NTM's BAT Workshop II

[madhatter106 3,931]

Can't say much about that. Did you ever thought about getting 3ds Max.

What is 3ds Max?

How long have you been here for?

You've got a post count more double that of mine, three dozen STEX uploads, a reputation through the roof, a BAT career spanning a couple of years. If you haven’t even heard of Max by now then someone isn't doing their job properly.

I wouldn't recommend moving up to Max just yet though. You're still very much in the Gmax phase.

Ultimately, it comes down to the quality rather than the quantity. Anyone can run rampant in Forum Games and bump their post count up, and of those three dozen STEX uploads, only ten are currently residing on the servers. Reputation is merely having a lot of people click "+1+ on your posts. And if one's BAT career is measured by the age of their BAT threads, then yes, careers can span years. So sometimes those quantitative metrics are not a good indicator...

I am often accused of answering questions with questions. So I am going to respond to "What is 3dsMax" with "how much of the rest of this forum are you actually taking in?" Are you reading other threads to get pointers or inspiration in order to improve?

[Cockatoo 2,257]

I think the point I was trying to make is that he's an active member. Here every day. You don't get those sorts of stats any other way.

I'm just surprised that someone who's clearly spent so much time here hasn't (even by sheer chance) stumbled into one of the pinned 3dsMax threads. Maybe we need to make them more prominent... who knows.

A post count/ rep is generally just an indicator of the amount of time a person has spent on the forums vs. how social they are… and not a lot else. We all know this.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Okay well how 'bout we get back on topic here.....

New update, I worked on my project this week, fixing details and some other stuff. Note the reason I have left part of the front open is because I will put windows and doors in later.

[Andrey km 304]

Cool. This will be a 1x2?

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Looking forward the next update

[Ceafus 88 1,906]

Looks good so far

[Jazzmaster 716]

What real life building is this based upon?

I can't really judge it right now since it's been a while for me, unfortunately, since any real 3D modeling. But one thing I will point out is it's good practice to make the colors of your objects similar to what they will look like when you texture them. No real reason for it other than articulation/consistency...plus, it just seems better than some funky 70's hippy van appearance.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Cool. This will be a 1x2?

Errrrrr No. The model is a 2x3, and I am planning to add a parking lot so the final one will be 3x3.

What real life building is this based upon?

I can't really judge it right now since it's been a while for me, unfortunately, since any real 3D modeling. But one thing I will point out is it's good practice to make the colors of your objects similar to what they will look like when you texture them. No real reason for it other than articulation/consistency...plus, it just seems better than some funky 70's hippy van appearance.

I am working on the textures, and the link to the building is in this post.

Anyways, update, still have some stuff to be fixed and working on the remaining windows.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

The textures are much more better now.

[harishna 847]

I will suggest you to be more careful with your modeling there are several issues with your current model. Look at the proportions between the real life building and your model.

(1)The ground floor has twice the height of the rest of the floors while in reality they are all pretty much the same, therefore your floor height is wrong.

(2)Column distribution doesn't match with the real life building.

(3)The facade should not extrude pass the parapet.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Hey guys, RL has been a little tough lately but tonight I had some free time so I went back to my model and fixed some stuff. The next update will have most of the textures done.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Good, now the lattice doesn't extrude past the parapet wall, but in turn, the parapet has become too thick IMO. It makes the building look clumsy, and it seems that all four sides of the parapet wall have a different thickness. This is something that you should address.

I also see that you changed the column distribution - I haven't checked against the real building, but the sides look a bit less cluttered now.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Well, I have made some changes to my model over the past two days. Now, i know the glass texture looks funky. I will fix it later.

  Edited February 11, 2012 by nathanthemayor  

[Gn_leugim 858]

actually I like the glass texture ^^

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Well, I fixed up some stuff and added in the mullions for the sides(and nightlites). What do you think?

[Gn_leugim 858]

One sugestion. what about add some lights on the upper floors? you wont see them if you use the standard lightings, you shall use real lights instead

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Look nice, but to me I am sick and tired of that same maxis roof and HVAC textures, it's not that way to go if you really want to hag with the pros, please use a different textures/ make a new texture. I also think the modeling of the roof junk could be better.

Looks at Spa's Roof junk it fantastic you can do the same just put more work on them, all I'm just saying it to make the model look good.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/topic/8410-spas-urbanist-bat-thread/page__st__1350

  Edited February 14, 2012 by Aaron Graham  

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I'm with Aaron. It also seems like the parapet wall is still really thick and clunky.

