# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Building/Structure Mapping >  Callowyn Castle

## Caenwyr

Alright people, I'm currently in the process of publishing the maps I did for _Runes, the Tabletop RPG™_, but why limit yourself to one job at the time if you can do several all at once, and all of them in complete chaos, right?  :Razz: 

Okay, so a little background for this one. As some of you probably know already, I have been working on a world of my own for the better part of two decades now. Over the years I've published several maps for cities and countries, but never before have I showcased something on a building scale. I _have_ been tinkering with Sketchup for a while though, but this is the first time I've dared to take a Sketchup model and turn it into a building map. Well, I haven't yet, I've just started. 

The building I'm trying to map is the castle dominating the small town of Callowyn (close to the eastern border in this map). It's ridiculously detailed, but also very difficult to actually showcase to people. So I started looking for a way to turn it into a building map instead. At first I thought to do a series of cuts, but since all of the buildings have different ceiling heights etc (just like real castles had in the olden days), this would result in a complete mess. Believe me, I tried. So eventually I decided to go for a sort of "exploded view". I'm not even sure if that is the correct term, but you get what I'm going for. 

Alright, so first of all here are four quick Sketchup renders to give you an idea of the shape and dimensions of the place:
   

So basically there's a keep, a chapel, stables, store rooms, barracks and a wall with 4 turrets to finish it all off.

using a ridiculous amount of section cuts, I managed to create a first layer of features detailing the ground plan for each structure:

You can see I used different heights for the keep, the storage rooms and the chapel. The tower in the back is immediately done all the way to the ramparts (but I kept the three others on a lower level so viewers can still get a detailed view if they want).

Then I went on to detailing the remaining rooms in the chapel in what I came to call a "stack". You can see the second floor of backrooms, and on top of that the roof for the entire building, bell tower and all:


The second stack details the storage rooms and the barracks above them (I didn't draw in the beds, because I'm lazy  :Razz: ). It also shows a cutaway of two more turrets:


Finally I created a stack detailing each of the floors in the keep and the adjoining tower (it also has the stables roof and the remaining turret):


Currently I'm in the process of merging all of these stacks in one image. It's a harder job than i imagined! This is what I have at the moment:


Any thoughts of suggestions are welcome  :Very Happy:

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## - JO -

Fantastic work, here ! Congratulations !
I can imagine the amount of work... 
It's a great map for playing and explaining !
Did you start from a model ? An existing castle ? 
To me, it looks like a "carre Philippien", typical castles of early 13th century... Though towers to protect the gate could be added (it's not a critics, most of the castles are far from the typical one due to many reasons, as lack of resources or time)

I don't know if you want to spend more time on this, but I'm sure, an illustration of the whole castle with some surroundings would be great !
After all, you have most of the work with Sketchup ? You could choose one of the view you like the best and draw from that ?
Anyway, I'm very impressed by your work, here !

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## Caenwyr

gee thanks JO! But no worries, I'm still continuing to work on it. I'm still gonna add a legend, a title and of course an illustration of the whole castle as viewed by a visitor. But one step at a time. 

So here's colouring!



Thoughts, suggestions?

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## Tenia

That's so great ! I love how you did the different levels, hard work I guess but the result is superb, go on !

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## - JO -

I looked very carefully ! I can say that there is a stroke missing in the bell tower of the chapel !  :Very Happy: 

Joke appart, I can't wait for the next step !

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## Caenwyr

> I looked very carefully ! I can say that there is a stroke missing in the bell tower of the chapel ! 
> 
> Joke appart, I can't wait for the next step !


Worst thing is, I noticed it too after uploading, and it ate me up! I just had to go back and change it  :Very Happy: .

Of course, while I was at it, I changed a million more silly little things: I added a furnace to the smithy, a ton of bunk beds to the barracks, continued adding colour all over the image, whitewashed the chapel... And then I went on and added two underground levels: the servants' quarters beneath the keep (with a nice little tunnel to the kitchens), and the dungeons. 

And to top it all off (at least for this update), I started adding a bunch of white balls where I'll eventually put the numbers for the legend. 



