mipro Barry Sanders Project

[plasticboy 36]

Originally posted by: nofunk

The Hamilton Avenue Shops have been released!

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=22869

quote>

These are quite remarkable. The large rooftop surface area allows for creation of realistic urban areas. As an added bonus they fit right in with  Spa's excellent Halifax series. Two thumbs up!

[plasticboy 36]

-nvm-

[allez l'om 1]

that sounds great!! you make all a fantastic job!!! I will of course keep an eye on the stex over the week end!!

[josefmayor 8]

Fantastic work all of ya on the team!

[nofunk 1,933]

plasticboy: That's fantastic! I love seeing my BATs in other people's cities!! I'm glad you like them.

Thanks everyone for your support! Expect even more BSP releases in the next few days!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Part 2 of the blog, by Nofunk, is up. 

[nofunk 1,933]

The Park Shelton has been released on the STEX!!!

https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=22894

[allez l'om 1]

now it looks perfect in my city!! thank you so much for releasing it on the stex!!

[plasticboy 36]

I test-drove some of the recent releases from BSP the other night and... wow... do those BATs made my downtown areas look nice. The added urban realism is far beyond anything I've ever expected was achievable in SC4. Great  work  you guys! 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

It's nice to see everything used together like that. I always like seeing our buildings pop up in CJs, etc.

If you (or anyone else) has more screenshots to show, go ahead and post them.

[Jack_wilds 550]

Hey BSP...

I'd like to post pics but to do so successfully... how? as I have a neighborhood to show off too.

Thank-you for all the bats this passed week as they were all anticipated -particularly 'simhottoddy' warehouse, but they're all good to use

Then in 'plasticboy' post third photo he has two bldg's behind the iodent bldg...what are they and are they available for dl?

-Jack

[Francis90b 748]

Plasticboy:Cool pics!

I can already imagine how downtown will be once finished!

Jack Wilds:The buildings you've noticed were BATed by Beutelschlurf, and can be downloaded on the STEX.

They are 42-44 bond street and 72 5th avenue.

There is a tutorial on the omnibus which explains how to post images.If you're using Photobucket (or are going to use it) I might give some help.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Hello folks!

Having had my 3dsMAX 2010 stop working entirely, I was forced to divert my engey from a few projects. Today I reinstalled my old friend max 2008 and decided to work on something new (since that big bad MAX doesn't have reverse compatibility between files). My work on Gleaner's food bank is dead in the water until I can get '10 working again, but here is the last render I made.

I have been aching to make a series of small industrial W2W buildings in par with just about any old warehouse district in the country. I picked a place in Detroit's Rivertown (bing maps) and started work. Most buildings won't be larger than 1x2, but I started on one of the larger ones at 3x2 (I know, hold on to your pants its a huge building!)

Detroit Elevator Co.

It has some nice little details, but I might have to play with them some more so they show up in my model.

Anyway, if you looked at the bing maps link, there are a lot of goodies to make and better yet, they are all small, so they shouldn't take me long.

Cheers!

-Todd

[ky72x 13]

Those two buildings are lookin' good, Todd! I'm glad to see that you are continuing to focus on industrial BAT's. There really is no such thing as too much industry.

[Gn_leugim 853]

ya, they are looking good.. if you could add those graphites to the walls would be awesome I think also, the window frames on the second one are not well visible.. donno if it from zoom level, or it they are just too small, but anyway, they could be a lil more redish too

[nofunk 1,933]

Nice job on these, Todd! They both have a lot of character. I wonder what it would look like if you replaced the old factory windows in the Detroit Elevator Co. building?

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

ky72x: Thanks! I really love this (by today's standards/styles) archaic industrial architecture, the fact that we need it so badly in SC4 is just an added bonus

Gn_leugim: I might try to put some on the sides or maybe the back, but I like how the front is without all the grafitti. As for the window go, they really didn't have a frame since it was just block glass, but I changed things entirely now.

Nofunk: In short, a lot better. The glass blocks sucked out all the character and dimension from the facade, if I had kept on track with my WYSIWYG mentality approaching this one, I think it would not be nearly as interesting. I'm glad you brought that up.

I had to do a little guess work on the windows, especially the 2nd floor, but I think I got something that works well. I did some research and someone who has been in the building recently described lots of large industrial windows overlooking the river (on the 2nd floor), so I approximated from there. Still a bunch of details to add, plus roof junk and more texture tuning, but it is quite a jump from what I started with the other day.

[Delecto 941]

Nice job here Todd, I realy like your industrial Bats and the new one also.

The oblique roof look strange with this concret texture but you didn't certainly ended.

DEL!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Todd, would you please refrain from reading my mind? It's a bit disturbing when you feel you'd like some old W2W industrial for lower-wealth areas, only to realize you don't really have anything. Then you fire up Simtropolis, and what do you see...? Get out of my head!

However, please continue with your W2W industrials! That kind of buildings has been neglected for too long, and I think it's very tempting to mix low-wealth rowhousing with low to mid-rise W2W industrials...

[Francis90b 748]

Looking great !

I've decided to share my two cents with a pic:

In short i've increased the contrast between the darker and the lighter parts of the wall (and darkened both by a small amount), darkened the roof parts which appears to be darker from Bing maps, flattened the bump on the gabled roof.

Hope I can help.

As for the area you're BATing...it seems like you have a lot of nice stuff to do here!

I hope you can work again with your max 2010, the last building you've done here was a beauty!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Delecto: Yeah, I thought the same thing. The material IRL seems pretty close to the roof of the horizontal areas, so I 'm in a bit of a pickle. I made some adjustments to make it work a little better I think.

