Francis90's studio

[Francis90b 748]

welcome to page 3

[Odainsaker 2,134]

Wow, this newer version, even if it is just a corner, has improved remarkably.

To move some ideas along for an entrance, I'll offer this example from Los Angeles's wonderful Bullock's Wilshire Department Store (yeah, I'd love to BAT this building one day too!):

The relief sculpture is certainly cool, but also noteworthy is how the edge stepping can be used not only on outer corners, but also as a way of backing into recesses.  It even receeds further for the actual door, while the relief panel is less recessed, and the outer corner steps actually stretch vertically all the way up to a symbolic tower, where they incrementally break away to define tapering tiers.  Art Deco has its own genius in tying all its elements together, much like Islamic arabesques and Gothic tracery.  I sometimes wonder if schools should combine the rote teaching of bland textbook geometry with instruction on how to make traditional Islamic arabesque designs, as I would like to know how to authentically make those.

Also noteworthy here is the black marble/stone exterior wainscotting at the foot of the walls and piers.  You might think of adding that soon as a way of getting everything grounded with set proportional heights from the ground plane.  Your earlier versions suggested something similar with a white base for your white wing pilasters, but the boldly contrasting black stone could be cool as well.

Oh, from the previous page, the images I showed earlier were the Attorney-General's Department from Canberra, Australia; the Boston Federal Building from Boston, USA; and the Bessborough Armoury from Vancouver, Canada.

[Francis90b 748]

Thank you, Odainsaker

Your posts are so useful that you can't post never enough .

The main entry will be modelled in the future, i'm following the policy of building section-to section.

The building will be splitted into six sections:

front, side, yard, main concourse, main entry and train shed.Now i' ve modelled the first three sections which are grouped together.

I' ve adopted your last idea for thedoorways near to the corner, and it worked quite well.

I think that the main entry will keep it's original structure, but i have no ideas for the details so i need more pics .

[Francis90b 748]

I think i' ve found the right textures for the walls and now i'm going to re-texture the roof.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Wow, I love what you did with the doors. I have to agree that the wall texture looks very nice as well. Do you have Photoshop or a similar editor to work with your textures? I have some advice that Jasoncw gave me that might help with the roof.

Wonderful progress,

-Todd

[_Atticus 10]

Looking great so far, love the roof and the details. Keep it up.

-Pingangster

[Francis90b 748]

SimHoTToddy:I have the GIMP, which is like photoshop and it's free.At first i didn't understood very much, but now i can at least do what i need.

The roof is texture with the first texture i' ve found, and i don't know what kind of texture can fit well.

I've started my christmas break, so i have a lot of time...

Jason was very kind and had often given to me suggestions and opinions, so i know many of it's advices.

The roof needs to be slightly rundown, and so your experience with prefabs can help .

Pinkgangster: thanks!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Originally posted by: Jasoncw I don't think the roof looks bad right now, but I think it could be made a lot better with a custom roof texture.  To do this, after you're done adding all of your roof junk, select all of the roof planes, and group them together.  Then, in the top viewport, zoom out until you can see all of the roof.  Press the print screen button and paste it in photoshop.  Then crop out everything except for the roof objects in Photoshop.  Now increase the image size (for a building this big, you'll need a higher resolution texture than your screenshot can give you), and then rebuild your texture in that file.  Then make new layers and paint grime and weathering, using the screenshot to line things up.  Back in 3ds Max, give the group a UVW Map that stretches across all the roofs, and your new texture should be spread properly across them.quote>

So what he means is, instead of this:

you get this:

I'm not 100% sure how to do it in GIMP, but I believe it is doable.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You'll want to texture the roof when all of the pieces are put together. Also, I always texture my roof after I've modeled and textured the rest of the building. The rest of the building's colors determine what kind of color the roof is.

[Francis90b 748]

SimHoTToDDY:

Thanks, that is the kind of texture i need!

I have to admit that roof is not definitive, i don't know what things should be put on the top of a junk roof, so i'm quite unsure...i wish you can help me even on this.

Since this building is made by sections that will be mirrored and then attached, i need a quite generic texture that can fit well.I can't do this with the method you've explained.My usual method is to search on the web until i find what i need, and then tweak it with the GIMP.

Jasoncw:

Thank you Jason.I actually prefer to do the texture for all the pieces before assembling them.

I would like some advices about the kind of junk you can find on a roof and also the name of the green-teal material you use for some of the roof edges of some of your buildings.I will fix these details so i can be more sure about what to do.

[Francis90b 748]

This is a short but important update.I' ve added window frames and glasses.Here you can see it:

The concrete block under the building was added only to show the glass transparency, it won't be part of the final building.Now i'm going to start the nightlighting.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The green material is copper.

For your glass, if it's transparent, you need to have something behind it (like floors).  What you get in the game will be exactly what your preview render is.  But I don't recommend using transparent glass.  It's easier to get better results using a texture.  Almost all of my buildings do not use transparent glass, and the ones that do rely on using features in 3ds Max in order for it to look good.  Other people do use transparent glass, but I think it's actually harder.

Also, I'm looking at your stone texture, and I think you should make the lines and variation stronger, so that it's visible.

Do you plan on putting a window in the blank part (of the tall part)?

I've used photoshop to edit your render to illustrate some suggestions.

I added more copper flashing.  Flashing (flashing is edging on things so that water doesn't get in) is an easy way to add detail to something.

