mipro mipro

[slickbg56 778]

I attended a game at The Joe for the first time last month. As a life long Michigan resident, it felt like a pilgrimage. I really liked the arena and I'm disappointed that I hadn't attended more games there. It was interesting to see the gloves Louis wore when he defeated Schmeling. Just hanging out on display in the lobby of Cobo. I thought they'd be in a museum somewhere. 

[Jasoncw 11,940]

@slickbg56Absolutely! I managed to go to a preseason game this season, and I attempted to take it all in one last time. But it's kind of hard to do it, because the concourse is busy, there's a game to watch, and frankly there's only so much to "take in". Maybe I should have gone into the notorious bathrooms? I managed to successfully avoid them for years, but maybe I've missed out on some kind of local shared experience??

When they demolish it I plan on getting a little chunk of rubble as a memento. 

 

The basic modeling of the alley is mostly done. I've finished the basic modeling for the north side of the building (the preview render to the right) except for the arched entrance which is what I'll work on next. 

Click on it for full size. 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

I can't wait to have this beauty in-game. I already said that, but this one is a masterpiece, look at all those details *_*

[SimCoug 5,973]

Breathtaking, even at this stage!  The details in the huge arched windows are really going to stand out in game 

[Jasoncw 11,940]

Thanks guys 

I got some work done. Neither of the new arches is the same as the ones I already modeled. And let's just say that I won't be making any more buildings with arches anytime soon. 

Still arches are in progress. 

[matias93 7,535]

 The details, the almost infinite details!!! You really have to publish this model in another media. SC4 won't ever do justice to all this watchmaking work...

[korver 27,685]

Incredible! What a beauty

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Amazing!

[praiodan 78]

I think my jaw just smashed through the ground floor when it dropped. Incredible work!

[SimCoug 5,973]

archalicious! 

[ericexp 54]

I'm getting antsy for a new Michigan release!

[Jasoncw 11,940]

On 7/31/2017 at 3:05 PM, ericexp said:

I'm getting antsy for a new Michigan release!

Me too! 

 

I kept on working on the Guardian after my last update, but in early summer there's a lot of holidays and family stuff for me. I also built a patio behind my garage during this time. I took a break but I'm back to work on it now. 

After the last update I added the ground floor and got a lot of work done on the entrances. Unfortunately the grills on the ground floor just turned into blobs. 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

Looks wonderful as expected

[Jasoncw 11,940]

Thanks  

Today's work. Adding more windows to the base (and staring at the existing windows trying to figure out if their depth is right), and I finally put on the roof of the base. 

[JP Schriefer 5,591]

It's interesting how adding a single roof makes the view so different, at least on my perspective. BTW maybe if you do the grills bars thinner it might make them look less blurred, doesn't it? Or maybe they will disappear, I don't know

[weixc812 509]

Wow, this is gonna be epic, Jason

[darn42 1,268]

Wow! Jason you've somehow gotten even more extraordinary! There is some amazing work on the horizon here. Those arches are scrum-diddly-umpcious

[Jasoncw 11,940]

Thanks everyone.

@JP SchrieferYeah it really is. I have to admit that I waited to put that roof on, knowing that it would instantly make the BAT look better. It was like a reward to myself lol.

The grills are already iirc 1.5" (or was it 2") thick. The pattern itself is a grid with diamonds in it, and there are only a few diamonds in the pattern, so it's not even possible to simplify the pattern. It's just all super small. 

@weixc812Thanks! 

@darn42 Thanks! I'm never going to do anything this complicated ever again in a million years so I hope it's worth it.  

 

Here's progress:

[Jasoncw 11,940]

Took longer than I thought it would but the crown is mostly done: 

(click on it a few times to get fullsize)

A few things:

- Right now the crown is how the building was originally, because geometrically it's simpler. In the 1950s they added and changed some windows, and I'll be adding those changes in later. 

- I made a small mistake in the thickness of the piers that cap the corners of the crown, so I'll have to go through and fix that. I'm hoping that it will make the crown look a little more integrated with the rest of the building. But sometimes how we see a building in SC4 doesn't match up with our impressions in real life. 

- And like elsewhere on the building there are still some missing bits here and there that I still have to fill in. 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, this is really shaping up to become the crown jewel of your BAT portfolio - and that is supposed to mean something given the overall quality of your releases!

[Finnbhennach 161]

Still going strong I see... in fact, I think I died a little. All those details must have been agonizing to do and yet they are so beautiful. Bittersweet at its finest! Can't wait to see this completed 

[slickbg56 778]

Looking great!

[Jasoncw 11,940]

Thanks guys  

Slowly but surely...

Modeled the part just to the left of the crown, added some panel lines to the crown (can't see those yet unfortunately), and filled in a bunch of gaps. 

[T Wrecks 10,210]

I'm not sure if the visible progress actually is as excruciatingly, scandalously, outrageously, painstakingly slow as I feel it or if that's because I'm looking forward to the final result so much.

