Mosin33's BAT project

[mosin33 5]

   Here is where I am showing my newest project..... the old and dirty looking buildings. These are meant to appear very old and low wealth. My goal is to have a ton of detail, so tell me where I can improve and where I have succeded in doing this. I was anxious to show this building so i didn't do so much detail on the sides.

Here is a sample of what is to come.......(Yeah, I know its a really small shop)

[JakeMD 107]

Very nice

[_Atticus 10]

Welcome to Simtropolis! Good job. Looks very detailed.

-Pingangster

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Well done, Looks pretty good. The only issue I have with it is that the wall textures need to be adjusted, You can see some repetition in the left side view. Otherwise, I don't think there are any big issues.

Great to see another BATer,

-Todd

[Francis90b 748]

Welcome, it looks pretty good.I would suggest you to de-saturate a bit your wall textures, but otherwise you' re fine.

[SimFox 800]

Well if tat detail you're after you should keep in mind the relevance of various detailing (like the type and number of AC units, for instance) to the buildings you try to recreate.

Proportions is another important issue. Look at your parapet walls... or to be precise at their thickness... Is it a military command bunker? Also shouldn't it has some entrance at the back?

Texturing wise it is important (IMHO) to keep in mind that all the weathering and some such should be done in a more subtle way. People tend to overly exaggerate it. This makes models not more but less realistic, more toy like. You have to keep in mind the scale of things...

That said it is a rather good start.

PS

Night lighting isn't the best suited for the type though... It would be passable for some small windows but for such a large ones it looks bad. You can try to use actual lights, but that normally doesn't give a too good of a result either given very limited lighting options (luck of bounced light for instance) in GMAX.

So I believe best option would still be better night texture. You know you can create your own... Just follow the picture size convention.

You can check APX site (http://yaplog.jp/waldorf/) for the example of one he had created.

[jacqulina 162]

very nice work

happy new year

[Gn_leugim 853]

details for old buildings? what about some parts of the wall with cracks? or maybe some part of the wall may already fall, leaving the bricks on sight.. grafits, posters, papers, also helps on adding some old looking

hope it helps =)

[madhatter106 3,903]

Originally posted by: SimFoxPS

Night lighting isn't the best suited for the type though... It would be passable for some small windows but for such a large ones it looks bad. You can try to use actual lights, but that normally doesn't give a too good of a result either given very limited lighting options (luck of bounced light for instance) in GMAX.

So I believe best option would still be better night texture. You know you can create your own... Just follow the picture size convention.

You can check APX site (http://yaplog.jp/waldorf/) for the example of one he had created.

quote>

This is slightly confusing...do you mean "night texturing isn't best suited for the type?"  Because it looks like that is what he's using on his windows - the default biege night texture.  Which doesn't really suit windows that are as large as the BAT posted...and barely looks passable on the Maxis default buildings as it is...

As for your request for details, I would echo another poster saying that it needs another door - a back entrance or side entrance, as city fire codes would probably dictate.  In terms of details or interest, when I BAT, I always try to have some little detail or interest point on both sides and the back, even if it's just something as simple as a electric meter box or an extra window or some piping running up the length of the wall.  That way it's not just a big rectangular mass of stucco or bricks.  Even if it's a painted or textured detail, it helps...

[mosin33 5]

Hey thanks for all the feedback I tried to do what most of you guys said in my next BAT project. Im still working on it and adding more details.

Here is a sneak peak of it. Now tell me where to improve, what to change, what to add, etc.

(I have not finished the bottom...so don't say finish the bottom)

Thanks!!

Here it is completed (well I am moving on at least) unless someone says otherwise. I  am not so happy with the way it turned out rendered. It's not as dirty and run down looking as I would have liked. I like the way the roof turned out but the overall render is too smooth looking for me. 

Well what do you think...... here it is....

