05/03/2020: Last time I was happy with my modular kit-built shop, and I decided to come back to it after I had some designs for trims and props. I went away and made a quick sketch, using my build as a template.
The idea was just to see what kind of pipe arrangement would look good, if any would: this quick drawing here made me feel a lot happier about making assets to put on, as I saw that they could indeed complement the shop and give it that quirky look I felt I'd missed. I then went away and made some pipe and cog assets in Maya, and scaled them to be an appropriate size for the shop.
I then went ahead and promptly splurged them onto the shop. My only real rules were to not transform them and that they had to properly connect: beyond that, anything went. The reasoning was because if I transformed them, that would be bad for any textures that went on them, and it would force me to make them not fit perfectly or to make interesting connections in order to have all the pipes link up.
My final result, after what may have seemed to just be messing around, was this.
I am personally pretty happy with it! I think the crazy piping is definitely not something you would see on a Muggle shop, and it brings in the weird magical quirkiness that the shop building had been missing (because, while I am proud of it, it does look like a very typical building).
The idea I thought of was that the door would be opened by turning a cog, which would cause steam to rush up the pipes and out the tiny chimneys all over the wall. This would relieve the pressure in the door, and cause it to swing open (in my mind. In reality the door to this shop probably won't open at all because I won't program or animate it to. Probably). This would give the pipes and chimneys a practical purpose: the rest of the time, they would just look cool and keep the door securely sealed against drafts.
I think the next step is putting pipes on the next exposed wall: it does look a bit bare and lonely now. See you then!
Comments