Krasner B.A.T. thread

[Krasner 1,062]

Well there's no reason in fact I don't start a thread on Simtropolis as well now that I have a valid account  

I have created buildings with Gmax for nearly a year now, still I have only four releases yet, all available on our old french home Toutsimcities. I have, yet, many projects hidden in my folders but that may be long to come out mainly because of my extreme laziness. I would'nt re-post here the various previews, but everything can be seen on my thread on SC4Devotion and on TSC as well.

For some weeks I have been collaborating with my dear talented colleague Sciurus on a railway pack including many stations and other devices. We're sleeping on it for the moment but we will be back on that in the future as well  

I just have small things to show today, the various props I've been working on to be packed in a single prop-pack which will be a dependency among others for some of my forthcomming projects. Including an early-20th-century-suburban-houses-pack of (planned) 5 models and a modular cemetery as well.

 

So this is nearly finished ! So the others projects will boost up  I still plan to make two other fence props, and one small, typically french outdoor restaurant usually found on wharfs, plazas or parks, called a "Guinguette" (or a "Pied-Humide" in my town). I'm indeed quite happy with the small hearse, my first attempt in vehicle creation. I'd like to make a horse-driven hearse but I'm afraid with the horse, I suspect myself to be ineffectual and to make a hideous freaking out freak instead.

[CT14 2,486]

Welcome! Those props are looking great, and thanks for sharing.

[raynev1 1,887]

Welcome to Simtropolis , looking forward to see what you come up with . I looked at the link for Toutsimcities , some impressive work . Those props do look good too .

[matias93 7,535]

Even if I had saw something of this teased on TSC, it doesn't stop being awesome!! I'm specially interested on the cemetery project, because the current content only allows for very US-styled fields, not the labyrinthic kind of necropolis that predominated in Europe and Latin America until the last decades. More specifically, I'm craving for some mausolea, both the sumptuous palaces and the collective niches, here exemplified with a couple of images from the General Cemetery in Santiago:

^ This one is an authentic memento mori, not only the man is mortal, but even the works dedicared to his memory succumb to the pasage of time.

Contrasting, the niches for the commoners echo the social housing buildings on its laconic style and chaotic ornamentation.

[MissVanleider 1,851]

The props look great. Thanks for sharing. More little exciting varieties of lot furniture! Is that a public toilet? Not sure i remember seeing one of those in sc4 before! 

[Krasner 1,062]

@matias93 I thought I was done with graves but seeing your images just gave me the desire to make some more  Beginning with a recreation of Combalot mausolea found in a small cemetery near my home, which I love. The guy buried here was a landowner and a property developer who more or less build my district in the early 19th century.

As far as I know shooting photos in cemeteries is strictly forbidden in France, so taking this one was on my own risk

Recreation finished tonight, I hope ! The shelves of niches are an interesting idea as well, in fact there are some in France for cremated people. I will consider that for sure !

@MissVanleider Yes these are public toilets, those quite disgusting (and yet slowly disappearing in the past twenty years) concrete "vespasiennes" which could only be used by men. There are indeed some public toilets in prop-packs here and there, but not a single one of this kind as far as I know. The two other small constructions are electric transformers. Thank you by the way !

 

@CT14 @raynev1 Thanks ! Well I forgot to say welcome to the community, so welcome !

 

 

 

[Krasner 1,062]

An even smaller update today, just to show the few new props (12 actually) I did from Monday to this afternoon  Combalot mausolea with a smaller one, a large crippled family grave, two freshly burried coffins, small devices of the "sarcophagus-public-housing-graves" @matias93 had proposed (I hope I went close to what you thought about !) and some of these small electric vehicles with some water tanks on wheels, used in parks and cemeteries by the gardeners. I added these small signs which name the alleys, it's not so visible because of the base texture. I think they are too small so I will certainly re-size them a little.

 

I will certainly make yet an other big mausolea, at least as big as Combalot's one, but I still have to search for inspiration

[matias93 7,535]

This is really great and has a lot of potential!! The mere fact that korver gave a like to this update makes one's imagination to run wild about what could result...

[Hotwheeler 409]

Wow,what a lovely detailed Prop Pack.Yeah,SC 4 definetely needs some new Cemeteries,and your Prop Pack is on a good Way.

