mipro Barry Sanders Project

[athello 0]

Date: 1/27/2005 11:45:07 PM
Author: Farminsim
Hello all, any of you been on the roudabout on 18 1/2 mile and M-53? It's very new, and a very interesting experiance too.

Yeah, and althought I LOVE roundabouts, HATE lights, I'm not sure that this one was pulled off great...they made the exit lanes too short, if you want to go straight through it you absolutely CAN'T be in teh inside lanes or you're gonna risk making another michigan left at the next turnaround.  Perhaps it was just 'cause I was takin' the roundabout at 50......  :-)

[Chris M 406]

Date: 2/7/2005 10:54:21 PM
Author: budweiserdude23
It was me. I do have a portion of it completed but I haven't touched it since Christmas time or so. I've been busy with work and just got back from my vacation in Las Vegas. If this weather keeps being as mild (relatively speaking for this region) I'll probably have some time on my hnds to putz with the BAT fairly soon.

Cool. Been waiting for that, the one on the Official Exchange is not that good.

[Chris M 406]

Welcome to page 50 of the Barry Sanders Project.

[wolverine 12]

Hey all, just wondering if there was any updates.

I just got a few exams done this week, so I might have time to work on the Dime Building this weekend.

Lately, I've been incredibly busy with college. I've been living in the studio working on a stupid model of space. For fun, I'll provide a few pics.


This picture was taken at 1:30 in the MORNING. Can you believe how busy it is down in this basement room.


And here is my piece of crap model of enclosed space It's not done yet. I still have about 16 hours more of work to do on it.

[Farminsim 7]

Im waiting on Baldy for the next texture but its been a while so I figure RLS has struck him. I was thinking bout doing some of the more modern Southfield  skyscrappers while I wait but there arnt any picture close enough on the web it seems.

[baldy 0]

Yeah, I have been fighting a cold the last 2 weeks and just got back from winter test at 12:15 last night and am going back up next week. I might take my personal laptop with me so I can work on them or maybe tomorrow since football season is over. I went downtown a few weeks ago and took lots of pictures of the Kales to use as textures. I need to fix the one side I sent, but that shouldn't take to long and the others should go pretty quick. I'm not sure what your model looks like in the back, but I can send you a picture of what the base looks like if you're looking for accuracy. Basically, its just an alley and there is a door in the middle. Once I get the model of this wall, it's just a little modifying of the front. Anyway, I should be able to get the rest of the walls to you soon, including the indented portion.

If you need pictures for any buildings to help in your modeling, just ask. I'm sure between Allan, Wolverine, and myself, we either have some, or will go get you some!

Wolverine, I hope you find some time to start work again on the Dime as it was coming along nicely! It's such a great building.

[Allan 0]

Date: 2/11/2005 3:38:28 PM
Author: Farminsim
I was thinking bout doing some of the more modern Southfield skyscrappers while I wait but there arnt any picture close enough on the web it seems.

quote>
I live literally a stone's throw away from the Southfield Town Center. I can get a photo of any of the buildings you want as I'm out and about, since I drive by them every day. Just let me know which ones.

Hopefully I won't be in Southfield for much longer. I hate it. It's like a bigger version of my hometown, and like my hometown, the place is really boring on weekends. I am hoping to move to the city after this semester is over. I had thought about moving to Grand Rapids for the summer & working for my uncle, but my parents are wanting me to stay in metro Detroit, and are encouraging me to get my own apartment. I am fed up with my roommates, so I am quite happy about this. Fortunately, apartments in Detroit aren't all that expensive. The biggest downside is that I will have to drive 12 miles to school everyday. That could get interesting once they repave the Lodge this year!

Oh, and I have not touched the Statler BAT in a month. I am too busy with school, and I am now making trips to Grand Rapids almost every weekend, so I have even less time now.

[Farminsim 7]

I want to do the one with the corner missing. It would be nice to get that area done to have like a mini set. I think there are 5 of them that are part of that center. the cornerless one seems a bit more intriguing then the others while not involving too much textural difficulties.

[Allan 0]

I will have to dig through my photo collection to find Southfield photos then. I am going to have to take some more. I only have a handful, despite living right next to the Southfield Town Center. I really don't have many photos of Southfield, mostly because Detroit is so much more interesting. I won't have time to post Southfield photos until later this week.

