IDS's (mostly) Minnesota BATs

[matias93 7,535]

Beautiful!! Maybe the trained eye could find some minimal blemish, but for me it looks flawless!

[korver 27,685]

Wow, looks fantastic

[Jasoncw 11,840]

It looks much better now.

I would make the aluminum brighter still, but I also tend to make things a little too bright sometimes, so it's up to you.

I personally have a hard time doing night squiggles. But the thing with them and metal in general is that you don't want fuzzy squiggles. The distortion comes from the bump.

So you can see above that objects that are nearby have pretty clear reflections, while objects that are further away it's harder to see what the reflections are because the bumpy surface breaks them up a lot. But the reflections themselves are still sharp, just really scattered (if that makes sense). But like I said I'm not very good at the squiggleys, so when I do them I keep them toned down enough that they don't matter so much when they look weird lol.

Regardless though it's looking good so don't let me bog you down.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wonderful work man.

[Fantozzi 4,067]

On 25.4.2018 at 5:36 AM, IDS2 said:

More to come soon. I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to light this thing up.

When I was young, angels were talking to me. Then came a day and they left me. From this time I know, it's mainly a language problem, why we fail to understand things. When God say "I'll be back soon" it's the meaning of the word "soon" f.e. that causes the misunderstanding. As God knows nothing about the meaning of the word "soon" as his existance isn't dimentional, he is out of space and time.So how he can know anything about time. Soon - to him - could mean three weeks but also a billion years, doesn't make a difference.

So one thing is to hear angles talking. Other thing is to understand what they are talking. as most human words don't have any meaning to them.

Soon –that could be an angelic word for eternity. That's why I'm sometimes scared by some simple talking. Like a little child that simply misunderstood the words. Because childs can understand the language of the angels.

By the way. Great bat. The aluminium part is still to dark, the window/glass is perfect. Many people think, the windows are the bright part of the building, because the relfect sun. No. Most of the day they don't. they are more like caves, like scratched eyes. Windows are blind. They only become transparent when you turn on the lights inside. Funny thing - it's the night that shows truth about what is going on inside. Never day.

On Reflections there are two dimensions: blur and fade. Shape blurs. Light fades. When evening comes it's like a play of both. Difficult to imitade. The beauty of sunset - how can we ever believe to write algorithms to simulate it?

 

 

 

 

 

[IDS2 3,346]

Now that Canadian Pacific is finally done, I'm working on a new quickie...

... along with a very old WIP you might recognize.

 

The first one is a pretty faithful recreation, but I'm considering adding a second color variation (maybe a red brick). The building itself is roughly 1x4, but I'm thinking it might look nice to have a couple of them lotted together in a housing estate of sorts. For the second, I'm going for a more matte facade in contrast to the shiny metal of Canadian Pacific. Roof and lobby still in progress, but I like how it's looking so far. It sits pretty snugly on a 3x5 lot so I don't have to worry about much lotting

[gutterclub 2,729]

Love your work, so happy to see these. Looking good so far!!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Excellent

[Barroco Hispano 26,695]

[mattb325 28,880]

Always good to see some new bats from you. These new buildings both look fantastic! I especially like the first one...generic enough that it will fit perfectly in any situation 

[sencillo1 47]

looking good

[Hanson784 165]

Very nice! That looks like the Daley Center in Chicago. Great work!

[IDS2 3,346]

Thanks guys 

Hanson, you're dead on about the Daley Center. The model itself is based on CNA Center, but I really dig the rusty look of the facade on Daley and a few other buildings on Michigan Ave between Randolph and Wacker. 

Think I've got it just about ready, maybe a few tweaks? 

For some reason, the night scene looks really compressed (like an old 256 color .bmp) on some of my monitors. The actual preview render looks just fine in max, but then when I save the image and open it in Photoshop, it gets washed out. I'm probably going to do a test export and see if it looks fine in the game just to be safe.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Looks great, an instant download for my plugins folder.

If you can I would make the panel lines on the columns thinner, but if that's too much of a hassle I wouldn't worry about it.

[IDS2 3,346]

Thanks for the tip Jason, I think it was worth the effort!

A new smaller one that I've been wanting to do for quite a while, the old Cenex Building in St. Paul:

I'm not completely set on all of the textures just yet, but I do think the glass turned out pretty nicely.

[mattb325 28,880]

This building has some seriously cool vibes!

