nybt-forum-threads Za's NYBT Thread

[Za 164]

 

Hello, fellow Simtropolites: As you can see, the RBP has moved to a new venue and I am excited to begin work as part of the NYBT.

I will retain the "BAT Shack" for non-NY projects in the future.

 

Here is a list of the buildings I intend to tackle.

 

As always, feel free to comment and share your thoughts.

 

A link to my old thread can be found

[Darknono35 3,137]

Welcome among us my friend congratulations

Good luck because you have a lot of work

[Za 164]

I've neglected to update for a while. 1 and 45 E. Ave's nightlights are coming along. 89's modelling phase is approaching completion - a few things need to be fixed up (windows are a bit dark), but here it is thus far:

And I decided I'd give the little neighbor to 45 a shot. It'll likely just be a filler 2x3 commercial or industrial. Still much to do with it, but figured I'd give a general sense.

(replies carried over from the old thread)

gutterclub: Thanks a lot. Hopefully that one will be out in a reasonable amount of time.

vlasky: Thanks And yes, putting it in game certainly helped me see that. Way too dark.

jason: It's getting a bit closer but I'm thinking there's still more to be done.

darknono: Thanks; I'm hoping they'll get there soon as well.

libellibicus: They're getting there, slowly but surely.

IL.: You're certainly right, trying lightening it. Might be a tad too green now -_-

[RepublicMaster 428]

I really like that buildnig.

[Vlasky 1,803]

Hey, I love that new neighbor! It's the kind of buildings I like the most. I think, and I might be wrong that the contrast of the base of your bricks might be low. They look very subtle.

[libellibicus 396]

Excellent stuff...as per usual

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Welcome Za! I had no idea we had a new member joining us, so I wanted to go ahead and give you a warm welcome! I already have high anticipation of your BAT quality from what I see here thus far.

Again, welcome to the team and be sure to enjoy yourself!

[Delecto 941]

Great see you joining the NYBT and great BATs by the way!

[Parisian 549]

Welcome new colleague. I didn't know we had a new comer. Wish we all will have a wonderful bating year together modeling and modeling NY buildings.

Always good to add someone more.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Great work on the model!!!

[AlexandrosB13 184]

Welcome on the team! Models look great so far

[Darknono35 3,137]

I love your work, keep it up boy, your're an great BATman

[Za 164]

I apologize for having been MIA for over a week now. I've been slowly working on the four buildings as I get a solid hour or so.

 

republicmaster: Thanks and glad you stopped by

 

vlasky: Yeah, we do need some somewhat ambiguous "is it an industrial or commercial?" buildings, especially for US-themed cities. The Manhattanville project certainly inspired me to that end As per the bricks, I've found something that will hopefully work a bit better. You'll see that next time I update those two.

 

libellibicus: Thanks (as per usual )

 

sgt pepper: Thanks a lot; glad to be on board. Already can see that the team is quite supportive and helpful.

 

delecto: Glad to have you stop by. And likewise with regard to your recent projects, particularly the Lloyds Building. That frame blew my socks off

 

parisian: Thank ya kindly; I look forward to it as well.

 

Aaron Graham: Thanks as usual.

 

alexandrosB13: Thanks a lot!

 

darknono: Hehe you flatter me; someday I hope to be worthy of that designation.

 

So, nightlights... Not a fan of doing them since I never use 'em, but hey. Why not? Here's 45 EA currently. I'm not entirely pleased/convinced, but I'm not sure what exactly is wrong.

 

 

To make matters worse, I think I may have accidentally shifted the night model slightly off the day one... in any case, the nightlights are showing up glitched in-game. Any idea how to fix that?

 

A somewhat half-baked view of 1. I rather like the blue glow of the Bank of America sign, but if it's too much, feel free to say so. The lower two-story building is - as the name implies - a normal branch bank and thus closes around 5-6 every day. You probably wouldn't see it with lights on during the game night hours. Window reflections will have to be improved, I assume.

 

 

The good news is that I'm getting quicker with the modding/lotting, so hopefully once I get these blasted lights done things can start rolling off the line... I hope.

[Sgt Pepper 864]

Great choice of BATs. Their distinctive shapes would make them perfect for any city. You're on a roll with these models.

 

Could we see a day view too?

[kellydale2003 2,276]

Hit the ground running Huh!!

 

Great stuff! Can't wait to see more, I'll def be creeping this thread! (:

[Reddonquixote 4,338]

Hi Za, I didn't realise you moved across here... I never remember to come into these groups, which is a shame some amazing work happens in here.

 

Just with your night models, if I was to critique them... there's something not working quite right with the majority of the windows. Firstly, they have no 'glow' about them, like they aren't night-lit, but they almost look like day renders plastered on a night model, if that makes sense? ...and they have an appearance like there's no glass... but do you know what, the windows that are down that side wing on the first image.. they look amazing. What did you do there that's different? The interiors aren't so crisp and the orange light, slightly dimmed... they look convincingly behind (tinted) glass... if you can replicate that effect (and in some instances brighten it for greater variation) I think this would be just beautiful.

 

That's my opinion if it helps.

 

Congrats on joining the team, you (and they) are in great company

[Darknono35 3,137]

Awesome work and result with the nightlight. They will be perfect in our cities !!
Now, we waiting to download them

[T Wrecks 10,209]

I really love the night lights. The glow of the BoA sign looks spot on to me. You also made the outdoor lights with sufficient diffusion to achieve a realistic look. One potential problem I can foresee is that - depending on how the lot will be used - there may be quite a noticeable break between the illuminated BATted ground and any non-illuminated lot textures around. Then again, I guess this can't be helped, so it's probably nothing to worry.