I need to find an architecture job near downtown too so that I can start looking for an apartment. That is at the top of my priority list right now. I drove around Detroit a bit today looking for an apartment...I haven't really made any decisions yet. I have a friend who lives in Lafayette Towers and has an amazing view. Lafayette Park is too suburban for my tastes though, so I think I will end up in midtown. There aren't really a lot of apartment options downtown unless you're old or have a relatively high income. As a college student, neither of those apply to me. Haha.

[Farminsim 7]

Not trying to be blasphemous to assume you guys play other games, but if any of you play City of Heroes me and a friend are trying to get a Detroit based and themed Supergroup going on the Guardian server.

Wolverine,  doe your school have the machine that builds model buildings out of glue and dust fraction of an inch by fraction of an inch? I saw one on tv and it made a cool 3-d model. You probly couldn't play with it though if they did, too bad

[ardecila 124]

Ah... rapid prototyping. That stuff is cool! It takes several hours {rapid indeed!}, but if you film it and play it back quickly, it just looks like it's appearing out of thin air.

They have one of those machines here at the MSI. Pretty cool to watch.

[wolverine 12]

Yes, we actually do have one of those things. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to use it for my project. It can do amazing cuts, since it's done by a laser. And yes, I have always wanted to play around with it. Unfortunately, being that they are very expensive, there are not enough machines to serve everyone producing models, so the queue for sending models to the machine is really long, and they would definitely be ticked if you were building useless models.

Anyway, this is how my model finally turned out. I got an excellent review on it, so I'm celebrating this weekend.

[Allan 0]

We have one of those machines too. I have never used it...maybe someday. I like using the laser cutter too. Draw up your model in autocad and then let the machine do all the work cutting out the pieces. Then it's just a matter of gluing them together. I used that last semester...it turned a project that took most people 30-40 hours into one that took me about 10.

Your model looks good, Wolverine! I am working on a similar project that is due in about three weeks.

I need to head downtown now. I need to take photos of light and shadow used in buildings. That's not going to work very well. My professor wants us to do it on a sunny day, but it doesn't look like there are going to be any sunny days between now & Monday.

[ardecila 124]

That's awesome, wolverine! Does it use fractal geometry, or does it just look that way?

Since my planned career, like many other BATters here, is Arch., I've been looking at colleges. I know you're kind of biased, wolverine, but how is the Arch school in Ann Arbor? It's a strong contender for me now, especially since I visited there last year with my family and liked it very much.

I'm also considering ND, Virginia, and Carnegie-Mellon.

[baldy 0]

We almost slipped to page 3, so I guess it's time some one brushed off the dust and tried to jump start the BSP again.

Ardecila, if you do decide to go to U of M for school, you will have some friends around!  Now coming from Chicago, you might be unimpressed with Detroit's downtown, but it does have its charm.

 

Farminsim, are you out there?  Check your e-mail and post some updates!!

 

Has anyone else had some time for projects?

[Allan 0]

Haha! The only projects I have had time to work on are all these renderings I have to do for my visual communications class. Between my two studio classes and my English class (which requires about 120 pages of reading for each class) I have been swamped with work. Not that there's anything new there!

[wolverine 12]

My computer broke again.  The backlight went out.  And I have become very angry.

 

But on a lighter note, I was working on my Dime Model today at my residence Hall's computing lab.  Thankfully Gmax ran a bit smoother on those computers.  But I really prefer using 3D studio which is only available up at the architecture school.  I have it on my computer too, but I am just trying to figure out how to convert Gmax files into 3ds files.  I followed the instructions on several websites, but each time, it came out as an inverted silvery looking piece of junk.  I hope I will find out soon, because I really don't like rendering things using Gmax. 

 

 

EDIT:  BTW, I just turned my popup blocker off and realized I had some old PMs.  Ert sent me a pm saying he was having problems posting.  He is still around and active, he just can't post here because of a technical problem.

[nofunk 1,933]

I was able to correct a few mistakes I had made on Cadillac Tower (i.e., one too many floors) and did a little more detailing on the roof, but I'm still working on building the first side.

Granted, since three of the four sides are identical, once I get the first side done, the project should go pretty quickly.

 

I've just been bogged down with classes. But next week is spring break! And I ain't going nowhere (booooo!). But that does mean I should be able to get some more done!

