Chicago BAT Project

[Afuegosky 5]

All of this amazing work, I haven't played simcity in years but if you release all of those awesome projects i'll bring my Chicago build back!

 

I dont know if any of you were around back in the glory days of simcity4 but here is a link to my CJ 

 

darn42 keep up the good work!! It makes me smile.

[darn42 1,268]

Thanks for the support everybody. I didn't even realize gold stars on posts existed

 

Update Time!

 

(There's your warning T Wrecks)

 

The Details

 

And the Preview

 

Anyways, I haven't gotten as much done as I'd have wanted to because of my busy schedule, but I needed to get an update out before I go on vacation. 

 

Right now I think I've gotten most of the stonework detail that is going to be done on this building. It's mostly repetitive on the bottom half so I'd say that I'm about halfway with modeling since I still need to do all the ducts and wires and other miscellaneous, non-stone stuff. Look for that in a couple weeks.

 

Also, remember, I will explain how to do anything I've done if anyone asks for a tutorial. In addition I have some specific tutorials I have in mind that I will probably also do--the leaves on the cupola, the circular holes, and most important, selection modifiers and tools.

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Amazing! I loved the details! Incredible!

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Exquisite work Darn. How's your PC coping with it?

[Girafe 1,729]

That's modeling

[AndisArt 2,066]

Simply wonderfull! Outstanding work

Enjoy your holidays :-)

[Harry's Place 918]

Amazing job. Can't wait to see it released. <3

[Seraf 1,238]

The level of details is outstanding, beautiful work   I just wanted to ask; what's the level of zoom of the first render?

[IDS2 3,346]

That modeling is absolutely incredible. I could spend an hour looking at that render and still not see all the details.

[sten1700 102]

what... when i saw the detail..i've been on simtropolis for many years now and this is the first time...i swear, my mouth just dropped on the floor. Never seen anything like this! My compliments!!! Amazing. To me, this is art. Hope you'll do some Manhattan buildings in the future as well! 

[Afuegosky 5]

Incredible!! Awesome work

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Come on guys another Gold Star!!!!

[ianpaschal 77]

Hot damn that's fabulous.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

... ... how... why... I mean... Jeez. What a building!

 

Incredible how they built it with such an amount of detail where it cannot even be seen from street level, whereas the lower section is actually not that ornate. They must have been really proud of that building!

 

 

Semi-OT: You could totally detach the rotunda part on top and export it separately as a music pavilion, museum, historical observatory or whatever.

[darn42 1,268]

Thanks again for the support I'm glad this progress is being enjoyed. 

 

Seraf: It's just a random zoom I picked, but it's probably close to HD.

 

T Wrecks: That's an awesome idea I think I will do just that.

 

So today is going to be my day to write some tutorials. I will post them in my dedicated tutorial thread later in the day, but first I have some stuff that is relevant here. 

 

 

I haven't done much to add to the building. Very little, but I'd like to show some of the closeup wireframes of the details I do have so you all can see that this isn't as meticulous as it looks like from afar. The most time consuming part for me is the measurements. I use a surprising amount of algebra when I'm getting the proportions down, but the modeling is usually straightforward. 

 

Here are all the wireframes:

 

From afar: 

 

 

The tippy-top: The vents were made with an easy poly modeling technique that makes that kind of pattern on any quadrangle. The oblong circular details were just beveled scaled and tapered from a cylinder. The rest was box modeling or a swept spline.

 

Cupola: 

I will detail how I did this in a tutorial.

 

More of the cupola:

 

A little further down:

Mostly lofts and a little bit of poly modeling. The Lion's heads took 30 seconds in zbrush but would be much more difficult in 3ds max.

 

And further:

These were simple sweeps of a spline that I used a symmetrical bend and a taper modifier on to add some dimension.

 

This thing:

I broke it up into several objects and grouped it together. The helixes are the "spring" object available in the dynamics section of the create tab.

 

The row of circles:

Just some leaves placed and symmetrized (I made a word) about a circular hole. The dimensions for the hole were made from the facade.

 

The horizontal runners across the walls:

All of the small bits are instanced and I made a few different sizes of backplate. It's a really small detail so the fewer the polys the better.

 

Those are all the major details on this so far. The most important part of making all this that made it feasible to add this detail are the ways I instanced the details and placed them along the building. I will definitely make a dedicated tutorial for the selection modifiers and placement modifiers I used.

 

Anyways, I hope this demystifies some of the details on the building. 

[edwardjeria 503]

Asome work

Is many congratulations

[SimCoug 5,972]

The amount of work and energy that you spend on the details just boggles my mind 

Your work on the tutorials will go a long way in helping other aspiring BATers to achieve such amazing results.

Great job!  

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

You're an artist, really.

[darn42 1,268]

I have a new update, though it may look a bit worse than the last one. I had to get rid of the trim running up an down the sides for now. I was very stupid when I made it and ended up with a several groups that ended up having over 16000 objects and 1.5 million polys just for some brickish looking things. It woulda been fine if there were like 100 objects, but noooo, I had to group at the beginning. Anyways, I merged those into a new scene so I wouldn't lose them but they aren't there right now. 

 

Also, I'm having a bit of a problem with the BAT rig so the preview renders are manual and the lighting isn't right, but I am close to done with modeling. I've got all but one part of the stonework modeled. Going to add clocks, hvac vents, small metal bits and a couple other misc. things very soon.

 

 

Enjoy. Texturing will happen very soon

[Darknono35 3,137]

Wow so beautiful Darn, your building is ... Just... Awesome

Congratulation for this beauty I can't wait anymore to see another update of this jewel and the textures

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Wonderful Work!!!!! This will be the bat of the year, if you can finish it.

[jmsepe 2,038]

OMG. Sometimes I just do feel guilty of downloading these Bats and taking advantage of them. The time and effort dedicated to create such magnificent building is unimaginable. 

[dubaidude303 1,119]

That is epic!!!!! Looks awesome! Can't wait to see that building in person when I go to Chicago next month

[weixc812 509]

a genuine piece of art

[Seraf 1,238]

Beautiful work I hope you will get the BAT of the Year for this one

[edwardjeria 503]

god

this building apear in tramsformes 3 the movie

[darn42 1,268]

And now, all of the major modeling is done!

 

After just a few tweaks and additions--one being importing those trimmed bricks in a safe manner--texturing will commence! 

 

My list atm is: walls inside, window blinds, fixing the bat4max rig, texturing, importing the bricks. During texturing, I will also add life to the shops at the bottom.

 

 

Enjoy.

[SimCoug 5,972]

Enjoy.

 

It would be impossible not to!  Amazing work 

[Jack_wilds 550]

awesome... done and released to be played with it'll be the bat of the year or perhaps in the top 3...     well done a promising model...

[Vlasky 1,803]

This is spectacular! I love all the details! Looking forward to texturing and BAT4Max renders