Jason's BATs & Tutorials

[Bipin 3,402]

What's the size of this BAT? looking great so far!

[Girafe 1,729]

metal mat looks really interesting

really good job

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks guys

It's going to be a 4x3. I'll also make a 3x4 corner lot too, so it can grow in more situations.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I've done the part that connects the core tower to the offices. You can't really see it in any of the rotations but it's there.

I've done more of the base. It's totally enclosed now so I just have to add in the doors and some other details and the base will be done.

I've also started the service wing in the back.

Once the stuff at the bottom of the building is done, there's some roof junk to make, and then I think the day version will pretty much be done!

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

Stunning!

I come back to BAT open discussion and see this, it really makes my day!

[Girafe 1,729]

This project is going well

This project is going well

[MTT9 187]

Those glass facades look great Jason. Even Girafe said it... twice!

[shinkansen1 84]

No download for me.

Instead, it's going to be my super-download! Definitely going to be one of the better glass towers in my collection!

[art128 4,618]

This project is going well

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks guys!

Here's an update:

[gutterclub 2,729]

Simply stunning, have enjoyed watching this one come together!

[Vlasky 1,803]

It looks perfect, it truly does.

but.. khm, khm ... can I be selfish? Can we find out what needs to be done in order to achieve that glass material? pleeease I simply love it

[harishna 847]

looks lovely

[darn42 1,268]

looks like it would be an arch and design solid glass with lower transparency and a different reflection/refraction function with shelled windows. Is it similar to that jason?

[shinkansen1 84]

Want it now. I don't care that it's not done!

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

So Awesome

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks guys!

Vlasky: It's the thin-glass Arch & design template/preset with the color of the glass changed. It can be changed by changing the refraction color, which I made to match the color I found in photos. Some of the other settings are tweaked a little but it's basically the template.

darn42: The solid glass is better for glass that has more volume to it, so like glass sculptures or glass chandeliers and stuff like that. This type of windows and at this scale the thickness isn't perceivable so the thin glass is more appropriate.

So here's progress on Inland Steel. I've been working on the roofs which I think are pretty much done I think.

[Ion_Cannon 677]

Looking good, I love how the glass looks

[art128 4,618]

Oh man that's one great looking BMU you have there. Can I have a close up?

Also good work, looks lovely.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Interesting to note that the designer of One Chase Manhattan Plaza got his inspiration from this building. I think it was the same architect too, or at least the same company of architects.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

SOM is really everywhere. sparkythepenguin has also recreated a bunch of buildings designed by them.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

The building is coming out to be a lovely one, and great work on that roof.

[Delecto 941]

Look so good!

[Vlasky 1,803]

As I said, I am absolutely in love with the glass, I just thing the contrast on the roof should be lowered

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Ion_Cannon: Thanks!

Art: The crane is based off a photo reference that I don't have any more (because I finished it). It was actually hard to find even just good photos but I didn't realize that they were called BMUs, so that's probably why I had such a hard time. I was searching for window washer crane, lol. I was actually hoping that a manufacturer would just have free 3d models of their products available but I didn't find any, but maybe I could do a better job searching now.

Anyway, here's a closeup.

Sgt Pepper: Actually when I was searching for photos of the facade to use as a reference, a pic of One Chase Manhattan Plaza's facade came up and I had to do a double take. They're both similar and lovely buildings. OCMP (what a long name, lol) is thicker so it still has interior columns, but Inland Steel is thin enough that there are flat out no columns, no nothing, in the interior. If I'm ever fortunate enough to have the chance to design an office building for real life, I'll do my best to put the columns on the outside.

Beautiful floor plans!

T Wrecks: Yeah they've really done a ton of buildings all over the place. Strangely enough though, they haven't done any buildings in Detroit as far as I'm aware.

Aaron Graham: Thanks!

Deleco: Thanks!

Vlasky: Contrast has now been lowered.

I've gotten more done on the building but it's just little things and small tweaks here and there, so I haven't posted an update. I might post a preview later today though.

[art128 4,618]

The BMU is very well done. How many times did it take? Just curious.

Also mind sharing the material used? (or just the Arch&Design config)

[Jasoncw 11,840]

art: Thanks It only took one try to make it but it took some work. Normally when I model I look for relationships in pictures, so I know that X is half as long as Y, and that Y is a certain length. But for this I didn't have a straight on photo (it was angled) and I also didn't have any reference for how big anything was, so for this I had to eyeball it. So I modeled the general shapes and shifted things around until it looked right, and then I added some of the details. Then I modified it to be a little more like the one you can see in bing for this building. The original has a longer crane, and the big boxy part on the back was more narrow.

Afterwards I can post more about the metal materials but for now they're still being tweaked so I'd rather wait until I've finalized them.

So here's the preview render. The main thing you can see is that I've gotten the flags mostly done. I just need to texture the dirt and add some bushes and that part will be done. After that, I think all that's left on the day version is modeling the lobby doors and interior.

Changes from last update:

- The roof texture has less contrast.

- The tracks are now smaller, so that they mesh with the roof better.

- The metal looks better.

I recommend for people doing reflective buildings to at some point near the end make the ground plane visible to camera and the render, and then you can see what parts of the texture are getting reflected on the facade better (remove/add bright spots, etc.). That way you can edit the texture to manually improve the reflections more easily.

Well anyway I did this and the ground rendered super yellow. Before I had noticed that the metal was looking really yellow but I thought it was just how it was. So I changed some settings (I had changed it for final gather to pass through the object and then I undid that), and then the ground was rendering color-accurate. So now you can see the reflections are a lot clearer and you can see blotches of maxis hues (images of maxis buildings being reflected from the ground plane) and the color overall is cooler and more metallic.

[Girafe 1,729]

Looks nice. I am interested in how you did these dark shadows inside the building. They come from a floor map?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Some of the floors have wall partitions modeled based on suggested floor plans from the building's website, and that's why some areas are darker.

[Forthwall 1,118]

Stunning building!