mipro mipro

[MillionSeven 45]

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks guys

[Hotwheeler 409]

Wowzers,the Building looks epic.This will sure be a beautiful Centerpiece for every City.

About that "neo-andean" Thing....to be honest,it kinda looks like a native american Theme Park and a Casino exploded and the Debris got stuck on normal Buildings.But it also looks interesting and kinda sci-fi.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Yeah, I thought the same thing when I saw it. 

More Guardian progress: 

We're probably going to be in this area for a while. The left part of this area repeats a bunch, but it also has a complicated arch area that I should do before copying. And then there's the still missing ornament and windows. The windows will be tricky because I'll have to try and figure out how deep they're set into the walls. On the rest of the building I could count bricks, but in this case I'll have to estimate. How deep windows are can make a big difference on how a facade looks, so I'd like to get it right. 

[jsimcity4 18]

If you need good photos of the Guardian Building, one of the best books I know of is by James Tottis, called The Guardian Building: Cathedral of Finance. It has some remarkable interior and exterior shots and tons of history.

Also, excellent job on the BAT. I am so excited that someone is finally putting this Detroit gem on SC4. All of the other BSP and MIPro lots are fantastic and are highly appreciated.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Great work so far Jason

[Michelle Yukimura 4]

If you guys do requests 

I'd like to request a building located in Kalamazoo, MI (my hometown) Comerica Bank Building. 

Nice BAT also btw

 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks everyone

@jsimcity4I had looked through it on google books and it did have a lot of nice photos, but sadly none of them were big enough, because what I'm using the photos for is counting the number of bricks to determine the dimensions of things. 

But I did make a trip downtown and I got very good reference photos of the alley, which was the last major thing that I needed to find references for (other than the elevator tower on the roof but that's likely hopeless, but if that's the last thing I model then I can do it and even if it's slightly off it won't impact the rest of the building). And I'm glad about that because I think I've spent more time looking for photos of things than actually BATing.  

I also got some good pics of other buildings downtown.  

@aaron graham Thanks!

@Michelle Yukimura I think you might have asked about that building before? I doubt that that building would interest us. I've looked at the art deco government buildings across from it though. 

 

Guardian update: 

[Michelle Yukimura 4]

 

@Jasoncw You mean the Kalamazoo County Courthouse building. What about the Kalamazoo Radisson? 

update looks real nice btw

I'm guessing from Detroit right?

Idk if I recall seeing that building... 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

The county courthouse but also city hall across the park from it. I really doubt that either of us would do the Kalamazoo Radisson. I guess if you want to know what kinds of things we'll do in the future you can look at the kinds of things we've done in the past. 

There's also that art deco tower but it doesn't fit on the 16x16 meter SC4 grid, so it can't really be BATed. Actually most of the smaller cities in Michigan have buildings that don't fit into the game and that's probably the main reason we haven't done more outside of Detroit. We really wanted to do some buildings from Grand Rapids and they just don't fit.  

And yeah the Guardian Building is from Detroit.  

[Tyberius06 12,184]

This building is amazing, like your previous ones as well. Thank you for your work!

I don't understand however this issue with the 16x16 meter SC4 grid. I know, that in game that (16x16) is the basic measure, but what's the problem with those buildings? I've never modelled/BATted anything... still...

- Tyberius

[Jasoncw 11,840]

So basically if you have a building that's, say, 22 meters wide, it wouldn't fit on a 1 tile wide lot (16 meters). So you'd have to put it on a 2 tile wide lot which is 32 meters. There would be a 10 meter gap next to the building on 2 tile wide lot. 

For that gap you could scale the building horizontally to fill up the lot correctly, but if you scale too much then it makes the building look wrong. Pretty much every building I make is scaled horizontally a little bit to make it fit the grid. Or alternatively, if the building has a smaller building next to it in real life you could add that in to get the width to be a multiple of 16. Or you can also modify the building's design. So maybe there are 3 bays of windows and you could add another bay of windows to make the building wide enough to fill the lot. 

But all of these things are best avoided, and if a building fits poorly enough then there's really nothing that could be done to do a good job of bringing it into the game. 

[Tyberius06 12,184]

@Jasoncw Oh, thanks for the answere, that was what I thought, altought I don't see the problem modifying the building that way, that put an other one next to it, or creativly designing something onto the gap part. I do understand with this method we don't get the "exact same" building from RL, but (and this is just my opinion) this is a very nice game, and we have very talented creative minds (like You), and sometimes I guess, this unreal world much better and nicer than RL, so I wouldn't mind if we can get these unfitting buildings with a little extra on those "gaps", kind of a mixture of the real building and the BAT artists creative thoughts.

