mipro mipro

[matias93 7,535]

27 minutes ago, MillionSeven said:

 

That's Amazing!
Do you know the future size of the lot? 3x2? 4x3?

 

13 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

It's not wall to wall but it would work in a wall to wall environment. It fills up half of an entire block. I think it's a 5x2.

;D

 

[MillionSeven 48]

Thanks and sorry for be idiot hehehe

[ericexp 54]

Can't wait!!!!

[Sciurus 323]

Wow what a great building !! I can't wait too to have it in my city ! 

Just a question I'd like to ask… how do you scale your BATs from the reality ? Do you know the dimensions or you estimate them with your eye and the environment ? That's a question I always wondered about BATting and I never had any answers ! Well maybe because I never asked… the thing is that to BAT some very big building like this, I never know how to begin !

[Jasoncw 11,949]

That's a good question.

For the Guardian Building I'm doing it differently than normal. Because of how much small and interlocking detail there is, everything has to be very precise. So I'm using very close photos (like https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelgsmith/16306321357/ or https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaszeta/5852789954/ ), and I'm counting the bricks. And because of this I actually have the scene units in 3ds max set to feet and inches, instead of meters, because in the US, a brick is 8 inches wide, and three bricks stacked are 8 inches tall. Even more ideal would be if you had measured drawings of a building, but those are very rare. 

But that's not what I normally do. If a buildings has bricks that I can count, I might count them. But really what I do is I measure the building in google earth. Then I find an elevation photo of the building, and I open it in photoshop. And then I take a grid and put it into photoshop and then scale it to the right size. So if a building is 30 meters wide then I scale it so that there are 30 grid boxes. And then I duplicate and scale the grid again so that I have useful dimensions like 0.1, 0.2, 0.25, or any other dimensions that I notice are common on the building. So if I'm measuring how big something is in the photo I move the grid over to line up with it.  But when doing this you have to keep in mind that there is distortion in the photograph, so you also have to use your own judgement. You also have to be careful to do the big dimensions first. For example, if you measure the width of a window, and then the width of a column, and you clone them to make your facade, the width of the facade will probably be wrong. With small parts it's easy to be off by 15%, and then when you clone and add them together the inaccuracy gets bigger and bigger. 

And then at the end, usually the height of the BAT is close to the height of the real building. Either way I scale everything vertically so that the height is the same as the height listed online. Then I scale it horizontally to fill the lot correctly. Me and most American BATers use a one paver tile (1.6 m) setback from the edge of the lot. If a building would need too much horizontal scaling to fit the lot correctly, then I don't make the building, or I try to find a creative way of making it fit. And then I scale the building vertically by 133% to compensate for the visual squash that the orthographic camera introduces. 

 

[Sciurus 323]

THAT is a very complete answer. Thank you for your method, I can compare with mine so. What I did is that I based my reflexion on 3D buildings I could find on Google Earth and on street view. The hardest thing is that when you do small buildings situated in little towns, there's not always the 3D option so you have to imagine the facades and maybe it's not the reality, I don't like it. 

Now I can explain how I proceeded before reading this (even my technique is clos to yours) : so I'm based on photos our 3D models available in Google Earth. Then I compared these ones to street view photos and standard dimensions of windows or doors. The most difficult is to dimension the other components. Even if you can do an approximation with the things measured before. And I can dimension them with the general dimension of the building, dividing it in x elements. For exemple, I'm working on the Nancy's CHRU (Universitary hospital of Nancy) and it's a construction from the 70's. As it's in prefabricated elements, you can measure the entire building and divide by the numbers of elements. 

But your technique for other buildings is relevant too, I'll try next time ! Thanks again for the answer !  (I hope that I can be understood…)

[Jasoncw 11,949]

On 12/17/2016 at 3:47 AM, Bombardiere said:

Something splendid is on way.

When was this building built? I am not very good at recognising American styles.

 

On 12/17/2016 at 11:55 AM, T Wrecks said:

I haven't researched yet, but it's Art Deco, and Detroit had its heydays some time in the 1920s/1930s - I'd guess it's from the 1930s. Now I'm going to check and see how far I'm off.

