my first bat - need advice

[DaMaster_architect 0]

you're really a great BATter, tiemanj! If you continue this way, I bet your future creations will be NDEX quality

@eedoon: Hmm... it appeals to a Co$$ to me. Yeah, Co$$ suits great, I think.

[Kwakelaar 92]

This is starting to look really beautiful. The model is very well done just a few details with your textures that could be improved.

IMO the brownish-yellow brick is looking a bit messy, you should be able to find a texture where you can see the bricks more clearly.

The extra floor behind the columns on the ground floor, you could just remove it or make a balustrade along the edge, and it is also looking very thin?

The facade of the corners and the two top floors have great details and look wonderful.

Maybe try another texture on the pavement on the groundfloor and this floor also looks very thin.

The rooflight looks like it doesn't belong there, but the elevator house is a nice touch.

This is already an excellent BAT and my comments are just for minor details.

[JohnB 66]

I love this one. Its my favorite architectural style too. 

[tiemanj 5]

I did a few more modifications.  I toned down the crack from the skylight to the elevator house, and enlarged the bricks on face.  I also fixed the lights at the top, and added lights in the conference room under the skylight. 

What do you think about the skylight light?  I think it looks a little out of place, being so recessed, and I'm not sure how to fix it.

(low quality preview- roof borders removed to save time)

[Kwakelaar 92]

The nightlights on the skylights is looking nice, I also like the bigger bricks better.

[spa 970]

hmm this is looking really really good but since you asked I'm personally not so sure about the lighting in the skylight. I think it does look a little out of place as it is. Unless you're going to spend a lot of time fixing up whatever room is below it, I would suggest making the skylight glass a simple nitelite panel but turning down the intensity so that it's dimmer than the other lights on the building. This tutorial will tell you how to do that 

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=49&threadid=46312&highlight_key=y&keyword1=tutorial

I suspect that will look nicer.

[tiemanj 5]

Thanks for the link to the tutorial.  I actually did model the room bellow the skylight, but it wasn't really comming out on the render.  I added the texture lighting, and kept the night lights bellow, and I like the result.

I think I'm going to put this building to bed soon.  I have another I'm going to attempt to render tonight, and if that goes well, I'll probably export it later this weekend or next week.

Oh and here is a shot of the conference room.  If anyone knows how I can bring it out a bit better without too much more work, I'm all ears.

[hamsterTK 93]

if your going to put so much work modeling furniture, might as well add a full skylight over the entire room so you can see it all

[spa 970]

The skylight lighting looks better now. I didn't know you had put so much time into modelling the office furniture in that top room. Perhaps a larger skylight is called for since most of that detail will never be seen the way it is. Then again, a larger skylight might look out of place. I'lll leave it up to you to decide.

[Jasoncw 12,030]

That picture show how nice the modeling is, but I still don't like the textures. It's good to know that you're still working on them though.

Gascookers tutorial is basicly, "the bottom should be darker than the top," and then says how.  I don't know what he said, but I make a new layer, fill it with white, add a gradient style to it, and then set them to either multply or overlay (depending on what looks best with the given texture), and then I lower the opacity to make it less strong (the gradient should be subtle).  All of this requires Photoshop, or a similair program.

[Kwakelaar 92]

I think it is quite amazing that you have put so much work into the interior, with that amount of detail I would try to make a bigger skylight. I will have to agree with Jasoncw about the textures, they could be better, but still I think this is a good BAT.

[tiemanj 5]

thanks for the replys.  Since the building is the main object, and not the conference room, I'll keep the skylight as is.  Any bigger and I think it will look bad.  Oh well - I'll keep the stuff in the room, it does add subtile detail  -  similar to lobby level - most of the detail you can't see, by it does cast reflections that add to the total effect.

I added some gradients to the textures.  I don't know what is up with the right face, but once I figure it out I'll probably export.

