Critique this Picture....

[wes.janson]

@Lowkee33: Like others, I must advise the use of more custom content, but I also think a slope mode might help as well. That Avenue in the bottom left corner has a scary dip.  I'm going to go with 6/10. 

Here is a shot of a small town CBD

[Kevin1a]

@wes.janson  It's very difficult, at least for me, to achieve a good small town feel.  Nevertheless, you seem to have done it well.  The fire station (I think that is what it is) fits the surroundings well, and the commecial area seems more realistic than many I've seen.  I also like the aly behind the residential, we have a lot of that here in Colorado Springs, at least in the older areas of town.  The boarder looks good as well.

Cars seem conspicously absent from your streets.  Even if it is really early in the morning, there would be at least some traffic on the streets.  I also notice a large knot of pedestrians in once spot, but none elsewehere, where are they headed?  Why are there so many of them.  The grassy areas along the road also seem a little barren, especially in front of the businesses.

I give your picture a 6.5, but it definitely has 7 or 8 potential.

[marsh]

@ Lowkee33 For having only a water and beach mod that's impressive. You'v put Maxis to good use and I aplaud you for that. Not many people like to play with purley maxis content and many think that maxis sucks. But youve shown that with good skill you can do alot with it. I like some of the rowhouses that grew. Its like a little ghetto.  I give you a 7.5/10 mostly for a great amount of effort. 

@ wes.janson I like the lot edditing you did for those building. It looks realy good. Those streets look  great also. Is that a mod or photoshopping? I also think the alleys look good. (I live in Co. Springs also and they remind me of that  ) Overall 8.25/10 

[wes.janson]

@ wes.janson I like the lot edditing you did for those building. It looks realy good. Those streets look  great also. Is that a mod or photoshopping? I also think the alleys look good. (I live in Co. Springs also and they remind me of that  ) Overall 8.25/10 

Thanks! It is in fact a SAM set that I am in progress of making when I have spare time.

[marsh]

Thanks! It is in fact a SAM set that I am in progress of making when I have spare time.

Good luck with it man 

Alright, I have one...

[Exodia the forbidden one]

[wes.janson]

@Exodia the forbidden one:

My only suggestions would be:

Get rid of the Maxis trees on the school lot. They don't fit in with the surrounding ones.
Turn off the UDI icons
Get the pause line remover mod from the STEX

Overall 8/10

@Marsh: I'll critique your picture after our Picture Competition is over. 

[rooker1]

cubby420 - Very good looking picture.  The plop water works for me very well.  I like the rocks in the water, the water line looks great as well.  The way you plopped the forest and the rest of the flora is very well done and I can't really find any faults there.  Nature beside and industrial sector....good idea, but I also think that water tower doesn't fit very well.  I would suggest water towers from Simgoober.  I think the picture is lacking something though.  I think it really has no focal point or main idea.  I also wish you had of aded a frame of some kind to finish it off.
I'll give this picture a 6.5/10. 

Terring7 - Very nice rural picture full of great details.  All the houses seem to fit together very well.  I really like the three different levels of tranist.  I say this because of the cobble stone road, the street bridge that goeover the rail and the rail way itself.  Usually one might think this would be too much in a picture, but you have made it all work together very well and it looks believable.  I do wish though that you had waited for a train to pass and got it in the pic too.  Now what I don't like.....actually hate, are those palm trees with the deciduous trees .  Sorry but this is a personal thing for me....I hate Maxis Palm trees and I really hate when I see them in a setting like this, where I believe they don't belong.  I think you should look up swamper77's palm tree blockers found HERE on the LEX.  And just like always, a frame finishes off the pic.
With all this said, I think this pic deserves a 7/10. 

Lowkee33 - At first glance the pic looks great.  But as I look it over carefully there are a few things that I don't think looks right.  I like the ring avenue around the city, but I think you may have used too many streets in there an dnot enough roads.  I think if there is going to be a dead end, than it should a road not a street and some of your streets end pretty abruptly.  I do like that you have groups of housing the same, it looks like small community blocks.  I wish you had edited out the compass in the top left corner, the icons in the bootm left too and added a frame to finish it off.
I give this pic a 5/10.

wes.janson - very nice picture, but almost too nice.....and clean.  It looks to me like you did this LOTting yourself, nothing wrong with it as I know how long it can take to make LOTs of ay kind.  It's just that I think I would have done things a bit different.  The row of commercial buildings should have been stores on both sides of the street with an alley way in the middle..... better this way to hide tha back entrance and garbage bins.  I do like the sidewalk modd and I think the custom content you choose is all very fitting.  You added a frame around the pic....thank you.
I give this pic a 7.5/10.

marsh - Thank you for posting this picture in here.  I think this is a damn near perfect picture! The church is a great focal point in this case and fits perfectly with the surrounding buildings, which if I may add very well done in there own right and can be found HERE by mickebear for those of you that haven't had a good look before.  I find myself wondering why you didn't conitue the red brick road through the entire town.  Either way though, it still looks great, I'm just glad you can't find any black streets in there. (except for that one square which is almost unnoticeable.  You have added the perfect amount of trees, I do though think that bright green tree needs to be cut down. I like the flare effect and I'm so glad you finished off the pic with a border.
I am very happy to give this pic a 9.75/10, my highest score yet.

Exodia the forbidden one - arrrrgghhhh You left on the pause button, didn't turn off the vehicle icons and left the grid on.  Pretty good picture otherwise.....for my taste, I think there are too many flowers, could have used some more variety of trees and maybe a thicker path to the school house with a larger clearing around it.
I give this one a 6/10.