 

As for your problem with the offset night lights, I'm afraid I won't be able to help you because I don't BAT myself. Have you re-centered the night model?

[libellibicus 396]

I'm definitely not experienced enough with BATting to pass on any technical critique, but the lights look spot-on to me. I'd deffo d/l it as it is right now

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Looks beautiful, I love the night lights, keep it up man!!! 

[Za 164]

Happy to say that 1 East Avenue is almost ready to be exported and I'm about ready to start night-lighting 51 and 89. I'm also in the process of  trying to figure out what's wrong with 45's lights.

 

Edit: Seem to have fixed the lod problems I was ranting about... just had to restart for some reason.

[Darknono35 3,137]

I'm glad to heard this good news about your buildings my friend.

You have doing an beautiful work so far, keep up .But, can you show us an other view of your BoA ? Just to see the front of the main building

[edwardjeria 503]

have them ready for when you think. I loved the last building

[Za 164]

sgt pepper: Thanks and glad you like the somewhat unusual shapes - one can never have enough diagonals in particular. As for day views, they can be found on of my old thread, but there will be one below.

 

kellydale: Thanks very much; glad to see you creeping any day.

 

reddonquixote: Yes the lack of glow is a problem... I think I may have either neglected to hit that switch or the materials aren't bright enough. Essentially they look like someone's eyes before you add the little reflection in the pupil... As for that side glass wing - I wish I knew! My best guess now is that I accidentally put some slightly less transparent glass on that part. I'll try to replicate it for the rest and see what that does for me. Thanks and congrats to you on the Rialto!

 

darknono: I hear ya I hear ya! I promise they'll be out *soon*

 

& 2nd: Thy wish shall be granted. Hopefully it's not too washed out because I don't really want it to go any darker.

 

T wrecks: Thanks, glad they look okay. I have to admit that I didn't put quite as much effort into the main office lights of BoA primarily because the windows are so narrow. As for the illuminated, BATted ground, I know what you're saying. I'm hoping to fix my general night light problem soon so as to determine whether or not it'll be too bad.

 

Probably a noobish question, but about re-centering it: is there any way to do so without it centering every piece to the origin? I've tried to little avail to have the whole model center.

 

libellibicus: Thanks, glad to hear it. I hope you'll be able to soon.

 

aaron graham: Thank ya kindly.

 

edwardjeria: Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully I'll think they're ready soon

 

Allllllrighty... Here's the day view of BoA as requested. I'm thinking the glass on the lower building is a bit black-holeish so that might have to be fixed.

 

 

Here's the problem with the night lights. It shows on 45, but only at zoom 3 unless I'm much mistaken.

 

 

At other rotations, they're off-center. As I asked T Wrecks up there, anyone know if there's a way to re-center the whole thing without moving all the parts to the center?

 

 

BoA is really puzzling me... its lights simply refuse to work. Does one have to do something other than just do a night export and insert into the model to get them to work? Also, does the night render's lods have to be the same (in that scene) as the day if you did them custom?

 

While I've been troubleshooting that, I figured I'd get a start on what will probably be by far my largest project, the Eastman Kodak headquarters. This here 8x5 monster is only the southern (and less interesting) half.

 

(click for full size)

 

[libellibicus 396]

The Eastman Kodak HQ is going to be a behemoth of a BAT. You've made a solid start to it....keep it up.

[Darknono35 3,137]

Yep, your new building will be HUGE

This is an great start so far

[edwardjeria 503]

I can not wait to put it in my city, where even already put

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The new building's modeling is going really well.  It's good that you've started with the roof because, for me anyway, the roof is something I do at the end when I'm not really feeling the motivation to take the time for all of those mechanical details. 

 

For the off-centered nitelites, you'll have to just re-export the entire thing after recentering the building.  Doing anything else would be very tedious and would still probably not look right.  Although here you can see how trunite works.  The entire nitelites is just put right on top of the day render (with the traditional nitelites only the parts that are lit up are overlayed).  If the night and day are in separate scenes, select the entire model, group it, and then at the bottom of the screen where there's the position, change the x and y position to 0,0 and it will be centered.  If they're in the same scene you don't have to do anything other than re-export the LODs and rerender both night and day.

 

For the other building, you're having problems because it's a prop and props have different (and finicky) rules about when the prop can be lit up and when it can't.  I guess one of the rules has to do with how much of the BAT overhangs.  Vlasky might be able to help you with the lights/prop issue because he's recently dealt with it.  It's either that or there was a rendering problem which is also possible. 

[Za 164]

So since the thread has started to reap some 2-star ratings, I figured I should hop back on the ball. To explain my absence, my mouse died and, as you can imagine, a laptop tracking pad isn't terribly conducive to this work. Have a mouse now and am working to hopefully get a metric crapton of stuff uploaded asap.

 

libellibicus, darknono, and edwardjeria: Thanks a lot

 

jason: Thanks; I hear ya about roofs in general. I usually do them last (in terms of modelling), but with this building, the roof is essentially the only thing that's particularly interesting. The tower on the second part should add some flair, but this'll be a gritty industrial building.

 

Also, thanks for the advice: I've re-centered it and am waiting to see if it worked. Being the bonehead I am, I forgot to bring the CD home with me for a week. Will test soon.

 

Unfortunately, 1 isn't a prop... but I assume the overhang problem might apply to buildings just as well?

 

-----------------

 

All of the original four are in their final stages. Here's something I whipped up today after being inspired by Andis' recent work (I won't even pretend they're half as good). Some little, cookie-cutter houses from my neighborhood.

 

[gutterclub 2,729]

Looking nice...but worried you're getting a bit of Simfoxitus or Toddy Syndrome....i.e starting building after building but not releasing them..