[Jasoncw 11,940]

oh no, trust me, it *is* that slow.  

Although today was pretty productive. Sometimes it's counting bricks and trying to get a bunch of angled things to line up, and sometimes it's just looking at the photo and seeing how things are supposed to go. 

In the 1950s the building was renovated, and sadly they cut these big windows into the crown. I've gone in and done the renovatios. They left some parts alone. One of the gold parts did not have a window added (you can see it on the preview render to the right. It's the only one missing the rectangular window at the bottom). And then on the brick part underneath the gold part, they changed the shapes of the windows, and extended some of the windows to become doors. But they only changed that on the front of the building, to make two of the setbacks into balconies. And it's impossible to see, two of the windows in the black band right above the gold are still original. 

The 1950s renovation is also responsible for the simple roof line on the base of the building. Originally it had the same type of ornament as the rest of the building, and they replaced it with flat brick and simple stone coping. 

You can see some pre-renovation photos of the building here: http://historicdetroit.org/galleries/guardian-building-old-photos/ 

[jsimcity4 18]

Amazingly beautiful modeling, Jasoncw! So great to see your fantastic progress on this mipro crown jewel.

Have you thought about just modeling the building without the 1950s modifications?

[Jasoncw 11,940]

On 10/1/2017 at 1:33 PM, jsimcity4 said:

Amazingly beautiful modeling, Jasoncw! So great to see your fantastic progress on this mipro crown jewel.

Have you thought about just modeling the building without the 1950s modifications?

Thanks! 

It's a possibility, and I do have the earlier version of the crown still saved. But the project is already taking forever (1.5 years of active BATing) so I don't think I can handle doing extra versions. I also don't have good reference for some of the pre-modification sections. The building was better originally though, and I'd like to have the crown and lower base fixed. In the more recent renovations they replaced the windows with ones with a different shape. And I'm not sure, but I think when the building was first built, the spandrels were exposed grey metal, and today they're painted beige. I'd have to do more research about it, but I'd also really like a version with metal spandrels and not painted spandrels. A book about the architect, which presumably features the Guardian Building heavily, was released recently (unfortunately after I had already done most of the modeling) which I might get for Christmas, and that might shed enough light on the original building to make a BAT version. But I've also been working on this for so long that I'm not going to want to go back to working on it for a very very long time lol 

[Jasoncw 11,940]

I've been working on the elevator/stairs towers. It's still pretty messy, but that part is starting to come together. It's an area that I have some of the best and some of the worst reference for. I have a great photo taken from the roof which lets me count bricks for a good chunk of it, and in 2007 I was fortunate enough to go there and take pics (I was standing on the roof of the newly BATed section), and for those areas I have great reference. But for everything out of frame I have no reference other than distant aerials and trying to interpret google map's garbled 3d models. 

Click on it to get actual size. 

[Fantozzi 4,068]

Wow. I love to scroll up and down this.

There are many views on pornography - but often forgotten there' is also a pornographic view on them. It's an ancient greek word meaning 'disposable' used to name prostitutes 'the disposables'. So watching the world as something available - with only question in mind: can I have this, can I buy this, can I touch this, can I download this and without big interest that beauty existing by itself without the need to get a hold of it - that's what you would call the 'pornographic view'.

And now I have to confess - scrolling up and down this beauty I got it. I got the evil peek.

BTW. - Marshal McLuhan defined media as extensions of our organs of perception. They make informations disposable, we couldn't reach with our innated apparatus of perception. So me, being at home, I can't see the pope walking over st. peters square with my own eyes - because too distant and the alps in between - but media makes the event available for them. So - wouldn't this mean media - by what it is - is always ponographic? And games would be the worst - as they are made to also touch what you see.

So now as I did confess - maybe you can forgive?

As the artists view is different. You going up and down on this a thousand times - your eyes doing the same way like mine - but still mine going for lust yours going for understanding. So it's like in plato's cave allegory - while I see only a beautiful shadow play - some kind of 'front side' you see the inner, the plan. How could I even assist with an advice? How can a pornographer give advice to a lover - the 'porno' to the 'philo'? You may know - a philo-sopher (sophia - insight, wisdom) is nothing else than a wisdom-lover. So both can look on the same thing. Both can recognize beauty. But jet - there's nothing they have in common, they share. It's like a quite lake on a sunday afternoon. One touches the water surface from above, the other from below. And it really seems they touch the same - they look at the same. Indeed, they share the surface, the screen - but still they see a different world on that same screen.

[Finnbhennach 161]

Oh the monstrous details! I don't know if I can handle it... so delicate yet so intense!  It is undoubtedly a gleaming feast for the eyes and soul. I believe you one upped yourself on this one and you're not even finished! I hope you find the motivation to keep chipping away at it until you unearth a paragon of a masterpiece that is surely to be