The Portland & Oregon BAT Team, Chapter 1

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Well, one of the best when it comes to both lighting and texturing is 6459978, IMHO. The question is whether he'd be interested in the challenge, but I fear he's busy enough with his own stuff.

Maybe you just need a break from BAT to recharge your creative batteries?

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Welcome to page 20!

Yeah I'm going to try to rest and regroup here. Thanks for talking some sense into me. In that time, maybe I can read up some more on this stuff and come out better for it. Just been a long and frustrating night. Not one of my best days, unfortuneately.

I'll take a few days off and get some rest from these. While I'm resting I'll post some pics of some projects for SYM. Gotta make a photo run later today.

[SYM Productions 7]

Don't worry Sparky... we'll still be here when you want to come back to BATting... have a great RL vacation!

- CDI_spy

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Well, SYM, I feel that it won't be too long. Time off has been long overdue. But I still am actively BATing. Yesterday I took some time to read up on lighting techniques. Also I've been playing around with JtPortland's Made in Oregon neon sign model, which is helping out a little.

Some more good news: I just recieved a PM from Ripptide. He's going to send me a preliminary version of Portlandia (the big statue on the Portland Building). So lot's of exciting things are happening.

I promised a while back to post some pictures for SYM to go over, so they all can decide which Portland Building(s) to make. Here's some pics to mull over. Feel free to voice your opinions on what should be done:

The Justice Center:



A postmodern/brutalist jail and police HQ right downtown!
--------------------
The Jackson Tower:



One of my favorites
------------------
One Pacific Square:



We like to call this one R2d2
-------------------
The Terminal Sales Building:



Lousy pic, I know, but it is Portland's only art deco skyscraper
-----------------
Mosaic Lofts:



There's a carbon copy of this in Victoria, BC
-----------------
Studio Building/Guild Theater:



There's busts of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart along the base. It juxtaposes well with the Fox Tower
-----------------
Governor Hotel



One of the more unique glazed terra-cotta buildigns in town.

And here's a nice shot of the skyline at dawn that I caught last month from the Eastbank Esplanade:



It was really hard to get Big Pink (US Bancorp Tower) in this!

[SYM Productions 7]

those are some real nice pics! can't wait for them to come out on the stex, (if you don't get a nervous breakdown!) (did you take those pics ureself?

- Yatagan_L

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Yup, took 'em all myself. Well, SYM, if you like one in particular, go ahead and BAT it as part of our exchange

I'll try to get some good shots of the Pioneer Courthouse, Meier & Frank, and the Bank of America Center. There's plenty more where that came from!

[hamsterTK 93]

Dude, you need to BAT some of those 60's/70's early style malls you photographed in DevianArt.

Off topic: Those places are pretty creepy at night. In Killeen(TX) i was with my friends and we skateboarding(well they did i cant skateboard) inside(the glass was busted out) the old midtown mall, which was from the outside an unassuming dilapidated shut down shopping center with an old wieners and peter pipers pizza. The road it was on had several old places like it. Anyways, at night, well not night, it was just in the winter when it gets dark at 6 pm(im no punk who stays out late, BTW), the wind blowing in howling and the darkness and the fact your in a mall, which isnt something that you dont normally think about being abandoned, it just has a freaky ambience. I wish some of those places would be preserved, but of course by the time they are old enough to be considered historic they will all be gone

Anyways,

Is that thing in the middle background a thing for a lifting bridge, or some funky tower?

[ricb 19]

It is one of the lift towers for the Hawthorne Bridge which I believe is the oldest bridge crossing the Willamette in Portland. It just got renovated a few years ago. Here is a pic of a very interesting Port6land Bridge. The only one of its kind in North America. The steel Bridge is a telescoping Vertical Lift Bridge. It is owned by Union Pacific. The bottom deck carries railroad traffic and can telescope up into the upper deck structure. Meaning for small river traffic the lower deck can be raised without raising the upper deck. It only has to be raised for larger vessels. The upper deck carries street traffic and light rail trains.

[SYM Productions 7]

Well Sparky, the crew has decided!  Start sending us photos of the Governor Hotel, because we'll be BATting as soon as possible, unless there's a Portland fan outcry...

- CDI_spy

- Yatagan_L

 

- Mat_lab

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Sweet! The Governor Hotel is an awesome building. I go by it every Wendsday (except next one since that's Thanksgiving). I'll definetly get tons more pics of it. How nice though, a hotel for a hotel! Maybe we ought to do a people's choice BAT as well... I certainly am willing to do that.