[Gn_leugim 853]

that looks quite good

[mosin33 5]

Gn_leugim-Thanks.....but no suggestions, or critism?? haha

[Gn_leugim 853]

wall texture could see some work.. for an old building is to clean.. and maybe a gradient would be nice as well

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Hmm, I'm with you on the flatness thing, I don't know why It seems that way looking at the view port. One suggestion to fix that is to exaggerate the depth by a bit (Not more than a few 10ths of a meter. try 0.1 and go from there). As for the modeling, I think it looks pretty good, much better than the last one. Walls might be too think still (try 0.3m, that is about a foot, anything more can look like a bunker). And, although I love how the roof came out, I think you should change some things around. There should be some roof access of some kind, and fewer HVAC units ( It looks like you could run a 2 acre supermarket with all that hardware )

You might need to play with the wall texture a bit too, add some contrast and adjust the UVW maps to make the bricks a bit bigger (+50% each way might help). A gradient might help too, but nothing too strong, a small building like this only requires something subtle.

Nice job, and hope to see more,

-Todd

[granto93 4]

nice work on the building! it looks very spa...esque my only suggestion is to tone down the roof junk a little. looks like a bit of overkill to me. other then that great job.

[mosin33 5]

Gn_leugim-yeah the wall texture did not turn out how I had hoped in the final render, and yes I know it's to clean  haha 

SimHoTToDDy-what do you mean by the wall thickness......Do u mean the roof walls?? The regular building walls are .3 but the roof walls I think are .5 or more. Yes I know roof junk got carried away! I kinda of like it though....but it is over crowded 

Also how do I add contrast.......whats a gradient and how to do that??

granto93- yeah I know little to much roof junk!

I have already started working on a new building......Small midrise with shops below.....not like the last building I did though. 

Thanks all!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Oh good, then it shouldn't be a problem, yes the roof walls.

To add contrast, you need a image editor (preferably photoshop, but GIMP or irfanview would work too) to change a variable which controls how light highlights are in comparison to shadows (low would look very bland and uniform, high would have very distinct and obvious highlights/shadows). A gradient is just an effect where there is a subtle change in color or darkness over a certain distance (but we use it to mean darker at one end and lighter at the other). Do you have an editor and if so, which one?

As far as the roof goes, I love how much is up there, I just think you need to change what is up there.

Hope that clarifies,

-Todd

[Gn_leugim 853]

just in case you are still with doubts, this is a gradient:

as you see, it goes from one instance to other, blending and equal.. in this case we have a gradient from black to white, or from dark to light..

In Sim City 4 most buildings have a subtle gradient, they are darker near the ground, and lighter on the top.  (the opposite of the image I pasted)

the bigger the building, more noticeable should be the gradient, but for this one, it only should be notice with an "eyedropper tool" from a image editor software, but it makes some difference on the game and ow the building looks..

how to make them? there are dozens of ways to make them, but you need some image editing software with some standards.. I could name Photoshop or Gimp for instance..

in photoshop (the one I use) one simple way to add a gradient is to creat a layer above the texture, and fill it with white, and set this layer to "overlay". then add a mask to this layer, fill it with a a gradient.. then you just have to adjust the layer opacacy to make ot look better..

maybe I just scare you no? don't worry, it's simpler than it looks

[mosin33 5]

Hey, I am going to go straight to the point.

Here is my newest building I have been working on. I dont like the way It is turning out so I am probably going to nix it.  

 

Here it is..... its not done so please don't say it needs roof junk. But any other comments are welcome!! please...

