Jason's BATs & Tutorials

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Just stopping by to say that I'm still close to finishing all of the BATs that I've been close to finishing for the last few months, and that I plan on finishing them soon, and there's also something new I've been doing work on that you guys will like.  There will be at least one upload from me this month.  I won't have very much free time for a while, but I feel like it will be a productive time.

[Sim shady 12]

cool to hear about progress. Wish i could loan you some of my brothers free time...he has WAAAY too much of it

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I've remade the nitelites here doing Night Libraries.  This was successful, so I'll move on to doing TruNite.

Right now the windows look weak to me, but I think it's because they are up against white mullions.  I think they'll look better with TruNite, which will make the rest of the building overall darker.

I'll probably be doing these things for all the renders I do in the future.

[autoVino 26]

Looks awesome , but imho the base floor (compared to the surroundings) looks overlit.

TruNite?  Haha that would look awesome on these buildings, but sounds rather tedious to do...

[mcarch 15]

Can't wait for it to be released! Is this building a remake of a real one, or is this just imaginary? If it is imaginary it looks like Omaha, NE's Police Station in downtown!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

AutoVino:  I agree, I'll tone them down the next render I do.  Originally all of the night lights were super bright, in order to look bright against the white mullions, and now that the windows are more normal, the lobby is over-bright. 

mcarch:  This is imaginary.  It sorta looks like mahaPoliceStation.jpg">the building in Omaha, but I hope mine is better looking, lol.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Page-flip?

[SimFox 801]

Actually this is rather small building and truNight wouldn't be too much of the tedium here. And getting ridd of those shadows on the roof and "normalizing" the illumination of that that white wall would be of a significant value!

Windows wise, I think they are a bit TOO defined... I mean you shouldn't really be able to clearly see something through them, at least not in the case of such an office window. Inside would be bright lighten while outside is dark, so with either - camera or eye there will be so called blooming effect. Much more with camera of course at any rate that effect will significantly smudge everything inside. Bright spots there should be significantly brighter. And so should dark. Remember those are dark spots inside of well lit room. so they must be brighter then something outside at night. Doing so will also make windows look more vivid, less dull...

There are few tricks to get truNight incorporated into current Bat4Max.

Quick and dirty ones are problematic case they wouldn't reduce the time needed for export. and would call for some actions that could be prone for mistakes.

kd5rax had hes idea, but I have my doubts about it. So I'm waiting when he will put his renderings of Freedom Tower with truNite online.there have been quite a bit a talk but I haven't seen it yet. I hope his script alterations will work, but i to be honest, doubt they will, at least not in the shape he had shown me.

Ideal solution in intergrating truNight would call for different approach to night rendering as whole withing the BAT4MAX. But that would me MUCH more the altering couple of lines of code...

Plus I have been doing manual export not only because of truNite, but because of bad mistakes Mental Ray do calculating GI when MAX system units are set to meters.

[CDI_spy 5]

Shocking... the first smaller business is very downloadable, and the second has some pretty amazing night lights... I'm liking it!

[Silur 3,302]

Hi, Jasoncw ...

I like Your work - this is tremendous for me ....

Thank You !!!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

CDI_spy & Silur:  Thanks!  Both will be uploaded later this month (October).

SimFox:  Thanks for the suggestions.  I've blurred the windows, and I've also adjusted the levels, so it's pretty much as bright as I can get it right now.  The brightness now looks fine in the game.  I also made it TruNite, and it worked out just fine.  I forgot to take a screenshot though.

I'm just going to do some more tweaking, and then I'll do the final render.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yikes, I haven't updated in a month (if my latest posts here can even count as updates).  I've been busy with real life, but in between I've been texturing Nofunk's art deco towers, and finishing VanWingerden Plaza.  During this time I've also learned how to use night libraries, and TruNite.

Just as a quick small thing, I started something based off a building from Chicago.

Some architectural advice would help me out a lot.  I'm having trouble at the top of the building.  The real building has some arches and stuff at the top which help finish off the building, but I don't want to do that (I want to keep it clean and rectangular).  I don't feel like what I have at the top is very good.

[nofunk 1,933]

But you're the architecture student!

My advice would be this: if you don't want to put arches at the top, at least give it a nice, prominent cornice. The cornice you have on it right now looks too flat -- beef it up, and push it out.

But I really like this design. It actually sort of reminds me of one Cadillac Tower. Hm...

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yes I know you need to do Cadillac Tower! 

I beefed up the cornice, and I also added the arches.  I don't think the arches are a bad thing.  But now the way the cornice parts overlap each other, it looks funny.

[Odainsaker 2,134]

Alright, more buildings!

Given both the image and the way you described your aims for the top of your latest project, I couldn't help but think of this building, which for a historic style is certainly clean and rectangular:



The prominent corner of San Antonio's 1920s era Brady Building, which houses the locally acclaimed Empire Theatre.  Rather than a heavy cornice, this one uses recessed sculpture panels with barely projecting denticulae (tooth-like or piano-key-like mouldings often seen on cornices and entablatures).  What closes the top is the slitted stonework fencing between the stark column finials.  These actually were further topped by sculptural globes, but those are now gone, as is the giant "Empire" arrow marquee sign with its imperial eagle that ran down the height of the corner.

Though the articulation is similar to your building, it seems to be of a different material and style than what yours so far suggests, but, hopefully it will add to the flurry of ideas on how you might treat your building.  It's kinda hard to get more clean without stripping what little playful ornament is left and moving fully into stark modernism.

