nybt-forum-threads NYBT BAT Thread

[Odainsaker 2,134]

It's looking good, along with everything else in this new teams thread. However, the fire escape on the church still looks awkward. It's even more noticable now that the rise/run of the stairs is too shallow. The point is to move downward quickly, usually steeply rather than comfortably, but most of the motion on the stairs here is moving horizontally across the facade, and actually ends past the facade, forcing you to extend the landing out past the side. From the real world image, we can see that the stairs begin from a middle window and end just before the lower window giving it access...if we were to replicate that on the BAT, the angle of the fire stairs will be more believable. We could then pull in the way the fire stairs landing turns into a balcony on the party wall side, and with the drop ladder closer to the wall, you could add the upper support for the ladder so that it no longer points out so obtrusively and unsupportedly. Also, the fire escape stairs are somewhat too wide...these are not so much grand promenade staircases but rather more like angled step ladders with hand rails all hanging attached over the property line. By removing the side balcony effect, bringing in the drop ladder, and running the stars from the middle window to the just before the lower window, it will overall tighten the fire escape and also make it less dominating. Afterall, the primary image of the front of the church is the shape of the building topped by a bellfry, and we want to see the church, not emphasize the fire escape.

I only really have done 2 BATs with prominent firestairs, and they were indeed quite a chore, but the results are worth the effort to make them right.

Lastly, like Jasoncw siad, do also go for the 1x2 lot, so that the facade is close to the streetedge, much like the real building does.

Can't wait to see it and these other great projects ont he STEX.

[simcity4fan12 13]

EDIT: Sorry Odainsaker, just saw your comment after I posted this. I'm re-working the fire escape. I'm was having trouble getting it to the middle window, which was why it looked like that. But with that tip I can probably re-work it. Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks, I found the original 3ds. file for my 130 Liberty Street so I decided to redo the glass texture and maybe the nite lighting. How's it look?

That's a draft render by the way...

[Simcity player 13]

looks great

since this is a office buildings, i recommend stripey nitelites.

[cmdp123789 710]

NO no.... not talking about yours... in fact yours fit excellent... im just saying just in case please dont take it bad I had no intention to offend, really sorry for it... not my intention

[surdanis 6]

just wanted to say this team is the awesomest ever! long time coming, too. born in nyc, and it's always been my fave in the world. look forward to seeing more fantastic work.

but please don't neglect chinatown!

[simcity4fan12 13]

We won't neglect China Town, I promise. In fact, one of our team members, Hanson784, has a BAT of a China Town building on his site: www.nycj.blogspot.com It's in his downloads section.

Sorry no update from me right now, maybe my other team members might step in. I feel like I'm forcing this as my own BAT Thread instead of our entire team's(which is why I started this, for all of our creations), mainly becuase I've been the most active on here. But don't worry, every other member will show their progress too.

@cmdp123789- It's ok I didn't take it offensively. In fact, I took it as advice to make sure that my BATs look right and fit on lots that prove useful.

[Hanson784 165]

Here's my progress with One Liberty Plaza.

I've been going back and forth between textures for the building for days. I've also been looking at pictures of it in different lighting. These textures so far are pretty close to how the real thing looks on a sunny day at around noon (the games default lighting rig, I think) Here's some hi-res pictures:

[simcity4fan12 13]

That look's incredible Hanson! I don't know how you always get amazing glass textures. I wish I had some better ones.

Well I canceled the BAT I barely started on: The Bank of New York. I hadn't really gotten far on it, and there was another BAT I prefered to do, and I probably wouldn't have finished it yet anyway, since I'm more interested in the other ones. The new BAT I started on is the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building. I started on it mainly becuase it's one of my favorite International styled buildings in New York. I'm also gonna try a new technique with it that I haven't tried before. Which will help me finish it faster actually and it will still look good. I'm sure lots of BATers already know it. I don't have any updates yet still but I plan on some more later. Stay tuned!

[_Atticus 10]

Great job Hanson!!! Though I think the building is boring and massive, it also has its charm. You have recreated it perfectly (though you're changing the roof textures right?). Anyways, really nicely done.

-Pingangster

[SimFox 801]

good progress here.

One point. Making dark building is a very challenging endeavor. Particularly in GMAX. IMHO things shouldn't really turn totally black, especially when they are so large. But this is a very difficult task in GMAX... The only thing I may think of is to reduce saturation of the material... It may bring some light into it.

In case of One Liberty Plaza smoothing groups shouldbe removed, as things "bend" in un-natural way. Apart of this it is a very nice reconstruction.

[simcity4fan12 13]

@pingangster- I actually made the roof, but I thought I gave it textures. I would have finished the entire thing, but my computer was running to slowly and I needed more time with other projects so I gave it to Hanson. Now, my computer runs more faster and I can finish it, but I already gave it to Hanson. It looks really good though.

[herenthere 0]

Finally a NY Bat Team! - congrats to all the members and modelers/baters and i think this will bring a lot more fun to making New York City! (makes my life difficult placing it accurately though since the ingame NYC is way to small lol)

[Jumpthefence 74]

I think I'll join too, assuming I can. I can, right? I finished another BAT just yesterday so I'm on the fence about what to do next. And this seemed just dandy. And such.

So how do you do this, is it just making whatever, or is it assignment based, or is it something in a certain district of Manhattan? I'm hoping you can get back to me ASAP so I can start ASAP.

PS. I can't make buildings over 25 stories or so due to the super-lag on my seven year old computer.

PPS. School starts for me on Wednesday, so I don't know how much time I'll have to BAT.

Looking forward to working with all of you!

