Woodworks Creations 2.0: This Time, I'm BATting

[thingfishs]

that new texture looks much better than the gold. I found the contrast between the blue and gold a bit much, but now it looks nice.
Also I think your two big black smudges are a bit crude, maybe make some more smaller marks here and there. It's coming along well.

[mightygoose]

that new stone textue looks superb, my concerns primarily now are the window material now not matching up with your new fantastic stone texture. also on the upper floors of the parking garage you have a large expanse of plain wall, i am concerned it might be left feeling empty and under detailed.

the new render looks fantastic, btw what height are we up to now

[woodb3kmaster]

Thank you both very much! thingfishs, if I understand you correctly, you're saying that the stains are perhaps too dark and too few. I've lightened them up some, and I'll see about adding in some more of them in random places.
mightygoose, I've lightened up the window material, and I think it matches up much better with the new marble texture (thanks for your compliments on that texture!). I took your second comment to mean that I should add in that geometric pattern I mentioned in my last post, which I have done. It took a bit of work to get it to look right, and I ended up having to use a different texture under the relief pattern to make it stand out. I hope you like it! The tower is currently 207.5m tall; the next stage in construction will put it at over 350m.




I'm tempted to just ignore the issue of mechanical floor decoration so I can move on, but if any of you think I should do something different, I'd love to hear it. If there are no further suggestions for improvement, I'm going to go ahead and render the building as it is now.

[thingfishs]

Yes you understood me correctly, and I think lightening them has helped a lot. I would just expect there to be various marks and bits of litter etc. around during construction. The lightening of the windows has helped as well.

[woodb3kmaster]

Glad to know that I understood you correctly, thingfishs. Thanks for your comments and kind words!



Now that a new academic quarter has begun, I don't have as much time to BAT as before, but I can tell you that I went ahead and exported the last version I showed you above, and it's now completely lotted. I can show a pic of the lot if you'd like. I've also done most of the work on the next version, which is a full 32 stories taller than the last; the total height is now up to 367.5m.




If you're wondering why all the construction scraps are clustered in a small part of the highest floor instead of being more widely dispersed, it's because I am going to have most of the rebar lattice for the next floor in place, so they would be hard to see if they were on other parts of the floor. I still need to add that lattice, as well as a small guardhouse and barrier at the entrance to the parking garage. Once those are in place, this version should be ready to render.

[Sciurus]

Very original how you do to show the growing up
And of course, beautiful building!!

Guillaume

[woodb3kmaster]

Thank you very much, Guillaume!

I was finally able to get back into BATting yesterday after a three-month hiatus. I went ahead and tried out my geometric pattern idea for the mechanical floors, and the results look kind of mixed:


I think the pattern itself looks pretty decent, but there's a host of weird shadow issues with the new geometry. I suspect that those oddities have something to do with how I made the new wall sections. What should I change, if anything? What else could I do to break up the monotonous repetition of the façade?

[thingfishs]

Hi again,
Now before I say anything I will present my disclaimer: I've never made a skyscraper. (and looking through the STEX I'm thinking a few other people have - from memory you have this up at ST anyway so hopefully you get some more advice there, it seems most of the skyscrpaer folk hang out at ST)

That said, for me the windows are very repetitive. Looking at some RL skyscrapers it's seems variation in the windows, even by day, is crucial. For example:



If you had the right image(s) behind semi-transparent glass perhaps you could add this sort of variety...?

[cubby420]

Its really cool to watch this thread. In a unique way it seems like I'm actually slowly seeing a building being constructed. Its a very unique style and something you may or may not have planned...but I like! 

I'm really digging this building. Keep up the great work!

[mightygoose]

nice work.

[woodb3kmaster]

Thank you all! Thingfishs, I agree that the finished BAT should have the blinds drawn in some of its windows, but since it's still under construction, I don't think any blinds would have been installed as of yet. I'll definitely make use of your advice when the time comes to finish the model, though!

After a very productive exchange of PMs with SimHoTToDDy at ST, I've made a few more changes to the façade:





Based on one of SimHoTToDDy's recommendations in our PM conversation, I'm looking at ways to make the floor transitions more subtle, since right now, they just look like simple concrete slabs. I know that there's always more to the spaces between floors than meets the eye (with utility spaces, steel supporting trusses and so forth), but the only idea I've hit upon so far is making the marble cladding between the windows taller. If any of you can think of a better idea, I'd love to hear it.

[thingfishs]

nice having the variation in the windows has helped lift the whole creation immeasurably.

Some of the lighter patches look a bit too light in comparison to me, a bit blotchy sort of... Like that patch just over half way up the third column from left, and the way all those ground columns change from darker to lighter looks odd. It seems like maybe the reflections (or whatever it is) need some tweaking but overall you've made a huge improvement.

[Aaron Graham]

Looks good woodb3kmaster.

[woodb3kmaster]

thingfishs: Thanks! The blotchiness you see in the window texture is simply the clouds on the environment background that the windows are reflecting. I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say,

...and the way all those ground columns change from darker to lighter looks odd.

Do you suppose you could elaborate? There are a few different things I think you could be referring to, and I want to see which one you had in mind.
Aaron Graham: Thank you!

Well, after a couple more months with no progress, aside from further discussions with SimHoTToDDy, I've returned with a major update for you all! I've revised the floor layouts so that there's now a second "staircase" of floors going the opposite way to the original "staircase". As a result, the tower is now going to be considerably shorter than I had originally planned, at 100 floors instead of 160. I've also made the outer walls thinner in an attempt to bring them closer to the glass, to give the façade a smoother look. Here's how it all turned out:




Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

[seraf]

Good work, especially reflections are great  and the outline of building is more interesting now 

[woodb3kmaster]

Thank you, seraf!

I've gone ahead and made the floors 0.5m taller (which resulted in far more work than I had expected), and I think the results are pretty decent. I also lowered the transoms/horizontal mullions relative to the floors, so the windows are no longer evenly divided. I have yet to try out a lighter texture for the mullions or experiment with possible taller floor transitions (in the latter's case, because I don't really know what I could try, other than what's on the façade of the 777 Tower).




Any suggestions on what would make good floor transitions are most welcome.

[woodb3kmaster]

I just switched the texture for the mullions to a bronze/copper texture, and I have to say, it looks quite a bit better now. Here are a couple parts of the latest zoom 5 preview so you can judge for yourselves:

[Scarton]

Hey! The tower is looking great! I think you are also getting better at texturing, but how would I know as I'm not a BATer (yet ) Are you sure you're going to make the building shorter? It would be a shame, because it seems no one BATs any fictional over-100 story buildings anymore except for Xyloxadoria. How about if further up on the tower, you half the size of the cylindrical things you have going up the building (hope you understand what I mean). That way the staircase would have to climb higher. Just a suggestion. Keep up the great work! 

[woodb3kmaster]

citycapitalizer: Thank you! I'm definitely making the building shorter, sorry. Your suggestion sounds interesting, though (and I do think I know what you mean).

I haven't done much BATting over the past few months, but I've had more opportunities to BAT this past week. Here's my latest preview:



I decided to try remodeling the decorative walls at the top of each "step", since there were some odd-looking glitches with them as they were (look at them in the above previews if you're not sure what I mean). They look better now, but still not quite right, so maybe I'll try another design. I also added decorative railing above those walls to make the tops of the "steps" more interesting.

At this point, I don't think there's much more I need to add to the model before I can call this version finished. If you have any suggestions for things I can add, please let me know. Thanks!

[Ryan B.]

Zach, this stuff looks great!  Definite download for me when it's done . . . . perhaps it'll be your MD's embassy building in my upcoming MD!