Chicago BAT Project

[Susaji 523]

Nice!

[darn42 1,268]

I wanted to post this. Was just fiddling with motion blur for fans, and I have to say I rather like how this looks

[Kevenbro 94]

Looking good bro!

[IDS2 3,346]

Holy crap I absolutely love this! What an awesome building, and that rust texture looks really good Really liking those fans.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks great!!!

[darn42 1,268]

Here's an update. I don't like the roof atm for some reason though :| The grey pathway needs a better texture, right now it looks blobby and weird and I don't like that, and then there's something about the roof that I just don't like.

[Susaji 523]

Beautiful.

[jglei701 8]

Lake Point Tower literally stands alone, east of senic Lake Shore Drive and surrounded by Lake Michigan on three sides. No other residence offers such unobstructed views of Chicago's storied skyline and the ever-changing waters of the deepest of the Great Lakes. What do you think?

Wow, you can see Lake Superior from the Lake Point Towers?!

(Odd... after 9 years on this site, I finally get to 1000 posts and I chose THAT for it...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Superior

Max depth: 1332 ft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Michigan

Max depth: 923 ft

[jglei701 8]

And I know that you're putting the effort into the Daley Center... but do you think you could release the Picasso as its own stand-alone sculpture as well? I think it would make a nice centerpiece for some Sim park somewhere...!

[Gn_leugim 853]

Nice tower man, looks very good. goes well in any set

[gutterclub 2,729]

Tower is looking great, reaqlly like the rust material. I assume you will be working on the glass, adding a city scape for it to reflect and all that jazz?? Keep it up!!!!

[darn42 1,268]

And I know that you're putting the effort into the Daley Center... but do you think you could release the Picasso as its own stand-alone sculpture as well? I think it would make a nice centerpiece for some Sim park somewhere...!

That was the plan. I was going to release the picasso as a prop along with the daley center, or release it a bit earlier. As it is, I have it rendered out as an sc4model alone already if someone wants to convert it into a prop and possibly do a simple lot for it.

Also, for reflections, I am thinking about making a replication of 2 blocks in with sketchup models from google warehouse and set them on invisible to camera and not casting shadows (it gives better results in perspective shots and that's what I want most).

  Edited August 22, 2012 by darn42  

[gutterclub 2,729]

The problem with reflecting something specific (i.e actual modelled buildings) is that the BAT will reflect those buildings, and if not plopped next to those said buidings in game (especially if they don't actually exist in game) they will look out of place..that is why most BATers who do good skyscrapers and glass (read Pvm, Simfox, Jason, Cockatoo, Girafe et al) usually use a generic city bitmap, top down with a splash of colour but nothing too obvious and add a bump to the glass (aas normal glass would have) to distort this image.

However, i would be interested to see the results of the method you are describing as I might be way off and it might look perfect!

edit -

(it gives better results in perspective shots and that's what I want most).

to me this makes no sense, I understand for your own personal point of view, but in which case why make it for a game that doesn't use perspective shots? I don't want to come across rude, or feel like I am preaching, but 99% of people on these forums/site are Simcity enthusiasts and I'm sure there are modelling enthusiasts who when they want to see awesome perspective renders of cityscapes can find them on all sorts of modelling forums..

  Edited August 22, 2012 by gutterclub  

[darn42 1,268]

It's actually because I have a job next summer at a big company if I can pull a good portfolio together. I recently did some sort of job shadow kind of thing there (my mom knows the vice-president of the branch close to us) and he said that he would love to hire me if I could prove I was worth hiring and said the pay would be between 15 and 20 dollars an hour. Also, I'm really interested in seeing how it looks rendered with modeled buildings.

edit: also, I want to include it here because I love the input I get here from a architecture and accuracy perspective, as well as I want to contribute something.

  Edited August 22, 2012 by darn42  

[QuadBaconatorWithHamAndEgg 31]

First of all, before I continue, I have a question for all of my fellow Chicagoans, or frequent visitors to the 'Windy City.'

In your opinion, what's the BEST burger that you can get in the Chi?

(More on this later...)

  Edited August 24, 2012 by QuadBaconatorWithHamAndEgg  

[wolverine 12]

I've always loved Kuma's and Sweetwater's

But I was blown away by the burgers at Longman and Eagle. Amazing flavor.

[darn42 1,268]

Here's an update for you guys. Been another busy couple o' days, but I got a good work day in today.

The blades will be in motion again in the next render, I forgot to set motion blur on. Anyways, I modeled the interior then deleted a lot of the furniture I had created cause it was at 11 million polys :| It's 650k now. I keep forgetting to add bump maps to my glass but I will eventually.

[Susaji 523]

Good Building!

[harishna 847]

Nice progress about the roof I think the texture will look better if you change the tone towards a darker grey. About the blades, the blur effect is a really nice detail however not sure if it will make a noticeable difference to have it set to on.

[darn42 1,268]

It doesn't have to be noticeable to improve the BAT Half the things that francis told me to do weren't noticeable (except to him) but they improved the BAT soooo much. As for the roof texture, do you mean the pathway? or do you mean the roof itself.

[QuadBaconatorWithHamAndEgg 31]

Hey, Darn, is your Daley Center model supposed to look 'fatter' on ground and slim up as it goes to the top?

(Also, burgers?)

[darn42 1,268]

I don't know what the best burger would be, I don't live in the city, just a suburb. Anyways, Right now it's not scaled 133%, but even so, it was designed so that the pillars that support it get thinner as they support less weight. So it should look like it gets squashed very slightly as it goes up, though it's extremely subtle, surprised it was prominent enough for you to notice.

[QuadBaconatorWithHamAndEgg 31]

Wow, Darn, that's great attention to detail! I've never even noticed that on the real-life Daley Center!

[darn42 1,268]

Here's my latest perspective render.

Gonna do a sc4 one now, worried about the plaza texture looking tiled.

[Susaji 523]

Amazing.

[Amthaak 1,501]

OMG! I first sight I though it was a real pic! amazing job my friend!

[darn42 1,268]

Here's the orthographic preview. I'm closing in on finishing the modeling of the plaza.

[wolverine 12]

This looks stellar. This will definitely look great in your portfolio. SC4 Bat Modeling definitely helped jump start my career.

[SimCoug 5,972]

That is a great looking building Darn - and the quality is first rate! Speaking as a LOTer - could you also include a SC4model file of just the building (separate from the plaza) so this great building might be more versatile in game? Just my two cents

You could even BAT the plaza and building separate, and just include both model files for the greatest utility.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Ohh I didn't realize how small it was. Well I mean its not that small, but for something from Chicago...I guess the real life photograph was a little misleading to me.

Great work, I love this style of buildings. So simple, yet something more when looking at such a thing. The plaza certainly gives life to the base.

I feel like the roof has too much of a yellow hue, you don't really see a lot of that in SimCity 4's environment. I know the real building probably has a roof that color, but it would stand out quite a bit. Maybe if it had more grey or brown in color... But of course this is just one of those little things you don't really have to concern yourself with. The building could use something like that to catch our attention real easily, besides the nice facade and windows, which already has an eye-catching appearance in a great way.