Say,the Hearses (those black/dark red Vans) in the first Picture of the first Posting,what are they based on?

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Yes, I agree with Hotwheeler - great job so far! It's not always easy to tell because of monitor differences, but I have the impression your textures could be a bit on the dark and heavily saturated side, especially the gate house and the hearses. Have you checked them against a Maxis environment to see how well they blend in?

[SimCoug 5,976]

Great new props!  Besides the standard maxis graves, I'm not aware of any other props in that category, so yay for more (morbid) diversity 

[Jasoncw 11,949]

On 4/4/2017 at 6:31 AM, T Wrecks said:

Yes, I agree with Hotwheeler - great job so far! It's not always easy to tell because of monitor differences, but I have the impression your textures could be a bit on the dark and heavily saturated side, especially the gate house and the hearses. Have you checked them against a Maxis environment to see how well they blend in?

I agree with this.  

[Krasner 1,062]

Almost completely a copy/paste of my last message on Devotion today, sorry for that   I'm too tired now to respond to everybody individually, but that will come I promise. Anyway all your comments are welcomed and I appreciate.

About the texturing : I know that darkness is a recurring problem in my work and I still need the people to tell me when I'm going too far   I'll try to do better, but yet unfortunately it's no more possible to fix that on the concerned props as I can't find some of the original models and the keeper house gmax file got corrupt. I made some basic mistakes in the first exports so I've been exporting this very same model several times, I guess it's an explanation for that corruption.

Anyway I just have to datpack these props (82 now !) and it will come out. As soon as possible  It's not that I don't have time for that but I'm this kind of person who get easily depressed and then go in invasive procrastination periods for a few weeks. Nothing serious I promise

So as the props are finished since tomorrow I came back to that old factory puzzle ! It's moving forward quickly  ;D I will add to that one or two wall props, filler lots, make it clean and presentable. It's pure eye-candy without jobs for now. Here are some previews ;

I reproduced the weird lettering of the logo of this car workshop of my neighborhood which is about to be demolished. There was a huge plant behind, quite similar to mine, which got destroyed recently.

Hope you like it

[matias93 7,535]

Just to like it? This is fantastic!!! The repetition, even being obvious, looks wonderful and very credible.

I suspect that @T Wrecks and @kingofsimcity will get some ideas to play with this, but from my part, I'll gladly use the modular approach, and to ensemble the pieces in-game, mixing them with IRM fillers.

[Silur 3,308]

And again amazing things! You give great stuff here... 

[Krasner 1,062]

@matias93 Thank you  It's always nice to read your replies

@Hotwheeler That was the idea, to fill a gap, I'm happy it pleases you  The hearse is more or less a slightly modified Peugeot J7/J9, commonly the exemplars of this old thing modified for various purposes appear to look quite far from the original design. I'm not very interested into motor works in fact, I didn't made it to be perfectly life-like.

@T Wrecks Thank you !  As I said last time, some models were lost and some others are corrupted, so I can't re-render them, but that is in fact a valid judgement. I will try to be more careful in the future.

@SimCoug Thank you  I think that there is a japanese cemetery available somewhere, and Orange also made some grave props when he was still active, but it was never released. There are also a few custom graves in a lot pack available on Simcitykurier.

@Jasoncw Well, as I said before...

@Silur Thank you, that is encouraging !

 

The Prop-pack is finally available, you can get it here  Many thanks go to @Scribosilyn, who datpacked it for me. As usual, there is a Read-me in both French and English. I will provide a personnal lotting of my cemetery props, but it will require custom overlays so for the moment I prefer to work on other projects, it will come out later. Feel free to make your own lotting and share it if you want, I would'nt mind

Back to the puzzle-factory, I made three more pieces that I will show later. For the moment I have to show this alternate version of one of the gates. Only the roofing is different, as @praiodan doesn't like it. I let the different forum members choose which one is better

I also made yet an other version of my old railroad crossing keeper house, this time abandonned and with each window completely walled. It will come out, like the two ohers, all together in a big railroad pack I'm working on with my friend @Sciurus

[matias93 7,535]

Wow, that looks really detailed! I'm eager to see what this cooperation can bring.