There's a lot of detail to the Guv Hotel, so I'll be sure to get as many angles and shots of it as possible. JtPortland can attest to my devotion to photographing EVERY possible angle for a BAT'ed building.

The Steel Bridge is a very unique bridge! I have a photo of it fully raised, and will post it when I find it... I have to say that it is Portland's most utilized bridge. BTW: Love the MAX trains crossing. Looks likme they're 2-car high floor consists, which are rare since the 1998 opening of the Westside line, not to mention introduction of the low-floor trains!

The Hawthorne Bridge is not only the oldest (still-standing) Willamette crossing in Portland, I think it is the oldest Vertical lift bridge in the world! The Morrison Bridge area is the oldest site for a vehicle crossing, and (iirc) the Burlington Northern Railroad Bridge is the oldest bridge in city limits.

So with The Governor Hotel, there's some things that right now, I can help you with. The flags on it are simple to figure out, but one is a mystery to some Portlanders and non-Portlanders alike.

On the pic, you can see that the flags of the USA and Canada are prominent. The State of Oregon flag is also there (I wish they'd hold a competition to redesigbn it, because I have some good ideas about a very good replacement). However, a lot of people don't know that the City of Portland has it's own flag:



(This image is from the Flags of the World website- www.fotw.net- and not my own work. I just put it on my photobucket account to not add any strain to their servers)

Chicago's flag is the most well-known US city flag, but ours has something going for it. I love flags. It's another of my interests.

Will post some more Portland buildings photos from my own photo collection as soon as I can find more!

Also, I'll get into some interesting facts about the Governor Hotel (and it's attached Princeton Building) later, so you have an awesome read-me and STEX description.

[SYM Productions 7]

I like flags too! 

I dunno... maybe you'd like to post a poll thread for your People's Choice BAT?

 

I'll just give you the most voted building from the next WRP project poll thread.

 

- CDI_spy

[sparkythepenguin 90]

I'm a little leary of a poll, esp. since some of the more prominent members of the community seem to frown on What should I BAT next polls... I'll just keep an ear/eye open and see what everyone thinks from posting here.

[zmveliger 16]

Hi Sparky,

the mosaic lofts have something original... so it's obviously my choice.

 

[sparkythepenguin 90]

It's strange, but a friend and I are in dispute about the Mosaic Lofts. He doesn't like them, but I do. The are that it's in is rapidly transforming, and I think it makes an excellent anchor for a new high-rise neighborhood.

Well, I still am officially on break, but Ripptide sent me the Portlandia statue for the Portland Building. I just couldn't resist taking a look at it with the Portland Building! Shortly after posting this, I'm going to PM him and tell him that the statue is great and no modifications are nessescary. Here's some screens with her in it, along with some improvements I added:

Zoom 4, she's lookin' good!



Zomm 5, even closer:



What a lady! I still need to texture her up.

Some additions that you may have noticed:

-Added roof junk
-Tinkered around with roof textures. The top 2 layers look OK, but may change the lower roofs. They're more gravel-looking.

And one that I haven't shown is the night lighting. I'll have to post that later, as I am still messing around with it.

I'm going to get this one done before the Hatfield. Hope that's OK. I have some misgivings about releasing it without the Portlandia statue. She really makes the building shine!

Keep commenting on the building photos posted and please keep up the comments on the textures on this weird, yet awesome building.

[SYM Productions 7]

It looks as good as the real building could get!

And Ripptide, that statue is phenominal!

 

- CDI_spy

[diablo_del_bano 3]

i cant wait to download them! also, are you going to put the portland flag on any of them? that would be cool if you did.

[praiodan 78]

Looks even more amazing with that statue

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Thanks everyone! And that's just at a low-quality preview! Today I plan on adding the finishing touches:

Flags: yup the Portland flag will be on there, along with the State of Oregon and US flags. I will release flagless versions.

Statue texturing: I'm looking for a good hammered copper texture that won't make Lady Commerce too light, but won't drown her out in darkness either. I think she's going into all versions as the building isn't really complete without her.

night lighting: I'll need to light up the flags and statue at night. It's sort of a no-no to fly flags at night in the US unless they're illuminated. Otherwise I am using the default night lighting for the windows, since they're so small anyway.

detail modeling: Flagpoles, railings at the base, and small lights along the base should go in sometime soon.

roof texturing: going to fix the lower roofs so that they look a bit more gravely. May just be something that isn't visible in the long run, but it'll make me feel better knowing it's fixed.

Well, time to get some tea and breakfast and get at it...

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Sorry to bump, but here's today's progress.