And now here is one from myself.


Great pics everyone. 
Robin 

[Terring7]

Thanks for the critiques rooker1 . I didn't wait for a train because the eagle on the center of the image will disappear

[Girafe]

Comment about picture of Rooker1:

Good looking picture, maybe the photoshopping is too present, we can't well notice the details in the picture. The lot with train cars is quite good even if the base textures are different to the railroad up the picture. However it's strange that you have catenaries in the "garage" and not in the line up the picture; we could understand the opposite but it's just little detail.
Idem for the bush in the fences it's a little bit strange even if it was good idea.

I appreciate the parking lots and the fences between "train's garage" and road are very good.

Good picture 8/10 

[marsh]

Thank you rooker. Im flattered. 

for you now....

I like the oldy (is that a word?) look of it. The rail yard looks pretty cool. Although it is a little blurry which makes it hard to find out the details.

8.75/10

[Lowkee33]

Thanks for the comments everyone.


@Marsh :  Wonderful Picture.  I can see a lot of process in there.  My biggest concern is that there appears to be no main road.  From your MD I believe that the port at the bottom left was the start of the city.  The roads start to stagger out, and then lead to the back of a church.  I think the church should face left, or at least towards the park.  9/10
   
@Exodia the forbidden one:  This is a pretty picture.  Grid and pause aside I am bothered that the flowers look out of place.  There are too many and their edges line up, leaving those horizontal blur lines.  The school has its own texture, and I feel not enough field space.  If I was a kid I would be stomping flowers. I say 4/10

@Rooker:  The picture looks nice, but I agree that there is too much photoshop.  I like the tree that is growing through the fence.  There appears to be a diesel engine in the catenaries.  I am a process person, and I feel like there is not much more than pre-fab lots here. 6/10

[Nanami]

[cubby420]

@ 976: Interesting pics, though both seem somewhat jumbled to me. Good building variation, but its just hard to tell whats going on or make out any fine details. In pic one there is some (in my opinion) ugly foundations showing in the upper-left houses and it makes their placement seem very unrealistic. I'll say a 5/10 for pic one and 6/10 for pic two, which demonstrates more extensive use of skills like network design, though I'm still not fond of the two overpass bridges in such close proximity.

[emgmod]

I'll take a stab at it.

[cubby420]

Excellent pic emgmod. Not much to nit-pick here. Excellent scene and focal point. The after effect makes the whole thing seem kind of model-ish...which for whatever reason I love but others may find off putting. Some props like the van above the Air Canada plane are kind of half in-focused though. I'd give you a 9.8. A close to perfect pic given the subject matter.

My turn:

[rooker1]

976 - A very nice city scene, although I really see any kind of focal point.  I can tell that you haven't leveled the area very much, which can be a good thing or a bad thing at times.  This time I would go with a little in between.  There are few duplicate buildings that I think should be weeded out for something better.  I see some foundations on the hill side, but I also see one without that definately needs to be destroyed for one with a foundation.  I think the diagonal avenue could use some plopped diagonal commercial buildings, unless you are against plopping stuff in your city, but this is just my opinion.  And I always suggest a border of some kind to finish off the picture.
I give this picture a 7.5/10.

I won't into too much detail for your second pic.  Unbalance of tall and short buildings, edge of map is showing and no border.  I like the bridges and the RHW.
I give this one a 7.5/10.


emgmod - You have definately shown us what you have choosen as the focal point with your photo shoping technique.  I like the plane and the surrounding props used, it all brings a touch of realism and yet I still find the picture a little boring.  I'm not really sure why and I can not think of any way to really make it better.  I like the number of people in the pic, it makes it look very busy.  I think maybe the blurry effect could have been a bit less to show the other details more.
I give this pic an 8/10.


cubby420 - Nice picture....all the housing seems to fit together very nicely.  I think the canal is very fitting as well and you have done a nice job placing the roads in a believable manner.  I can see some industrial on the right hand side of the pic, maybe taking the pic a little to the rigth would have improved the pic by adding some variety of different zones.  I wish the pic had a border and that you had cropped out the minimize button.
I give this pic an 8/10.

And now one from myself.


Really nice pics everyone.
Robin 

[Terring7]

cubby420 i really like how everything fits. The canal, the houses everything are great. 8,5/10

rooker1 your image rock!! I don't have anything to say, so... 9/10

[kodlovag]

cubby420
Very nice canal image. Variety of the houses at middle of the picture is too low for my personal taste. But rowhouses are always very similar, so maybe that was one of your goal. All together 7/10.

rooker1
Very detailed landscape. I'm continuously trying to make similars, and I usually fail. I will add this into my reference images to learn from it. But I really don't understand why that thick black border was necessary. Maybe some flowers between the trees would make the image even more living. It is still 8/10.


I also post my image. I could not find regional shot in this topic, let this be the first one. It's 1087 pixels wide, please forgive this.

[samerton]

kodlovag : That's a brilliant region view! Maybe you could use a background mod that changes the region view.. there are some available that do that. The farms look amazing, too! The airport looks nice. Is the region finished as there is a big 'treeless' patch around a highway.
I'll give it a 7.5/10

Now for mine - Note: it is an old picture from my old CJ. I think that the junction is OK... This is before RHW 4.0, so it's not as good as it would be if I'd have created it after it was released. I'm just uploading this picture to see what everyone thinks, and I hope I can get feedback, so if I restart the CJ, this would be an area for improvement.