[praiodan 78]

17 hours ago, Krasner said:

Only the roofing is different, as @praiodan doesn't like it. I let the different forum members choose which one is better

I hope I did not appear too fierce with my advice in first place, I simply thought a more inconspicuous texture would be more suitable for such a  modular approach, besides which I like very much! And as I said before, this new roof texture looks a lot better IMHO.

[Krasner 1,062]

6 hours ago, praiodan said:

I hope I did not appear too fierce with my advice in first place

Absolutely not I would'nt post any previews if I didn't want some backup, and with hindsight, your advice appears to be relevant and I'm thankful

[Silur 3,308]

Hi, Krasner...

 I managed to download Your masterpieces. All I see from You - great job! There are always some little things. But you can never please everyone. Your word is important!!! Good Luck To You!!!

[Krasner 1,062]

@matias93 Thanks ! In fact it's quite in a deep sleep currently, but @Sciurus will be able to work on it again in a few weeks he said to me

@Silur Thank you !

Just a quick update about the puzzle factory, to show the few more pieces I made :

In fact modeling is finished, so the only steps left ahead are adding some fillers and put everything in a MML. I wasn't able to find any tutorial, unfortunately  So I'm asking you, where can I find this type of information ? By the way I'm still hesitating about what base texture to use with all this. It looks far better to me with this particular texture from @vortext, but it would make the whole thing much more difficult to mix with all the other filler pieces available here and there, which use almost always the same maxis concrete (the light one). I will have to resign I guess.

Fortunately there is not much moiré pattern in zoom 5, which is so difficult to avoid when redering in HD 

Hope you like it !

[matias93 7,535]

Amazing work!! As strange as it sounds, the thing I like the most is that brick wall prop: looks very real and its fantastically versatile; I guess that both @T Wrecks and @Manuel-ito will be tempted to use it instead of their current brick wall prop.

About the texture, undoubtedly it will be harder to mix, but Votext's cobbles look more authentic. Maybe, if you have the free time, you can lot it twice, following IRM standards on the alternate version.

[Fantozzi 4,068]

The maison du garde-barrière is really great. It''s perfect to me.

I enjoy your models. Your doing great work for SC4 - I downloaded most (all?) of your bats from ToutsSimCities.

And I like the idear to make a modular factory building (puzzle factory) - will be very helpfull for lotters.

The only thing, for my personal taste (and, yes, you can't make it perfect for everybody) - the red colour of the brick walls and the red colour of the roof - I don't know exactly why, but to me they don't seem to go along with each other. Maybe the roof texture looking too modern compared to the walls? Maybe one of them - the brick walls or the roof - is too much saturated? Maybe it's only personal aesthetics and because they are too uniform (both red). O both together - too much plaid? Sorry, can't really tell. Or ...maybe the roof texture doesn't fit this style of building?

I'm no expert on this - but are clay brick roof tiles common on sawtooth roofs of the early period? I would think most of them (~1840 - 1910) were build with steel framework (instead of wood). So the space in between the structure could be much bigger. So they wouldn't have used roof tiles but some large planks, because they are set up much quicker than brick by brick?

Ah, I don't know for real what I'm talking about.

...

But it would be interesting to have the warehouse segments with some variations in the texture - only slight variations of the dark spots and then making the different models (you would need only two or three variations for this) into prop families. So if you put them together on a lot it would give an additional realism effect, I think.

 

 

[Krasner 1,062]

1 hour ago, Fantozzi said:

I'm no expert on this - but are clay brick roof tiles common on sawtooth roofs of the early period? I would think most of them (~1840 - 1910) were build with steel framework (instead of wood). So the space in between the structure could be much bigger. So they wouldn't have used roof tiles but some large planks, because they are set up much quicker than brick by brick?

In fact there is a long tradition of clay brick roof tiles in my region and it's still quite an important industrial sector nowadays. It tends to become more scarce, certainly because it's too expensive, but brick roof tiles are used to cover even very large roofings, including industrial facilities. Those roof tiles are more or less red, more or less brown/black or something in between because of air pollution. Here are some examples :

Old Renault Véhicules Indutriels plant in Lyon (usually quoted as "friche RVI'), which got almost comlpletely destroyed recently, happily the street façade will stay.