Next up: a sideview cutaway of the keep to better illustrate the double helix style stairs in the adjoining turret: one grand staircase for the nobles and their visitors, and one that takes servants right from their underground quarters to the solar on the third floor. It also has a sneak window for spying on the Great Hall hee hee!  :Very Happy:

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## ThomasR

When I see you people coming up with such wonderful plans of buildings I tell myself I really have to dive into Sketchup head on ! Great job !

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## - JO -

Wow ! Full of details ! Youre unstoppable !?! And great ideas too ! 
Very good job !

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## Caenwyr

Updaaate! Yee-haw! 

Ahem. I'm a bit too enthusiastic about this apparently. Anyhoos, here's an update with the side view, as promised! Lots and lots of crazy tiny lines that just _had_ to be right, or I'd redo them a million times until they were. The OCD is strong in this one...

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## - JO -

It never stops ! Great job !I think all your lines looks right !

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## Theseus

nice job!!!

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## Caenwyr

Thanks guys! 

Alright, here's the next update. I decided to split the top level of the outbuilding into a few smaller rooms, so the servants have a decent place to sleep. In my previous iteration they'd have their rooms in the cellars, but that was probably a bit rude of me. I mean, they're only doing their job, right? So I went and gave them some rooms for themselves. 

Some back lore you might wanna skip if you're here for the map alone: 

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Some more info on the *sleeping arrangement in the outbuilding*. In winter, when the garrison is in, the servants tend to bunk together in groups of four, but during summer, when the war band is on the rove, the servants tend to spread out a little bit, with the seniors taking possession of the rooms and the juniors moving to the barracks/dorm room. The cook is the only exception: even at full occupation he has a room all for himself (and his wife and children, obviously).

It's worth mentioning that several other servants have a house of their own in the town just outside the gates, so the castle is seldom filled to its full potential. There's just enough space for everyone in case of a siege, if you cram 'em in a little, but most of the time there's plenty of room for all the servants to have a little privacy. In the past, some really distinguished servants have occupied rooms in the keep itself!
I mean, what?  :Razz: 

Maybe it's fun to elaborate a little on the keep too. You'll notice there's this *double staircase* winding through the adjoining turret. The nobles' staircase takes you from the Great hall directly to the Lord's and Lady's reception rooms on the second and fourth floors respectively. The servants staircase doesn't open up to these floorsit doesn't even have an entrance on the ground floorbut it's perfect for servants bringing up food to the solar on the third floor (in between the Lord's and Lady's Rooms and easily accessible for both of them using the stately stairs in the core of the building). That's where the nobles like to have their breakfast and lunch, and where they spend a good deal of their spare time when the weather is too bad to go exploring.

You'll notice too the spiral staircases don't go all the way up. The nobles' staircase ends on the fourth floor, and the servant's staircase only goes to the solaralthough, and interestingly, it goes on a little further still so it can be accessed from the fourth floor through a trap door in case of emergency... or a bad case of the midnight munchies. The childrens' and guest floors can only be accessed through the central staircase. So imagine you're a guest staying on the top floor and you want to go to your room. What you do is you enter the Great Hall, get on the (nobles') staircase, get off on the second or fourth floors and take the central staircase to your final destination. No peeking into the solar though, that one's off limits! So hey, maybe I should limit that trip to "through the fourth floor only". *

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Alright, back to the map. Apart from the extra rooms in the outbuilding, I also added all the labels, and whitewashed the top three levels of the keep turret. They're an integral part of the rooms now! In fact, one of the main characters in my novel will be sleeping in the turret room on the 5th floor. *

* Which leads me to think that maybe I should start adding walls to the keep as well. It will be a pain in the butt with a ton of redoing an erasing, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do huh? (oh no, that means I'll have to redo the cutaway too? Nooooo! Alright, this just moved to the "definite maybe" pile. Although having the full layout would help in envisioning the story. God I hate myself)

Enough! Here's the image!  :Very Happy: 



Let me know what you think!

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## Caenwyr

Did I say I hate myself? Yeah.

Last night and this morning I spent about 4 hours tinkering with the walls inside the keep. And the result? Some measly lines no one even notices... But me personally I'm happy they're there, because it helps convey the feeling that these are actual floorplans and not just identical copies of one another. And it should help in the narrative too. Now if you're a guest staying in the top floor, you can only get to your room by taking the spiral staircase to the 4th floor, and then 2 flights of wooden stairs through the core of the building. No more passing through the Lord's bedroom by accident. And at the same time, Lord and Lady Cwrnoid still have their private access to the Solar. Lovely.

