More B&W fun

Here's another view from Pilgrim Trails - this time from the 2nd tee. I like colour as much as the next guy but there is something so cool about a B&W photo.

Pilgrim in black and white

Lindsay Addie sent me a pic of my course that he had snapped and done some ps work on. I added a little more shadow depth, a new sky and lightsource and here is the result.

Pretty cool!

It's a wrap

Pilgrim Trails is done, it's completed, it's no longer a 'work in progress', it is finished, realised, 'put to bed' and concluded!

I could post a bunch more pics but I'll save that for tomorrow.

I've had a lot of fun designing and creating this course and while it's fun to build re-creations of courses or work on vizualization projects, there is really nothing like designing your own course from start to finish. Did I mention it was finished?

The course gave me a chance, to revamp my graphics and technique set and also to experiment with my own ideas on golf course architecture. The course is wide open in many places with the ideal lines from the tee varying, depending on conditions and from which tees and pins you are playing on any given day.
One of the key features of the course is the ability to recover from a bad shot with an amazing recovery shot (skills and talent permitting!). I think golf is much more exciting when you are given the opportunity to do this although you may find yourself in a few areas where you just have to take your medicine and get the ball back in play if you screw up. Thats golf, but until you know the course, you'll never be quite sure where the 'no go' areas are, as they're less obvious than on many courses.

As you can see from the previous pics of the course, it has a rustic, natural look and feel to it so you won't be inundated with signs, bins ball washers etc as you play your way through the natural landscape. Courses, in real life, do have to make themselves pay and so you will see a few holiday cottages nestling amongst the trees here and there as you play your way around.
Oh what I wouldn't give to live in a cottage such as the ones near to the 7th green so I could wander down to the green on a long summers evening, wedge in hand, and chip and putt until the sun went down.

Pilgrim Trails is due to be played as part of the Online World Golf Tour http://www.apcd-courses.com/
next week. The tournament will give me a chance to test the course under competitive conditions as a hundred people battle their way around it. May the best golfer win!

The course will receive a general public release on the Monday following the tournament.

Some green area pics

Here are a few pictures of the green areas showing some of the planting and texture blending to try and create an ultra realistic effect.

Pilgrim Trails is about to go 'beta' with only minor tweaks and fixes left to do along with the addition of some 'hole planner' style previews. Many thanks to the testers so far who have provided great feedback on everything from textures, to green slopes, pin positions, tee locations, and design improvement thoughts. Great job so far guys!

Pilgrim clubhouse view

The course is currently in alpha testing and Rob miller is making some 3d houses to fit into the course while I take notes from the testers.

Here's a view of the clubhouse as you're playing the par 5, 9th hole.

Pilgrim update

As you may have gathered, I haven't been able to work on the course file for a few weeks due to Pat Auge making some very nice 3d stuff for me in his spare time. There is now a lovely clubhouse and even a halfway house for weary travellers to sit down, comtemplate their misfortunes and then set out on their quest for redemption on the back 9!

I've also been working on a couple of real life projects which have been keeping me busy too. One of the viz projects I'm working on has lush, sub tropical surroundings with palm trees and dense undergrowth all over the place. It's hard to imagine a golf site more different from the likes of the Pilgrim course but that's one of the great things about golf in that it has endless variety and that continues through into my work too.

Anyway, I'll soon be set to resume progress on Pilgrim and as before I'll keep this blog updated with work in progress news, pictures and information.

Early clubhouse pic

Pat sent me an early pic of the clubhouse today. Still lots to do but we've been working on the textures together and I think it's looking great so far.

Here's the pic:

I'll update the blog when there are more pics of the CH and various other objects around the course.