NTM's BAT Workshop II

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Wel, doing(Half of) the the diagonal mullions din't take me that much time. Currently fixing other bugs and starting to look at textures on CgTextures.

[gio10469 24]

Well it's been a long time since I've really browsed around ST but I have to say you have made a lot of improvement since you first started BATing. Keep up the great work!

[harishna 847]

Nathan it doesn't seem to me as you have learn how to make your modelling more efficient, you still using the same rather primitive techniques, which are not wrong but really limit what you can do, it also difficult making changes and adjustment to the scene and often causes ending with a messy scene. Believe me poly modelling is so much easier once you understand the concept. Making hundreds of tiny objects will also cause your scene to lag.

  Edited September 29, 2011 by harishna  

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Nathan it doesn't seem to me as you have learn how to make your modelling more efficient, you still using the same rather primitive techniques, which are not wrong but really limit what you can do, it also difficult making changes and adjustment to the scene and often causes ending with a messy scene. Believe me poly modelling is so much easier once you understand the concept. Making hundreds of tiny objects will also cause your scene to lag.

What is poly modelling?Also, my scene is not lagging. It's working perfectly at the moment.

Well, digonal mullions are complete, and took only 5 minutes!Just a few nit-picky stuff left to fix before textures. What you are currently looking at is 1/4th of the building.

[harishna 847]

I hope you get the idea withs Jason's tutorial and this from SimFox and check this video there are a lot of tutorials out there most for 3ds max but most things can be adapted for gmax

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Well, I will look at the tutorials on PolyModeling so I can use it on future models.Anyways, earlier I was on CG Textures, found a good texture, did some tweaking, and now am testing it on the model. I will have to do a lot more editing later and fix maps.

[madhatter106 3,922]

I hope you get the idea withs Jason's tutorial and this from SimFox and check this video there are a lot of tutorials out there most for 3ds max but most things can be adapted for gmax

Gmax doesn't have an inset tool, so that tutorial link isn't going to help a whole lot when it comes to carving out windows...

[harishna 847]

Fair enough maybe this can help to adapt it for gmax?

  Edited October 4, 2011 by harishna  

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Okay, well I will look at the new tutorial. I desaturated the window textures(Aka Made them darker) and started to texture the mullions.

Polygon Count: 3908 Complete model(Estimate):15700

[harishna 847]

Nathan the thing is that with more efficient ways of modelling you can do all that in 20 minutes or so...that is why I insist so much...

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Nathan the thing is that with more efficient ways of modelling you can do all that in 20 minutes or so...that is why I insist so much...

I have looked at the tutorials, and I will use the new technique for future projects(Such as my next one, which will be a skyscraper). For right now, i am not going to change my current model.

Anyways, as of now texturing is about 50% done. I flipped and rotated my original texture and did random plopping of the new ones to break down the tiling effect. Texturing will be done by the next update.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

How can you call texturing done when you don't even have a whole building?

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

How can you call texturing done when you don't even have a whole building?

What I am doing is modeling 1/4th of the building(Because it is symmetrical 4 ways) and then once the one section is fully textured and made I will clone it 3 times to make the full building, add the roof, etc.

[Ceafus 88 1,845]

This looks great Nathan, I can't wait to see your projects if you get 3ds max, and polygon model

[Evillions 552]

I'm not so sure about the pillar width, but its a decent start.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Texturing finished!!! Also, I made the pillars a little thicker and made their saturation less. Again, more nitpick stuff to sort out before I clone the model three times and add the roof.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Hey guys I am having trouble with one of the textures:

If someone can combine this logo on the glass texture(Circled in red) as shown in the photo(Circed in black), I will greatly appreciate that and will credit you in my upload.

[Hamish 1,370]

Thats an easy one, but don't get it from that image, the results will be horrible. Google search for University of phoenix. Change it to images. The first result that come up is almost identical to what you need. Just open it up in an image editing software. Cut it out from the white background. Paste it onto a transparent background, or just cut out the white. Invert the colours. Then copy and paste the parts so that the logo and then the text lines up as it does in your image. Copy all of this onto your glass texture. Either scale the glass texture up to meet the size of the text, or scale the text up. I would recommend scaling the glass up as it should look the same in your render as the rest of the panes, but the text won't be distorted by scaling. In my opinion, never scale text, let the renderer do that for you. (or alternatively build the text in gmax, but that is a lot harder than you might think)

You can follow this process with the other logos and text too.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Ok Thanks for the suggestion. I will try it and have an update tomorrow(In fact the University of Phoenix texture is the last one I need to do-Got the other 2 okay).

