Swteas Workshop

[swtea 6]

Hi there... a bit nervous to make this thread. 

I am very new to 3D, but I'm finding it pretty fun to create buildings for CS. Being so new, my models are pretty simple, and boy do I feel way inferior to all of the creators out there. But it is a learning process, which is why I wanted to put this thread out there! I feel I've gotten decent at keeping tris low on my simple buildings, but struggle with the LOD and overall nice texturing. One thing I'm so annoyed about is how white-washed or over saturated things appear in the asset editor..

I just request that any advice given is with this in mind. I use Blender and Photoshop. Photoshop I'm fluent in as I use it for work, but I barely grasp blender lingo yet 

So anyway. Here is the first thing I ever made, and these are from last year before I took a long break from CS. It's a chapel based on one called the Anthony Chapel I once visited. I found it a beautiful place and wanted to kind of recreate it, but the entire building is pretty much glass and doing that in CS made it lose a lot of it's charm so I had decided to create it with no windows/glass. Maybe it looks a bit silly like that. Heres an actual photo:

 

(Workshop)

 

Next, I did this bell tower thing.

(Workshop)

Then a huge cathedral. (I guess I went on a church like spree)

(Workshop)

A growable commercial building, meant to be a cafe

(Workshop)

That's what I did last year. I did these two buildings this week, two high residential apartments:

(Workshop)

(Workshop)

 

There are a few other things in my workshop, but these are the ones I'm most happy with. Anyway, I guess I just wanted to join the community a bit more, I've found a lot of useful information here and appreciate it a lot.

I hope to continue updating this thread with more releases soon Thinking of doing some commercial buildings.

[boformer 3,169]

I love the cathedral. It looks really unique, and the tri count is decent.

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

Your work tells me you're not that green....you sure you're a beginner? Those are looking well made to me so far. As to the colors, you have to really de-saturate your colors in Photoshop. I usually deepen the darks just a little using levels first then de-saturate. Go back and forth in game if you have to.

[Kaschperl 92]

I agree with the others, your works look pretty good so far! I'm excited to see what your next creations will be!

[swtea 6]

16 hours ago, Mr_Maison said:

Your work tells me you're not that green....you sure you're a beginner? Those are looking well made to me so far. As to the colors, you have to really de-saturate your colors in Photoshop. I usually deepen the darks just a little using levels first then de-saturate. Go back and forth in game if you have to.

Yeah, my textures on my latest building were almost completely desaturated... yet still so white washed / bright in the asset editor!  I didn't try deepening the darks, maybe that is what I need to try, thank you.

 

Thank you, everyone! Happy I made the topic. I'm such a nervous person by nature. I just expected everyone to dislike them!

[Matthias King 348]

Your assets are very nice. Those new houses are particularly nice. I subbed them but haven't gotten a chance to get them in my city yet. I'm trying to think of the perfect place for them first.

I love that cathedral, but 9 megs is a little steep. I keep going back and forth on whether to sub it or not. But it looks so nice.

I have your Espresso Café and I like it a lot, but something about the scale seems off, like it's a little tall, but I could be wrong. And if I remember right, there's something strange about the way it grows, like the lot size.

But don't take those as criticisms. You've done excellent work.

[swtea 6]

1 hour ago, Matthias King said:

Your assets are very nice. Those new houses are particularly nice. I subbed them but haven't gotten a chance to get them in my city yet. I'm trying to think of the perfect place for them first.

I love that cathedral, but 9 megs is a little steep. I keep going back and forth on whether to sub it or not. But it looks so nice.

I have your Espresso Café and I like it a lot, but something about the scale seems off, like it's a little tall, but I could be wrong. And if I remember right, there's something strange about the way it grows, like the lot size.

But don't take those as criticisms. You've done excellent work.

I totally agree about the scale of my earlier buildings, I've only just learned how to set the blender grid up to make it easier to scale things. For the cafe, maybe you don't like the emptiness on the sides? That was again before I really understood scale, and it ended up giving a bigger plot size.. I would like to fix it but unfortunately I think I've lost the files for my earlier stuff when my PC threw a fit. Not sure how I could fix it now?

[Matthias King 348]

I'm not sure either, I can't 3d model a simple untextured box, let alone what you've done.

I don't think it's the sides that look off. Were you meaning to make it work as a wall-to-wall building? Because that would be cool.

When I got it to grow in my last city, it came in on a 4x2 plot, and the back part of it overhung the actual zoned area in a weird way, but that could have just been a glitch in my game. The game does strange things sometimes.

The thing about the scale that struck me was that the door seems a little too tall when you see a cim standing in front of it, and that seems to put the rest of the scale off.

What I love, though, is the color of the bricks, they look really nice, and the sign hanging out front and the sandwich board by the door with breakfast, lunch, etc... Those are great details and they look really sharp.

I tried to imagine what it looked like inside, and I imagined the ground floor with tables, and the counter across from the front door, and off to the right, a staircase leading up to a second-level dining area that leads out to that balcony. I'm not sure if the scale is actually off or not, but if you decide to try and rework it, I wish you the best of luck. It's a great original building and has a lot of charming character.

I picture it existing in the city my novel takes place in.

[Judazzz 1,936]

2 hours ago, swtea said:

Thank you, everyone! Happy I made the topic. I'm such a nervous person by nature. I just expected everyone to dislike them!

No need man, you're assets are lovely (like some said, it's hard to imagine you're a modeling newbie )
Welcome on board, btw!

[Avanya 2,605]

Hi and welcome!

With these as your first assets you're definately of to a good start! Love the white brick cathedral and I gotta try those new apartments too. And should you have questions about something here is a good place to ask. Ppl are very helpful and I've learned alot since I came on here.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with  

[gfvsims 169]

Welcome! I downloaded the residential buildings in that last pic the other day. I haven't had a chance to use them yet, but I really like them. Thanks for sharing!