Thingfishs is having a B.A.T Downunder (wanna take a look)

[jmyers2043]

Nice small shop. I like the wall texture and the dish on the roof.

[adroman]

Very nice, things. 
The textures look very nice...

Could I request the Queensland TAB logo? It's a shooting star-esque deal. 

Adrian.

[thingfishs]

thanks guys



Here is where it's up to now:



Plus I have "made" NSW, QLD & VIC ones by swapping the logos. The blue of the verandah compliments the blue of the SA logo and I can easily change the colour for the interstate ones if something else will suit better...

(these shots were taken before I played around with the roof junk a bit more, to make it more true to life, they will all end up the same)


NSW                         


OLD


VIC

[deadwoods]

There are some great BATs and lots here. Good to see someone producing more Aussie lots.

For the mattress shop you might want to consider the corrugated aluminum roofing used on many aussie buildings these days. Have a look at my Aussie Retail Series lots on the LEX and how I've done the roofs. Plus there are some examples of carpark textures that work with the standard maxis car props.

[jdenm8]

Wow nice. I've just read through this whole thread and I'm in awe. Not that I can actually BAT myself

The TAB here in QLD seems to have a green thing going on. I recommend changing the colour of the verandah to green if it's not too much trouble. I can't provide an analogue cause, believe it or not, there isn't a single pic of a QLD TAB that I or Google can find.

Once again, great work! 

[thingfishs]

Deadwoods: Holy Crap!!!

I'm shocked by your presence (I always wondered what happened to you), and honoured by your compliments.  I will have a look at your roofs, something's not right about mine, it looks too much like a painting somehow... However I won't need to access the LEX; your Aussie Retail Series are a mainstay for me and many other Australian (and otherwise I'm sure) players. I still remember the first time I saw a JB Hi-Fi sprout up and getting pretty excited. As always I am wanting to make my cities more and more familiar, and with all the Australian stuff combined now, it's getting easier.

jdenm8: Cheers mate You should give it a go sometime if you're at all inclined; it's a fun journey. I have changed the verandah on the Queensland one to green, and the NSW to yellow; thanks for the suggestion. It also helps them look a bit different if they happen to all end up in the plugin folder.


In these shots there are two versions (SA & QLD), on opposite corners. They are W2W corner lots (CS$) with parking out the back (just as in RL). There are also occasional male tantrums & whoops on the sidewalk & in the car park, depending on their luck.

[thingfishs]

another common one in Australia, SuperCheap Auto:

[jmyers2043]

I like the corrugated awning and also the metal box has a nice texture too. I like that the sign is casting a shadow against the wall. The orange foundation is a good idea in that it is not distracting and adds visual interest. The wall itself has a very subtle gradient? At least I think it does. Sometimes less is more but I'm not sure in this case. The cream walls are almost too much for me. But obviously it's your bat. What paint program do you have. Can it do layers? I assume your shooting for a wall with a stucco finish?

The image on the left is an opactiy overlay that JenP did a while back. I use it on surfaces to create a highlight or where I want give variation of light and dark on an otherwise flat color. I used my color picker to find the color of Super Cheap. Created a image flooding it with the Super Cheap color. I then overlayed opacity map using the 'dodge' function to sneak some variation to surface. I acutally don't know how it would look on a building. But this is where I'd start if it were my bat. It may be ok ... may not ... I may chuck the opacity map and try something different ... or I may decide it has promise and play with it a bit more. But right now I'm thinking that this might look like a stucco wall. I admit I've not experiemented so it may also look like s**t for all I know.   




Good Luck

- Jim

[jdenm8]

hahaha!
A SuperDear had to come eventually

Yeah... the finish on RL buildings tends to vary, but I've noticed most of the stores are just painted concrete, albeit a very thick paint, much like Repco 

Also, that logo is a little out-of-date. Supercheap subtly changes changed it only within the last few years I think.

Quick Google Images search turned this one up:

(That's the Red letters on white, the signs are usually white letters on red like in the image below, IDK why all the individual logos are different from the store ones)

And this store:


But that's only the new colour scheme. I'm sure there are still plenty of stores out there that still use the old one (Supercheap doesn't usually update unless it really needs to for the benefit of the non-Aussies amongst us).

This is one Google found for me, Apparently it's the Darwin store which must still use the original style:


I don't really know what to make of that cream though...

[deadwoods]

Looks like another Aussie retail series on the go. Once you've got the basic box and entry working you can easily create a set with different graphics (take a drive on the weekend, you'll be amazed at the number of chains you see that you take for granted). Then you can create a couple of growable lots and let the game randomly put one of the buildings on (I wish I remember how to do things like this). Looking good.

Here's an idea, a drive through bottle shop. There are heaps of chains, like Dan Mrurphy's and Thirsty Camel, you could splash on the same generic model.

