Where do the Khoras photos come from?

Started by avisarr, September 17, 2008, 07:26:32 PM

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avisarr

Someone asked me where the photos in the Khoras website come from. I thought this would be a good topic for the forum.

Actually, finding and getting photos is one of the hardest things in building Khoras. I only use photos that I can legally use. I'm pretty strict about that. A lot of world builders just grab photos off of the net or whatever, but legally, you shouldn't use things you just snatch off the web. Every photo on Khoras was either purchased from a stock library or the photo was taken by either myself or a friend. With regards to stock photography, I believe everything came from www.istockphoto.com which is a fantastic site and I highly recommend it. I've also been very fortunate to have friends who travel a lot. Whenever any of them is going to go on a major trip, I always ask them to bring back photos that I can use for Khoras. About 80% of the photos in Khoras were taken by me or friends. About 20% were purchased stock photography.

But even with stock photography, there are some things you just can't get a photo of. There are many countries in foreign lands that look ancient and could pass for a fantasy city. But there are no more medieval cities populated by people in period costumes. That's why the city photos on Khoras are usually of only one section of a city or a wide shot showing the skyline. I'm still working on a way to get really good "authentic" photos of a city, closeup, with people in appropriate garb. One way would be to render it in 3D software, but that involves a huge amount of work for even one image. Another good source for photos is renaissance faires. By photographing people in costume (and getting their permission) and combining that with other elements and photos, it's possible to Photoshop together a good composite image. I haven't actually done that yet, but I will probably bring a camera to the next big faire. I was planning on doing that at the Washington Renaissance Faire here in the Puget Sound this year, but alas, it was cancelled this year. So, NEXT year, I'll be there are armed with a camera.

I'm actually really proud of the images and photos on this site. Khoras was one of the first worlds to have photography. As early as 1997, Khoras was online with photos and images and since then, many online fantasy worlds have copied the idea from Khoras. I love having drawings and photos and CG images... I think it really helps add a sense of reality to a world.


Golanthius

#1
I downloaded a free trial of Lightwave 3D...It's way beyond what I could possibly use. The website www.medievalworlds.com has some great 3D artwork. Perhaps permission could be granted for use on the site (with proper credit for the artist).

I purchased a print of a medieval market place (with people), I would assume that if I purchased the print, I would gain the right to use that print for other projects.

Any thoughts on this?

avisarr

Wow. What a great website! Yeah, I'm hoping to eventually illustrate Khoras in a similar manner. I recently acquired a copy of 3DS Max for this purpose. Between that and Animation Master, I'm going to be adding a lot more art. But it takes time.

I would think you could use any CG image on a website if you get permission from the artist or copyright holder.

Delbareth

I've got a question.

Do you still need some photography? Because I sometime take photos of beautiful landscapes for RPG and if you need something, perhaps I can find it... Obviously I don't have any photo of a medieval city, but some nice pictures of forest, mountains, cliffs and the like. And I always try to minimize "real world" details in the photo (car, electric lines...).
Just tell.
Delbareth
Les MJ ne sont ni sadiques ni cruels, ce sont juste des artistes incompris.

avisarr

#4
Absolutely. Photos are always welcome. If anyone has any gorgeous photos that they think might be useful for Khoras and they don't mind me using them, email them to me. I would love to take a look at them.

Gorgeous landscapes, unique architecture, waterfalls, caves, castles - all of these are useful. For those people living in Europe, photos of European cities, especially the OLD sections with lots of stone, are also very useful. I'm pretty good at erasing out people, cars, telephone lines, etc. I also sometimes combine multiple photos into a composite image - so sometimes even just a fragment of a photo can be useful.


  • The only absolute rule is that the photo has to be taken by you. That way, there's no copyright issues.

  • Generally speaking, the higher the resolution, the better.

  • If you send in a photo and I choose to use it, you'll get mentioned in the credits.

  • Don't send in photos of people in costume unless you have permission of the person in the photo to use their image.


I specifically mentioned Europe because there are a lot of BEAUTIFUL cities in Europe and many of them have ancient architecture. We have nothing like that here in the US. We have no castles, no crumbling Roman walls... nothing that even remotely resembles medieval Europe. :(


sid6.7

thanks for the link dave...i grabbed some for my world too...very handy and fairly cheap....



tanis

#6
yes definitely take pictures for us americans!

i know i love how beautiful Europe is. and i'm fascinated with medieval Europe and Ancient Rome, so any pictures you can add to Khoras to help fill it out and make it what David has imagined it to be would be great!
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Lance

I meant to say something a while ago but I'm worthless, so anyways. I have a few pictures from North Arkansas and a few from Tennessee. Mostly wilderness stuff, though, there are pics of cabins and such from the time. I'll sort through them and send you the ones not including people.

avisarr

Wow. What a beautiful place! I love it. Yes, Bart, if you happen to go there, I would love it if you took some photos. I'm not picky. Just about anything from that place could be useful.

Drul Morbok

#9
I remembered this thread just in time as I go to Ireland for two weeks in 3 days  8)
I try to take as many photos as possible...resultion and battery of my smartphone will limit my abilities, but I'll try to organize a camera (good idea anyway).

Edit: One of my friends that go with me does have a camera with him.

David Roomes

Thank you for the photos you sent. I will try to find a place for them.

And regarding an earlier post in this thread, I have dumped 3ds Max and have moved over to Blender 3D software. I like it much more. I am planning on using Blender to render lots of images for Khoras. Recently I redid the Citadel in Duthelm using Blender. The new Citadel image is better. Not perfect, due to my limited skill. But it's much better than the previous image. I also redid Death's Door in the ruined city of Shidar and a couple of images of coins on the currency pages. I am currently working on the Core Crystal and the Focusing Chamber from the history pages. That will be posted by the end of this month.

I plan on continuing this work. I want to get much better at 3D and use computer generated images for lots of things on Khoras.

Despite all the 3d work, I will still use photos where I can and welcome anyone who wants to send it photos that I can use with their permission.
David M. Roomes
Creator of the World of Khoras

Drul Morbok

BTW: Is there a way for me to find out which place is on a specific photo? Right now I stumbled upon the photo for the City of Aridorn and am wondering which real city is on the photo....not for the first time I see a photo.

And awesome work you did on the citadel and death's door!!
I'm deeply impressed. I remember the old death's door a bit more frightening by sheer size, but the new one definitely looks better as artwork and as piece of fantasy.
And the new citadel is just...well, words fail me, I can just repeat and maybe capitalize AWESOME!

David Roomes

I'm really glad you like the new artwork. Yeah, I'm proud of the new Citadel. It turned out pretty good. I will post more artwork for Khoras and post here when they are uploaded.

The photo of the city of Aridorn is actually a composite of a couple of photos. The main photograph used in that composite is a photo of a medieval village in France. I believe it's called "Gourdes" or "Villes de Gordes". I added a few other buildings, I might have changed the sky too. Anyway, Gordes France is what you're looking for.

David M. Roomes
Creator of the World of Khoras