Besides, I took a look at the Emporis pictures of this building again because I kept wondering about that strange arch at ground level that looks a bit like a Japanese shinmei torii, and I discovered that it's actually a little standalone awning or shelter and looks totally different from your BAT. I also saw that the ground floor is by far not as tall as in your BAT. In real life, it's about 1.5 times as high as any of the upper floors, in your BAT it's easily twice the height. Now sometimes it makes sense to exaggerate things a little, but in this case it makes the proportions of your BAT look all wonky.

I strongly suggest changing that because apart from the mentioned shortcomings on the roof and on the ground floor, this BAT could be a very nice addition to SimCity and doesn't look bad at all.

[harishna 847]

It is a bit to see that you simply decided to ignore my comments as your model has some major flaws.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

(Dusts off workshop bench)

Well, it's been a while since I was last here(Laziness ), but here's a project I started weeks ago but my laziness prevented me from continuing it. I found it last night and finished the modeling on it.

Link to Building(Note: I am modeling the square one)

Here's my current progress picture. I'm not sure if I made the window height above the ground high enough. If I did, that will be fixed in the next update, in addition to the roof junk. I might also make the parapet lower.

  Edited May 10, 2012 by nathanthemayor  

[zahrul3 472]

When designing a building by scratch one must figure out how it should look, or use a reference building that one can replicate some of its details. A quick look at Madhatter's buildings, despite being entirely fictional, it still looks realistic and manages to blend in with whatever tileset being used.

This is what BATs of this size should be:

You see, the window segment are separated by contrasting pillars, and there is a ground floor, with an entrance and in taller buildings, are usually independent in design, separate from the main tower. Aside from that, he actually makes his own textures as well as having good roof junk(not excessive, not blank).

Here are the errors I spotted in your building:

roof access is optional*

I have a for-fun side project where I made the facade, this is what your BAT should look like at this phase. Similar buildings in this phase can be found in Madhatter's thread.

Load bearing pillars are found in almost all large buildings. The seperated wall segments allow me to texture each segment differently, opening up new possibilities. Buildings must have some sort of entrance as well.

For roof junk, you can find them in the STEX, they come with textures and completed models. Makes everything easier that way

Sorry, I didn't look at the RL building, but your BAT still lacks an entrance and the scale.

From what I notice is, the height is 4.5m+4.5m+5m+roof. The windows are around 1m off the ground/floor base and it looks like the entire window structure(include the thingy above the window), is 2.5m tall leaving a 1m section between the windows and the next floor. Textures shouldn't be hard to find or produce either.

  Edited May 10, 2012 by zahrul3  

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Well, just finished working on my new project for a little bit. Started texturing, but it will be improved later on. I redid the window height, comparing it with Bing BirdsEye and Google Maps

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

So, back to Batting, I continued texturing. However, I think the front covering thing looks goofy, and I will redo the roof junk. Other than those two things, what do you guys think?

[Francis90b 748]

I won't talk about texturing.

Speaking about the model, i think you should model the window frames - even if there's just a single panel of glass and they end up lining with the walls.

  Edited June 6, 2012 by Francis90b  

[harishna 847]

Hi Nathan a few things.

The scale of your BAT seems to be off, what is your floor distance? The covered entrance looks too big and out place, it is blocking the windows of the second floor. The windows seem to be intruding too much into the wall, and finally there is no door to your building.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

I won't talk about texturing.

Speaking about the model, i think you should model the window frames - even if there's just a single panel of glass and they end up lining with the walls.

That's on my priority list for this project.

Hi Nathan a few things.

The scale of your BAT seems to be off, what is your floor distance? The covered entrance looks too big and out place, it is blocking the windows of the second floor. The windows seem to be intruding too much into the wall, and finally there is no door to your building.

The covered entrance I will make slightly smaller, fix the window problem, and the door to the building is under the covering. I will fix the window problem, although in the RL building I think that's about correct.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Well, I tried to fix the window problem(Interuppting the overhang), so i went to "Edit Mesh" and deleted the vertexes where the bad windows were, and this happened:

Does anyone know a way to solve it(Without deleting the mesh vertexes)?

[darn42 1,268]

If you delete vertices it deletes the geometry you have around it. I would say to delete the inside of the windows, then cap the borders that you create.

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

Hey everyone sorry for the lack of updates; My laziness(Yeah ) problem has gotten to me again.

But anyways, I fixed the wall problem, and redid the whole awning thing(Although the columns look too thin), and the concrete patch under it is just a test I was doing.

Next priority is the roof. I'll make the roof map a little smaller and fix up the roof junk.

And on an unrelated side note, a sign BAT for RHW 6C I cooked up several weeks ago:

[IDS2 3,429]

It's getting there, but I think before you go much further with materials you should take a step back and work on the modeling a bit more. For one thing, the facade appears to be nearly devoid of detail. I notice that the windows appear to have two sections, but instead of being separated by mullions and window frames, they are split by the wall itself. I'd also consider taking another look at the awning.