The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[theterminizer 0]

Well, you've made a new fan tonight. I was disappointed to see your list of your three next projects. I'd like to put in a good word for the Bank of America building on the east end of the Morrison Bridge. It's a great, elegant building that I think would look good in the game. I've attached a photo I took of it and can certainly take more if needed as I live just a few blocks away.

Make it or don't, but just keep putting out these great buildings.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

BofA will definetly be in there! I've kind of got into the habit of making more than 1 BAT at a time now... That way, if I get bored, tired of, or frustrated with one, I have another to toil on. So long as my hard drive space doesn't give out...

The plan right now is to get the OMSI booth done. Today I'll be wrapping up all the work to do on it, and burning CD's for the set-up either today or tomorrow depending upon what I hear back from Donald...

The OMSI presentation will be this Saturday (Oct. 22) at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry's Community Planning Day. The event is free, but the rest of OMSI still charging admission.

If you're in Portland, be sure to stop in and say hi!

[sfobb 0]

Just wanted to say that I had a blast at the Community Planning Day! It's too bad I couldn't spend more than 3 hours in Portland though.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks for coming in sfobb! It was very nice to meet you. Sorry I was so busy with things there. The presentation was a big hit, and I have a feeling we're going to do it again next year!

Now, a short break and I will be back to make some more BATs. A lot of people were asking for certain things. Gotta get a lot done, and hopefully in the next year, provided I have enough time, there's going to be a lot more BATs!

Luckily I will have some help. Bixel has joined this project and will begin BATing Portland stuff as soon as he gets through his pending Hong Kong BATs.

Sim Portland: The Sim City of Roses flourishes! The city scenario was so popular that I am going to make it available for download somewhere. A lot of people want it for their own games. I'll let you know when I have something going. I may just develop the whole metro region. Mallowthecloud, I think I'm going to need a new map

Thanks everyone for your support and keeping this usually bored penguin happy and busy

Next up: Hatfield Courthouse. Caution: sharp edges!

[Lord_Bertrum 3]

You're doing a great job Sparky.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks Lord Bertrum! Here's a treat for you and everyone else watching. I couldn't help but start working on Hatfield Courthouse yesterday:




A lot still needs to be done. I broke up the bulk of the tower into easily repetable sections, so that's a single floor arrayed only to show you what it will look like. I just do all the work on one of the floors.

That section is pretty repetitive, bu interesting nonetheless. I want to get that part done to have an idea of where to place the tower's sidecar, base, and roof overhang.

Here's a shot I took of the real building from Lonsdale (or is it Chapman-the two are right next to eachother) Square:



This is a really strange building. The architects that designed this building must have liked to run with sciscors when they were kids! hehe

I'm sort of stuck at this time. I can't find any pictures of what it looks like at night, nor can I remember. I need to know what it looks like at night in order to finalize the windows. It may be a while before I can check on that, so if anyone has a shot of the Hatfield Courthouse at night, please post it here, thanks. I'll really appreciate it!

May start up something else while waiting on the night-light situation on Hatfiled. Working a little on Memorial Colisieum, the 99 Ranch Market for Portlandexpos04, and may play around with 200 Market soon. I should start on the Portland Building and BofA to get them off and running.

EDIT: Kinda getting a bit burnt out today, so going to take all these nice and slow. After seeing a recent STEX comment on my ODS Tower, I'm reading up on nightlighting and figured out how to put your own nite lighting textures into GMax/BAT on a fluke! I've got texturing down to a point that I am satisfied I can do it now. Time to fix my other really weak area: night lighting!

Thanks for watching this thread and keep your browser here! The next buildings that you see will be even better!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK, some new developments: Started on the Portland Building, went on a photo run yesterday, and got about 20MB of textures from Jtportland! The photos should help on the Hatfield Courthouse, and the textures will help get 200 Market and Memorial Colisieum going. I'm going to be downtown on Sunday, so I'll be able to find out how the Hatfield lights up.

Now for the screens!