Rats. It's 1929. Oh well, close enough.

Yep, it's art deco, and from 1929. In fact it was still under construction when the great depression started, and a few ornate lamps in the lobby by the elevators were designed but not built to save money. When the building was renovated (either in the late 90s or early 2000s) the lamps were finally created and installed. Or at least that's the story told on the guided tours of the building. Compared to the total cost of the building and how much money a large bank would have, it seems like one lamp would be a drop in the bucket, and as far as I know it was the only change to the building during construction. So I suspect the lamps weren't made for some other reason. But I'm also very skeptical about guided tours since about 1/3rd of the information they give is completely wrong, 1/3rd is right but misses major nuances, 1/3rd is correct, and between everything they say they usually miss the actual "point" of the building. 

iirc there are two lamps per elevator bank and those are the lamps in question:

In comparison with the rest of the lobby... 

  

My SimGuardian is underwhelming compared to the real thing, but progress is still continuing. 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

The details are looking great! 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Totally underwhelming, yes. Miserable even.

[matias93 7,535]

*looks at the interiors*

And then they say that the neo-andean is unprecedented

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Thanks guys, here's an update: 

I got a fancy spandrel done, and some more windows on the left side (I haven't cloned them over to the right side). Once I cap off that little section there I can copy and rotate this entire facade over to complete most of the body of the north tower.  

@matias93I... don't know what to say about that building.  

Except that I'm one of those good for nothing architect elites.  

[raynev1 1,886]

Looking good IMO , progress is progress . 

[Sciurus 323]

@matias93 for this photo.. Maybe the colors and shapes are similar but I think that the insipirations are a bit different, as the times of their construction ! Maybe the second one take in consideration art deco but it's not really in the same country.. I'm maybe mistaking but I think there are two thoughts under these buildings 

Anyway, as always @Jasoncw that is a great work. I'm looking for progress 

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day everyone.  

And a brief update on the Guardian Building: 

Bits here and there are getting finished up, but not all of the parts are *exactly* in their final position yet. Next I'll start the base.  

 

@Sciurus There's a small amount of similarities that are not a coincidence. The architect of the guardian building had studied historical cultures including ones in south america. American architecture at the time was not very intellectual so I wouldn't expect much, but out of all of the ancient cultures, however much he was inspired by the incas, and however much connection there is between the inca and the current aymara people, that is the amount of similarity between the guardian building and this other guy's buildings.  

The guy is trying to make a new regional architecture based on the local culture, but, as it's emphasized in the article, he's not an architect. So he picked some superficial elements, applied them to normal buildings in a superficial way, and as far as I can tell hasn't even copied the actual forms (in my brief googling nothing I saw had the shapes that his stuff did). And so as a result to me it looks like a tacky aymaran themed casino from las vegas. I'm guessing the architects thought that such an architecture should be based off of how people live, what kinds of traditions and cultural events they need space for, what expectations of privacy, or communalness they have, and things like that. So in the US, teenagers often turn their house's basements into places to hang out with their friends, and even aside from the basements their bedrooms are usually big enough to have friends over. In Japan teenagers do most of their socializing out in public so they have small bedrooms. Or in the US there's thanksgiving, so the dining room needs to be big enough to host a dinner for the extended family. And there's christmas, so the living room needs to be big enough to put a christmas tree in. And there's an expectation of privacy for the house, but not so much to build a wall around the house like many countries do, which in the US would be antisocial. Japanese people take their shoes off inside their houses so there's always a little area at the front door for shoes. 

But one of the difficult things about this is that these people already live in buildings which presumably already satisfy their cultural needs. Unless the buildings were somehow unnaturally forced upon them, these types of considerations are already built into the buildings to cater to the local market. And then there's also the issue that humans around the world are pretty similar, so no matter what your culture is, the buildings are going to be very similar around the world. And then of course there's also the problem that this type of thinking has in general, the idea of consciously created regional architecture is its own can of worms. When does having a regional architecture cross the line from a healthy positive expression of local identity, to chauvinism? And if the areas is culturally diverse, who gets to decide what the local identity/architecture is? So it gets very messy. 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

This one will be a masterpiece!

