King Arthur's Carrousel

I started by creating the top-down texture for the carrousel tent in Photoshop, using a low resolution Google satellite photo. It took a couple of hours and involved 148 separate layers.

One interesting note: this top view does not account for the vertical height of the tent so the texture will be stretched to account for additional surface area.

Next I show the canopy fringe that hangs down around the perimeter of the carrousel. By creating an alpha map (a see-through black and white version) and combining the two, we can apply this texture to a very simple plane and save on complex geometry and modeling time.

Finally, this is what the texture looks like applied to a 3D tent object. This gives you a good idea of how the alpha channel trick works on the hanging fringe around the circumference of the tent. I estimate the tent to be about 75ft across, but I have no idea on the height.