nybt-forum-threads PBGV's BAT Thread

[Parisian 556]

your Citigroup is absolutely breath taking PBGV. It's nice to see you back finally with all this high quality design. Concerning the fountain, the pic you show seems very realistic like this. It looks like the water is dropping down it. Maybe insert it in the global model (sometimes it helps to see if it's fitting well or not with the whole "thing". 

[PBGV103 729]

Maybe it is too metalic? I'm not sure.  Right now I'm just excited to have something that looks remotely like water.

 

 

[darn42 1,268]

In context it looks really good. You don't need to change anything about it.

 

Great job.

 

(the rest of the building is spectacular)

[gutterclub 2,729]

Yep, about to say the same...illusion is everything

[MTT9 187]

Looks amazing! Great job

[Vlasky 1,803]

First I love your NYC recreation Paul. It looks awesome. [shameless self-promotion] you could add Manhattanville up on the north of the map Just a joke. I'd advise you to place similar buildings like any townhouses on the places where townhouses are. If it wasn't for street grid {guessing of the positions}, I'd try a recreation as well  

 

Now about the fountain I like it, but when it is in the shadows it looks a little bit too reflective, making it metal like when in the shadows. When it is not in the shadows, it does look cool.

[Parisian 556]

you are right Vlasky in the way that a Manhattan building is encircled by smog, and that way maybe glasses should look a little bit less reflectives due to pollution particules stick on windows. But to me, nothing has to be changed except maybe this point which is not a very important one when we see the whole realization....

[Vlasky 1,803]

@Parisian, I was only talking about the fountain, or to be more precise water model in it.

 

But Pauly, you been very very bad bad boy Pauly! You've been hiding this thing you started from us, but I discovered it

it's the building across the one you already made

 

[PBGV103 729]

Haha nice catch Vlasky.

 

I realized I had forgotten to change the BDRF from the default.  It's using an IOR of 1.33, which should be right for water.  As you can see it's a lot less reflective now.

 

[Vlasky 1,803]

Oh, I see. Looks great! and the trees are in, so delish! 

[kellydale2003 2,276]

Looks good! But IMO there's something missing that should make the fountains POP! (No abbreviations there :b)

But yeah... Just something needs to be a little bit prettier there! I don't know how you modelled it, so I don't really know how the refraction is working in there! And what I mean by that is I don't know if there's another set of geometry facing downwards (like a box). If there isn't you'll always get a lighter color, if there is... you'll get a darker result most of the time. There really isn't any right way to making fountains, it's just the illusion that it is one... but IMO there's that WOW factor still missing. I really don't know what... but figure it out! WOW us MORE Paul!

 

Can't wait for the overall project though!! As a kid this was the building that stood out the most to me! ahaha... I have no idea why. The Empire State Building, or the World Trade Centers didn't trickle in my mind as much as this one did! (: But great work, keep it up!

[libellibicus 396]

Excellent work.

[PBGV103 729]

I doubled the displacement map intensity.  I'm really liking how it looks now.

 

[Darknono35 3,138]

Awesome It's will be your best one so far !! Keep up the good job Paul

[Seraf 1,239]

I like how the plaza at the base looks now and you did great job with fountain water

[PBGV103 729]

Thanks everyone.  I'm glad you like the Citigroup Center so far.  On a different topic, I've been playing around with Kelly's idea idea for night lighting, but instead using it to create a busier interior for the day scene as well.  Instead of using a grayscale image of grass I made one of a generic office layout.  I randomized it with flipped and rotated versions for the render to make sure each floor looked different.  For the diffuse map I used an inverted and lightened version of theses maps in and RGB Multiply with Kelly's pixelated version of the gigantic building in Mecca.  As you can see, can see the interior is definitely busier, but I'm not sure if I like it or not.  The one problem that did pop out at me was the displacement of the floor interferes with the blinds in some areas, but that's an easy fix.  The other major annoyance is in order to make the displacement map work properly I had to subdivide my floor planes every 1.0m  (smaller divisions than that made 3ds max crash during renders).  This along with the randomized diffuse and displacement maps for 47 floors made the renders take 2.5 times as long as before. and use 50% more memory, which I guess isn't a big issue, but it makes me a little nervous.  The good news is that for the day scene the only thing left to do is fix the rest of the blinds and then I should be done.