ALSO----I am looking for any pictures of older run down looking buildings....or anything that you think fits the style of buildings that I am working on. Thanks.. and I am working on a new building right now also which I might show within the next few days. (dont get excited though)

-Mosin33

[Gn_leugim 853]

there are two thing that jump t my eyes when I look at it.. the roof, and the windows.. the roof is to bright and maybe is not the best texture there.. the windows are just bare grey planes.. not the best.. also, the walls might be a bit over saturated just desaturate them

apart from that, is nice specially the modelling part

[mosin33 5]

Gn_leugim I agree 100% with what you said! Thanks also....I don't really know how to do anything other than squares though. Haah

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

If you want to see some run down buildings, just google Detroit, more beautiful and run down buildings than you can shake a stick at

Anyway, I like the way this is turning out. I don't think the columns should stick out over the top of the roof so much, perhaps just up to the top of that gray horizontal bar right below the green trim at the top. I really like the roof texture, but I think it should be a darker gray instead of white. Nice work with the lights, and great job over all!

-Todd

[mosin33 5]

Well I think my main focus is going to be midrise (3-6 stories) buildings. Most likely I will be making low wealth apartments and shops for now. Here is my first midrise that I am happy with the way it is turning out. I have also learned a few new tricks and shortcuts while creating this building.

Yeah, I know it dosen't look that great right now but I have confidence it will once I add some textures. 

I need some texture suggestions for the building so please post some or just tell me!!
Thanks and here it is................
 

[nihonkaranws 88]

It's looking quite good actually. Great details on the windows.

Since you are still making small BATs, you can ignore this tip (for now). But when you get on to making bigger buildings, especially detailed BATs (like industry or Bixel's stuff), try to texture each piece you make, before going on to the next piece. We all know BATting is fun, but keep in mind that a nice detailed model that is almost finished but not textured could take up to an hour texture every single piece (not necessarily one-by-one though), and can be annoyingly mindless.

And by texturing and tweaking each part as you make it can be quite encouraging once you render a preview!

For your textures, try CG-textures.com. It is an excellent site with excellent textures, that can be changed/modified in any photo-editing program.

You may also want to try better lighting for these big windows. Your BATs are too good for the simple Maxis 'nite' method. You could try using omnis, that is what I use. Simply place one in your building on each floor, and make sure it has the 'nitelite_' prefix and the shadows are on. You get really realistic results from this!

[bixel 1,221]

nihonkaranws > mentioning my stuff, I actually dont texture as I go, or at least I don't do that very often. Instead I color code everything. Frames a color, windows all a color, certain pillars, walls, decors, certain colors. Generally I make the colors to be representative of the texture I am going to apply. So if am using a green concrete texture anything I plan on texture green concrete will be colored green.

At the end when I am ready to texture I might collapse an object and attach all the other object of the same color as one and then texture it. It depends though, like you cant do that with a brick texture very well so sometimes things are separate. If you check in my thread there are a couple of example of me color coding my buildings.

[mosin33 5]

nikonkaranws----Thanks for the advice and yes I LOVE cg textures.com....also I am horrible at nightlighting and I cant get it to every work

bixel----you finally visit my thread and don't give me any advice.......you are one of the BAT masters...please tell me something!!!!

ALSO I just went to load my building that I just showed you guys and It didnt open!!! I am freaking out!!! It says file open failed!!! WHAT DO I DO???????

[mosin33 5]

Hello again, the building that I posted, the small apartment building, for some reason will not open. I liked it alot so I decieded to re-create it. I changed it up a little bit though and took some of nikonkaranws suggestions. 

I still can't figure out the nightlighint. Oh well here it is untextured!!

Enjoy and feedback is ALWAYS apprieciated..

[jacqulina 162]

great progress

[delija21 295]

really nice work,but it looks more like a office building than a residential. if you are going for a residential look than you should really consider to start all over again. windows on res buildings are of different size,minimum 3 sizes and the windows on your building are all the same size.

also remember that smaller buildings don't need as much roofjunk as higher/larger buildings

as for your model not opening...as far as i know gmax or max saves a backup copy of everything you make so it should be somewhere in your gmax or max folder

it's not the best english you have seen but i hope you understand ))

[madhatter106 3,903]

It does look more CO$$ rather than R...I think it's because of the lobby-like area at the lower right, where it looks like there are wide (nearly too wide) double doors and a lot of windows.