The easy part was making the flags:



I made sure to make the Oregon State flag with it's two sides. It's one of the few flags in the world with completely different things on the oposite sides. The reverse side shows a beaver, whom has been affectionately nicknamed Bucky.

Now here's the first night lighting photo:



As you can see, the spot for the Portlandia statue needs work (it looks like the light is directly on her bust! ). I also need to add the spots for the flags.

I added the decorative rails and lamps along the base. I thought the base needed a little spicing up.

When the spots are done and the roof textures are tweaked, the I will start exporting! So if there is anything anyone thinks should be improved upon, now is the time to say it. I'll greatly appreciate it!

[zmveliger 16]

Hi Sparky,

I have to admit that the building is awesome and the statue is incredible. As you said, nitelite has to be improved, especially near the entrance. Personally, I never put totally white nitelite so I agree with your choice to put yellowish ones. Even if they'll look a little brighter in the game, I think that they can be a little more white or brighter. That will fit better with your nitewindows.

 

Bye!

[T Wrecks 10,210]

This looks pretty lovely already. My only concern is that the night windows look like blocks of solid colour; there doesn't seem to be any texture on them... However, I love how windows are not just lit 100% or absolutely dark, but sometimes dimly lit etc. - that adds some variation and realism. One little step to perfection would be to lite both windows that border a building corner (or none of them), because IRL it would be one and the same room, I guess.

Great work with the flags btw, although I doubt that we will ever get to see Bucky in game (if he's on the back side of the flag, that is).

Well, good luck finishing this fine BAT...

[Andreas Roth 629]

Wow, this has developed pretty well! The lights in the basement look a bit bright, but as T Wrecks pointed out, I like the variation in the other windows as well. One suggestion for the flags: Rotate them a bit (maybe 20 degrees or so) inwards, that would enhance the realism even more, since it looks a bit odd to see them perfectly aligned with the building.

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Wow, a lot of good ideas! Just got into BAT and the first thng was to take a look at a nite window texture that I've developed. It looks interesting to say the least. More on the negative aspects after the screen:

Zoom 5, looking at the ribbons:



This solves the nite windows not really matching the spots and omnis. Plus it make the building look as warm as the real building looks at night. But it still may be too bright...

Another thing: The texture is supposed to show office space inside, and you really can't see it at zoom 5. You won't be able to see it at zoom 4 (trust me I tried!). I like the texture, but the building has such tiny windows that it won't reall make a difference on the farther zooms. For zooms 1-4, no matter what I do, it'll probably just show up as a solid color anyway. At those zooms, I'll just have to use solid or mostly solid colors.

Keep the comments coming! Your help is VERY appreciated )

[sparkythepenguin 90]

Before I quit BATing for the day, I played with the spots in front, adding spots for flags, rotating the flags, and tweaking Portlandia's spotlight. Still kept the textured nite windows:



I think its looking better. May tweak with some more textures on the building tomorrow or later tonite if I stay awake that long.

Please keep the comments flowing!

[SYM Productions 7]

Almostdonealmostdonealmostdone???

Can't wait to see these out then we can start our Switcharoo Re-creation Project...

 

- CDI_spy

[jtportland 184]

Hey sparky! The Portland Building looks AMAZING! the textureing is great. i love the black/grey windows. Ripptide made the most accurate Portlandia ever, it's unbelievable.

you do plan on removing that base plane right?

as for next pdx building i'd love to see the Fontaine, it's my favorite on the east side.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Holy cow, what an improvement! The statue looks superb now, the flags really shine (excuse the pun), and those new night windows... I love them! They really DO look warm and realistic. Have you tried a higher transparency setting to get something of the interior to show through? Oh well, even if the interior can't be seen, this building is shaping up very nicely... and jtportland's suggestion looks pretty interesting, too!
bixel will start on his first Portland BAT soon, so things are really looking great in here.

[praiodan 78]

Wow, the nightlightning looks awesome!

[bixel 1,228]

holy moley! sparkie, that building looks amazing. Well just to let everybody know I just started on the holladay Park Plaza located just east of Lloyd Center, its in alpha stage so dont get too excited yet, but I just want to let everybody know I dont spend all my time at the HK forum.

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files//HPP1.jpg align=baseline>

[bixel 1,228]

BTW this thing is kinda huge! Not nearly as tall as my regular HK R$$, but its very wide, and I havent even added the rest of the building to it yet. Because of its size I could either make it a functional LM, becuase the real building is an old folks home and so it provides jobs, and/or I can get T Wrecks to make it a huge GROWABLE. I do plan on squeezing it a bit after its done, but not yet.