benno's bats

[benno2005 112]

hi all this is my first attempt at this so what do you think? its still ongoing at the moment.

[art128 4,622]

Looks great for a first attempt ! The roof texture is a but too repetitive but anyway lookin' good!

[Ceafus 88 1,843]

It looks really good for a first attempt, but I agree wit Art128, the roof texture is tiling, but other than that, pretty goood, I can't wait to see updates!

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

WOW, for the first attempt really really good. But I agree with Frex and Art.

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

This is incredible for a first start! Love the brick textures. However, just like what frex and art said: the roof texture is tiling and doesn't look very good. As well, it would be cool if you could add some roof props or roof junk to make it look more realistic.

[benno2005 112]

thanks everyone for your good comments as of the roof its far from finnished yet, at the same time im still learning how to use gmax.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Model-wise things are looking pretty good. You managed to think of many details others forget at first: the downpipes and the ladder leading to the roof, to mention just two examples. Other pretty common errors you avoided are overlapping geometry, or parapet walls that are about as thick as the Great Wall in China. Those concrete sills above and below the windows as well as above the garage doors are a good touch, too.

However, I guess you aren't done with the model, right? You're probably still going to add window frames, doors and, of course, roof junk. Since I assume that this is the case, I'll not delve into lengthy comments right now - it looks to me like you're going to manage just fine.

Just three small suggestions / comments:

• If you do model the ground, you should be aware that it's terribly hard (if not impossible) to have BATted ground and lot ground blend together seamlessly. That's why I recommend A) covering the entire lot with your model, B) making the seam between BAT model and lot ground run somewhere where there's a kind of border anyway, or C) leaving the ground out of your model and using the Lot Editor instead.
  
• I somehow doubt that a fire station will have those threedimensional letters - IMHO, panted lettering (or even no lettering at all, or a freestanding sign at the edge of the lot) would be more realistic options.
  
• Scale is always an important issue - are we seeing a zoom 5 render? Have you made a test export yet and checked it against other stuff?
  

As for textures, I agree that you have a nice base texture for the bricks there. Have you taken a glance at some texturing techniques yet?

[benno2005 112]

this is a ingame screenshot just to show the scale of the bat its not fully finnished yet as you can see.

  Edited July 19, 2011 by benno2005  

[SimFox 803]

oh... it is hugely overscaled...at least x2!

[benno2005 112]

oh... it is hugely overscaled...at least x2!

SimFox i think this bat looks good for scale also you have to think it is three floors in height.

[Jasoncw 11,940]

I agree with T Wrecks and SimFox.

The text feels like the building is being labeled, but usually text on buildings is decorative, and it's usually pretty small and subtle. Text is there for its graphic or typographic qualities, but usually not to inform anyone what the building is. The practical text like the address would be even smaller and out of the way than a decorative sign would be.

For the scale, while it is three stories tall, it's still overscaled. The ground floor where the fire trucks are would be taller since it has to accommodate the trucks and some equipment, but the floors devoted to living and office areas would be shorter. If the ground floor was 6 meters and the other two were 4 meters then the entire building would still only be 14 meters tall, but I think it would probably be a little shorter than that.

But anyway it's coming along well.

[SimFox 803]

well, scale should not be just considered for the height... The gates are about 7-8 m wide... I don't think it's realistic... and the rest of the building seem to be proportioned to those... hence

here is an illustration:

and

and something of a prototype?:

image is clickable and will take you to very large picture where you could literally see every brick, and hence count them. Given that the standard US brick is 8" or about 20cm I was right saying that your Firestation is about x2 too big

  Edited July 20, 2011 by SimFox  

[Francis90b 748]

SimFox had made some really good points in the post above.

That pic is not only good to get some "dimensions", but it might be something that you could use as a reference while modelling your own fire station.

I'd look at the main entrace of the building, and at the areas above the garage doors.

  Edited July 19, 2011 by Francis90b  

[benno2005 112]

thanks for all the comments but i think im going to start somethink new and hopefully get the scale a lot better.

  Edited July 21, 2011 by benno2005  

[SimFox 803]

Don't let some issues like this discourage you! You have had a very nice morel there... Just too big. But a really good one!

[abstynent 117]

As said by my predecessors. The model is a little too big and would do well to make a few improvements to the roof (in terms of texture, and adding some details). Besides, looks very good. As if it could be a little rewrite as a building W2W and free-standing building.

