Spa's Atlantic Retreat

[superhands]

I think it turned out quite well...

i'd say your right

i always forget about checking this thread. nice work.

dave

[spa]

Thanks everyone. I'm back to working on Morse's Teas. I have all the modeling done, but I'm still working on the textures.

I took a photo of the real building's roof from a pedway in the area and this is pretty close to what's actualy up there (there is a lot of strange looking equipment). I like the old chimnies and the penthouse, although I have to adjust the penthouse window glass so that the window frames and glass are a little more distinct from each other. I'm not really ready to declare the roof texture done though yet. Any thoughts?

[threestooges]

The building as a whole looks pretty darn good. I think the roof looks a bit too clean compare to the rest of it. I would almost expect to see more discoloration or stains on top, but then again, they may have just resurfaced it. Aside from that, it seems to be coming together nicely.
-Matt

[projectadam]

spa,

I have not visited your thread for sometime now but am so glad I did. Morse's Teas looks amazing and so far I have only had a chance to look at the last page but the bank of Nova Scotia is a great piece of architecture as well. Your lots are always 10/10 if not 11+/10. Just stopping to write a note to express my desire for more of your great works

[tag_one]

Great building Samuel, the front of the building looks very nicely detailed 
Personally I don't like the roof of the building. Although the details are very nice the texture confuses me. Imo the layout of the tiles suggest a sloped roof, but I hardly can't see a slope in the roof. Maybe if you dirty up the roof a bit it will look better.

[simdad1957]

Sam:

I think I'll just echo the comments above. The Bank of Nova Scotia is just about perfect. I can't wait to put it in my cities.

I agree with some of the other comments about the Morse's Tea Building roof. It may be a reflection of what the roof actually looks like but it just doesn't seem quite right. Not to criticize the cook, but perhaps it would be best to consider a more traditional appearance for the roof. Perhaps a little "artistic licence" is in order.

BTW, I know you have never visited Moncton (it's only a 2.5 hour drive for cripes sake) but it would be nice if you would consider some of the architectural wonders of my fair city. Recently, one of the other posters and myself have put up some images of "historic Moncton" on the Moncton page at Skyscraperpage.com forums. Come over and have a look and see what you think.

SimDad/MonctonRad

[tag_one]

After a healthy Dutch dinner I took a second look at the roof. I think that the horizontal 'side to side' aligned tiles are too dark compared to the vertical 'front to back' aligned tiles (since my poor English won't allow me to describe it better I added a picture below where I highlighted the area I meant). This difference in color gives me the idea that the roof is quite steep and causes a shadow while it's actually near flat. If you make this area a bit brighter I'm sure it will look much better    

the picture with the area I was talking about:


Apart from that the building looks really great 

[spa]

Matt: You could be right actually. The roof maybe is too clean and that's why it's sticking out so. I'll go back and try adding some mess to the texture tomorrow.
Projectdam: Thanks! I'm feeling like the Bank of Nova Scotia is one of the best I have produced so far
Tag: Yeah. Some dirt is a good idea and I take the point about the slope. That was a common comment on the bsc board too. I have adjusted it. Good point about the texture and thanks for taking the extra time to express it. I'm in a bit of a bind there because the one roof piece is longer than the others. I tried to split the difference and it didn't work out. I have adjusted it since. Maybe the newer version is a little less noticeable?
Simdad: Thanks. I'm not ready to give up on the sloped roof just yet. Most of my commercial buildings have flat roofs so I was kind of trying to seize on the chance to do something different. I'm going to keep tinkering to see if I can get it right.

On Moncton, it is kind of silly that I have never been there! I have only driven around it on the highway. I keep hoping to get sent over to New Brunswick on business so that I can stop in with my camera, but it just hasn't happened yet. I'm expecting to eventually add some Moncton content. The last spa essentials contains a custom query for hypothetical future Moncton bats. In terms of my Sim City picture taking, Moncton is kind of like Truro. I don't have any photos from Truro because it's always easy to say "I'll stop in Truro next time." I'm missing photos from a number of nearby places (Moncton, Truro, Antigonish, Lunenburg, Mahone Bay) while I have photos from places farther a field (Grand Falls, Edmundston, Fredericton, Charlottetown, Sydney etc). I'll get to Moncton one day.


So this evening I went back and did some tinkering on Morse's Teas to incorporate feedback. I raised the roof, shrunk the bricks around the windows slightly and did some minor adjustments to the dark ironstone texture on the lower 3 floors. Anyway, it's not finished, but maybe these adjustments are a step in the right direction.

The roof is of course still a big question mark. I'll try adding some grime to it. Now that it's noticably sloped, it might just need some dirt.

[superhands]

spa this is turning out good. i think all it's missing is something to cover up the meeting of the roof faces.

dave.

[tag_one]

The roof looks much better now and the adjustment to the ironstones works out very well 

[spa]

Bighead99: Thanks for the suggestion. I added in a small little bump down the "seams." I think it works.
Tag: Thanks

So I went back to Morse's Tea again this evening with fresh eyes. Instead of focusing on the roof I took a whole building view and I think we now have a winner. I didn't change the roof, but instead I adjusted the rosy brick to a darker slightly more destaturated version. Check it out.