The Portland Building's architect was Michael Graves, and was the first major post-modern building in the US:



Enjoy and please comment!

Keep in mind it's not totally done nor textured. I'm waiting to model it completely first. Also, I will try to put the Portlandia statue on it.

Here's a pic of the real thing:



Enjoy and please comment!

[praiodan 78]

Hm, ah the portland building, a milestone of the post-modernism! Although I don't like this style very much, I've got to say you've done some well progress on it.
The statue looks very difficult, I wish you good luck with it!

[Andreas Roth 626]

Very promising so far! For the statue, you might want to contact ripptide, he did some great statues before for various BSC projects.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Well, I've spent all day trying to make Portlandia in Poser 4, and got nowhere... Just got a woman to pose the right way, but couldn't get a toga on her to save my life..

So thanks Andreas! I will be contacting Riptide shortly.

So I guess I should try to get the rest of the building modeled-up before I have to get off this machine. Just got a bit more on the base to do and the side ribbons.

By the way, since this building houses the various city bureaus, I'm making a Bureau of Bureauacracy (BoB), landmark, and CO$$ grow & plop versions. I may leave the statue out of the growables, along with the flags. The landmark and BoB would have the flags (Portland city flag and US) in addition to the Portlandia statue. Sound good?

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK, not to bump, but I have progress on the Portland Building. Aside from some messed up extrusions needing to be rebuilt and some very minor details, its 90% modeled. I have contacted Ripptide to see about getting Lady Portlandia done..

So let's let the pix speak for themselves. Textures are placeholders, and will be much more prettier after all modeling is finalized!

Front view, pedestal waiting Portlandia:



And please mull over whether I should release CO$$ growable and ploppable versions w/o the Portlandia statue and the flags. The landmark and Bureau of Bureauacracy will hopefully have her.



Side View (the sides are mirror images), ribbons needed and topmost base wall needs rebuilding:



Back View, am very happy with this:

[praiodan 78]

Looks very promising! I already know, what I will use it for when it's released

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Praiodan, what would that be, if you don't mind me asking?

I do know that there are some employees of the City of Portland that work in the building that would download it just to demolish it! They don't like how small the building's windows are.

So the progress today:

Ripptide will be modeling Portlandia as soon as he gets through a backlog of stuff to do.

I finished up all the major modeling, so I have the building scaled to game-size now. I'm playing around with textures, with some good results. I'll get to the side ribbons soon I hope. Tomorrow's the last day that I really plan on working on this until the Hatfield Courthouse gets done.

Tomorrow night I see how the Hatfield lights up and will more than likely proceed forward on it.

Portland Building shot w/testing textures (Zoom 4):



I'll zoom in if you wanna see closer, the textures look really good in zoom 5, although they probably are a little off in color.

[jtportland 184]

the portland building looks amazing! you must get rid of that mustard color and try using a darker marble texture that u used for ODS. as for the turquoise base texture, try to make that look less repetitive. and i hope that blue top part is going to be the same main grey/off-white color lol

the windows might look better if they were abit bluer, try using this:

http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/5702/ama032mi.jpg

and try this for the main off white color (it's the marble texture but i me it a tad beige.

http://img465.imageshack.us/img465/5488/marble07110ae.jpg

also, just for fun, here are some picutres i took of the building a few years ago:

[praiodan 78]

I'd use it as stock exchange

Anyway, I see the first textured pic with mixed feelings, the red of this trapeze seems just to be too red. I'd suggest a dark magenta or something similar. For the rest I have to agree with jtportland, but apart from that, very cool so far

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks for the comments on textures! The only way that I'm going to get this building looking great is with everyone's advice. I owe any sucess on texturing and lighting to everyone making comments! Those textures are most definetly temporary and just tests. The only thing that will stay with them will be the UVW maps and the tiling settings in the material editor. Their positioning is to my liking.

I'm using a modified bathroom tile texture for the turquoise and trapeze (what the heck is the name of that shape?) sections. They're faced with ceramic tiles. The turquoise definetly needs to be an uniform color, with black grout. I think you're right praiodan, it does need to be a little darker or something.

