JBSimio Inc.

[beutelschlurf]

moin JBSimio,

looks great, ...
can't wait to get my hands on it!
are you doing your buildings out of your imagination or are there based on real ones?

cheers
b_schlurf

[Jack_wilds]

Hello JBSimio, Jack wilds here...

<lab noise, electrical cracking, thunder, lightning flashes with Professor and Igor looking on, the switch is flipped and then>
"IT LIVES..."
<exclaims the maniacal professor laughing gleefully at his accomplishment>

<a giddy Igor looks on laughing slightly, rather clueless as to what is happening>

<meanwhile back at the Examiner downtown Gotham, our intrepid hero...>

a fantastical telling of the 'Hunter-Dulin lives'  by Jack wilds 

Jack 

[woodb3kmaster]

are you doing your buildings out of your imagination or are there based on real ones?

On an earlier page, Jon revealed that the Hunter-Dulin Building is a real office building in downtown San Francisco. Many of his other buildings are often inspired by what he sees in real life, but aren't recreations of real buildings (for example, the recent serires of RUSA apartment buildings).

Awesome work, Jon! I can't wait to find a place for Hunter-Dulin in Nyhaven.

[JBSimio]

B_Schlurf:  Thank you!  As Zack pointed out, many of my buildings are inspired by something.  I've never quite done a true recreation, although this latest building is probably as close to it as I'll ever get.    Usually, I see something I like and use the pictures as a starting point but I always reserve the right to change things as I go along according to whatever little whims I have that day. 

Jack:  An excellent retelling indeed... it almost spooked me a little bit!    Meanwhile, back at the Hall of Justice, Aquaman prepares a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because he can't do... well much of anything really. 

Zack:  Thank you!  I'm very happy to have finally finished this one.

It's been a fairly busy day already here at world headquarters.  The Hunter-Dulin Building is officially up for the scrutineers to play with... and I've already started down a completely different road (so to speak).  You may be wondering what the next big thing is going to be around here... or you may not be wondering at all.  It's also possible that you don't consider any of the happenings in this thread to be "big things."  Regardless of your answer to the ramblings of the previous two sentences, I'm going to show you anyway. 

I've been hanging around 3RR a bit lately, and our good friend David has inspired me to do a couple updates:



Just a very early proof of concept shot... but this could turn into all sorts of fun little things in the future!

More to come...
JB

[payce2tw]

LOL! Things are never dull around here. 

That's what happens when you hire monkeys.

[dragonshardz]

You know...when you make those, instead of just having the shop fronts be in a prop family, you could make the entire buildings prop families. Have an invisible building and the "real" buildings can be in a prop family so that the length of alley area varies. Of course, the alley junk would have to be modeled with the buildings, to a point, so that we wouldn't have alley junk halfway-submerged into buildings.

[woodb3kmaster]

Exciting stuff, Jon! Those are the first fractionally-angled buildings I've seen made, and even at this early stage, they're looking pretty good. I look forward to seeing what more you do with this concept.

In other news, I've just started teaching myself to BAT (with 3ds Max) by following the various tutorials on the ST Omnibus, and I've hit a bit of a wall, so to speak, because I have no textures. Yours look great, so I'd love to know where to get you textures. I imagine that for recreations like the Hunter-Dulin Building, you probably make a few of your own, but for all those you get from other sources, where do you shop for them (if you buy any libraries)?

Thanks,
Zack

[Pat]

Pat:  Thanks!  Did I ever have a mind to lose?  Fair question... probably not!

LOL!!!  anyways Jon I do have to say that the seeing the Hunter done is amazing!!!!  Also your work on FAB is also amazing to see you breaking the rules of the grid!! ooh hey about the mind situation, roughly how many hours did you spend on the Hunter?

[beutelschlurf]

moin JBSimio, moin woodb3kmaster,

to JB: i think the idea having buildings along fractional roads will be great! i follow every step from you! 
to woodb3kmaster: i hope JB don't mind to help you out a bit, ... i usally use http://www.cgtextures.com/ (have in mind that you can only use 15 mb in 24h before you can download again), apart from that, have a look in the WWW, sometime you just have to type in "brick" or "wall", and google will come up with nice pics you can easily use for textureing ... 

cheers
b_schlurf

[woodb3kmaster]

That's a great website, B_schlurf! Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'd still like to know where BAT masters like Jon (if I may be so flattering) get their textures, though... I'll just wait for him to reply

[vester]

to woodb3kmaster: i hope JB don't mind to help you out a bit, ... i usally use http://www.cgtextures.com/ (have in mind that you can only use 15 mb in 24h before you can download again), apart from that, have a look in the WWW, sometime you just have to type in "brick" or "wall", and google will come up with nice pics you can easily use for textureing ... 

