Jason's BATs & Tutorials

[Sgt Pepper 864]

My goodness we are almost getting to the point of putting real life into SimCity...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

WOW!! I want my building to look real like that, great job on the lighten but the day image on the trier tower lools perfect.

[Francis90b 748]

Wonderful!

I really like the night previews.The only thing that i don't like is the un-lit lobby, but i must take into account that keeping a lobby lit all the night wouldn't be realistic...

What do you mean with "architectural lighting"?

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I imagine he means lighting that's not functional in a sense that it doesn't enable people inside to see what they are doing, but only serves to emphasize the building's architecture.

[io_bg 249]

Wow! At first I thought I'm looking at real-life pictures

[SimFox 801]

Yep, T-Wrecks you're right on the mark. I mean some lights to highlight (hm...) shape and structure of the building...

As for lobby... it will most definitely be light. But since it is a) rather easy and straight forward and b) I think may be the lobby itself may stand a little re-modeling (get a bit denser frame, for instance) I've left it for later and wanted to concentrate on the tower itself and particularly night windows.

[Simcity player 13]

stunning!!!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The facade assembly is based off of a photo I ran across on flickr, but the person took down their photos of that building.  It's not a famous or well known building (and it doesn't look at all like either of my BATs).  I tried finding the building again but I couldn't.  But, the green is simply painted steel (semi-glossy), behind the glass is either concrete or limestone.  If I recall, the glass was slightly tinted, but it's not very reflective.

Yeah, I don't really know why I lit up so few windows at night.  I think more would do well for the BAT, and it would also help make the panels behind the glass read more clearly as that, rather than as window blinds, or vaguely brighter windows, as I think most people had perceived it.  Other than the windows, the only lighting I think the building should have is the lobby lights, and the lights for the inside of the penthouse thing.

The environmental reflections could be done, but I think if they are, they should generally be very subtle.

[Seraf 1,238]

Omg, great nightlighting! I think the greatest effect is on Nafmis Department Store and Knoll, ...when I look at these buildings, I'm becoming convinced to darkNite

[6459978. 106]

Wow! Great to see that you're still BATing, and that the general state-of-the-art has progressed so much! I particularly like the dark night stuff (that was an idea I was very fond of ages ago but I could never modd well enough to pull it off.) Keep up the fantastic work!

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Originally posted by: 6459978.

Wow! Great to see that you're still BATing, and that the general state-of-the-art has progressed so much! quote>

Wow indeed, and great to see that you are still alive and kicking!  I almost fell off my chair when I saw those familiar numbers in the "Last Post" column. What a pleasant surprise!

[nofunk 1,933]

Originally posted by: T Wrecks

Originally posted by: 6459978.

Wow! Great to see that you're still BATing, and that the general state-of-the-art has progressed so much! quote>

Wow indeed, and great to see that you are still alive and kicking!  I almost fell off my chair when I saw those familiar numbers in the "Last Post" column. What a pleasant surprise!

quote>

Ditto!

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yeah!! It's great to see you!!

BATing may have progressed but your BATs are still great! I looked on the STEX just now, and I was surprised to see how few BATs you uploaded, but they definitely made an impression.

[wolverine 12]

Originally posted by: SimHoTToDDy

Actually, Wolverine (don't see him around very often) was working on Hudson's over in the BSP thread. The last render I saw was from March of 2009, but I believe he still has it floating around, waiting to be finished. Unfortunately, the render isn't hosted anymore, so I can't show you, but suffice to say it was a really nice model.

Jason: Its looking really good so far! Its come a long way from the little doodle in our conversation thread My only concern right now is that there is too much contrast between the bright facade and the very ark windows. Perhaps just changing the window texture around so that there is less black might do the trick (the light spots seem fine to me). I especially love the ornate crown you decided to put on this quote>

I'm still alive and yes Hudsons is still alive.  The problem is I use 3ds Max all day at work, and the last thing I want to do is go home and do more Max....especially when it's summer and I live in downtown Chicago.  Definitely toward the end of summer, I should be posting some progress shots

[Gn_leugim 853]

Glad to see that you keep up doing a great work

[Jasoncw 11,840]

^ Old

Here's the current state of Queralt Hotel.  I'll be exporting this soon (within a few days), so speak now or forever hold your peace. 

I scaled it down horizontally to make it fit wall to wall on a 3x4, but I didn't scale vertically, so don't mind that it looks slimmer now, I'll fix that later (for now I'm going to bed).

[Sgt Pepper 864]

A very stunning building Jason! I can't wait to download it.

[Simbourgeois 139]

Oh, such a beauty! I already know where I'll place it in my city

Great work, indeed!

Regards,

Simbourgeois

Mayor of Belleville

[Alex_Bervoets 91]

Wow... wait a minute while I pick up my jaw from the floor... This makes my BAT look like crap

Very nice work, it looks so real...

