C88 Productions | Projects by: Ceafus 88

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

Here Is A Draft Preview Of My Newest Project The Grant Apartments. It Is Cleary Not Finished, This Is Just 2 Rough Draft Pictures.

[Jazzmaster 716]

I was going to ask about the roof because it seemed liked the textures didn't render properly, but then I read your comments about a draft render so nevermind..

Though, I'll say this about the large grey box: even with textures, I think it could be improved. What exactly is it's purpose? Will it have a door inside it to provide access to the roof, is that the purpose? Whatever it is for, it might need some more attention to detail. I know you aren't finished just yet, but I thought I'd point that out. Also, the windows look textured, if they aren't, then you should try to emphasize the 3D geometry a little more so that they don't look so flat. If they are just textures, though, then I would model them out; the result is much more rewarding, especially to the creator himself!

This all said, you are definitely improving. Keep it up.

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

Thanks, And The Box Is An Elevator Shaft Too the Roof.

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Looks good! Just dont forget to use different night maps at night windows, cause it looks odd, and the same thing for day.

You could also add some kind of air conditioners down the windows, so it doesnt look that simple.

I also think windows look like that the space of windows to the wall is too small and it almost looks flat, and by doing this you could make some space for window frames.

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Oh and why do you write every new word with capital letters? Doesnt really matters but anyway, looks strange

[zahrul3 472]

Aside from air conditioners, try looking at NYBT threads for some inspiration of what it should really look.

The height of the floors are also quite low, on apartment/office style buildings, a floor should ideally be around 4.5-5m, due to pipes, exhausts, framework, voice insulation and aircon pipes filling out in the spaces between floors.

If making good nightlights are a hassle, use transparent windows and use night omnis. Its in the BAT essentials, so you should go there and check it out. It almost guarantees random windows, by using any random image with a fitting color.

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

AlexandrosB13: I'm working on making window frames for the windows, and i'm gonna put air conditioners for each window as I continue to work forword on the building, but i'm very thankful you gived me ways to improve my building.

zahrul3: I will raise the space between each floor, I will also conintue working on the nightlights. Thank you for giving me tips.

I will post an update as soon as I get done with the window frames and window spacing, then I will work on the air conditioners and nightlights after that, please keep posting giving me tips on how to improve The Grant Apartments as long as other buildings.

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Hmm... Another idea would be to make the ground floor not exactly the same as all the other floors, like taking it 1m up(see picture), and make the front door a little taller. At ground floor there could also be some kind of pipe or something poping out like in the second picture, or in general you could make a pipe going from the roof to thee ground floor like shown in the picture.

Idea for ground wall and air conditioners:

Pipe:

About air conditioners:

Dont forget to dont make details, the details on an air conditioner are small, so small that in a zoom 5 render they will be smaller from 1 pixel, so what you will actually see is a tiny box. Dont make more details than shown in the picture, at least what i think. Oh and in order to not making it boring and the same everywhere, you could make 3 different types of air conditioners like in the picture shown (damn those pictures). Use textures in this case. I could

send you the texture i used if you want for air conditioners. They are really easy to make.

3 different types of conditioners, not many details, use textures instead (again what i think would be the best):

Hope that helps!

  Edited May 27, 2011 by AlexandrosB13  

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

AlexandrosB13: Yes that helps alot! Thank You For Giving Help.

[bahamd81 156]

Any updates on your progress on Bojangles?

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

bahamd81:I'm still working on it but i'm doing small steps, when I get a few more things done I will update on my progress. Thanks for checking in though.

*UPDATE*

[harishna 847]

Hi Frex, you doing a great work but I feel that this latest update is a step backwards.The parapet on top is too bulky (0.3 meters it a good number for the width). The windows now seem to be extruding instead of intruding. Adding a few ac units under the windows is ok but if you put the same model under each window makes it too repetitive. I will suggest you that before adding roof junk and details to work on the dimensions of the building. Not only the height between floors but also the overall dimensions, compare it with something similar form real life if you want. As mentioned before seems that your floors are a bit small, also you added some stairs to the front door, I would then expect the ground floor to be a bit bigger than the other floors...

About the wall texture reduce the saturation and the contrast and add a gradient, you can do this in GIMP remember just play with the opacity of the tool. you can also play a bit more with the roof texture using the dodge and burn tool, just go easy on these ones, adjust the level of exposure (somewhere around 10) and also play with the different brushes.

About the roof junk don't forget to scale them accordingly to your building and try to add things that make sense, a trap door for example is a no no for me, also you got too many HVAC! Try adding some dishes or tv antennas instead...

Keep it up, with a little bit of practice and patience you will become very good at this.

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

harishna: Ok I will get right to work! Thank You for commenting and helping me improve the building.

[zahrul3 472]

You said you were going to increase floor height.... oh well..

You only need to erase that tiling, but you don't really have to have a gradient for the brick texture. About the aircons, they should be around more than 2 types of them and the location of airconditioners isn't shuffled, ie. one apartment has one the other doesn't. On my apartment I'm doing, I used 2 types, one long and one short(1/2 size).

I haven't released my apartment yet since I'm more concerned about other BATs and warm-ups to improve skills and learn new skills by, well, trial and error. The doors also look asymetrical, you need to flip the texture on the other side of the door to make it realistic.

