JDR BATs

[jdreece 54]

BMA Tower Condominium Shell - 19 stories

After the better part of two weeks now, I find myself having grasped enough information to be dangerous to the BAT community.....I have embarked on my second BAT turning a blind eye to those early days of BAT number 1 fraught with error & enlightenment.

I will be working on the roof a bit more but wanted to post a thumb for comment. Yes the building is white (Google BMA Tower Kansas City) so I may need to adjust the "pink" tone a bit. Glass will be black - working on a reflective black glass.

This will fit a 2x3 lot (might go 3x3 to include a plaza?)

But alas - I am off to the races with what I hope to be the first of many.

[weixc812 509]

Your first audience of this thread

Hope everything goes well with this BAT

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Welcome to the world of batting

Its hard to say anything if you just give us a shot of the roof. But there are already much details in there, at least for a beginner (Althought my current roof isnt that detailed either). However, you shouldn't start with texturing. Wait until modelling is done. I made the same mistake when I was working on my first BAT. You should use simple colours instead to distinguish different elemts such as walls, glass, roof etc.

Good luck on this BAT

[jdreece 54]

full tower view.......

[Jasoncw 11,840]

So far so good.

Yeah I agree with skyscraper, it's best to just do the modeling first and then do the texturing afterwards. It's simpler and easier that way.

[jdreece 54]

ready for plaza develoment.......glass is still a work in progress, but I will get there! Can't seem to pull off the black with a reflection.......tutorial illudes me

[jdreece 54]

project number two........finally I am having some progress on getting black glass reflections!

any suggestions for how to top this out?

[Fargo 543]

I took some quick measurements in Google Earth and it seems the tower's footprint is about 110x180 feet, so if you wanted it to be scaled correctly the lot would have to be at least 3x4 tiles.

Anyways I'm looking forwards to developments in this thread

Will you be continuing the W2W NY-styled buildings you showed in the Sketchup thread?

[jdreece 54]

Anyways I'm looking forwards to developments in this thread

Will you be continuing the W2W NY-styled buildings you showed in the Sketchup thread?

Yes - currently working on the New York Life building in downtown Kansas City, MO. (although that one will be a corner lot)

The latest BAT post was a discovery in working with reflections. I have struggled to get them being new to 3dmax, but I have spent a little time with a few tutorials to get a little further along. Part of my hurdle has been understanding the transition between SketchUp and max - now that I have a fairly good grasp on it, I hope to start kicking out a few ideas and see which ones may merit development for an upload to STEX. I will be texturing everything in SU with the exception of glass - that will happen in 3dmax. I will still need to figure out the Lot editor......but that's for another day.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Are you really sure it's a good idea to texture in SU and then transition to Max? I don't model myself, but AFAIK it's considered "best practice" to use Arch & Design materials in 3dsmax.

[Delecto 941]

I totaly agree TWrecks comment!

I understand that some people find difficult to model in 3dsmax (compared to SketchUp or Blender). But regarding the material editor, Max is 200% more interesting and powerful.

Otherwise, great start on your projects.

Sam.

[jdreece 54]

Are you really sure it's a good idea to texture in SU and then transition to Max? I don't model myself, but AFAIK it's considered "best practice" to use Arch & Design materials in 3dsmax.

no I'm not sure but until I get all the freaking options figured out and how everything works (lol), SU works for me at the moment.....I understand the difference, but there is a learning curve to get through and these first few projects are an attempt to figure the parts and pieces out. Max just has too many buttons......

[Toothless Stitch 2,901]

Use the "preview" button to do a render. You wil see the building as it would be seen in SC4. Also, yoo will be able to see way more from that perspective.

[jdreece 54]

back at it - I hate that I let this fall off my plate for WAY too long, but is what it is. Still a SketchUp junkie but downloaded 3dMax, so we'll see if I can blend the programs better than last time. Going to model in SketchUp but transfer over into Max for materials hopefully.....here's my test project - a 12 story art deco - here's the start on the penthouse floor...

[Shy Dude 149]

Wow, that's a really nice facade design. You've really nailed what makes Art Deco Art Deco,

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Great! You're doing a nice job.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yeah it's much better to use Arch & Design materials instead of doing materials in sketchup. What sketchup gives you when you export and import from it can be a pretty convoluted material which, I guess, does the best that it can while still being generically compatible with most renderers.

 

You'll have to learn the export options for sketchup so that your model will be easier to work with in max, but once you do that, making materials is much more intuitive in 3ds max.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

That facade looks awesome !!

[jdreece 54]

the moment you realize your file is nowhere to be found on your computer.....after 12 hours of modeling.......     

[Cool_Z 1,547]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

have you made a full search by file type (using the extension) ?

 

If you still can't find it I suggest you try a file recovery app (like recuva), it can perform miracles. But do it fast, the more you use the pc the more risk there is the file can't be restored

[jdreece 54]

never tried that - will give it a shot - Thx!

[jdreece 54]

revived some partial files and saved a bit of time.....update on the penthouse level. The main floor template is about complete as well which will be about a 10 minute walk in the park to copy down to the base level. will try to wrap up the model this weekend. Need to dig through some tutorials on materials in 3ds Max as well - fortunately i have a fairly large library of materials from Dosch Design that should be able to start with and hopefully go from there. So far the tests from SketchUp to 3ds Max have gone flawlessly.

 

The model is based on the Union Carbide Building in Kansas City. An old office building converted to condos in the late 2000's and still under construction. Makes for quite a bit of roof top stuff to include.

 

[Cool_Z 1,547]

Good thing you found some of your work back. 

[jdreece 54]

rooftop update and development of top two floors continues - need to fix my floating exhaust vents.....windows next.....good thing I don't know materials in 3ds max yet or i would be wanting to try and get ahead of myself 

 

 

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

Wow, nice job.

[Cool_Z 1,547]

you're fast !!

[madhatter106 3,903]

As soon as I saw the aerial screenshot, I said, "hey that's the Union Carbide Building."  I have a pic or two of it in my reference file.  Glad someone is trying to bring this one to life for SC4.

[jdreece 54]

time to move on to the 2-story base.....I will come back and pick up the remaining roof details at the end before going into MAX for materials. 

 

thanks Cool Z - I can model quickly and fairly detailed in SketchUp......the transfer to MAX for materials will be a different story - guaranteed!

 

@madhatter106 - I have quite a few pics as well which was why I figured tackling this one may be a first "back in the saddle" type project - I'm just hoping the materials part goes well!!!

 

this will prob be the last update until everything is finished and ready to export - enjoy 

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

You're really fast! 

[MTT9 187]

That was fast! You will be texturing in no time