The FrankU and Nexis CO-OP

[FrankU]

All right. Anyway. Hmmm....

Tonight I had a bit of spare time, about two hours, and I redid the Kranenkamp.

Earlier this weekend I tried to add some kind of formal "French baroque" garden to the house, like in Borgelerhof. But first of all it did not succeed and secondly it would be a remake of the Borgelerhof. Then I decided to keep it an English landscape style park, just what c.p.'s textures are made for, plus the terrace behind the house. In order to let the texture fit to the white path around the house model I decided to use the texture you see. It is a bit white, although less than the Maxis texture I used before, and all in all I think it is a good combination.

I also made the garden more lush by adding shrubs and a lot of flowers.

The terrace behind the house is surrounden by SG's flower props that I had shrunken (with Model Tweaker! Where whould I be without it? Cogeo:  ) already for my Magna Rosa farm field. It's much better in proportion this shrunken prop, don't you think?

And then I removed the garden house and placed a folly of "antiquity temple remains". It was fashionable in the time of romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century (before the English garden was invented, if I am correct) to add romantic scenery like an "antique" temple, or even better: "ruins" of an "antique temple". All made anew during the laying down of the garden, so nothing really old. It gives a nice touch doesn't it?

Oh, yeah: I removed the large shed form the farm and surrounded it by a lot of shrubbery.

You like it better?

Kalkovens and Conference Center are next.

[pxljce]

  That looks great! So much detail and beautifully composed. Kinda liked the first version also but now that I see this in comparison...

Busy adding CAM (a week of downloading and installing and counting) for the first time ever in preparation to use them in my cities when this project is complete. 

[c.p.]

Much better than the maxis flowers

Also, for the conference center, maybe just test it in the context of the overall city, rather than in isolation.  In an environment of diversely-rendered buildings, the differences in brightness of those buildings might not be a problem at all

[FrankU]

@ pxljce
Thank you!
Yes, downloading CAM and some lots for it takes a lot of time. But it's worth it.

@ c.p.
Yeah, well. Indeed. The Maxis flowers are a pain in the bottom/backside of my torso. And the Maxis texture was too white. This is much better indeed.
The conference center is meant as a stage 6 farm, remember, not for urban areas, but in between my forest farm field. So I don't know. I'll see if I have other props available for an apartmentcomplex that fits better. No extra dependencies for it. If not, I'll leave as is. It is my lot after al, isn't it?

[gn_leugim]

Great job so far Frank. 

And I am still waiting on those farm props   

[mrbisonm]

I have been on the MFP1 project on and off for the last month, mostly for health reasons, but I have very good news today. The sheds and Silo props are finally finished, and many of them are already rendered. The rest will be done starting tomorrow.
I must mention that these two different sets are the biggest of the whole MFP1 Project. I have lost count to be honest, but I will be very picky when the time comes to ship these two sets to Frank. Not all of them will make it tp the Master LOTter. This will be chosen when testing the models ingame after rendering and just before sending them for lotmaking.

Sheds are divided in several groups,

- Machinerysheds
- Hay and Straw sheds
- Storagesheds
- Open Sheds
- Silagesheds
- Manuresheds, both liquid and solid
- Workshops

...and some others. Silos also will be in different categories, such as,

- Open sky Goundsilos, covered , empty or filled
- Vertical Silos
- Haysilos
- Grainsilos
- Corndrying silos
- Chaff silos
- Shedsilos will be found in the shed set

...and more. These models have more details than the mainbuildings and are of course better built and textured. I have gathered a lot of experience in both modeling and texturing in the last months.

Some sheds and silos might find their way to the Upload section of SC4Devotion and Simtropolis a little later on as an Add-on set, maybe even including some remastered mainbuildings.

I have no time nor any moods at this moment to make pictures of all the models which is bigtime timetaking, like I did with the Mainbuildings, so.....this is what I will do for now. You already have seen some of the models, just figure, all of them were more or less improved.

I will finish rendering the models in the next days/weeks, which will be a lot easier for me than modeling them, which is quite tiring for my health. Then I will concentrate on the machinery and the implement set, which are the ones left to finish.
Meanwhile, Frank will be able to start his farm lots, while I will find the time to make the pictures sets for all the sheds, silos and implements/machinery.

I will of course show some of my work here and there, so you will have at least an idea on what I am working, maybe even asking for some advice on some tractor models and modern machinery of which ones are more desired than others.

So, here is a small shot of a machinery shed for the moment, I might have a hayshed tomorrow and another one after, while I render the models and making good use of lost waiting time.

Hope you enjoy and be a still  a little more patient....it's getting there. Only one more set to finish and one and a half sets to render.

Oh, btw, the first MFP1 North-American Farm will be uploaded as a 100th Million Growable Stage 4 Lot and LM onto Simtropolis, later this week and after my interview as one of the first uploaders to the Stex.
This lot will be fully functional and also be a preview of the North-American farm lots that I will be doing later this fall.

