Aaron Graham's BATs

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Welcome to Aaron Graham's Thread

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Building #1

Heres one of my buildings that im creating its an W2W Apartment building for $ sims, the lot will be 2X3.

  Edited September 14, 2012 by Aaron Graham  

[simcity4fan12 13]

Looking good so far. Keep it up!

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #X

Heres another picture of one of my buildings that I have design, I did this in one day but it still need some work on it before it looks like a great building, the building is another $$R apartment the lot will be about 2X4 or 4X2 and W2W on the back and on the right side, im thinking about making two so one will be W2W and the other will not.

The construction to this building that I design has been put to a hault.(10-12-2009)

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #1

Heres an update on my apartment building, the things I have worked on is the roof , window frame and some of the lighten, the windows glass I did not work on, the glass you see is just a giant box in the inside the building and had been texture just to show what it should look like when its done.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Lovely work so far, nice to see this style architecture!

I think the windows sills are a little too thick, perhaps reduce their height and depth (mostly depth, too much shadow IMO). Additionally, the cornice / roof decoration seems disproportionally scaled. What is the overhang, 1-2 meters? Scale it down so it fits on top of the building (only a small overhang, maybe .3m) and make it maybe half as tall. This will also make all the detial you added up there look less like some rectangles with semi circles sticking out and more like architectural frill. Also, unless you are basing this off of one building in particular, there would probably be one or two floors (with windows) within this more ornate zone and not a "wasteland" of decorative masonry.

On a side note, zoom 5 previews are most useful in appraising what you have done. Best of luck,

-Todd

[madhatter106 3,903]

I agree with the above - there' s a lot of window in each floor, and very little wall above and below it - and the cornice at the top looks HUGE. Far too substantial - I'd imagine huge chunks of it breaking off and raining down on the pedestrians if the building fell in disrepair.

[Francis90b 748]

You're quite off a good start !

I have to agree with what was said above though..in those old buildings windows does usually account for a smaller portion of the total surface, and the space between the top of one windows and the bottom of another is usually taller.

I believe it would be a good idea to make the floors slightly taller while keeping the windows at their current dimensions.

The cornice you've modelled is too large and thick, so maybe you could take inspiration form an existing building and rebuild it.

You might work on the basement as well.It seems like there are too few entrances for a building of this size, and it would be a good idea to use a different color to highlight the first floors.

Looking at the penthouse i'm wondering why half of it is covered by a chimney.You've modelled it like if there could be a stair inside it, and therefore the taller wall should host a door....but why to cover part of the taller floor with a chimney?

And speaking about the chimneys, they seem to be slightly too tall for this order of building, although in other buildings they could do pretty well.

[madhatter106 3,903]

Oh, come to think of it - look at the chimney placement in relation to the windows underneath it. It seems like an arbitrary addition, like a spike added to the roof, with little regard to the placement - if the chimney continued down into the top floor/penthouse, it would have a window in the back of it, which makes me think the chimney was added as an afterthought with no regard to function/logistics. And it does seem quite a bit tall - in relation to your floors, it's at least two floors high.

All of this makes me think you're rushing through these BATs, and not looking at research/pictures or thinking things through 100%. Do an hour of google image searches, and take a look at buildings of this type, and it will help things greatly - for one thing, you'll find stuff out there that will give you great ideas as to floor plan, details and their scales to one another, and stuff which you might never have considered but which will help individualize your BATs. Stuff which is just "dreamed up" or conjured out of thin air tends to look a bit generic, and your research will help to avoid that pitfall. I'm not saying don't let your imagination run wild - but armed with some good picture resources, your work will be better informed and better thought-through, and will help sell your designs in the end.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

I understand what you all talking about, im going to try to fix somethings.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #1

Heres my update to my apartment building, I have fix somethings that maddhatter106 and SimHoTToDDy was talking about, heres the update and don't mind the roof texture it did that when I did another preview.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Well, looks like you're off to a very good start! I gotta say that I really like the building so far, but of course the advice that's been given to you is absolutely correct. The building needs a more defined base and a ground floor that differs from the others, etc. etc.

One more suggestion I'd like to add: I like how you made the BAT look different, with a pronounced and decorated front and a rather lackluster back side - just like in real life. However, the back of the building looks terribly flat so far. You could change this by adding a light court between the chimneys so that the building becomes vaguely "U"-shaped instead of being a monolithic block.

You could even make one wing of the "U" extend a little bit less than the other, and add a fire escape ladder there. The ground floor could remain "massive" (i.e. not U-shaped), and you could add some loading bays there...

Feel free to download some of Jason's and nofunk's recreations of older buildings and have a look at them from all sides - I guess you could copy a lot of interesting ideas there.

I'd really like to see that BAT of yours in game, it looks like it could be a great addition to the Chicago tileset!

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Ok, the Apartment yall are talking about im still working on it, and T Wrecks making it a U-shape, a wing smaller than the other and a fire ecape is a great idea for the building. I have been working on other building and it might take me some time to finish.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #2

Im almost done but heres an update on one of my other buildings is an R$$ and it should have a lot size of 2X2.

[madhatter106 3,903]

Any window that is lit at the corner of the building should have the window that shares its' corner lit as well. Since they most likely share the same room, and the light is coming from one window, it should be coming from the other window which is perpendicular to it as well...

[gottago 24]

The Manhattan-style brick apt. bldg. is good, very typical of NYC, but I see a few basic problems: first, you should remove one of the lightwells--that semi-detached back corner they create is unrealistic. I'd just extend one lightwell to the corner--essentially making the building a thick "L."  Also, you should remove the quoins (the saw-toothed corner blocks) that run along the base of the building--quoins only appear on corners, vertically.

