BATs by DaveN

[DaveN]

REPLIES:

Hello Jim.
Thank you for the next portion of tips. Of course pays special attention when using textures with white color. I'm in the sample export of all buildings (HD and high quality), and afterward I could see how it looks in the game. Then there will put the appropriate pictures and be able to judge whether or not to do better if the game looks all around
I downloaded the file that you told, but it still did not use. Frankly, I could not master the addition of alpha textures to add them to the models and I have a problem with that. I use this with GIMP. To use a texture to differ so far from the Windows Paint program and the program ASDCee, which also has some options for changing colors or color saturation.

As for the building of Ely (Church Lane was noted Mattb325) tried to extend the texture so that it can be seen that this is the texture of bricks. Of course, after renderze see that it requires some adjustments, which they do.

Hello Matt.
Thank you also for your tips. After deeper searching the internet I found a more accurate picture of the building from Church Lane, where in fact you can see that the roof overlaps slightly different "main" building. Of course, this will be corrected.
As for the chimney, then the pictures I noticed that the chimney is more than one floor, which I took less than 3 meters, so the chimney can be 4 meters in height, but judging by the pictures found on the internet so it is. It is difficult to refer to this type of architecture, because it was built several hundred years ago in Europe, but in order to fairly accurately reproduce the building, so I just had to do. Perhaps a little lower it to reduce its size but as you can see the original image is fairly large. To be honest I had never met with a chimney of this size at such a low building. But it shows once built. How much I can improve. Thanks again for the tips. It is with great pleasure to invite you to visit my post more often.

Welcome Lowkee33:
I also greatly thank you for all the tips and offered to help. As I wrote in response to Jim, I am during the test renders and for some time will show screens from the game, where you may turn out to be white is not white and the texture of the roof is not too glaring.

On the other hand, you write that the texture of the walls are too clean. As it happens, that Poland, as well as in other cities in Europe, where there is half-timbered architecture, these buildings are often carefully restored, so it is difficult to find a building in worse condition. I you already found on the internet, looked like a broken-down hovel, where it was difficult to verify, where the walls are, and where the roof.

Let me also add, you may not been following my thread from the beginning, I'm color blind and I have problems in recognizing colors, which makes it very difficult to adjust the texture of the building by all played at 100%. Thank you for your guidance and willingness to help. I'll get back when I'm ready to take advantage of your offer of assistance. I also invite you to continue visiting and commenting on my achievements.

[chester]

Just want to say that these are beautiful bats. Can't wait to see more of them.

[DaveN]

Some of my half-timber house in simply screen from the game:

[vortext]

very, very nice 

This will make a great addition, can't wait to see them released 

[carlfatal]

Oh i can´t believe it, don´t want to trust my eyes!       
These are beautiful, i really can´t wait till you release them. Waldey needs framework for the villages and your work is here is exactly what i´m searching for...   
And if You need someone who wants to make nice little lots from them: i´m hot for this...

Greetz, Carl

[FrankU]

Hi DaveN,

These houses look spectacular!

[supremec]

Hey! They are awesome in the game 
I can imagine that lotted they will be so much beautiful to be unavoidable.   

[DaveN]

REPLIES:

vortex: Thanks You.

carlfatal: Thanks You. You must wait. I release them, but I dont have time to finish them. Maybe I put them into a Prop Pack. I dont know yet.

FrankU: Thank You very much.

supremec: Thanks. You must wait some time. Probably I put this house pack into a prop pack. I dont know yet, becouse I dont have a time to finish this houses. I have another few scenes in gmax, and there waiting for more time.

And for today:
I took to be their next project. This time it's something much bigger and more complicated architecture. So far I managed to take part of the facade. I hope you like it. According to the calculation of the building will have a 30x50 meters, therefore, will be the largest, for which I was took.



Here is the passage that I could do today (render HD in High Quality. Render time about 4 minutes). As much as I fear to think how much will render the whole. Well, but of things.:

What do you think? There is still some textures shown on the screenshot, so please ignore.

PS. Steps will be corrected, of course, I have just a few pictures not of good quality, since the building no longer exists for over 60 years.

I hope that everyone understand me, becouse hole message I wrote without google translator.

[mike3775]

considering your other work, the new one is coming along nicely.  Great job Dave

PS, the English was good enough for me to understand what you were saying, so good job on that as well 

[DaveN]

I work hard with my new project. Now they look like this: I added some rchitectal details. The entry to the theatre it's almost done.
But this is a small pieces of all buildings. Hole buildings it's more large. If You want to see that building, You must wrote on the google grapfic "city theatre bygdoszcz" and You see hole building.