T Wrecks:   

There are a few Buildings I have in line that would make rather nice Residentials if push came to shove ( This poor neglected building comes to mind)

Francis90b: I agree with what you did with the roof, however I'm pretty happy with the bricks. It is hard to see how it compares with a black background, so here it is against something nicer. You can see that it is where it should be IMO. I really want to get back to 2010 too, I have several projects that I was close to finishing that I can't open now

(clique)

I'm still open to suggestions, but I think its looking pretty good. If I don't hear anything too drastic, I'll finish up night lights and I can move on to the next building!

[Francis90b 748]

Yeah, that's a nicer way to see BATs !

I really like what you've done to your building after my post, especially on the roof.

Regarding the bricks, when i saw the building on the street view pic i was really impressed by the two-tone teal/pearl green scheme on it's bricks.I've thought it was the most noticeable feature of the existing building, and perhaps the main selling point of a future BAT.

In general i really like how do you threat surfaces like bricks or concrete in your BATs, but here i still think you might help that two-color scheme to stand out a little bit more.But i don't want to insist on that point if you don't agree.

I believe that 1938 Franklin street might need some "yellow-er" lights than Miller street factory.I believe it would look perfect with some deep yellow, intense lights.Perhaps some glow will help too, especially on the 2nd floor.

I really like that poor old residential building you've chosen, and hope you will do some more residentials as well...with this move you've proved me you can read my mind as well !

I wish you best of luck with all of your future projects!

[allez l'om 1]

these two warehouse look amazing!! you are skillful with industry bating!!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The Detroit Elevator Company is looking good.  It looks nice next to Production Steel too.

For all of the flashing and window frames and stuff, I'd try making it black, instead of the brownish color they are right now.  I would mirror the door texture, since right now, it looks like the shadows are being cast from the wrong side of the framing.  I really like all of the different angles of the roofs.  It's subtle but I think it adds a lot.  For the darker paint color, maybe it should be more saturated, and more neon looking.  Also, as I look more and more at the building, I notice all of these great details (the security lights, downspouts, etc.), but I think I'd make their textures contrast more with the surrounding ones so that they show up better.  I'm afraid they'll disippear in the .FSH compression.  It als seems like there should be a little something (some little round vents or something) on top of the pitched roof.

Anyway, it turned out pretty well, and pretty quickly too.  It looks like I'll have to make the query soon. 

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Jason: as far as using black goes, I just don't like how it comes out:

It just seems unnatural and over done to me. Perhaps if the mullions were not so tightly clustered, it would work aesthetically. The same goes for the flashing, its just gives too much contrast IMO. I might be willing to go a little darker, but black is too much I think.

Well I guess I don't have much of a choice when I have both Francis and Jason on the change-the-color-of-the-facade bandwagon You have made me see the light, I do think it looks more appropriate then my conservative approach.

I also started playing with nightlights:

I started sketching Aluminum Architectural Metals Company 1974 Franklin st, the building next door to the Elevator Building. That should be in a presentable state shortly if I have the time to work on it.

[Delecto 941]

Looks realy good Todd, I'm ready to download...

[Francis90b 748]

Looking good !

I might have some more advices, though.

Try to add a subtle red shade over the teal bricks, and make the ones on the ground floor brighter.

Try adding some brightness on the pearl green bricks too, but not as much as for the teal ones.

Try making the roofs slightly darker.

I've noticed only now that the windows are made by glass-brick panels, maybe a partially transparent texture might help in re-creating this material.

I agree with Jason on the color of the glass-brick panels, doors, and flashing.It seems also the most realistic solution for both the windows and the doors, at least from what i can tell looking at street view.

Nightlighting is looking good!

Is the thin multy-story building sitting on the left of 1938 franklin street the next one on the pipeline?

I'm already drooling for it !

Best of luck!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Well the windows are not modeled as glass blocks, I tried that at first but it really doesn't work. Those were not the original windows, so I opted to make them more traditional for the period. Adding red isn't going to do anything except make the color turn more neutral gray, which is not what I am aiming for. Semi transparent textures usually aren't worth the time, unless you have something worthwhile to model inside (and I don't), flat textures usually turn out better anyway.

Mullions on this type of window (at least for every building I have examined) are always some oxidized metallic color, be it a dark brown or green or whatever. Making them black adds too much contrast between the glass and the mullion while at the same time obstructing the glass's features due to how dense the mullions are. I will make the flashing a little darker though. I took the other advice into account, although the changes are rather subtle, increased brightness by 5 on the walls, reduced by 10 on the roof, reduced the value of the flashing from .078 to .05 and so on.

And yes, the thin 3 story building is what I'm working on next. I should get it to fit nicely on a 1x2 lot, such a nice little building

[mightygoose 92]

go find me some pictures XD bookity bookity book book

[Francis90b 748]

Looking at the existing building i can see that the door painting seems still quite fresh, and this might suggest me some considerations.As you did a guessing by modelling a more "traditional" type of window, now i might do some hypothesys on the base of the fresh paint i've noticed on the doors.

First.Windows texture should be consistant with the door texture.If the door painting is worn out at some level, then the paint applied on the window mullions should feature the same level of wear, no less and no more.

Second.Looking at the existing building, it seems like if it's still in a good shape, so much that i can't even be sure wether it's vacant or not.Then, i doubt that any RL building could  be in such a good shape while having so worn-out windows and doors.

Anyway those are only personal considerations.

Can't wait to see your next previews!

With your fast pace i guess i will be able to fill my inner city neighborhoods pretty quickly heheh...