Thanks anyway!

- Tyberius

[Michelle Yukimura 4]

4 hours ago, Jasoncw said:

The county courthouse but also city hall across the park from it. I really doubt that either of us would do the Kalamazoo Radisson. I guess if you want to know what kinds of things we'll do in the future you can look at the kinds of things we've done in the past. 

There's also that art deco tower but it doesn't fit on the 16x16 meter SC4 grid, so it can't really be BATed. Actually most of the smaller cities in Michigan have buildings that don't fit into the game and that's probably the main reason we haven't done more outside of Detroit. We really wanted to do some buildings from Grand Rapids and they just don't fit.  

And yeah the Guardian Building is from Detroit.  

Understandable

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

@Jasoncw Wow! You always have such detail and art into the buildings you do, you really do this style of building justice. I can't wait to see what else you come up with out of MI!

[MillionSeven 45]

This will be your master piece!
Is so beauty!

[raynev1 1,886]

Take your time , it is coming along very well . 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks everyone.  

@Tyberius06When I'm making a recreation I really do want to get everything as close as possible. But when I'm doing non-recreations, most of them are based on real buildings. Some of them might be considered loose recreations and some of them are just "inspired" by them. It's counter-intuitive but yeah there is a point where I become too interested in a building to do it loosely, and so as a result I end up making buildings that I'm actually less interested in. But that's just how it is. I guess the real answer to that is that there's a practically infinite number of buildings that I'd like to make so it's easier to pick ones that are less of a headache. 

 

So I needed to buy SC4 again in order to install the BAT. I did get a free digital version from Origin/EA after the Windows 10 fiasco, but it's not fully patched so I can't use it to install the BAT and those other tools. It was on sale, and for $2.50 extra I got SC3K. I spent a massive amount of time in middle school playing it, to the point that the neverending parade music is seared into my brain to this day (seriously, it was very regularly playing in the back of my head even though I hadn't played the game in probably 15 years). Some things I remembered with a fond nostalgia and some things I had completely forgotten about. 

And so I present you with Jasonton:

Spoiler

(I put it into a spoiler because the image is huge (5 MB))

https://i.imgur.com/Yrxl1bV.jpg <- Here's the full size. 

 

Despite taking a break from the Guardian Building I have made some progress on it, tackling some hard parts. I'll have a new preview tomorrow when it's in a more presentable state. 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

So there's still a little bit of work left to do in this area, but I've gotten the hard part. Off the top of my head, the remaining hard part are the arches for the two main entrances of the building, but I'm hoping that they're similar enough to these ones that I can reuse a lot, or at least use the same methods. 

The preview render is underwhelming because most of what I've modeled will only show up later when I change the material to add the lines in. So I've included a screenshot of the viewport. Most of those lines on the stone and terra cotta will be panel lines, and the individual blocks will have random variation. Modeling this stuff is overkill but I think it will be easier to do it this way than it would be to manually put all of that in with textures. 

[matias93 7,535]

Architectural model overkilling, yup, I've seen my sister at 5:30 AM with a huge mug of coffee, doing all those details we simple humans are incapable of even see

[Bombardiere 591]

7 hours ago, matias93 said:

Architectural model overkilling, yup, I've seen my sister at 5:30 AM with a huge mug of coffee, doing all those details we simple humans are incapable of even see

Because You know it is there.

@Jasoncw Have you ever considered into joining the dark side and make it in HD? Okey, this one is perhaps too big for HD, but just make a HD version for a laugh.

[matias93 7,535]

laugh = 72 hours rendering

[Ceafus 88 1,794]

Such fine detailing, I admire your work greatly!

[JP Schriefer 5,590]

That's incredibly detailed, great job as always, Jason.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

On 3/20/2017 at 3:10 AM, Bombardiere said:

Because You know it is there.

@Jasoncw Have you ever considered into joining the dark side and make it in HD? Okey, this one is perhaps too big for HD, but just make a HD version for a laugh.

Actually I have thought of doing an HD version. It would mainly just be so that it could be plopped and looked at up close, I wouldn't recommend someone actually keep it in their plugins folder. At the very least I'll do HD preview renders of all angles though. 