New update:



PS. This is my first sculpture I made using the same program gmax.

[DebussyMan]

Nice project. But I don't think you should render it in HD. It was intended for small props, not large buildings like a theater.

[vortext]

Your english is good enough for me to understand I have to practice some patience   

The RL city theatre is a pretty neat building, looking forward to see it finished. In the meantime, your latest uploads are installed and awaiting relotting 

Which reminds me, if you need some help lotting & packaging the timberframe houses, I'll be glad to do so.

[DaveN]

REPLIES:

mike3775: Thank You. This is the most complicated building, which I decided to model. Progress will probably slow, but I hope I can finish it.

DebussyMan: I know that I render HD was made for small things. What worries me though, is that many details will not be visible in the render SD.

vortex: Nice to "hear" that my English is not the worst. As for the set of timber-framed houses, I have not decided what to do next. Especially that a few scenes from gmax is not exported, and several more waiting to be completed. The more that my add-ons that have seen the light of day on LEX I have to send testers to see if it has errors. And it also takes some time and prolongs the procedure.



And today, another update from my City Theatre. Some concessions from the original will certainly, if only because of the statues, which are not my forte. But something I will try to fill in the piece, or at worst, leave without any ornament.



In addition, I noticed that the individual images from different period, vary widely in terms of details. So, probably after the fire in the early twentieth century, the theater was rebuilt, but aside from the part of the decorations and details.

For comparison, two images from different time period.

[DebussyMan]

I wouldn't worry about it not getting all the details in SD, it is large enough, so you wouldn't really miss that much, and you'll save a lot of file size, loading times, rendering times and of course, the ugly z5 view.

However... there are some things that don't quite please me about your model.

First, the pediment doesn't look right, in the pictures you can see it is not just one sculpture but rather a bass relief. Instead of modeling, I'd look for a fitting texture to fake it; it is easier and will probably look better. The busts in the first floor are too wide, I'd squash them a little on the x axis.

The texture looks more like plaster than stone, I'd find a better stone texture (giving it a second look, it could also be beveled plaster). In any case, I also don't see the need to change the texture of the bottom of the cornices, to me it appears to be all of the same material as the rest of the building:



Perhaps changing a little bit the darkness of the texture in the bottom to make it pop out... but just a little, not such a radical texture change.

That gray roof texture doesn't convince me either.

The windows on the side towers are too narrow and the whole thing looks a little out of proportion; there are several plans of this building on-line, I'd take some measures from them to get it right. Also, your're missing some detail like the side. It is a blind window in a blind arch, but you didn't model the arch supports nor the relief of the arch itself, you're also missing them from the central arches.

Sorry for the lengthy suggenstions. You're doing great, but it could be perfect   

[DaveN]

REPLIES:

DebussyMan: Thank you for the many valuable comments. Let me answer it and I'll try to explain my conduct in some situations.

First of all, my skills are much smaller than yours. To this day I can not get over when przglądałem your topic, it is with bated breath and eyes on top, I could not stop wondering how you can model the various shapes and how well you deal with small details and textures. Perhaps some of this difference is related to the fact that you are using 3ds probably, while I am using gmax. Another thing, when it comes to texture is that I am color blind and I have a big problem in the selection of textures.

Now decide on your comments. Each paragraph of my response will address one of your paragraph.

I try to hone my skills, but I do not have any course, or guide, who appeared to me the most out of the program. I'm doing everything by trial and error, and therefore the lack of certain skills in most parts of details normally in the world, I have to give up.

I know that the sculpture is more than one. However, since the images at their disposal, they are not the best quality and low resolution, I was not able to see exactly what that represents a collection of sculptures. However, as can be seen quite clearly bust on the first floor balcony, I decided to model a piece of sculpture, not to leave this section completely blank. Perhaps you managed to find some pictures of better quality and resolution (I think it's the part that you showed me). Another issue is such that the images are mostly black and white and does not allow me to draw the texture, because as I wrote, I would not be able to adjust to the texture. Bust shrunk by 20% relative to the axis X. It looks a little better. Show them the next update.

As for the darker texture in the "basement", on some photographs, it was darker. Very often in this day and czsach meet with a dirty and much darker ground floor, so I decided to use a texture darker and more damaged. However, it is possible to correct the issue. Change the texture of the same as is on the higher parts of the building and see how I present the effect. At worst, I will do according to your instructions and slightly darkens the texture in a graphics program.

Grey texture of the roof will be replaced. Although I do not mind what could fit, so I'll have to find something interesting. On several color photographs can be seen that the roof is dark orange or light brown, while the fragment, which for me is gray in color photographs also have a shade of gray. But I will try to find something better.

