Ok, I think I'm finally at the end of my Photoshop conceptual stage. The fortress was determined to be a failure, however, something was still needed to hide the infinite horizon. At the interim crit Phil suggested using the roots of the trees growing outward to form a wall; well since the roots of my trees were turning into snakes already I used that to make natural monumental snake statues as a wall. It hides the horizon and it's a continuation of the snake root theme.
I've also done an overhaul of the serpent kingdom; the kingdom is unlimited in it's fantasy capability within the fairy tale so I've put a glowing light source for the kingdom as the centre of focus. The mound has holes where the snakes slithering in through. And the tree roots from above form massive snake coils around the mound itself giving it a 'kingdom' look; they're also designed in a sharp fashion to resemble metal since my serpent kingdom's meant to represent metal.
If anyone has any suggestions tell me now because I'm ready to move onto Maya.
I went through quite a few renditions of the roots going downward but finally settled with the snakes because the earlier ones just look too much like spider legs.
I suggested to Anita the other day to have a look at these but you might find it interesting/helpful too... Living Bridges. The locals encourage trees to grow their roots a certain way so that the eventually make a bridge. It's generations of work by the time they can use it but the all maintain the old ones and build new ones for future generations. (learning over...) Thought its a real world example you can draw from to make your tree fortress.
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Thanks Sammy, I'll probably use something similar to that for the bottom rim of the wall
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