On 3/20/2017 at 7:45 AM, matias93 said:

laugh = 72 hours rendering

My computer is actually pretty good so I'm not *too* worried about rendering. It's going to be more than most of my BATs though. The preview render below took 45 seconds. It might take 20 minutes to do a full zoom 5 of the entire building when it's done? But I also plan on increasing the default rendering settings when I do the final export, just to make the setbacks and the crevices look a little better. 

 

Slow and steady.  

The modeling for this part of the building is done. The main entrance is intimidating so maybe tomorrow I'll get the rest of the base excluding that finalized. 

[raynev1 1,886]

      SO many details , you are really going all out . You go Buddy . 

[BIWDC 2,296]

The Guardian building Looks really good Jason

[SimCoug 5,972]

I never really knew much about the Guardian building, so I did a quick run through on Wikipedia.  Neat stuff!  I can't believe they finished it in a year... nowdays it would probably take 10x that.  Happy to see you are still BAting

[coolsim1 104]

I don't know anything about batting but wow my jaw dropped when I saw it so far. The details are intricate and beautiful perfect for such an ornate building, I'll definitely download this as soon as it is released! 

 

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Thanks guys! 

I haven't been working on this as much as I should have, but today I've pretty much finished the southern base. I've done some more ornament, put in the stone block lines, and finalized (I *think* I got them right) the window depths. Some spandrels and a small amount of other stuff still has to be done but it would make more sense to do those things later. 

Over Easter weekend I'll try to do the basic modeling for the alley area using the photos I took down there. 

 

Joe Louis Arena:

Last weekend was the last game played by Detroit's hockey team, the Red Wings, at Joe Louis Arena. The Red Wings and all other events at Joe Louis Arena will be moved to a new arena currently near the end of construction. "The Joe", built in 1979 and likely to be demolished in a few years, was named after Detroiter Joe Louis, a boxer, and one of the first black national sports heroes in the US. In the 1930s before the US entered World War 2, Joe Louis fought and won against German Max Schmeling, who the Nazi government had made a subject of intense propaganda, showcasing him as proof of the superiority of the Aryan race over the black American. Later when the US entered World War 2, he supported the troops, and then joined the military himself, boosting his popularity. He was also a professional golfer where he also broke racial barriers. 

Here's a well written blog post about Joe Louis Arena: https://radiallogic.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/lost-in-hockeytown-the-joe-louis-arena-story/ (it was written in 2012 and the later part of the article is outdated as it discusses things related to the new arena). 

Here are some photos showing the neat tubes which connect the arena, a People Mover (elevated rail) station, the arena, and downtown. http://fadeddetroit.blogspot.com/2010/08/joe-louis-arena-garage-complex.html 

The arena is tucked behind a convention center and a freeway, all built on land which was previously railyards along the riverfront. Interestingly, the pedestrian tube which crosses the freeway hasn't for decades because the convention center and freeway were expanded after it was built and the pedestrian crossing now terminates in the middle of freeway ramps. Before and after. The arena in google maps. 

The new arena will not be named after a local historical sports figure, but rather, cheap pizzas. The Red Wings (and the Tigers, Detroit's baseball team) are owned by the same local business family that owns Little Caesars Pizza, a national pizza chain. Little Caesars Arena will mostly be an improvement to the Joe. A location and design that's more integrated with the urban fabric and more convenient to get to, more arena amenities, bigger seats, more bathrooms, etc. Its main innovation is that the arena edge is lined with buildings and that the concourse is an atrium which will be open for business even when there aren't events happening. Architecturally, instead of the honest straightforwardness of the Joe, the new arena will be decorated with an assemblage of kitschy facades with the philosophy of sports as a total entertainment package, like a theme park. 

It's the end of an era for Detroit's sports and Detroit's civic urbanism. The last season at the Joe is also the Red Wing's first season missing the playoffs in 25 years. Hockey legend "Mr. Hockey" Gordie Howe finally passed away. Team owner Mike Ilitch, who had bought the "Dead Wings" in the 80s moved it to historical levels of sporting success passed away this year. This was also the last season for The Palace of Auburn Hills (Detroit has been lucky until now to have two arenas without corporate naming rights), a basketball arena built in 1989 in the far suburbs. It was the first modern basketball arena, innovative for its number of luxury suites. The basketball team, the Detroit Pistons, will be moving into Little Caesers Arena with the Red Wings next year, and all of Detroit's sports teams will be located in the city proper, downtown within a half mile of each other. There are also plans to establish a Major League Soccer team in Detroit.