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Yay!I finally pasted the logos and modeled the doors! Thanks for the help, Hamish! Next update will be the full building with the roof.

[Jazzmaster 716]

Those signs look textured on. In particular the one that reads 'Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.' looks really bad, partly due to .jpeg compression, but I can pretty much tell you textured that one on. That, and the 'Rabobank' sign/logo are purely white on the building, but in your render you seem to have used coloured logos. I would model the signs; take a flat image of each sign, and place them as a texture on a flat surface, and then 'draw' the signs (model them). The results will be much better.

  Edited October 23, 2011 by Yoshiisland  

[Evillions 552]

Not really a fan of the window texture. :/

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Need more work on the textures, glass textures that is.

[mattb325 28,890]

NTM, the glass textures for a building like this in GMAX really do need a fair bit of work in order to be convincing.

Do you have image editing software that can handle layers? If not, then you should consider getting the GIMP or paintshop or another freeware tool. They are very easy to use.

I recommend that you first locate your building in Bing maps under the birds' eye view.

* Take a screen shot of the area surrounding your building: in the shot make sure you get lots of details, trees, rooftops, cars...ie lots of different coloured objects and shapes.

* Depending on the image you have snapped, you will probably need to brighten it, then blur it enough to stop someone being able to make out actual items, but not enough to stop it from looking like the screen shot and then save it.

* Then use the default Maxis glass that came with the BAT; brighten this considerably and make it fairly transparent. Add this layer over the modified Bing map; be sure that the Bing map details can still be seen underneath. Save this layer.

* You can then do one of two things: 1) adjust the hue of the image to match your blue texture or 2) you can add your current blue texture as a transparent layer over the top, it too, needs to be see through enough so that you can see the bing map (as well as the Maxis glass) underneath. Make sure the end result isn't too saturated.

Lastly, most image editing software have some sort glass scripts: they add lots of different areas of noise, light, blur, etc - experiment with the settings - these steps should then make a convincing enough glass texture to pull off a building like this.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Okay thanks for the tips. I will work on my textures ASAP, which might not happen until Sunday.

Those signs look textured on. In particular the one that reads 'Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.' looks really bad, partly due to .jpeg compression, but I can pretty much tell you textured that one on. That, and the 'Rabobank' sign/logo are purely white on the building, but in your render you seem to have used coloured logos. I would model the signs; take a flat image of each sign, and place them as a texture on a flat surface, and then 'draw' the signs (model them). The results will be much better.

I wasn't able to make the signs white(I'll try again), even in GIMP.

Do you have image editing software that can handle layers? If not, then you should consider getting the GIMP or paintshop or another freeware tool. They are very easy to use.

Yes, i do have GIMP(I have actually had it for several months, btw....

I recommend that you first locate your building in Bing maps under the birds' eye view.

Take a screen shot of the area surrounding your building: in the shot make sure you get lots of details, trees, rooftops, cars...ie lots of different coloured objects and shapes.

It's right here(And your tips aren't going to be useful since Bing depicts the building under construction).

* Then use the default Maxis glass that came with the BAT; brighten this considerably and make it fairly transparent. Add this layer over the modified Bing map; be sure that the Bing map details can still be seen underneath. Save this layer.

I deleted that texture a loooong time ago....

Anyways, thanks for the tips everyone.

  Edited October 27, 2011 by nathanthemayor  

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Well, other than experimenting with the glass textures for 45 Park Place, let's see another project I have been crafting over the weekend:

Building Link. Dimensions are on this page.

Bing Link

Basic Model so far:

[Ceafus 88 1,845]

Good start, I am excited for your projects, you have improved alot, so Keep up the good work! BTW I love your new avatar

[Cockatoo 2,257]

I can't really say much about the yellow box at the moment... but that avatar... jeez, I've never come across one as annoying as that. If you're trying to make your thread unreadable then mission accomplished. It's almost as bad as Dirk's bug-in-a-sig!

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Well, I might provide an update on 45 Park Place later this week. I worked on Pacific Southwest Building tonight. You can see the beginnings of the antenna and windows.

[Ceafus 88 1,845]

Nice Work so far, I can't wait for more

  Edited November 3, 2011 by Frex_Ceafus