By the way, while I show that image, the building beyond on the left is the 14-story Majestic Building, which houses the opulent Majestic Theatre.  It comes from the same time period as the Brady Building but differs radically in treatment with its full-blown Spanish Revival styling.  I just love the residential penthouse, and finally have an opportunity to show it off:



Ooo la la, so charming and picturesque and just the right size for an urban bachelor pad with rooftop patio and pool.  Too bad I can't afford it!

[spa 968]

Looks like a promising start! I have to agree with you, the arches work well. I don't know wht to suggest about the very top though. Something doesn't look quite right there.

[ardecila 124]

Yes!  Somebody tries to do the Fisher Building (or at least something like it!)  It's my favorite residential building in the city, and if I can ever afford it, I plan to buy a unit there.

It looks awesome so far.  Are you gonna do the original color (very faint orange/grey) or keep it white?

My advice for finishing the top of the tower - set the top floor apart from the rest of the building by putting a secondary cornice beneath it.

[nofunk 1,933]

Ardecila's got it!

[Pokeking3000 0]

try to create the urj al arablook at skyscraper page.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Odainsaker:  Originally I wanted to do something more like that building.  But when I was searching Flickr.com for inspiration, the Fisher Building found me, so I started going off that.  I definitely want to do a building similar to the Brady Building.  And when I was working on this building, I had originally started with just a small ledge with the denticulae, but then I started copying more directly the Fisher Building, and that brought me to my first preview, which was somewhere in between.

And I don't think it was your point, but the base of the building caught my eye.  I think I'll do something more like that instead of the Fisher Building's base.

Your posts are always a pleasure to read btw.

Spa:  Thanks!

Ardecila:  It seems like a great place to live.  This building will be a 1x2 wall to wall building, so it won't quite be like it.  I'll using the same color as the Fisher Building though.  I'll try the secondary cornice.

Nofunk:  Hard to make a response to your comment, lol.  I'll try it out doubly I guess.

Pokeking3000:  Please post requests in the Official BAT Request Thread.  Also, that building has already been made.  And regardless, I don't make those types of buildings, so I don't know why you're asking me.

I haven't had time to work on the building any more.  Also, I'll be finishing up Nofunk's Art Deco Towers, and my VanWingerden Plaza next, before I work more on this.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

By the way Jason, Chase Tower is awesome! Can't wait to see the others too.

[Pokeking3000 0]

Wait, Burj al "ARAB" not Burj al "DUBAI", but if the Buj al Arab is actualy already made, were do I find it?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Sparky:  Thanks!

Pokeking3000:  Yeah, I know which building you're talking about.  I don't know where to find it.  I know it exists though, because it was uploaded to the STEX several times without permission (people trying to pass it off as their own), and then eventually I think a newer and better version was made and uploaded.  I don't remember where it is, but it does exist somewhere.

Ok, so lately, the screensaver combined with something (3ds Max, idk) causes this graphical glitch on my computer.  When this has been happening, I've just restarted the computer.  But I leave programs and things open while I'm away, and this time I hadn't saved yesterday's work on this building, so I lost all of the cornice stuff when I reset my computer.  Not a big loss, but now I have to redo it.  So I might post later tonight with a recreated cornice and with base progress.

Edit:

Ok, I've redone the top and bottom of the building.  I didn't finish with the bottom, but the big frame thing around the front entrance will be more detailed, and there will be window frames on the first floor.  I'm still looking for suggestions on how to make this look better.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I really think you should try ardecila's suggestion of adding a secondary cornice and making the topmost row of windows a tad smaller. That would make the top of the building look less chopped off - or at least the architectural analphabet that I am hopes so.

[nofunk 1,933]

I agree with T Wrecks, that the secondary cornice should be more prominent and the top row of windows perhaps a little shorter.

I also still think the main cornice should be much more substantial. Notice even in Odainsaker's example that there is a consierable fascia between the top row of windows and the roof line -- an area about equal to the height of the windows! THEN there are the denticulae, which add about half again the height of the fascia. And THEN there are the vertical elements that again add half the height of the fascia. All in all, the "cornice" on Odainsaker's example is about twice the window height!

The cornice does not have to stick out from the building -- it can be clean like you want it to be -- but it does have make a statement! In Odainsaker's example it says it vertically; in Ardecila's the statement is made horizontally. I would suggest two things: (1) make the cornice BOLDER and (2) consider echoing in the cornice some of the elements from the base -- like those circles. Think of the base and cornice as book ends for your wall -- they should agree with each other.

The base looks fantastic!!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I want the building to be very light feeling, so I don't want to increase the size of the cornice(s).  But I will try to bring some of the broader surfaces of the base to the cornice, to hopefully tie the two together more, and to "fix" the cornice.  I'll also try giving the cornice more contrast with textures to give it more oomph without changing the geometry much.

[SimFox 801]

Hm... I think I'll join the choir as well...

I don't think that making the cornice taller, for instance, would make building heavier... but it does look now a bit unfinished. All these are, however, just a minor things. All in all the building looks great.

[ardecila 124]

Looks awesome so far. I'll mirror what nofunk mentioned - lower the height of the last story. I love the base so far.

[Swiss_Canadian 2]

You and NoFunk are my new Gods; thanks for the releases!!!!

[Sim shady 12]

just curious, why is chase tower locked?