Jason's BATs & Tutorials

[jacqulina 162]

looking great very nice work the detail is great

[budweiserdude23 80]

Those details are suberb, another masterpiece in the making!

[____----____ 37]

what a beautiful looking job, amazing details on the model so much to look at

the harder you look the more amazing it is

AK

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Are these preview too big for anyone?  Should I post zoom 4s regularly and only occasionally zoom 5?  btw, these two pictures are scaled exactly to zooom 4 and 5.

Anyway, here's an update.  Other than a few mistakes which I'll fix later, I finished that part of the side wall.

[Goin2Chicago 4]

this bat is coming along very nicely. theres so many little details that are nice to look at and and the thing is is that theres not even any textures on it yet. can't wait to see more progress.

[baldy 0]

looking great! I don't know how true to life you are looking to make it, but the left side of the building contains the elevator shafts, so there's a large portion of that wall where there are no windows. The floor plans will show you where they are and when they go from 6 to 2 (I think around the first set backs) Keep up the good work!

[spa 968]

Impressive work. I know it's a recreation but personally I would cut out about 5 floors on the main body, but that's just a matter of personal taste. Excellent work.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yep, I plan on having it accurate.  Luckily removing the windows is only a matter of deleting the opening in the spline.

I also plan on not having any windows on the first 14 or so floors (however tall the original building next to it is), as well as the side of the building where that parking lot is, that doesn't have windows either.  But I think the part of the building right next to the Ford Building has windows, does anyone know how many? 

But I might make an alternative that doesn't have the blank walls on those sides.  While the texturing will make the blank walls look ok in the game, having them really limits the building to a corner lot, while a lot of people might want to put it on it's own block with streets on all sides.

Spa, there's still a part of the base that I need to do which will make that part look shorter.  Although imo that part should be taller! lol

Here's a good shot that shows the side of the building, and how far up I am.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Hey, I just saw this picture in a CJ by Kaijoh on SimForum.de, and it showed exceptionally many of your buildings - I thought you might want to take a look - Poirer pwnz that road!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Cool!  I should check out those CJs sometime.  I always smile when I see something of mine in a CJ.

It looks like Poirer's Pictures grows a little too often for him too, heheh.  I get rows and rows and rows of them in my cities.  I'd just take some of the lots out, but then I'd have to find and delete all of the ones in-game!  I'm far too lazy for that.

In other news, I haven't worked on the Penobscot Building at all since I last updated!

I still haven't quite gotten my routine down for the new semester, but once I do, I'll be BATing more often.  Although the building has been progressing pretty fast when I do work on it.  I think it will definitly be done by 2007, and it might be done in October.  But then again, the Free Press Building was started in the same time of year as the Penobscot Building, and that was released in February, so who knows what will happen, lol.

[sorchin 18]

Hey Jason. Once again you are doing a supurb job.. Good luck with your new year at school. (I wish I was still in school)..

[Andreas Roth 607]

Originally posted by: Jasoncw Cool!  I should check out those CJs sometime.  I always smile when I see something of mine in a CJ.quote>

Really? Uh, ok, then prepare for some shameless self-promotion. They're taken from my current city journal "Perth", also located at the German SimForum.de.

 

On another note, the Penobscot Building looks great so far. I'm always astound about the amount of detail you put into the models - things we probably don't even see in the game. But they will certainly add to the texture, making your work even more realistic. It might be time-consuming, but I'd say it's definitely worth the wait!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

heheheh, don't worry about it!  As long as it promotes me too.

I saw one of your older CJs and remember seeing some of my stuff, but I haven't seen this one yet.  There are so few CJs that use so much NY and Chicago tileset stuff, and the ones that do generally aren't large cities. 

I've been meaning to start a journal, but it takes so long for me to get a city just so that I end up starting a new one before I'm done with the last.  Plus, I save spots for BATs I'm making, so those places (211 West Fort, One Woodward Avenue, etc.) are empty, but since I always start a new project before finishing the last, there's always an empty spot.  ::sigh::

Towards the begining of this thread, I said that anyone that has a screenshot with my buildings in it should feel free to post some pictures here, they're fun to see, and since I'm not a big CJ reader, I normally wouldn't see them.

[Sim shady 12]

Hey i know what you are talking about (few cjs with chicago and new york style tileset stuff) I absolute;y love building old cities such as these, but i normally burn out after one or two cities. Your stuff is very helpful and adds significant quality to this older style. i honestly wish there were more chicago 1890s style buildings on the STEX.

btw i'll have to show some shots of your buildings in one of my recent cities

here we go! (some links because i don't want to crowd your page)

http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/8075/pic1dq7.jpg

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/1730/pic3qy0.jpg

[Andreas Roth 607]

Originally posted by: Jasoncw heheheh, don't worry about it!  As long as it promotes me too.