You always say thanks to suggstions, though you water it down, often. Alexandros gave you 3 airconditioners and an example of what it should, but you watered it down to a really bad something.

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

zahrul3: Ok, I Am Planning On Increasing The Hieght Of The Floors Today, Just Havent't Gotten To It Yet, And As For The Air Conditioners, I Will Mix And Match A Few Of Them Between Floors. And Will You Tell Me Where The Tiling Is At? Or How To Fix It?

Update Coming Later Today.

[bahamd81 156]

Ok thanks Frex...I'm so excited about Bojangle's:thumb:. So what is this giant appartments thing? Is it growable or plopable (or both)?

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

bahamd81: It Is A Residential Apartments That Your Sims Build To Live In.

[zahrul3 472]

@Bahamd81: You can't plop residentials as far as I'm concerned, since they will abandon straight away. Also, the tiling is everywhere.

Here's how to fix tiling

Say:

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|

| to

v

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|_____|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

Its also in SimHotToddy's signature, its an easy tutorial. You can actually do it in paint without much disripancy.

[gutterclub 2,729]

@Bahamd81: You can't plop residentials as far as I'm concerned, since they will abandon straight away. Also, the tiling is everywhere.

Here's how to fix tiling

Say:

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|

| to

v

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|_____|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

Its also in SimHotToddy's signature, its an easy tutorial. You can actually do it in paint without much disripancy.

you can, build say a 2x2 then use extra cheats.dll and press ctrl+x, enter buildingplop..as long as you put a building of the same lot size and face the same way it will never abandon..there are a few tips regarding building plop around here but it works like a charm..however the residents won't go to work, a slight flaw...

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

@Bahamd81: You can't plop residentials as far as I'm concerned, since they will abandon straight away. Also, the tiling is everywhere.

Here's how to fix tiling

Say:

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|

___||______|______|_______|___

|

| to

v

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|_____|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

|_____||______||_____||______|______|_______|_______|______|

___||______|______|_______|______|______|_______|______|___

Its also in SimHotToddy's signature, its an easy tutorial. You can actually do it in paint without much disripancy.

Alright Thanks, I Will Start Working On It As Soon As I Can.

[bahamd81 156]

Is there a cheat that will stop buildings from getting abandoned?

Idk why, but sometimes my residential skyscrapers get abandoned for "commute time". I build lots of commerce and industry near them, but they will still get abandoned. If you have a cheat, thanks.

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

Um I Don't Think So, I Don't Use Cheats Much, If I Do Its Ussually The Building Plop One, But You Can Check Here.

[jacksunny 741]

Is there a cheat that will stop buildings from getting abandoned?

Idk why, but sometimes my residential skyscrapers get abandoned for "commute time". I build lots of commerce and industry near them, but they will still get abandoned. If you have a cheat, thanks.

Do you have the NAM? Its traffic controller basically eliminates "abandonment due to commute time."

[bahamd81 156]

Of course I have the NAM but I still get at least 25% of my buildings abandoned for that reason. Like my city I'm working on right now, it has 815,000 people but I have lots of buildings abandoned for commute. Checking in on Bojangles, is it coming along? For it, I would like it to be either a CS$ or CS$$ growable, but I also would like a ploppable. What will be the wealth of that Giant Appartment building?

Thanks for your replies --Bahamd81

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

I'm getting Close Enough To Post Another Update On Bojangles, Still More Work To Be Done On the Grant Apartments, Bojanles Will Be A CS$$ Growable, Because I Don't Know How To Make It Plobbable, And The Grant Appartments Will Be R$$.

[bahamd81 156]

Like I said, I can't BAT buildings. But, however, I do know how to lot and use the plug-in manager. So, to make it ploppable, drag it from the Models category to the Landmark Category. Then it will be ploppable after you lot it.

Thanks for your replies, Bahamd81.

I'm planning to start making lots again. I am going to start my own lot thread soon. I'm trying to go through BAT tutorials, I'm planning to do some entrance sign BATs for your city entrances (New City, Sim City, Simtropolis, Metropolis and Simland). Those will probably be released in a couple weeks. I hope to start BATing and lotting full-time like you.

--Bahamd81, the young SC4 serious player

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

*UPDATE*

  Edited June 3, 2011 by Frex_Ceafus  

[bahamd81 156]

Awesome work frex, I would enjoy it if you somehow teach me how to BAT! BATing is very hard, how can you design a BOJANGLES with it! A BOJANGLES!. I really want this ploppable, because with growables theres like a 5% chance you will grow what you want. Remember how I said, to make it ploppable, in the plugin manager drag the model of Bojangles to the Landmark section, click on it, set a price (about 10-15k is good) then fill in some other fields. Open the LE, pick an old landmark, Replace item with building, then find Bojangles, click it, add props, Viola! I know it might be hard but If you don't make it ploppable originally I will do it myself (I'm not going to release it on the STEX).

Your Bojangles looks awesome, so does Grant Appartments. You planning to release this Bojangles within the next week?

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

bahamd81: I still need to add details on Bojangles, and work on the model some more before I release it, I want it to be perfect.

[Ceafus 88 1,862]

*UPDATE*

Another Update, I Fixed The Orange Textures.

And Scratch the first update, this one ^ is the one I want yall to comment on.

Thanks,

Frex_Ceafus

  Edited June 9, 2011 by Frex_Ceafus