JtPortland, I'll definetly be using those textures. I haven't even touched the window textures yet. Some of them are highly reflective, sometimes appearing silver. Otherwise they are somewhat black in color. The marble will look good, maybe I'll find some way to get the brick-like texture into a multi material with it. A big part of how this building looks are the different materials that Graves chose to face it.

Now that it's scaled, I need to get the final touches in: The ribbons on the side, flag poles, and the hand rails around the base's columns.

I will be getting back to modeling the Hatfield tomorrow hopefully, but I am glad that I took some time to get this one started. The Hatfield's a pretty involved building, so I want to devote 100% of my attention to getting the modeling on it out of the way. I'll probably be tweaking the textures of Hatfield and the Portland Building at the same time, so you'll have 2 buildings to watch!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

OK, time to stop BATing today. Got some more progress to show on two major things that I wanted to work through today. I took a screen at zoom 5, high quality for everyone to see:



I really wanted to get to the ribbons, and they really make this building shine! They need texturing, but they are now modeled. I took some time to tweak the turquise texture too. I had to rebuild some sections of the base in order to get the texture to apply correctly across the mesh. That took most of my time today, and other parts with mesh errors remain to be discovered. Woo hoo!

I wanted the tiled look for that section and I think it may work. The color looks OK, and the pattern is less repetetive, more uniform. Next is the yellow walls: The current texture isn't cutting mustard (pun intended). I forgot to add that the rest of the building isn't textured yet. Just testing out specific textures right now and getting things perfect.

One last thing. I forgot to add this:

JtPortland: The blue roof thing is not going to be the color it presently is nor grey like the uppermost roof walls. It's actually a VERY washed-out looking pale blue. I'll dig around for a good pic of this. It's also textured, but it isn't tile, just concrete panels of some sort.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Today, I've been on a sort of break from BAT. However, I would like to take the time to announce a new development today.

SYM Productions and I are pleased to announce that The Winnepeg Recreation Project and Around The Roses have become BAT sister cities! This is probably the first sort of this kind of relationship on Simtropolis, so we are truely pioneers.

SYM Productions and I are planning to switch cities for a couple projects to commemorate this agreement. The subsequent BATs will be exchanged in the name international goodwill, just as sister cities often do in real-life.

Here's to our neighbours to the north, and the start of a new and interesting way to BAT.

[SYM Productions 7]

SYM Productions confirms all of the above... can't wait to BAT something that I don't see everyday or that comes from my imagination... crazy imagination ...

By the way Sparky, the building's looking great ... very realistic!

 

Note to all: As soon as we start the Portland building that Sparky whishes us to BAT, I will be posting screens here.

 

- CDI_spy , proud part of SYM Productions

[ACEfanatic 7]

Portland Building?  Blech!  Me Michael Graves.

But enough of my views on PoMo architecture.  Excellent modeling.  I'm also looking forward to the Hatfield Courthouse... rare building type on the STEX, lol.

-ACE

[DuskTrooper 316]

Even though I loathe MG, this is still a sort of cool building IRL, you are doing a great job of modeling it! keep up the good work, and I can't wait to see the night pics!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Wow, I'm honored Dusk Trooper! You're one of the best, so that means a lot to me!

And you wouldn't be suprised at how many people in Portland think the Portland Building is an eyesore. The people who work in it especially loathe it. It is no wonder why Michael Graves didn't wotk in this town again. The engineering was also done bad. The city's paying millions to fix the thing because the mayor at the time built it on the cheap.

I'm waiting on Ripptide for a very nesescary part: the big Portlandia (aka Lady Commerce) statue that goes over the entrance.

I'm like totally stuck on Hatfield. It may take me much longer than I actually thought to get this one going. Since I dropped by it on Sunday, I found my whole window scheme was totally wrong! Now I am going to have to restart it from scratch. I got burned out on it, so I might as well get the others in the queue done before attempting it again.