Have Fun with Nexis.......

Fred

[Jack_wilds]

progress is always a good thing... and when its good; its even better...     watching the progress

[mrbisonm]

While waiting for the render of models, I made some pics and organized my files a little more, so that Frank will not get lost with them....

Btw.....Could anyone please tell me why the freaking process to render is so darn long? Some of my models take hours to render, althouhgh my gaming computer is not that weak.

Here is one of maybe 7 or 8 haysheds that I have made, no, which will be included in the set, used for storage of hay and straw and bales. Most of them are open, but I have two, I think, that have at least one wall.

Fred

[FrankU]

Good work Fred!

I'm already slowly bringing my computer to working temperature...
Relotting time is coming!

[mrbisonm]

Going nuts here trying to find out how to create a bunch of drainpipes with gmax like this. Could anyone please help with an idea? Thanks.

Fred

[gn_leugim]

hey Fred, those bats look awesome. I would only tune down a bit the white floor on that green shed, I believe it is a bit too bright and white

[mrbisonm]

hey Fred, those bats look awesome. I would only tune down a bit the white floor on that green shed, I believe it is a bit too bright and white

Thanks, I rendered that model and tried it ingame and found that you're right about the lightness of the flooring, so I will take care about this.Thanks for the observation. I also changed the roof texture, didn't like the repetitive look.

At the moment everything is on a stand-still because of some minor, but very annoying health problems. (Cold / Flu) I should be back within a week or so.

Fred

[FrankU]

Health wishes form the Netherlands!

[gn_leugim]

I hope you get better soon

If you want, I can teach you some photoshop tricks I use to reduce the repeatness like the one you find on the roof. although I don't used them for  long time, as "now" I make my textures from scratch, I think I can still remember them

[mrbisonm]

Health wishes form the Netherlands!

Thanks, it is nothing much though, just annoying.....I should be back on my feet by next week.

I hope you get better soon

If you want, I can teach you some photoshop tricks I use to reduce the repeatness like the one you find on the roof. although I don't used them for  long time, as "now" I make my textures from scratch, I think I can still remember them

Oh, help on this will always be appreciated. I have not yet done much with the present repetivity problems on textures. I usually find a better one. If you got some neat tricks, I will be more than grateful for this.

Fred

[gn_leugim]

I'll try to prepare a kind of tut where I explain some tricks then.   

[mrbisonm]

I'll try to prepare a kind of tut where I explain some tricks then.   

Super, much appreciated. I do not use Photoshop, but I use Paint, Gimp and Irfanview most of the time, just if you wanted to know, but I have Photoshop.

Fred

[cogeo]

Hi Fred,

About your drainpipe rolls, sorry if my reply is late, and sorry if what I'm going to propose doesn't finally work, but I'll post it anyway (please take into account that I no longer have SC4+Tools - incl Gmax - installed, so this is just what I can remember).

- In Gmax open the Splines tab; there must be some "spiral" or "helix" spline type there (or it's just the "Arc"?).
- Create such a spline, and play with the parameters (incl Mesh Settings, thickness, repeats, faces and the like) until you get a satisfactory result.
- Add an Edit Mesh (or it's called Mesh Edit?) modifier. This is needed only for making your shape visible in renders; weird, but if you don't put it, it will "magically" disappear.
- Add another Edit Mesh modifier, go to Vertex Editing, select some vertex/-ices, with Soft Selection enabled and given the proper parameters (the central vertex will be "fully selected" the ones around it "progressively less", with the colour progressively changing from red to blue). Then use the move command and drag the selected vertices a little off their original position. This will somehow "deform" your shape (you don't want a "perfect" spiral, do you?).
- Not sure about the material, but you can use a simple colour, with the speculars (shininess) parameters set. This will create a more realistic 3D effect.

Otherwise, just a simple cylinder object, with a different material (texture) around the periphery and the caps. You can deform this object too.

In either case, consider rendering in HD, because the prop is quite small and much of (if not all) the detail will be lost in the render.

Hope this helps

[gn_leugim]

I'll try to prepare a kind of tut where I explain some tricks then.   

Super, much appreciated. I do not use Photoshop, but I use Paint, Gimp and Irfanview most of the time, just if you wanted to know, but I have Photoshop.

Fred

that is ok, as most things in PS have equivalents in Gimp (as far as I know)

[mrbisonm]

cogeo...better late than never. Thanks for the tips, I will surely try this out and maybe even figure it out with your mentions. If not now , then a little later and put the models as an Add-On, which is already planned anyways fro some other things that I have put aside at the moment. I dont think rendering it in HD will be necessay since these rolls are 6 to 8 feet in height, bigger than a tractorwheel. And I will make sure that they will be big enough to show the more important details anyways. Thanks.

Fred