I did a couple of designs as I wanted to try out a couple of the grave designs, I particularly want to go for the option that isn’t too confusing and can easily be changed into low poly. I did both designs with the snow in mind too as I wanted to look at the gravestone without snow to use this when creating it and also have the snow to see how much it will be covered and to see the random pattern of the snow to see what would work.

I originally liked the first idea as it was what I wanted to do and take direct inspiration from the angel of grief but I decided that this design would be too complicated for me to make especially with the back part trying to model the rest of the body would take me a lot longer than it should. The second design would be a lot less complicated as most of the angel blends into the back of the grave and it can be good for me to implement more detail and take more gothic inspiration to help me with this.

I did do a couple of tests with the first design, where the only problem I had was with the angel. The angel was a massive challenge for me as I especially struggled with the legs and arms, this was difficult to move about without the model being ruined so I decided to go with the second option and look online for a bit of help.

I already knew I wanted it to be low poly as I felt it would emphasize the stone features and make it look older and look like it was sort of self-made, as if the person didn’t really sculpt, and also to look a bit weathered.

To help plan this design I sketched all angles to help me with the modeling and saved tutorials for when I needed them, especially for the snow.

This is what I used to help me make the model, I designed it without snow and I will add that on last after the textures as snow doesn’t really need anything special since it is a low poly design with detailed textures.

One this I particularly looked into was what material older gravestones were made of and limestone was a good one as I liked how that one weathered over time, it is not a sturdy material and is a sedimentary rock so it is prone to damage from acid rain and erosion. What I like about it are the dark lines from the rain and the green discolouring.

References

Thornbush, M.J. and Thornbush, S.E. (2013) The application of a limestone weathering index at Churchyards in central Oxford, UK, Applied Geography. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0143622813000672 (Accessed: 16 April 2023).