The two end elevations remind me of a rubik's cube that needs solving. But it is great to see some pops of colour on buildings in the pipeline.

[Krasner 1,062]

Really, really  nice one, good choice imo It reminds me of an hospital I was living nearby about two years ago, nicely generic, yet it has its own personality.

 

[IDS2 3,346]

Made a couple texture tweaks to the Cenex Building and put together a night scene:

 

I also made a building with a similar form from the same era, and I think they go together quite nicely. This one is based on the public service building in downtown Minneapolis.

 

Both buildings are 3x7. Looking at the previews right now, I see a few things that need fixing, but otherwise these are mostly ready for export unless you see anything (I'm still not dead set on the roof textures). I've been looking at these for too long to be objective anymore, and the last thing I want is release something half baked.

 

[Barroco Hispano 26,695]

Beautiful!

Did you do the textures in photoshop or substance painter?

[Krasner 1,062]

That new one is just as great as the other, and the nitelites are just lovely Keep it up, it's really good. Especially your work on the textures, it has quite an atmosphere.

[Flann 1,709]

As someone who works nearby, I can say you've done an excellent job with the Public Service Center! 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Excellent!

For both of them I would make the roof textures less brown, and more grey.

For the new building, I think the main roof texture could also be a little brighter, and a little less contrasty.

[mattb325 28,880]

The alterations look great, as does the new building. I really like the design of both. Jason pretty good advice about the roof texture, which shouldn't be too hard to change 

[IDS2 3,346]

Thanks guys 

Just a quick W2W for a change, the Greater Refuge Temple in Harlem, NYC:

I'm not sure exactly how to mod it yet, since it's a church in real life. Maybe a reward as well as a static landmark?

[gutterclub 2,729]

Love your work, as always.

[art128 4,618]

I believe modding it as a religious building (like the game's churches) would be best, if it's even possible.

[mattb325 28,880]

Looks great! I've modded plenty of church rewards. Happy to lend a hand if you want help modding it.

[IDS2 3,346]

Thanks all
 

Matt, that would be great! I do have a couple questions about setting the stats - I'll drop you a line soon.

 

A small (1x4) from downtown St. Louis, the American Zinc Building:

As far as I can tell, the upper floors of the building are mixed use (possibly a hotel) while the ground floor houses a steakhouse. I've gone ahead and modeled a restaurant-like interior, but omitted the logo on the facade of the building to keep the brushed stainless steel clean. I'm not entirely set on the facade - I think it may be a bit too warm in a couple spots - but I *think* it looks decently metallic. 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Since it is so metallic I would check and see how it would look if you put the road into the ground texture. The danger is that it would just be reflecting the black road probably, but it might ultimately help give a better metal impression once it's in place in the game.

I would also change it so that the concrete pylons on the ground floor have a more distinct appearance from the metal. Right now it actually looks like those parts are metal too.

Overall looks great as always.

[IDS2 3,346]

Thanks Jason! I adjusted the concrete pylon material a bit to help distinguish it from the facade. I think it looks good at a glance, though I may bump the saturation up ever so slightly before exporting.

I played around a bit with adding the road into the ground plane and wound up with this as a result:

I initially used the default double yellow center line Maxis road texture, but the yellow lines were a bit too obvious (sort of like one of my earlier BATs) and I didn't want the building to look weird when placed on avenues, one way roads, or roads with the Euro textures. I think the metallic material looks more believable now, but I'm still not sure if I'm completely sold. Admittedly, I find metal materials tricky to get right. 

And though I always try to finish one thing before I start another (okay, not really), I've been working on one of my favorite postmodern buildings from NYC:

This is just the first round of textures, but I like how it looks so far. On my list of things to get a second look:

`1. The tan facade material looks odd in some areas, especially around the arches. Some of the lines dividing the panels appear wider than others. I may have to redo the material entirely.

2. Glass material in the top arch is a bit too noisy, and the ground level glass might need a more convincing ground plane to reflect.

3. The atrium relief hoods and the ground floor awnings on the sides of the building look a bit like plastic at the moment. 

4. I go back and forth on this, but the rose colored facade material may be slightly too pink. I'm toying with the idea of darkening it and reducing the saturation ever so slightly, but I'll have to see how it blends with the game's palette. The pinkness is especially pronounced along the parapets.

...among other things.