This project may have finished in 2026, but it actually started in July of 2022. I had worked on an isometric castle previously but wasn’t satisfied with the end result. With my newer knowledge of 3D in Illustrator I decided to tackle this challenge with a different approach. That being said, I started working on this and then after a few livestreams I set it back down again and didn’t come back to it for several years! When I did pick it up in 2026, I decided I was going to see it through to the end. There are a ton of details in the final art. I would really recommend zooming in on the image, it’s hard to really appreciate them all at a glance.
Light Background
Dark Background
Color Options
For this project I started by making swatches for the fill color and lighting in the 3D effects. This way I could control and change the colors whenever I wanted just by changing the swatch color. Using the swatch color for the shadow in the 3D effects also meant I didn’t have to go in and manually apply the change to every individual effect. Using the 3D effects in Illustrator also allowed me to create a more organic composition with organic shapes which is the largest area I struggled with in the previous castle design. I learned a lot experimenting with this process.
Process
It is crazy to think that this animation condenses the work into a few seconds but you get a sense for how I built all of the shapes. A lot of things were made in a straight front, or side view, and then the 3D effects applied. In this way I was able to map out the layout of the islands and courtyard to use as a blueprint before building details. I was also able to save some 3D Effects as graphic styles and apply them to repeating elements.