-JTF2009

[sten1700 102]

Hey guys,

Okay, I know I'm not a member of the NYBT but I'm making the 40 Wall Street in sketchup. And I really would like to post some

progress-pictures here. If it isn't okay, I understand that. =)

`Sten!

[simcity4fan12 13]

You can sten1700! I'll be willing to help you becuase I use sketchup too!

Jumpthefence- You can join. You can do any building in the state of New York that you please. I, and most of the members mostly BAT buildings from Manhattan or Brooklyn. I think you could BAT some of the buildings in China Town if you want. You are free to do any building from New York that you like. We don't assign buildings. Welcome to the NYBT!

[simcity4fan12 13]

Hate to double post, but no one was replying.

I finally have an update. I re-did the fire escape. It now looks smaller and is accurately place...but it still just doesn't look right to me... Here's a high quality render.

What do you all think?

EDIT: I started a new project. I'm using the same technique with the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building so I might finish it fast. I'm not gonna reveal what it is yet, It's a secret. It's a huge New York project...Ya'll can guess if you want, but I won't say if you are right yet or not.  

[cmdp123789 710]

looks nice to me... I would love to have the Sony building to download... I saw it at blogger, I know it's difficult to do this... but... I think that most of the people are first looking for the buildings that make manhattan look like manhattan... so making buildings that are big and give shape to manhattan's skyline would be great

[simcity4fan12 13]

I'm doing big Manhattan buildings too, I already made some. They are on the STEX now. I just wanted to do the church real quick.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Fire escapes are hard to do, and there are limits from how finely (or really unfinely) gmax renders things. I'm not really sure how else to improve it. If you wanted to, you could remodel it again and see if you can make it better somehow, but it's up to you (it would be possibly to remodel it over and over without it ever looking much better). I do think the real fire escape is brighter though (yours looks pretty grey while the real one is pretty white).

I think the color of the wall is looking better. I think the coloring of the door sticks out though. Try desaturating it a bit.

[simcity4fan12 13]

Should I leave the fire escape as is? I think since it's the first time I ever made one I could just leave it like that and learn from my mistakes I guess. I'm gonna work on the door texture. In desaturating it, how should I make it look afterwards? Just less bright?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

You could do that if you wanted to.  You'll probably do some tweaking to the texture before the BAT is done as a whole, but you could be done with the fire escape in general.

Well, it's important to get the terms right, since changing the brightness actually means something different than what I was talking about.  From wikipedia:

1. lightness (light vs. dark, or white vs. black),
2. saturation (intense vs. dull), and
3. hue (e.g., red, yellow, green, blue or purple).

These are the "attributes which define colors".  Lightness can also be called value (a black and white image has no saturation or hue, only value).  Hue is "color" and saturation is the intensity of that color.

So when I said to desaturate the door, what I was saying is that the color (hue) of the door is too intense.  Before when I said to add peach to the walls, what I was saying was to change the hue.  When I say the fire escape should be brighter, I was saying to change the value, etc. 

[simcity4fan12 13]

Thanks! I get it alot better now. I'll change the saturation of the door now. I'll probably show a render of it now or in a minute.

EDIT: Here it is with the newly edited door texture.

I think it's ready to upload now. I fixed it to fit a 1x2 also. Which would make it useful for w2w. Should I make it a simple landmark or, well I was thinking, a building for a park. What do you all think?

[ElliottRay90210 0]

I think it would be great to see the Time Warner Center in simcity 4.

Don't you agree?

I wish i knew how to BAT; i'd try and make it ...

[sten1700 102]

Hey!

Thank you for letting me post some progress pictures here. I've been working hard on the 40 wall street. I hope you guys like it so far.

But I think somebody has to help me with textures and nightlighting. xD

[simcity4fan12 13]

I can help you with that. It's looking great so far actually, and accurate. Don't forget how the roof is actually detailed! If you want some more pics of the actuall building, I would search it at www.emporis.com That's a pretty useful site. I use it quite often.

[Wrightguy0 40]

now is that s aketchup, or a gmax file?

[Keegan V50 15]

Originally posted by: Wrightguy0

now is that s aketchup, or a gmax file?quote>

Ditto

[Jumpthefence 74]

Just a heads-up, I'm doing 77 Water Street. Y' know, so we don't have two people accidentally doing the same thing. I like 77 Water Street because it has that plane (and runway) on the roof. Oh, and the funny thing is that I said I wouldn't do buildings over 25 stories, yet this one's 26 stories. Well, what're ya gonna do?

So that's all.

[simcity4fan12 13]

Jumpthefence-Excellent! 77 Water Street will be a fine addition to my Lower Manhattan. So far, I'm BATing(most of these are still in the sketchup process though) Bertelsmann Building, Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, 60 Wall Street, Original 7 WTC, 130 Liberty Street V2, HSBC Bank Building, and 22 Cortlandt Street. You can PM other members to know what they are BATing or check here every now and then. Welcome to the team!

To everyone else-That IS a sketchup file. I, and b_schurlf(I hope I spelled it right) use sketchup too. Sten1700 made the pic blend with another. Nice effect BTW sten! Can't wait for the finished product. I, and and other NYBT members will help you with it whenever you need it.

No updates yet, I will repeat this though, I'm making a surprise project from New York. You are free to guess but I will not tell you if you are right or not, atleast not yet. ANTICIPATION!!!!

[Kryptowhite 9]

If anyone wants to export their sketchup files as 3ds.'s i can put them into 3ds Max and give em reflections, trunite, and the like.

Anyways, im not batting anything in new york at the moment but keep your eyes open