[matias93 7,535]

First, that's an impressive attention to detail and a fantastical rendition! 

15 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

But one of the difficult things about this is that these people already live in buildings which presumably already satisfy their cultural needs. Unless the buildings were somehow unnaturally forced upon them, these types of considerations are already built into the buildings to cater to the local market.

Well, i guess you hit the nail there. Most of the proprietaries of those houses are indeed buying their first home, or moving from social housing of minimal size and quality, aside all its blandness, so this garishness is somehow a bit of a reaction against the kind of spaces they had to inhabitate for lack of a better option (until not so many years, nobody could choose social housing, now there are some relevant improvements).

15 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

When does having a regional architecture cross the line from a healthy positive expression of local identity, to chauvinism? And if the areas is culturally diverse, who gets to decide what the local identity/architecture is? So it gets very messy. 

And once again you are right, this is a key political dispute in Bolivia. The Morales' government has been accused (reasonably on some degree) of exploiting the cultural differences of the country to create a broad coalition to keep himself in power (in a country that has had more presidents than years since its independence); this is unavoidably chauvinistic in essence, because comports nation-building where it has been lost for centuries. 

Exaggerating a bit, this reminds me in a certain way the Italian and German nation-building efforts, that also had architectonical expressions, which certainly overran local cultures and existing esthetics and that were openly promoted by the pro-unification politicians. 

It's a very long and interesting topic to analyze, but I guess your dev thread is not the best place to do it, so I'll look for a better place on the forum.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Thanks guys!  

@matias93 I wouldn't mind talking about it (and it's not completely unrelated to the thread. After all, this is a thread about people recreating their region's architecture for SC4. Why would someone be motivated to do that?), but it's such a complicated topic that actually talking about it is impractical.  

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Happy 180th birthday to the State of Michigan! 

Michigan was first inhabited by native americans, with europeans settling in the 1600s, and the area flipping between the french british and americans before finally permanently becoming part of the US as a territory, and eventually becoming a state in in 1837. 

[Sciurus 323]

Time goes fast ! 

[9gruntsand1hammer 3,198]

I can see my home city from there, pretty cool.

[Jasoncw 11,949]

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Yoohoo all the way to the base! \o/

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Because you know we're all 'bout that base, 'bout that base, no trouble.

[PanzerMan1001 16]

I once attempted to build the Guardian Building in Minecraft, and while I finished about three - fourths of the building, it must have taken me about 20 hours. It really makes me appreciate anyone that attempts to replicate the Guardian in any game. It looks great!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

So probably 60% of the time spent on the Guardian so far has actually been searching the internet for reference pics, and during that time I did come across a completed Guardian Building in minecraft. 

There's also a Guardian Building (and other Detroit buildings) in LEGO: https://www.flickr.com/photos/decojim/albums/72157632398439670 

But I agree though, having made things myself I understand more about the work others do to make things. Nothing is as easy as it seems. 

[MushyMushy 3,618]

Yeah, the needed reference pics aren't always easy things to track down... and wow that is an amazing LEGO build. I'm always amazed by the stuff people have made with the stuff when I compare it to what I've made.

[matias93 7,535]

Well, I didn't know the mipro project had a lego branch, but that BATter seems really motivated!

[slickbg56 778]

The Guardian Building looks excellent so far. A great way to celebrate Michigan's 180th. Great choice of satellite photos. It captures the lake breezes very well!

[Jasoncw 11,949]

Thanks everyone!  

Some more progress. There's only one floor underneath what I've modeled so far (and I won't be doing it for a while yet), but this is basically the entire south side of the building, top to bottom. 

You can see that I still have some windows and spandrels, and some ornament to put in this area, so I'll do that next. After that I'll turn the corner and do more of the stone base. 

The little ornament bits are *just* big enough to be able to see at zoom 5 if you look closely. Hopefully they survive (or maybe even pop better) after texturing. 

[Thin White Duke 4,072]

Whether visible at 5 or not, this building is stunning!