[thingfishs]

Thanks for your replies guys

jmyers: The sign should be casting even more of a shadow than that, but I temporarily moved them in a bit to avoid being able to see the logo texture repeating on the other side of the box. Yes your keen eye did perceive a gradient, I have made it a bit more pronounced this time (btw I am using photoshop CS4 and am comfortable with using layers.) As for the walls, I'm not sure how best to handle it. In colour they are basically pure white, with little texture (it may be stucco, I don't know enough about such things). I know how harsh straight white is in game so what I had there was just an attempt to darken it to a suitable degree...
The "orange" (actually red) "foundation" is just the paint scheme.

I tried a little further:



jdenm8: Yeah I came across those new ones when I googled for logos for this project. However this look is unfamiliar and the building I am basing this on still has the old scheme:



The cream/white is a tricky one...

deadwoods: You're right about the number of chains out there, I think I will make Supercheap Auto into The Good Guys next. As for the bottle shop idea, I'd be lying if I said they weren't on the list, but a little encouragement goes a long way. There are quite a few different designs of bottle-o's (how exactly do you spell that?) out there but this is what I have gone with:



     
Thirsty Camel



BWS




There will be more brands...

Any requests? (please provide pictures)

[dobdriver]

Wow Things,


These are looking great and to have that familiar around the corner feel is just a bonus!

[thingfishs]

cheers Dobs,

although that around the corner feel isn't so much a bonus as the prime objective.

Here are another couple of brands, possibly just South Australian, I'm not sure. The greatly named "Booze Brothers" and Sip 'n Save, both gradually declining in presence as Thirsty Camel, BWS & Dan Murphy's slowly take over. Now I'm thinking these are looking too big, but 1x2 just seems too small...
They also need signs.


Sip 'n Save


Booze Brothers

[dobdriver]

Yeah Things I know what you mean about that size issue, Some are like a garden shed on a big lot and others are pretty big like those you have.

And we all know why... They gotta carry a lot of piss to slake the thirsty horde

[deadwoods]

The scale looks fine. The car drive through section seems to match up nicely with the cars on the next lot. As mentioned these things come in all sizes, and yours looks about midrange. They look like a low capacity cs$ building.

I like the different colour combinations, and the signs on the side are great, but the brickwork on the side doesn't work for me (just my impression). Have you thought about a rendered side ( like it was built from beser block) and splashing a larger logo on the sides? I can picture that camel or the booze brothers.

[thingfishs]

Well I've had a good play around with the bottle-o's. The named brands are still coming but the first through the blocks is a new business, The Drunk Apple; named in honour of it's most frequent patron, drunkapple/dobdriver.





deadwoods: thanks for your thoughts. I am now using a mixture of walls for the set - plain render with signs, brick with signs and the painted characters where appropriate. These are CS$.

I have tried to illuminate the signs along the edge of the roof (as a RKT4 using NightTimeChange property - with the value set to x01), but they're not showing up. Also is there an easy way to position the effect green diamonds in the LE?

[jmyers2043]

Hey Thingfish

The new version is looking good! I am hoping that you'll use some HD props for your next building. Here is a shot of a sign that I did for a motel. The sign, being small, is not a large file and is the perfect use of that technology. I don't often zoom in close like this during game play but I am usually hoping to see something in greater detail when I do.





- Jim

[jdenm8]

Looks good! There's a couple around here that were prominent for a while... 'Bottle-O' (literally), 'Liquor Legends' and 'Cellarbrations' are three that spring to mind.
'The Fridge' is one I always remember for their ads though

EDIT: Hm... The Fridge doesn't seem to exist... Oh wait, thanks to the wonders of Out-Of-Date Google StreetView pictures, there's still a pic of one near me:
http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=-27.612449,152.80066&spn=0.001048,0.002642&z=19

[thingfishs]

Thanks guys

jdenm8: Thanks for the requests, cellarbrations & Bottle-O are on the list (although a second pack is looking likely for a little down the track; I am getting a little sick of these ). I had a look at the Fridge, and got some photos (thanks). However it looks like it's more of an alcohol supermarket, a opposed to a drive-thru. At some point I may do a full scale Dan Murphy's and could then easily re-skin it with the fridge.

jmyers: Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with you, and will try to make as much of the signage HD, as possible.

Here's 3 more real bottle-o brands: BWS (Beer Wine Spirits), Thirsty Camel & Sip 'n Save. I am slowly getting how to make the signs on the edge of the roof look like they are internally lit.

[dobdriver]

I don't believe it, I'm immortalised in SC4!!!

That's a great looking logo Things old mate, I luv it, and the cops look like they luv it too. Thanks old mate.


Chin Chin, the drinks are on the house!!