Well you really don't need the big textures. In the final bat, you can't see a different, only in the rendering time.

I have few sites I can recommend: Mayang's Free Texture Library and Arroway Textures.


Jon: Like your new concept. Keep it up.

[Ramona Brie]

I compiled a few Google Images photos for some school suggestions. I love your School Packs, so I thought I'd do something for you.

http://rapidshare.com/files/250922207/School_Pictures.zip.html

JB only, please download. If it is downloaded 10 times it is deleted.

[JBSimio]

Mom:  I'm pretty sure I'd have the same problem with or without the monkeys!    (Actually, now that I'm making so much banana bread, the monkeys are starting to get hungry so that could be part of the issue)

Dragonshardz:  Thank you for the thoughts!  Making each individual "building" a seperate prop family is still an option I'm considering.  There are pros and cons to both ideas, really.  Shop fronts would be easier, just because each family would be roughly the same size.  This makes it much simpler to have things line up properly when cycling through a prop family.  The downside to the idea is that the backs of the buildings would never change, as you've mentioned.  The entire building is a little trickier (more tricky?) to get lined up properly if the sizes vary a lot.  It can certainly be done, but it's not nearly as simple.  The other advantage to this idea would be that the lots would be slightly more slope tolerant as well.  I haven't come to a firm decision either way just yet, so we'll see how things go.   

Zack:  Thank you!  Welcome to the insanity producing world of BATting!    To be honest, I still use Gmax... so I won't be able to help much with 3ds Max... although I know Vester, Diggis, and Cal (among others I'm sure) are great sources of information for that.  As for textures, the links provided are probably some of the best ones for starting points.  I haven't downloaded many textures for quite a while now, and to be honest I've forgotten where many of my "originals" came from.  I tend to find some good basic materials (bricks, shingles, etc) that will tile well and then modify them for my own use as needed.  I'm also not the greatest image editor in the world, and so I let the building model do a lot of the work for me (as opposed to the true texture gods who can go the other route).  If you have any questions, feel free to send a PM and I will be glad to help in any way that I can.

B_Schlurf:  Thank you for adding that link!  I'm glad you like the new FAB idea... hopefully I'll be able to find the time for a whole bunch of them!

Vester:  Thank you as well!  I hope you don't mind that I just volunteered your expertise! 

Tracker:  Thank you for the pictures!  I downloaded them yesterday with no problems.  I only had time for a brief glance, but I think there are definitely a couple ideas there for the next school pack.

It's been a very busy week here for me.  Anyone who has followed my threads in the past knows that summer is a crazy couple months in my world (regardless of which part of the world I happen to be in!).  Summer camp is in full swing and my free time is quite limited, so there may not be a whole lot to see here for a couple weeks.  I'm definitely picking away at different ideas, but it's slow going at this point.  I have a little time coming up this afternoon and tomorrow, so look for something later this weekend!

Til then,
JB

[JBSimio]

We interrupt the program already in progress to bring you the following important message:

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Happy United States Day! 

JB

[KoV Liberty]

Awesome work!

[payce2tw]

(If you click the picture, something cool will probably happen.)  Thank you... we now return to your regularly scheduled updates.

Happy United States Day! 

JB
[/quote]

I think Dad was expecting fireworks to shoot out from the roof of the building for the 4th of July. But I can see this generating a lot of excitement.

[Pat]

JON OMG WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Sorry I am soo excited to see the Hunter available and in time from me coming home too lol....  I hope you have a safe and Happy 4th!!!

[Jmouse]

Thank you kindly, sir! Well worth the wait and absolutely, perfectly gorgeous.

Later...
Joan

[Jack_wilds]

Hello JBSimio, Jack wilds here...

I am enjoying the 'Hunter-Dulin' building...  however its rather frustrating that I can't close-up enough to study some of the details.    I see the roof tiles, the 'roof fence' <do you know what its really called?> and other architectural details, well done.  The night lighting is really good however the 'night' in my sim world is more like a bright dusk, so its rather a mute effect.  Trust you are having a pleasant 4th... 

Jack 

[kimcar]

  Another great work that you have done. Thanks a millions for your work my friend