I saw one of your older CJs and remember seeing some of my stuff, but I haven't seen this one yet.  There are so few CJs that use so much NY and Chicago tileset stuff, and the ones that do generally aren't large cities.quote>

 

True... Unfortunately, most of the more prominent BATs (a.k.a. skyscrapers ) are for the modern tilesets, so I'm really looking forward to the Penobscot Building. In my cities, I tend to create some older districts (like that "historic downtown" in Perth - not a recreation of the real Perth, but using a Perth map from the STEX), surrounded by newer development, just like in reality. As you can see on the second picture, the modern downtown starts at the right border of the image, with the Fisk Insurance and the Chicago Tribune building as connector piece between those "two worlds". Due to time restrictions, I don't follow the CJ's on Simtropolis, but there are quite a few interesting ones in SimForum.de as well. If you want to take a look, don't miss T Wrecks' journal, he's also one of the few who use the Chicago and New York tileset a lot.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Sim Shady, I did something similair to that in one if my cities, except there wasn't a hill, it was in the middle of a forest, and it's only transportation was one of my small train stations infront of it, and a street culdesac.  Looking nice.

It's economicly impractical to demolish buildings when the reach a certain size, which is why even after a century of moderinization projects (at least in the US) most of the buildings in established cities are "old".  I think the exception to that is when a building is very big, and abandoned.  Then it's impractical to renovate and fill such a huge space, so it's demolished.

I've been following T Wreck's CJ with the aid of an online translator (which is unbeatable combined with T Wrecks' style of narration ).  I'm not too interested in small cities, but if the same attention of detail that was put into the farms is put into the cities, then that's something to definitly look foward to.

[nofunk 1,933]

Seriously, dude, I like your BATs, but this is a bit much:

I think it would probably be a good idea to put out two versions of Penobscot -- an accurate one and a fully-windowed one. I know it's considerably more work (well, twice the rendering time, at least) but, as you've already noted, unless you want to squeeze it in between two W2W buildings, it's going to look strange. There's this really great hotel (can't remember the name now) that I downloaded off the STEX, and I love it, but for the fact that the windows don't start until about the 15th floor on the back, which looks weird and is hard to work around.

*shrug* I'll love the Penobscot either way, but just throwing in my two pennies.

[Swiss_Canadian 2]

nofunk, you're talking about Richard Hotel & Suites by oneil_1. It too is one of my favourite buildings, because it fits in with the Chicago/New York tileset that so few of us appreciate; however that hotel seems to grow more often than Wren Insurance!  But it is lovely. 

Great work so far Jason! Keep up the awsome work and don't give up! This is going to be the single most excellent building ever done in the history of simtropolis... we should throw a party when it's done!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

heheh, Fisk Insurance has grown a little too much for me sometimes, but never that much, lol.

Then that's settled, there will be two versions.  I guess they'll have to be the first and second most excellent building in the history of Simtropolis.

[jacqulina 162]

excellent work so far

[sorchin 18]

Hey Jason. I just did a search of all of your creations and must say am very impressed. Especially the older style buildings like the Mary and Wagner hotels. It would be great to see you starting a cj although how you would find the time is beyond me. From the looks of the great buildings you make you must spend most of your time BATTING..

Andreas, that's an excellent looking city. I too love the old architecture. It would be nice to see two great Modders and Batters such as yourselves creating a journal..

Take care..

[Chris M 406]

Yep, I love your work too, Jason. Wagner and Mary Hotel, both, show up in pretty much every one of my major urban districts! I love those two. Probably my favourite of your work so far:

Keep it up and I look forward to more of your buildings on the STEX!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks everyone

I think I've seen that picture before DragonAnime

I've been working on the penobscot building.  I've finished a part of tier, and I'm almost done with another.  I've highlighted the part you've already seen in blue and the parts that I'm pretty much done with in orange.

I'd show a screenshot, but it would take too much time for me to assemble the pieces.  It looks the same as the finished pieces anyway, so you can juse use your imagination and you'll know what it looks like.

[jacqulina 162]

wow thats going to look fantasticmexcellent work so far

[Chris M 406]

Yeah, I have posted it before because it has an assortment of other BATs by my favourite groups as well!

Glad you like it, and good luck with your latest building.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks

I finished another part of a tier, so I figured it's time to make a preview.  This one is scaled to zoom 5 and 4.  Keep in mind that I haven't done the narrow stips of windows that go where the solid blocks are right now.  The one corner is starting to take shape.  There's still a lot to do.

[Sim shady 12]

looks great! i love the detail you're putting into the base and I like how its going so far!

[sorchin 18]

Very nice Jason. I like the plain grey color your using before you texture. I generally use different shades of grey myself. I find it's to difficult to work with all the bright gaudy colors that the BAT generally asigns.. BTW. It really looks very much like the orriginal.. Great job.. Any time fram on when it will be completed?

[spa 968]

This is really impressive. Looking at the way it looks now I think I might have been a tad hasty in hoping it would be a little smaller. It looks like the top is going to be quite stunning. Can't wait for more.

[st louis dude 6]

The penobscot building,what a classic.