of fine details, but I still feel the "broad brush" approach here has worked, and the addition of some few items of clutter and ambient sound also help - the clock actually chimes. The build is on my plot so if you really would like to see it, drop me a Notecard in-world. Finally a slideshow of an early morning walk-through of the scene as it is now. Thanks for looking!
1 Comment
Ella
10/10/2020 08:43:02 am
That is a beautiful work of art, with such detail. I also enjoyed reading your post, it is so well written. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and being immersed in the past - thank you. x
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AuthorI love well-crafted regions, and have spent many years wandering SL, avoiding yards of plywood and looking for the best places to spend my time... Archives
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