And that, dear friends, is what I spend 4 hours on.  :Razz: 

Ooh yeah, I adapted the legend as well (the numbers of the keep floors are now identical to their actual level in the building), added a title and a subtitle (not by any means the final product!), and three nice little "hand written" notes referring to the story. 



Thoughts or suggestions?

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## - JO -

This is briliant !!!!

A huge works that pays well : the map is really beautiful and now that you said there's a story linked to it, it makes me want to read the adventures in this castle !

I know you spent so much time on this one, but I sure hope you have some energy left to offer us a global view of the castle, that would help to better read the plan, I think (and of course, it would makes you map looks even better, if possible !) I only suggest that because I know you already have that outer view with the work you did on Sketchup, and it was already beautiful the way it was.

Anyway, it's a real architect work you've done, and I find it magnificent (I'm biased, I love castle !)

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## Ilanthar

> *By Caenwyr*
>  Thoughts or suggestions?


Please, give us more  :Very Happy: ?

More seriously, this is brilliant, Caenwyr! If I have a suggestion, it would be to do some slight lines for stones & roof tiles, maybe.

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## MPG

I just saw this development thread, and really like the final outcome - its clean and clear, like a visitors map you might find in the grand hall or the front gate. I can also appreciate the work going into the two decade struggle - its been ten years for me on the novel front and for me the maps/world building are as big a part of the narrative as the...narrative. Love it.

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## Caenwyr

> it makes me want to read the adventures in this castle !


Oh you can! If you can wait a million years until it gets published and learn to read Dutch.  :Razz: 




> Anyway, it's a real architect work you've done, and I find it magnificent (I'm biased, I love castle !)


gee thanks JO!




> Please, give us more ?
> 
> More seriously, this is brilliant, Caenwyr! If I have a suggestion, it would be to do some slight lines for stones & roof tiles, maybe.


Good idea, aaaaand done  :Very Happy: 




> I just saw this development thread, and really like the final outcome - its clean and clear, like a visitors map you might find in the grand hall or the front gate. I can also appreciate the work going into the two decade struggle - its been ten years for me on the novel front and for me the maps/world building are as big a part of the narrative as the...narrative. Love it.


Oh yes, but you gotta admit it, while it _is_ a struggle, it's definitely worth it. We're creating worlds, my friend! 

And with that being said, here's my next update! 



If you feel something's still lacking, be sure to let me know! Otherwise this little baby is moving to Finished  :Wink: .

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## - JO -

Oh wow !!!!!!!!!!!!
Fantastic !!!!!! and the view of the castle at a human height is definitely a very good choice !!!! The building looks so massive and impressive !!!!

But we wont give you a rest !  :Wink:  !
Dont you want to give the roofs of the global view some lines, as the roofs of the « scattered » (?) view ?
And as long as you are here, some feeling of stone to the maconry (?), some dotted, pale, thin line here and there to suggest stones ?

I know Im playing with your nerves ! The whole picture looks fantastic as it is ! 

Congratulations are in order here !

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## Tenia

Better and better ! I love the font's title too. You choosed a font and then drew over it no ?

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## Caenwyr

> Don’t you want to give the roofs of the global view some lines, as the roofs of the « scattered » (?) view ?
> And as long as you are here, some feeling of stone to the maconry (?), some dotted, pale, thin line here and there to suggest stones ?


Well, you're right, as you usually seem to be  :Very Happy:  Thanks for your relentless trying-to-better-my-work!



> Better and better ! I love the font's title too. You choosed a font and then drew over it no ?


I did! why redo something if someone else already did it, right? But no worries, the font is open source - I checked!

So this must be it guys!

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## - JO -

Excellent !!!!

Great idea to make some nuances to the stone walls !

You really did an amazing job here !!!

I was scrolling up the WIP, and looking all the stages of this piece : Congratulations are in order !

(And apparently I gave you REP lately... I have to come back later ...)

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## TheFoolSfC

That work is incredible. What software are you using to generate the 3d model and the stacked images? when the work is complete will that be an actual table model ?

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