[ert90 8]

Whatsup guys! I'm at my dad's and I can post here!

Just thought I'd drop in when I could.

[SpartanBadger 4]

Well it's good to hear from you guys again. I am pretty excited because my dad fixed my new computer and I can finally play SC4 again. However, I lost everything I had on my computer so that part sucks. I can't get the internet to work on it yet, but I think I can get it working. I am mainly upset I lost my BAT's; I had one good model I wanted to get in the game, but so much for that now. I have also decided to just re-download all my SC4 stuff because my plugins was a mess and there is so much I don't use in there. But I am sure you guys don't care about any of this stuff, so I'm done.

I can't wait to see some updates on your projects

[ardecila 124]

wolverine: As for going from gmax to 3dsmax: Have you tried going through Deep Exploration? (A 3d-content management program).

Just use gmax to export out an MD3, and use Deep Exploration to convert to 3ds.

The only downside is that Deep Exploration truncates the file paths, so you'll have to reassign your bitmaps to your materials in 3dsmax. XRefs, too.

BTW: Am I the only one that laughed out loud at that guy on the left in your first picture? The expression on his face.. priceless, man.

[ardecila 124]

Whoops. I didn't notice your other thread (coming back from a trip today).

So you haven't had success with the DeepEx method. Make sure you only export frame 1 of your gmax scene. Also, it will export all hidden objects. If you don't want these objects, delete them. If you do, copy them into another scene and then delete them from the first.

Make sure you only have mesh objects in your scenes. Delete the helper objects and everything else.

As I said, materials come out all messed up. You might have to re-do these. UV coordinates remain the same, tho - you only have to re-do the stuff in the Material Editor.

I use this method quite often. As long as you tidy up your gmax scenes carefully, it should work great.

[Farminsim 7]

Sorry for not posting pics but I aint uploading anything I dont trust my computer, think I got viruses maybe. I dont want to infect Simtroppolis.

[baldy 0]

Glad you're still around Farminsim and sorry to hear about your computer problems.  I don't believe you can tranmit a virus through a picture file, so you should be fine posting them.  You might also have spyware installed on you machine which can be fixed by free software such as Ad-Aware and Spy-bot.  Microsoft has something out there too, but I don't their software as much.

How did the textures I sent you turn out?  Too dark?  Too light?  Too pixelated? 

[wolverine 12]

Hey everyone!
I'm the most busy part of my week now, but by Friday, everything is going to slow down, and I will have time for the BSP. As far as getting the models into 3D studio, I am able to import the model in the exact way everyone tells me too, but it still comes out shiny gray and kind of bubblely. Reguardless, Gmax is running really fast on my computer for some reason, so I'll finish up the models on that. I also want to get more work done on the website, but you all knew that.

[kefka 3]

I was just thinking, that if the founders of Chicago had built it on the opposite side of lake michigan, Michigan would have two major cities in it, somewhat nearby eachother.

[wolverine 12]

Yeah, that would have been amazing. Although, I do think there is a strong connection between Detroit and Chicago in reality. Driving from Detroit to Chicago takes about 5 hours, which isn't too bad for two big cities. But if Chicago were to be in Michigan, the state would definitely be one of the biggest industrial centers.

[SpartanBadger 4]

Well I just wanted to let you guys know I am still around but have nothing to report. I am using the family Dell and that means I am not allowed to put anything on this piece of junk. And my new computer, well that thing has been massacred. I don't know what happened to it, but it breaks so much that I am not putting anything on it until I figure out what is wrong or get a new HD.

[nofunk 1,933]

Hey everyone,

What's up? I just wanted to make a quick post to say I'm still here... and still working on Cadillac Tower. I'm graduating this semester so I've been really bogged down with stuff, but I'm still working on it when I have free time. Maybe I'll post some pictures of the progress soon.

Peace out.

[kefka 3]

I was just in ann arbor (fun fact: Adobe photoshop was invented by Ann Arborers) and I was reminded of how nice it is.  It made me wish I had gone to Michigan (Instead of Grand Valley), but then I remembered that the reason I hadn't applied there in the first place is becuase I would only be going there for ann arbor, .

 

In the future I plan on making detroit styled houses.  Btw, how's this projects website coming along?