Last, and it's mostly an esthetic question, I'd give the building a larger, more projecting cornice, with a low wall above it, and raise the roof to accommodate it. The top floor is usually done this way in these old NYC pre-war bldgs.

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

I would have to agree with gottago about this building, it has all the elements of a realistic building but they are used in an slightly unrealistic way.

You should collect some examples of this style and try to mimic them more closely. When I saw this a few buildings came to mind:

Detroit YWCA

Fort Shelby Hotel (also in detroit).

(back)

Or evn this building next to the Kean Apartments.

You must excuse my all- Detroit examples, I have spent a lot of time looking at the city in Bing maps You are off to a good star and it looks like you know how to make the details you need, you just need to focus more on attaching and arrangeing them logically.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Thankyou for leaving your comments I will fix the lights on the windows, It will take me a while to do it but im going to change them. The saw-toothed design that at the base of the building im going to try to change that as well.

And agian thankyou for leaving comments this should make me better at BAT when I learn from my mistakes

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #1

Heres an update on my first building to be on the forms. I restarted the building from shrech thats way it took me a long time to post a form on this building agian. T Wrecks said the the back of the building was really flat and that make the building with wings and making one of the wings to be shorter than the other, so I made the wings and make one shorter that the other. T Wrecks also said something about a fire excape and loading bays, I will add the fire expace later on when im nearly done, the loading bays I do not know about that now beace it seems that the court area will be a little small. Im not going to for get about the chimmeys and the windows that were below the old model , im not going to forget about the night windows that be on the corner of a building and I should of known that yes it 100% share that the windows in the corner of a building shares the same room. I not for get about the top of the building egde hang to far out so the pices of the building will not fall on pedestrians.

[Keegan V50 15]

Nice bats there!keep up the good work!

all the best

victor

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #2

Here an update I have made some changes you see, im thinking about changing the window texture I have got it when I was searching on google. I Just want to know if anyone like the wndow texture and the building for now.

[Jasoncw 11,839]

That looks WAAAAAAY better than your first BAT.

[madhatter106 3,903]

I agree 100% with jasoncw - it's miles beyond the first things you posted here. The texturing is great, and the details are all there. The variations in windows are good, too. And I am partial to BATs with water towers on top of them. Looking good!

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Quite a big improvement over your initial version! A little more work and I think you will have something great going. gottago's comment about making it an "L" shape might be your next big step as that back corner is rather illogically attached. Also think about adding some more decorations in strategic places (look at the pictures I posted), while your building has a few "high end" details that belong on this style building, there are still some that seem missing.

I actually love the window texture by the way,

-Todd

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #1

Heres an update, I added the Fire escape and the lights.

[Jasoncw 11,839]

I have to say, the cornice on this one is better than it used to be, but I still think it needs work. It might actually be easier to completely delete the cornice and model a new one than to try and fix the current one.

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Wow, there has been much going on here lately! And I must say, I really love what I see. You are making huge and swift progress - every step a vast improvement!

That new residential building is really a winner; I like it very much. One point to improve would be the roof texture. As it is, it looks rather bland and drags the overall impression down a bit. You could try accentuating all edges by darkening them slightly, and you could add some more texture variation over the entire surface as well. This would make the roof look more used, weathered and three-dimensional.

Likewise, I'm not sure about the placement of the roof junk. That water tower is cool, and so is the roof access. However, the roof access is normally where the staircase would be. In this case, I wonder whether this position would be a logical choice for a staircase. Personally, I'd place the roof entrance right in the middle, and the water tower somewhere else. Just a thought.

The windows are lovely, though - an enormous improvement over the "black hole" windows of the very first BAT you showed!

Ok, having said all that, let's come back to the pink building. I love what you did with it; the new shape is very convincing, and the fire escape looks just like the real thing. Great job!

I agree with Jason about the cornice, you might fare better if you look at some real-life examples and copy shamelessly.

Once more, the same observations about the roof texture apply. I haven't really made up my mind about the distribution of the roof junk here; I guess it's okay. However, someone who's more proficient in architecture might be able to give you a few pointers.

One aspect that caught my attention is the scale/proportions of the building: it looks squashed somehow. I think you could scale it up on the vertical axis.

Oh, and you should give the windows a similar treatment like you did with the residential BAT!

Last but not least, a general point where your buildings could be improved vastly is the ground floor. Look at the real-life photographs provided by SimHoTToDDy, and you will see that the ground floors are often considerably taller than the above storeys, and that they tend to be clad in a different material and have differently shaped and/or differently sized windows.

Phew, quite a lot of text.  All in all, I'm really excited to see how much you have improved already, and how quickly you grasp suggestions and new concepts. I'm convinced that you will be able to produce beautiful BATs in the near future, and I must confess that it's really fun to follow this thread and provide feedback. Keep up the great work, and don't forget to make frequent (incremental) backups!

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #3

Heres a New building I have made, it took me a day to do this but its going to need some more work on it. The lot size should be 2X2 and its a R$$. (I have numbered the buildings that I have designed so when you comment it I will know what building you are talking about.)

[SimHoTToDDy 2,938]

Holy cow! T-Wrecks was right about you being a receptive and quick learner!

I think if you added / changed the windows on the ground floor to something more grand and inviting you would have a winner here. Here is a nice, relatively simple type arrangement you could do to the ground 1 or 2 floors (a la Hotel Wolverine, RIP! )

I really love #3, please continue to make progress on it!

-Todd

[Larks2242 251]

Some nice looking buildings you have there Aaron.

[Aaron Graham 4,417]

Building #1

Heres an update Im sorry for not posting any pictures last week I was try to come up with another building. I have change the roof texture and Change the cornice I hope you like it, I have also added some pipes for the roofand added an access way to the back of the building. soon Im not going to be posting any pictures of this building any more because it should be done soon.