I made those horizontal parts (which I think you once said were supposed to be metal?) more blue.

I made the roof darker, and more blue, and I added some stuff that you would add if you made a custom roof texture.

I changed the way the columns meet the ground, and I added granite wainscotting.

I made the stone a little more pink but I also added a little bit of blue.

I added a vertical gradient.

I changed the matting to grey, just so that you can see the black granite wainscotting.

I made the windows more blue.

I made this quickly, to show you what could be done, but what I have here isn't exactly what it should be, it would still need more tweaking.

[Francis90b 748]

Hmm, a lot of advices there...

I will take the granite wainscotting and i need to remodel the columns.However i think that if i have a granite base under the columns, the way in which they meet the ground won't be so important

Glasses are set to a 80% opacity, but i can change it until you can get that there is some transparency withouth seeing inside.I think that for such large windows finding the right textures is quite difficult, so i will tweak the one i have.

The roof is not definitive, and many things will be changed, but i fill that a roof similar to the one simhottoddy had shown to me in the previous post can be the ideal solution.

I've actually tried to clad with copper all of the roof edges, but i didn't like the result.I think that (if it's realistic) only the tallest roof will be edged with copper.

The horizontal stripes are made of stone.

Windows on the vertical part: if you mean the windowless wall i can add some windows.

Stone will be the same, but i have the same texture with better lines, so i will use it.I don't want the building to appear too "pink"

Can you explain me how to add a "vertical gradient"? Is it about texturing?

If you have other ideas, please suggest them all to me, i won't do any other part until the one i have are perfect, so i really need all the suggestions ASAP.

12-24-08  100th post

[Gn_leugim 853]

now that s looking good

[art128 4,618]

that's looking awesome !! great work .

[Francis90b 748]

Hi folks, this post is not dedicated to the content of this thread.I would like to say happy new year to everyone who reads that thread and to everyone who helped me with the BAT.

[nihonkaranws 88]

Happy new year to you also J1, you are spectacular with the BAT my friend, keep up the great work!

[Gn_leugim 853]

happy new year

[jacqulina 162]

looking good

happy new year

[T Wrecks 10,209]

WHAAAT - no update?!??!

J/K, of course... Happy new year from me, too!

[Francis90b 748]

This thread is not dead .I have started to rebuild the whole rail terminal because i wanted a an art decò tower over it (like philadelphia suburban station or forth worth ex T&P station or the michigan central terminal at Detroit).

Since the tower needs to be detailed, i would like all the suggestions you can offer in order to limit the polygon count , and then start the whole project.Otherwise, assembling all the parts at the end will be nearly impossible.

This is a small 14-story tower hotel i' ve done.It still needs a base, a billboard on the top and maybe some tweaks to the window textures.I liked the idea of a sharp contrast between those two colors which are my favorite ones.

I would also like to hold a naming contest for that building.As you can notice i' ve thought first about "Curacao hotel", but any other hint will be welcome.

[art128 4,618]

this tower is fantastic my friend, excellent work !

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Wow, I really love the looks of this one, nice and detailed!

I think the wall texture at the top is much too dark (looks like it is just from all the shadows) you might want to make a gradient that is a bit lighter at the top. Although, you might be able to get away with it, we need to see how it looks in game. I agree that the windows could use some renovation, I think you could use a lot more variation in a building like this. I like all the modeling about this one, beautiful job. Is this based on a particular building?

As for the polygon (or more importantly, object) count, I think planing is your best tool. If you know which parts you need and where, you can plan them so you use as few as possible. Designing on the fly tends to make me use a bunch of objects so I don't need to re do what I have already. you could start one scene just to try out designs to help you plan things out before you try them in the final product.

Loving this one,

-Todd

[_Atticus 10]

Very nice tower, you should release it by itself was well. I'd use it, I'll tell you that! It looks good, but maybe without the ziggurat on top. I don't know. Hope it helps!

-Pingangster

[Francis90b 748]

SimHoTToDDy:Thank you, this isn't based on any existing building, i' ve only put together the parts i will use for my art decò reailway terminal in a different way.I' ve followed your suggestions, so you should notice some changes:

As for the polygon issue, i actually can't even think on how to do a 22 story, 9x2 art decò tower withouth planning.I have clear plans for it, and only minor things may change.After many defeats, my method is changed: i model everything i need in separate scenes, simplify things whenever possible, assembly them only in the last momemt....i try to do my best to avoid polygon count troubles, but it seems that it isn't enough.

[allez l'om 1]

It looks great!!!

[jacqulina 162]

very nice work

[Wrightguy0 40]

How about the Northeast Union Hotel?

As for the base, use the station and place the tower over the central hall.

[Francis90b 748]

Thank you for the suggestion, norhteast union hotel can work really well.

However this isn't the tower that will be used over the railway station (as you've probably understood), they' re separate projects.I have to add the base, but this won't be difficult.Nightlighting is the difficult part, and i have to work on it and over the railway station tower while restarting school, so i don't promise much updates since now.Keep waiting, however .

As for the railway station, i will show up something when the walls will be finished, but it will take some time.

[Francis90b 748]

Hi folks, i have a brand new project for you.

Since i'm a fan of Cold case, it is going to be the Rush building:

It still lacks base and windows, but is completed otherwise.I will change the lucky strike billboard if it hurts someone.