Windows tried to do in proportion to the whole side of the tower. Perhaps they are too small. Perhaps the whole tower requires a small stretch. You write that there are plans on-line. I could not find anything. If you have relevant links, I will be grateful for any help on this. I use about 30 photographs from multiple angles, as well as in various time periods. Therefore, on some of the photos are some details that are not on others. It is through this that come from different years, and as I know the object in the early twentieth century, burned down and was rebuilt. I suppose that the reconstruction has already been abandoned with many minor details that I tried to show the two posted photos.

The following screen, which includes a few of your suggestions. Of course a lot of work ahead of me. Looking like your thread may proceed various stages of modeling, as many as I'm terrified. At the time, you have passed three months before we could see the end result ... Frankly it scares me, and I fear that it might discourage me .. Especially if someone is expecting a better effect than allow my skills.



I think that despite some discrepancies colors, and that most of the photos are black and white, chosen by me clue texture is good and I do not think I'd have to change most of the textures. For me, the textures are quite "sand" and possibly match the pattern.



Of course I'm waiting for further comments. constructive criticism, helpful tutorials, and other observations that will allow me to expand my skills.

[DebussyMan]

For the plans, just search for the theatre in german: "bromberg stadttheater" in google images and you'll find them.

For textures, I'd suggest you look in the stex and lex for Feroxx's, Marczar's and Odd from sweden's texture packs. They're great and I use them a lot, odd's includes an assortment of roof tar textures that might look good in your building.  For the brick, here's a texture I particularly like, just change it in photoshop to look more of a sand color, like the texture you're using now:


It is true that some tools 3dsmax help a lot in the modeling, but you can make basic details in gmax as well. For example, to make the arches and suports of the tower bases I'd go as following (I'll try to explain, but if you need images I'll add them later):

Supports: create a box the size you desire them to be, convert it to editable mesh, select the poligon at the top and play with the "extrude" and "bevel" cages in the side panel to get the cornice shape (this works for all kind of cornices.

For the arc: create an arc using splines, tick the "Display mesh" box, choose the thickness you want, give it 4 sides and an angle of 45. Convert to editable mesh, choose all polygons and click on "clear all" in the "surface properties" subdivision in the side panel. Now choose all the polygons at the top and play again with the "extrude" and "bevel"; remember to tick the "local" circle just under the extrude and bevel cases before you do that. You should get something like this:



Hope this helps, and if you have any questions just ask 

[DebussyMan]

REPLIES:

DebussyMan:
Of course a lot of work ahead of me. Looking like your thread may proceed various stages of modeling, as many as I'm terrified. At the time, you have passed three months before we could see the end result ... Frankly it scares me, and I fear that it might discourage me .. Especially if someone is expecting a better effect than allow my skills.

Jajaja... don't get discouraged by that. Modeling is quite easy, the problem is that I'm a huge procrastinator, and also, I spend more time looking at the model and thinking if there's anything wrong with it or how should I approach it than actually working on it.

[DaveN]

(I'll try to explain, but if you need images I'll add them later):

Supports: create a box the size you desire them to be, convert it to editable mesh, select the poligon at the top and play with the "extrude" and "bevel" cages in the side panel to get the cornice shape (this works for all kind of cornices.

For the arc: create an arc using splines, tick the "Display mesh" box, choose the thickness you want, give it 4 sides and an angle of 45. Convert to editable mesh, choose all polygons and click on "clear all" in the "surface properties" subdivision in the side panel. Now choose all the polygons at the top and play again with the "extrude" and "bevel"; remember to tick the "local" circle just under the extrude and bevel cases before you do that...

DebussyMan: Thanks for another valuable tips. But I fear that I am compelled to ask you about the images, because my English is not as good, and once you enter the more technical language, my skills are even weaker. While google translator from English to Polish translating leaves much to be desired.

[DebussyMan]

I'll be uploading a tutorial in the next few days to explain all of these things. You'll find it here: http://sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=14690.msg422169;topicseen#msg422169

[DaveN]

Hi again.

In the last few days I have not had too much time. I was able to model the rest of the towers. I introduced a few minor amendments. Separate perceptive immediately find some discrepancies in the original. This is due to the lack of sufficient skills for the moment. After several attempts to quit are not successful with a few details. Perhaps over time abilities will allow for more detailed modeling.

But I think that is what I have done is sufficient. If you divide my sentence, I can get on with the modeling of the side walls and the rest of the building.



Best regards and I look forward to the next portion of valuable comments and suggestions and even constructive criticism.