Roof tiles on an old factory in my father's hometown.

The Halle Girard (also known as Halle Paul Dulac et cie) which I plan to reproduce in an hypothetical future and I'm serious

Side view of the Halle Girard. I can also mention the huge Fonderie Vénissieux works, which are still partly covered with those tiles nowadays, while most of the roofing seems to use metal plates. Combined use of red bricks and red roof tiles is common in the north of France by the way.

I deliberately choose to use quite not-too-derelict textures as they would repeat a lot and that would'nt look good, avoiding obvious reptition leads to some defaults in the modular option  But making some alternate texturing in base pieces is in fact, something I should do. Making a prop family sounds to be necessary as well ! Anyway thanks for your advice

[Krasner 1,062]

Just a quick post about a new unshowed yet work

I've been intrigued for a long time by several early-20th century working-class housing complexes that are sprinkled here and there in Lyon. Most of those complexes are quite far away from each other but despites that, curiously the design is exactly the same in each of them. Three or four storey buildings grouped by two or three, here is one of them painted in kitchy-fancy colours, in Oullins :

So I've decided to reproduce them  It's so simple it's the perfect thing to be extensively declined, including diags and FAR for example, I'll see that. First attempt, there's still some nightlights and antennas to add :

Hope you like it !

[Tyberius06 12,267]

Wow, that's very nice. I remember that I've might seem similiar type of houses in Budapest (my home city). These are very nice additons. ☺

[matias93 7,535]

Change the shingles for steel plates, remove the chimneys and paint them white and red, and your get the social housing blocks 200 metres away from my house. It is very crazy how those typologies stay fixed for decades and get copied all around the world; but in any case, this ones are almost copied from the roman insulae, so is nothing new...

And in street view

[Krasner 1,062]

@Tyberius06 Thanks ! By the way I remember I've red somewhere that you were waiting for my puzzle factory to extend the potential of your seaport lots, I'm still working on other things now but I'll try to finish it soon so

@matias93 That would'nt be false I think, to argue that it may be linked to the fact that the social pyramid didn't essentialy changed throughout the centuries... But this is not the right thread to be a marxist  Interesting though, to realize that here and there it tends to be more or less the same, it brings out unusual points of view.

I'm just passing by to annouce that I have puted two new uploads on TSC. I've told it on Devotion but I forgot to say it there too (sorry !), and as it's not (yet) exactly the same community some people following my work may have skipped it, so here are the links :

 

- Release of the second part of my low-wealth mid-19th century building pack, consisting of three angles (including the house I showed in the "show us what you're working on" thread on Sunday). The two others are a little bit old so modeling could seem a little cheesy compared to my actual standards (no modeled interior and flat windows :/ ). All three are provided in R$ AND C$.

Download page here

-And two low-wealth small early-20th century suburban houses, both derived from the same simple model. It appears that I have $%&^!ed up the dependency list on the downnload page, but it is also listed and explained in the read-me (which is in French and English as usual ). This is the first volume of a pack of this kind of houses, the next volume will provide twin worker houses from two large housing estates from my city.

Download page here

I hope you like it !

[Krasner 1,062]

Just an other quick update, about something I did so quickly today I've got surprised with myself

I discussed recently with @Manchou_TSC about his unpublished work and he said me that whole of it has disappeared in hard-disk issues... A sad, and not so uncommon story, unfotunately. Among many other awesome stuff, this small el-road (15 meters) skin bridge was lost :

So I've decided to make my own ersatz  And as I said it was quickly done, only three hours more or less from A to Z, sometimes these kind of miracles just pop up. The rounded-stones textures come from different sources and I hope it can't be noticed. I haven't exported it yet, I just wanted to be sure that this kind of things can work as a single semi-underground prop, it appears that @Glenni's eyecandy bridges were made this way. So if you think I'm doing it wrong please tell me !

(Of course the light grey part is supposed to be covered with el-road, and it is not centered so it can be plopped next to it. I hope that el-road would'nt glitch with it, normally the LODs are done properly)

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Wow, that's a beautiful little bridge! IMO you did a great job with that stone texture, it looks very lifelike.