[tiemanj 5]

I fixed most of the funny texturing, but it wasn't anything simple.  I had to replace all of the walls that had the problem.  The picture bellow shows some of the worst of what has happened.  Does anyone know what causes this and how it can be quickly fixed?

[sloppet 3]

it looks awesome! great work! tiemnj!

[Kwakelaar 92]

I really can't say what has happend.

Maybe if you tell us a bit how you made the walls and how you applied the textures, you did not happen to use the mirror function?

[tiemanj 5]

Yes, I did use the mirror funcion - a lot.  I was thinking that it may be that, becasue it happened to walls that I probably would have used it for.  When I rebuilt them, I used rotate, move and +- extrusions.  I'm guessing that mirroring is bad then?  Is their an easier way to recover it? My next model uses a bit of mirroring as well.

[Kwakelaar 92]

Yes, mostly the mirror button does not work and does strange things to your textures, but someone (I think Odd from Sweden) said if you use the mirror function under the modify roll-out it should work fine. (Have not tested this myself)

Unfortunately I don't know any easier way to recover your model, maybe someone else can help you out.

Good luck with the BAT, and I think it is time to upload to the STEX, it is looking great.

[tiemanj 5]

Jasoncw took my model and made some textures and instructions how to apply them.  Sadly, the model file he did it in got corrupted, so I had to redo his work (still using his textures).  This is the result:

I need to adjust them a little more, and do something to those blocks at the base of the the building, but I like it so much better.  Here is a big thank you to jasoncw.

[brancra 1,220]

And here is my jaw, which has fallen to the floor, after looking at such a great piece of work. If I may, tiemamj (and jasoncw), this is an awesome piece of work.

[Odd from Sweden 129]

This building looks really good now with the new textures! One little tip for You tiemanj and for anyone else interested. If you want to mirror things do not use the mirror TOOL which cause this trouble mentioned, use the mirror MODIFIER and you are fine off!

[Kwakelaar 92]

I already liked it with the red/brown brick, but this is looking even better.

[Goin2Chicago 4]

that is excellent work! i can't wait to see your bats released on the stex. keep up the great work!

[bixel 1,228]

WOW! Looks good, the orange was kinda growing on me but the new textures are much better! I must agree yo may need to make a much bigger roof windows to show that room you so carefully modeled.

[spa 970]

The orange was growing on me too but this looks a lot better. This was the last touch that you really needed.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Yes, this is a considerable improvement once again. You could get rid of the "base plate", btw. This will make it easier to make building and lot look like one piece.

[JayStimson 212]

Looking pretty good. Another fine example of the value of patience and diligence.

[GMT 389]

very very cool work.

I'd hardly suggest putting a bigger skylight on the roof so your great work in the interior gets the visibility it deserves, and, a little thing, the crack from the skylight to the elevator house look better as it was at the beginning... imo

anyway, can't wait to see it on the stex

[tag_one 133]

amazing work, it looks really cool

[tiemanj 5]

I exported last night. This is the final preview I took before rendering. 

And here it is photoshopped into a city (thanks again jasoncw)

I'm going away for the weekend, and I won't be back until the middle of next week.  Where I'm going doens't have very good internet access, if at all, so I probably won't upload it until next week (I still have to edit the lot or I'd release it now).

 

Here is the next building I hope to complete.  I still need to detail the roofs and interiors (not to mention texture and light).  I also don't know how to model the dome yet - any suggestions.

[spa 970]

Well your old style building turned out quite well in the end. I'll definitely download it when you put it up. This new building looks quite interesting. I'm not the best person to ask about making the dome but how I thing you could do it with three arc shapes. The two on the end would cover the curves by using a lathe modifier. I would then make the third arc to cover the middle and it would only need to be extruded to fill the space. One thing, for the lathe tool to work, you will need to move the arcs pivot points. This would make for a dome that fits. Darkmatters tutorial explains in how to make a satelite how to use the lathe modifier and how to move pivot points. You can find it here:

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=49&threadid=45938&highlight_key=y&keyword1=tutorial