Very good start. Any comments, treat as a guide for learning and improvement in the modeling. How do you manage to improve it I'm interested in downloading it to my collection.

Do not give up. Keep trying.

[benno2005 112]

thanks everyone for you comments, it made me have another go at this bat as you can see iv'e made it with five doors now and changed the roof texture what do you think now? iv'e still got to do the windows, doors and the roof junk.

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

The roof looks great now!!!

[harishna 847]

the main issue here is the scale have you fixed it?

[benno2005 112]

just a small question how do you make the glass windows?

also i need help with night lighting could anyone put me in the right direction?

[benno2005 112]

this is the latest bat im working on which is a 19 floor residential block with shops at the bottom what do you think?

[Francis90b 748]

Could you please show us a floor plan of this building?

The building looks too deep, and given it's largeness i'd say that it would be better to have two staircases, and not one.

[SimFox 803]

Well this is potential pitfall that awaits one who jumps to something new before really resolving problems with an old model - same mistakes come out again.

This building has scaling problem again. OK, this time it is limited to one axis but it is, basically same scaling problem - it is stretched too far. Another potential problem is the preview itself... with GMAX preview window would automatically scale to fit on screen, so it is difficult to see what the real size of thing actually is. That's why you should ALWAYS do things by numbers and measurements, rather than just relying on you eye alone. That eye need a lot of training to be able intuitively see the proportions and so on.

General rule of thumb for residential buildings is "depth" of about 10-15 m. For a tower type of building with some sort of central core holding elevators and some such it could be more. But safety requirements nowadays in many countries demand that stairs in highrises should be have balconies for people to escape fire. This significantly reduce reduces "fatness" of a tower since you can't put core right in the middle.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

General rule of thumb for residential buildings is "depth" of about 10-15 m. For a tower type of building with some sort of central core holding elevators and some such it could be more. But safety requirements nowadays in many countries demand that stairs in highrises should be have balconies for people to escape fire. This significantly reduce reduces "fatness" of a tower since you can't put core right in the middle.

As someone who has spent a good deal of time modeling residential blocks, this is very true. Couldn't have put it better. This sort of perspective make me take a second look at the big fat maxis residentials, but generally they follow a similar rule too.

The building itself is odd, but not terribly unbelievable in design. Are you using a reference, even if it is just a passing resemblance?

[benno2005 112]

i had another go at the fire station bat what do you think now?

[Ceafus 88 1,843]

The scale is spot on, great work

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Great progress! I think you nailed the size this time.

The brick texture looks good, although it's tiling rather obviously. Check the signatures of either simhottoddy or JasonCW; there should be a link to a brick texture tutorial that you may find useful. In general, it's advisable to use textures that don't repeat, but cover one wall entirely.

The roof texture in itself is quite good as well, but it shows a clear direction. This indicates that it was probably intended as a wall texture. It gets darker/dirtier towards its former bottom (now the right side on the roof of your BAT).

Finally, the HVACs on the roof look like the pre-made ones from the Iron Age (I'm slightly exaggerating now ) that have been used so many times that they are really getting old.

All these are minor quibbles, though, and even if you chose to ignore these smaller shortcomings, you should have a rather fine upload. Congratulations!

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks Great, Keep it up.

I do agree with T Wrecks, you need to make your own HVAC's.

Here's a google link to images of HVAC, it's not the best but it would be better to make your own.

Click

[SimFox 803]

Looks good, there are, however, some small things you can add/change to make it look better still.

First of all the bunch of AC units on roof. Such a central placement of those looks unnatural , even corny, especially with all the pipes converging to some no sense point. Just look at the photos of real AC placements for some ideas how it should be done.

Second night view could really benefit from few strategically placed lights. Nothing much, just enough to give sense of life to the station. Night Windows alone done really cut the mustard... Given that you have modeled the ground under and in front of the station it could be great idea to may be try to lit interior of the garage part as well.

Third, for the text use two contrasting colors for side and front faces of the letters - you texts would be far more legible then.

But, as T said, this are just cherries on teh top, you've got quite a nice ice-cream there as is, but why to give the cherries up?

[benno2005 112]

thanks everyone for your feedback i will take this all onboard and try to make the changes before releasing this bat.

this is my next bat im working on what do you think?

ooooooooooooo