So today, I am working on getting JtPortland's 200 Market modeled up and ready to go. One down, 3 to go after that!

[sparkythepenguin 90]

First thing, Is it bumping if you have new progress and you haven't posted in a few days? I really don't like making posts after my own, but will only do so if I have progress (which I have some today).

I took a short break from BATing and emerged refreshed yesterday. Here's the progress on Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse so far:



I pretty much started this one over, and with the short break, it paid off. Textures are regular old object colors and scaling is for testing purposes only. Next is to make the west side of the tower's main bulk, and get started on the roof structure. At this point, I'd say the Hatfield is about near the halfway point in the modeling process.

Once this beast gets fully modeled, it and the Portland Building will move farther towards the STEX!

Another development is that I am pondering some new ways to do lighting, so that process may be a little drawn out. But it will hopefully justify the wait.

[SYM Productions 7]

Looking like a really cool building Sparky!  Could you post a real pic?

And no I don't think it's bumping... anyways I do it all the time !

 

- CDI_spy

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I have a pic of it up a few posts... But for you CDI Spy, I'll post a few more here. I took a bunch to help me model a few days ago, so here we go!

*Pulls up photobucket and photoshop*

perspective from the southeast:



Perspective from Government Square in front of the Justice Center (from the southwest):



Front detail and roof/flagpole structure:



Northeast perspective:



Slept waaaay in today, and woke up a few hours ago (had a long day Friday combined with what I suspect is a sleep disorder), so will work on this more tonite.

[Lord_Bertrum 3]

Excellent pics.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

OMG, things are flying in here. I'm very late, but I just wanted to mention that I would indeed appreciate a CO

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I have been mulling over how I'm going to release these. Well, I think now would be as good as time as any to go over the versions that I plan to release the 2 buildings as, and what would be in them:

Hatfield Courthouse:

Courthouse reward
Landmark
CO$$ grow
CO$$ plop

Commercial versions would be named The Hatfield Law Offices or something like that. US and Oregon state Flags would be excluded from the commercial versions.

Portland Building:

Bureau of Bureauacracy (BoB)
Landmark
CO$$ grow
CO$$ Plop

All will be named The Portland Building. Landmark and BoB will have the statue and flags (City of Portland, Oregon state, and US national).

Sound good?

[SYM Productions 7]

Sounding good... WAY better usage of great models then JUST relegating them to more CO work...

- CDI_spy

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Before retiring (or maybe not due to weird sleep patterns?!?!?) for the evening, some interesting things to talk about that I didn't get to earlier:

Thank you Lord_bertrum for your continued support and comments. Photography is another hobby of mine, on par with BATing, architecture, trains, freeways, and mass transit (not nesescarily in that order!).

I'm plugging along with modeling the Hatfield Courthouse. I may have to quasi-bump this thread tomorrow or Thursday, but I have a lot more progress to show. This is a very, very complicated building. I get really burnt out easy on it, so it's slow going on it til I get it completely modeled. One peice at a time makes a good BAT. This is possibly THE most complex BAT's I have ever attempted. It's at nearly 900.000 polys right now. I may have to farm out the rendering, but dunno yet.

As I BAT even the most simplest of real-life Portland buildings I am amazed at the complexity of them which eluded me when initially viewing them. Hatfiled Courthouse is definetly no exception, with suprises around every corner. In it, I find Brutalism, Avant-Gardism, and well-planned public and private spaces. This is truely an amazing building for just a courthouse, and I wouldn't mind whatever sentance handed down to me in trial, so long as it was set in this building! If I ever decide to run the gauntlet of security and am allowed to take pictures inside, you'll know what I mean. They really splurged on the art and design with this one!

Also did I mention that with the completion of the Hatfield C.H. that the Portland Project will have BAT'ed the top 10 tallest Portland buildings as they currently stand in October 2005? It is definetly an achievement worthy of mention. Thank JtPortland for getting us all this way and helping out with upgrading my own BATing skills The Hatfield would not havebeen possible without his previous advice.