The new darker brick is actually closer to the real building. The neat thing is the roof texture is the same even though it now, to my eyes, looks like it fits. The only thing I might have to do now is switch the old ad texture to a darker version. I haven't changed it, but the new darker brick sure makes it look a lot brigther than it did before. Anyway, it has been a battle on this and I really appreicate all the constructive feedback.

[Pat]

Spa that is looking fantastic wow!!!!

[threestooges]

I think you got it. It also looks like you made the roof texture a bit messier (or it may just be image compression) but whatever you did, it looks great as it is now.
-Matt

[squidi]

thats an exelent building and i love how you textured it

[spa]

Pat: Thanks.
3Stooges: Thanks. I didn't actually change the roof texture at all though. It just looks better next to the new brick and with the trim along the seams.
Squidi: Thanks

So I have finished the Morse's Teas Building. I ended up adjusting the roof equipment textures a little bit, but other than that no changes. I'll post some pictures of it in game later (I'm house sitting this evening and don't have any available). For now, I'll draw your attention to the LEX for a little Dec 6 surprise, the Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower. Here's a pic of the real thing.


The Halifax Explosion occurred on December 6, 1917, 91 years ago today, and was the largest man-made explosion before the invention of nuclear weapons. The Explosion occurred when two ships, the Mont Blanc and Imo, collided in Halifax Harbour. The Mont Blanc was fully loaded with munitions and caught fire. The ship's crew fled and the stricken vessel drifted right into the Halifax waterfront around Pier 6. Almost nobody knew what the Mont Blanc was carrying so no one thought to take cover or flee. The eventual explosion devastated Halifax. Everything within a 2 km radius was flattened and roughly 12,000 other homes were badly damaged. Toppled woodstoves ignited the ruins and fires burned out of control since the city's fire department was virtually wiped out in the blast (firefighters were on Pier 6 trying to extingish the blaze at the time of the Explosion). Approximately, 2,000 people died and 9,000 others were injured. Relief efforts were hampered by a blizzard that struck the very next day. The first major shipment of outside aid to reach Halifax came from Boston, something that Haligonians and Nova Scotians have never forgot. This is why every year, Boston's official Christmas Tree is carefully picked from the wilds of Nova Scotia and is provided to the city free of charge by the provincial government.




The long-term impact of the Explosion on Halifax was major. The disaster wiped out the City's already struggling industrial base. Most of the industry was never rebuilt. The devastated North End rose anew as the Hydrostones, Canada's first public housing project. Halifax became a centre for research into blindness due to the large number of people whose vision was damaged by flying glass. American military planners carefully studied Halifax and a similar incident in Port Chicago, CA, in preparation for the atomic bomb attacks on Japan. The Explosion is remember by Haligonians every year at the Memorial Bell Tower in Fort Needham Park. To this day, the North face of the clock tower on Halifax City Hall is frozen in time at 9:05.

Anyway, here's how my version turned out.

I think jestar's planters look pretty sharp and fit the concrete tower nicely. I also made a bsc park compatible version.

[spa]

So I'm back home again after a brief stay in the country at my parents place (I was house sitting while they were in Cuba). I did promise some pictures of the Morse's Tea Building in game though with the night lighting done and the roof object textures tweaked, so here they are.



You might recognize the little plaza planters I made from Brian's props from the Bank of Nova Scotia. They looked so smart on it I decided to use them on this one to. I did think about doing an alley, but the real Morse's Teas Building fronts onto streets on both sides so I decided to go with a plaza.

And a night shot.

I think the night lighting on this one turned out particularly well. The yellowish colour seems to fit and the lighting really shows off the small glass panes.

I have had another project on the go, the J.W. Johnston Building.

The Johnston Building is a provincial government office building in downtown Halifax. The building is named after James William Johnston, a lawyer and Tory politician who arrived in Nova Scotia after the American Revolution. Johnston was a major public figure during the dawn of Responsible Government in Nova Scotia (birth of Canadian democracy) and led the fledgeling democractic government several times. The building that bears Johnston's name wasn't always a government office. It was constructed in 1928 and was originally an Eatons department store. Eatons, however, abandoned downtown Halifax for the suburbs. The building's location near Province House (the provincial legislature) and several government office buildings made it an attractive purcahse for the provincial government. The province recently completed a major refit of the Johnston Building and as a result it is one of most well preserved heritage buildings in the city.

Anyway, here's my version:

Obviously it's still a work in process, but I think it's heading in the right direction. I decided to make the Johnston a non-corner building for Sim City even though the real thing is on a corner. It seems like an easy call since the real building doesn't really relate to the corner at all. It really doesn't affect the structure. It's just a regular 2x3 that happened to grow on a corner

[rooker1]

Both of these models look very impressive and I have alway liked that you choose buildings with character and a story.

Robin 

[SimNation]

Love your work man. Style is similar to JasonCWs who I wished had more stuff for us all to enjoy. Cant wait to see these two.

[tag_one]

Wonderful work as always. 

[iamgoingtoeatyou]

One of my favorite buildings from you, and that's really saying something