 

 

The bump map ^

 

 

 

A single floor with displacement at 1.0m ^ (.01m looks cleaner but crashes if used on all of the floors)

 

 

 

The final result ^

[Darknono35 3,138]

 

A single floor with displacement at 1.0m ^ (.01m looks cleaner but crashes if used on all of the floors)

It's an very good technic to do several floors I've never try to use diplacement for my BAT, I should try it for some future buildings but I think, that need more memory to the render of the building and the export :/

But your buildings are gorgeous and an spectacular work ! I've nothing to say more

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

How ever you do it, it still looks good.

[Vlasky 1,803]

It is very interesting I have to say, but I must also say that the difference is so minimal that I'm not sure if it is worth of 2.5 times increased rendering time. In all honesty. Maybe it plays more significant role during the night scene, but day scene, not so much imho.

[AndisArt 2,068]

I think it looks good!

 

This conecpt is very interesting and can be expanded further. I feel it's just the beginning of exploration here.

 

For one I would suggest that you half the height effect of the walls, so the walls become cubicle walls, that you often have in offices. This allows for more details to be seen as well, otherwise you'd look at a lot of walls.

 

To bring more variety into the structure, one could make little boxes for chairs, tables etc. I can imagine that the rendering times are less increased if one keeps geometry simple: straight lines, boxes, and little or no curves so that geometry isnt complex. Combined with the details of floor maps this should still mix well and look detailed I think.

 

Here's a quick demonstration of what I mean:

 

This represents a corner of a building/floor map. Totally white are what will be the inner walls, to which beyond one probaly cant see anyway. Then cubicle walls, desks and chairs are in different grey shades to create different heights. Of course this is a very simple presentation, but worth trying and remains to be seen if moer complex shapes are necessary.

 

It is very interesting I have to say, but I must also say that the difference is so minimal that I'm not sure if it is worth of 2.5 times increased rendering time. In all honesty. Maybe it plays a more significant role during the night scene, but day scene, not so much imho.

What's your reference, difference to what technique?

[Vlasky 1,803]

ANdisart: This is my point, can you tell those two apart when you place them next to eachother?

[MTT9 187]

There is a litle difference between them, but i believe that it'll make a bigger difference for the night scene.

[PBGV103 729]

Andisart, that's the idea with this map.  I'll spend a little while refining it and may add a few more maps like it for more variation.

 

Vlasky, you're right, it doesn't make a huge difference in the day scene but you can still tell that the floors are empty, and in my mind if the floors are full at night they should also be full during the day.

 

I completely got rid of the subdivide modifier for the floors and the render time dropped from 2.5 x to 2x the previous time.  Even better, the memory usage returned to normal.  I think if you took the walls away, the floors wouldn't look so clean now, but with the glass being tinted, I can't tell the difference.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

If you're just going to be using simple vertical shapes (the room partitions) just put the bitmap into max and trace it with a spline and then extrude the spline. 

[PBGV103 729]

Jason, I feel like that would be the "right" way to do it and would be easier on the computer during renders, but it would also mean making changes to it would take longer and I would actually have to put thought into the layouts of floors, rather than using these randomized maps.

 

Plus there would still be the chairs and tables and such left.  At least with this I have something that resembles chairs and tables, even if they are jump vertacle lumps... haha

[AndisArt 2,068]

ANdisart: This is my point, can you tell those two apart when you place them next to eachother?

 

Actually I can see a difference. In the left one the shadow lines on the floors are pretty visible. This might just be apparent to someone who's BATing and therefore paying attention to those kinda details.

 

 

PBGV103, have I told you already how pretty that BAT is btw? :-)

What trees models are you using if you dont mind me asking?

[PBGV103 729]

Thanks Andis.  The trees are mine based off of the stock Autodesk AEC extended foliage.  I took their trees and edited them to suit my needs.  Just as a quick test I rendered a single floor without the subdivide modifier added and without and other difference.  You can see that the material just can't get it right without the subdivisions, but I'm not sure that it really matters.  I think that even in the night scene everything will be too busy to tell that there is this strange displacement on the floors.

 

[sten1700 102]

 

The final result ^

 

 

When on the stex? Looks amazing and realistic!

[Darknono35 3,138]

When on the stex? Looks amazing and realistic!

Nightlight before

 

Great job Paul, like always

[Jasoncw 11,949]

I think it would be best to remove the BATed ground from around the sides, and also that little strip along the front.  Otherwise you end up with the shadows issue and imo it's not worth it for sidewalks.