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!!!! I love the work on this building the textures is perfect for me. I need to get good like you, so when or if I make some NYC old school apartments they will look great.

[Amthaak 1,501]

Fantastic work! You are making perfectly what I desperatly try to do!

[io_bg 249]

Wow! Looks fantastic!

[SimFox 801]

OK, since you rush us...

Here couple of thoughts of mine:

blue

make these extend all the way to the edge of road, eg covering side walk in its entirety, not just "on lot" part of it. You can easily fit "larger" building on same size lot by simply altering it numerical size by hand later.

orange:

I think these should/could be brighter. metal like this would really pick on the sun/sky. Try make it more metallic by giving it metallic IOR eg something between 25 and 30 and set it's BDRF to IOR

and lastly, may be some caustic, real or fake, in the pool...

PS it is a gorgeous piece of work!

[citiesxlfan42 27]

Great job, Jasoncw! I love all of your work here on ST! Like SimFox said, that would be really cool if you had some slight overhang from those canopies off the lot. Then it would seriously look like the canopies in real life! Again, keep it up!

[Francis90b 748]

Ok, so speak now or shut up forever ?

Oh well, here i am...

Building overall massing-proportions.

So you did not scale it down on height? That's interesting, also because in some ways maybe it does look better in this more "slender" shape.Maybe you could add a floor in the middle section to make it thinner and taller.

Details:top cornice

Very good idea there, i believe it gives a lot of personality to the building.One question though...in what material it is made?

And another question (i know i'm annoying ) why did you put that cornice on the top of the penthouse too?

I doubt that it would be ever visible from the road.

Details:corner pillars

Actually i believe that the building would do better without them, or without any distinctive element on the corner.

Details:arches  on the top of the arched window pairs

Maybe it would be better to make the arches gray just like the rest of the facade

Details: canopies

Well, that's really nit-picking, but maybe a cold color on them would match better with the rest of the building if compared with the current red.

Patio and roof

I have the impression that the wooden panels on the patio does look rather too big.Another thing to consider is that, if there's a patio on the roof, then you might want to change the roof colour to something different than asphalt gray...maybe you can extend the patio and move the roof junk somewhere else too.I remember that in Fort Worth an old 1920's hotel was rehabbed not too long ago.The hotel was locaetd into a wedding cake style skyscraper, and the setbacks were used to host terraces and patio for the restored hotel.I don't remember what is the hotel current name, but i can tell that the building wa built in 1928 as the Blackstone hotel.Perhaps you might take a look on it.

Well, after having expressed all of my criticism about it let me tell that it is a wonderful building !

[Jack_wilds 550]

...wow and wonderful... I like it alot, the exterior wall texture showing what type of stone fascia its meant to be...

SF's thoughts are interesting (-trying to picture what he suggesting), however I am wondering...

A) is it doable to extend the canopies (just wondering how it would play and look in game) and in so doing lose the work that can be seen now (if its even an issue or not) -its a tossup, street scene realism or 'cover-up' some of what is seen now... your call

B) as for the 'roof junk' and HVAC units... perhaps brighter a little -however finding balance between weathered time and too new looking -the newer the brighter and more reflective... its up to you when its captured in time for presentation...

C) then the deck... I like it as it shows how much of an upscale hotel this is... then if expanding the deck add same canopies one end or the other for shade sitting at one end or the other...as for the 'largeness' of the planking texture... at this size I see what its meant to be... if it gets too small or realistic that particular detail will be blurred -lost, is there a happy medium in sizing it?  I think the penthouse detail shows the time period when such things were done for upscale properties and with a play deck there, those clients would notice...

D) then if your making a residential version of this hotel, perhaps these previous notions mentioned can be added/mixed to show another look

E)     the 3x4 lot should work  will and good, and  w2w possilbilities for developed central downtown areas however will it also have enough space and room to have an alley/service way in back?

so I respectfully offer my musing for further consideration, trust they may be of value...

Thank-you for modeling such a good bat... and sharing it with us all

Jack

[nofunk 1,933]

I agree with SimFox's suggestions. Also, I'm not sure about the square tiles on the roof (where the gap in the railing is). I'm not sure why they'd put that there, given the fact that there's already a large deck for guests to enjoy. That's just my impression though.

Otherwise, this looks amazingly fantastically wonderful!

[SimFox 801]

Ohhh... what a can of worms you've opened!

[citiesxlfan42 27]

Yes, nofunk, francis and jack_wilds all raise great suggestions. I agree to them all. And the whole white tile thing. Is something going to be placed on top of there, like an elevator, roof stuff, or something else? Otherwise, as nofunk said, there is no reason for that to be there.

BTW: I love the external texturing!

[SimFox 801]

On a side note here is re-mated, re-lit and re-rendered ROTH department store: