Xiahou's BAT Showcase

XiahouDun · July 21, 2007, 10:53:21 PM

I think this is the right place to post my thread

Recently I decided I wanted to try my hand at BATing, and decided to start off simple with some houses from my neighborhood. I started off with the house across the street from me since it has the easiest angles for a beginner like me. I wanted to show the progress I have now, along with seek any opinions on what I could do differently (thus why I wasn't sure if I should post this here or the help forum). So without any delay:

I wanted to get opinions before texturing it. Colors are about accurate to what they will be (other than the purple roof and yellow shutters). The boxes on the windows are window air conditioners (and yes, the real house does have 5 of them). The basic area of the house is about 8.5x8.5, and wanted to try to stay as close to scale as I could, though the windows are a little smaller than the real ones.

I didn't want to over detail it too much, so left out the water pump on the side of the house. Any opinions on if I should add it or not? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/phoenixcaptain/SC4/000_0054-1.jpg

I'm not sure if I want to make my own textures, or use existing ones. One question I wanted to ask on that, should I use GMax or ask a friend that has 3dStudio Max for the rendering?

mattb325 · July 23, 2007, 03:48:34 AM

Hi Xia - you look to be off to a great start with the modelling.

Regarding your question, I would say that you can add as many details as you see fit. A bat rarely suffers from having too much detail. On such a small model, you don't need to be frugal as additional details make no difference to the render time. I notice, though, that your occupants like their window air-conditioners

As to making custom textures or not - it's hard to advise given that I'm not sure exactly what you want the final product to look like; for me it is rare to use a texture without any sort of manipulation in a photo-editing program, so I suppose they are all 'custom' textures. On that count I'd just say experiment and have fun.

XiahouDun · July 23, 2007, 04:22:05 AM

Thanks for the reply

I went ahead and added some details earlier today, along with started to texture it. I decided to just go with it and try to learn things on my own with the assistance of tutorials poking me in the right direction. Here is the progress; it still has some things I want to fix, like weathering the texture on the base and the porches and fixing small areas where the textures aren't lining up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/phoenixcaptain/SC4/WIP-2.jpg

Something I've been curious about when looking at tutorials and other BATs, I notice a lot of them have slight reflections of clouds in the windows. Shouldn't it be grass since we are looking down at the buildings?

autoVino · July 23, 2007, 01:19:40 PM

The textures look great! I suggest that you do the fake raytracing tutorial here:
http://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=140&threadid=76233&enterthread=y
Also, can we have a zoom five preview?

XiahouDun · July 23, 2007, 02:20:58 PM

Was actually my next plan

I put on the textures to tile so I could see how I liked things spaced out before I did that, since right now this was all I was using for the siding

.

I think this is about zoom 5?

vester · July 23, 2007, 03:13:46 PM

For a proper preview go to the side panel, click on the hammer, then on B.A.T.
Then click on the + in front of Preview. Then click on Day. You can then render some preview from some other angels afterwards.

XiahouDun · July 23, 2007, 04:57:56 PM

Thanks

Ok, here we go. Updated the textures on the siding and the roof. Still need to finish the windows (finish the textures and to darken the windows I already have finished) and the chimney, then do night lights. Anything else?

Edit:

Finished the above mentioned. I think all thats left is the night lighting, unless someone sees something I should change?

Double edit:

Night lights/windows done.

freedo50 · July 24, 2007, 11:42:53 AM

Looks great to me, the textures really are what makes this BAT.

Fred

autoVino · July 24, 2007, 01:45:21 PM

Looks beautiful and realistic!

Great job

XiahouDun · July 24, 2007, 02:29:55 PM

Thanks guys

Does anyone see something I should change before I move onto my next project? The porch light on the right side of the render on the right, should that be any brighter? And this isn't something I see mentioned in tutorials; can you overlay colors onto textures in GMax, or do you just need to make a second texture for the different color? I showed this to my friend and they remarked they thought it looked like a Monopoly house, so I want to make a green variation

And good news you guys like the textures. I've been planning on making a series of houses from my area, and I'd say 75% of the houses have nearly the same siding/roofing, though in different colors. So I should be able to get away with using these a few times

XiahouDun · July 29, 2007, 12:38:34 AM

New neighborhood building completed. Modeled after the house at the end of my street

Its going to be a R$$ when all is said and done. I may add gutters to the edges, but not sure yet. Any opinions?

Shadow Assassin · July 29, 2007, 04:04:04 AM

Looks good, but you'll have to fix the tiling issue on the roof.

Also, maybe it's a good idea to think carefully about the size of the building compared to Maxis R$$. I found that SimGoober's R$$ was massively overscaled in proportion to the default Maxis R$$, and maybe you should look at keeping the building around 1x1 or thereabouts. If it looks too small, keep it at 2x2.

With your first model, it's perfectly fine as a 1x1 and should fit in nicely with the Maxis set. You should make one with a darker roof, though.

XiahouDun · July 29, 2007, 05:10:27 AM

Thanks for the reply.

The first building here is going to get a second color scheme (green with a dark roof) and be placed on a 1x1 lot, and the white version posted here is going to be an accurate to scale 1x2 lot.

This building is also going to get a second color scheme, red with the same roof (at the friend who lives there's suggestion). Going to fix the roof textures also like you mentioned, I didn't realize it stood out that much until you pointed it out. I'm planning on having this 2x3 (after I make the props for an accurate yard), and making the red version 1x2.

zero7 · July 29, 2007, 12:53:37 PM

I agree with SA about the roof texture on the latest bungalow, but I like what your doing here. With so many people doing big buildings there's always a need for people to come in and fill the small residential niche.

The proportions of the new bungalow look really good.

XiahouDun · July 29, 2007, 01:29:25 PM

Glad people are liking the small houses

I was planning on doing 4 before moving on to shops, but I think I may stick to these for a little longer. There is a lot of variety in the houses around where I live, so I think I can find something to match a wide array of city styles.

Edit: Fixed the roof, and added gutters. Not sure if I like them though.

And alt colors done

XiahouDun · September 20, 2007, 02:58:10 PM

Wow, its been that long since I posted?

I've been working on some props to go with the houses I've made/have planned to make. Since I actually got my graphics programs working again, should have something ready in a few days.

Also, any lotters a little bored and want to make some small house lots? I haven't learned how to use the LE yet (been waiting patiently for the X Tool

)

Travis · September 20, 2007, 03:04:30 PM

QuoteAlso, any lotters a little bored and want to make some small house lots?

Of course there are.

I'll do 'em for you.

Great BAT's, by the way.

XiahouDun · September 20, 2007, 03:44:58 PM

That would be great, thank you. I want to finish up some of these props first (yard swing, mailboxes, grill, yard gazebo tent, then I can send you a Google Earth shot of the actual property so you can get a feel what it looks like (my original plan was to do one lot true to life, then 3 or 4 per house). I was planning on making the ground textures for the accurate lots (once I learned how to do that to... I need to get with it don't I?

), so may still be a while for that.

Travis · September 20, 2007, 03:56:20 PM

Sounds good.

About the base textures, I would hold off for a bit. If you could send me that google earth shot, I could browse around in the LE for matching
textures, I have an enormous selection.

XiahouDun · September 20, 2007, 04:15:34 PM

One of them is probably going to be easy. The first house I showed here has a few close textures that I know of.

Here is the other house (and you can see a few of the props I'm making too). In terms of textures its nothing too bad other than the walkway to the front door and the back porch area. The trees don't really show up too well in the picture sadly.

I also have an idea for one of the props that I want to test out (they are allowed to overhang towards the road correct? or would that cause issues

)