c.p.'s BAT and Lot Workshop

[c.p.]

Thanks Matt  I look forward to seeing your CJ resume soon.


So, continuing the exploration of 19th century U.S. cities, here are a couple of R$$ buildings from Manchester, New Hampshire, for a future Manchester/Nashua/Lowell set.  These have entrances on the front and one side, so should work well for corner lots.  Also, they should work well for lots with a side yard, which, (unlike Chicago), seems to have been common in Manchester in the 19th century:




Some real-life shots from Manchester:

[romualdillo]

Great work again!!! 

[Simcoug]

Super!  I can't get enough of this 19th century architecture 

[magee_b]

Love these! Yet again, more incredible work! 

[vester]

Repeating my self: Great work. C.P. Great work. Great work. Great work.........

Love the way the barge boards, the columns and the boards around the windows stands out. 
Will have to makea bookmark of this for a reference, so new batters gets a sense of size.
(You were one of the batter that gave me a sense of "bat size".)


Was browsing through my pictures of trains and came across this address:
http://www.branchline-trains.com/

Thought lets have an look again....

and my though was: that would be some good inspiration for C.P.....!

[c.p.]

Merry Christmas everyone

Thanks romualdo, Matt, magee_b, and Arne for your comments

Arne: as best as I can remember, for the most recent update (Manchester), the trim around the windows is 0.2m, the cornerboards are approx 0.3m, and the eave trim is approx. 0.35m, if that helps.  Also, thanks for the link


So for Christmas, I thought the Gloribee Chapel (and house) would be an appropriate upload to the LEX:

[art128]

What a wonderful Christmas present you give us here, CP.

Merry Christmas to you too.

[kbieniu7]

Nice work! Appropiate Christmas gift, thank you! 

[mrbisonm]

Just wonderful. Thank you and have a very Merry Christmas well earned.

Fred

[carlfatal]

The both buildings are really beauties. But before I run to the LEX I also wish you nice winter holidays! Thank you!

[noahclem]

Merry Christmas and thanks for the wonderful BAT 

[Simcoug]

Merry Christmas!

[APSMS]

Merry Christmas.

Thanks for all your contributions to the community. Hope you have a wonderful time with your family this year (or whoever you spend Christmas with).

[Jack_wilds]

Thank You CP very very nice models... neat gift to add to my sim rural city...


Merry Christmas CP and everyone...

[c.p.]

Thanks Arthur, kbieniu7, Fred, carlfatal, Noah, Matt, APSMS, and Jack_wilds

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  (I sure did  )


So, moving forward again . . . here are a few more residentials from Manchester, this time low wealth:


And some more real life shots from Manchester:

[vester]

Merry Christmas c.p.


Great upload, the churches. Great update as well.

The light green color in the lower left corner seems a bit of.
Maybe a bit to saturated compared to the second last pictures.
17-21 % compared with 24-33 %.
The hue is 15-25 ° higher than the RL pic.
(Both measured in PS.)

Maybe a bit like the green on the second church, white with green.

Colors can be really hard to get right.
Take down the brightness, up goes the saturation and a sometimes the hue changes a bit as well.

[c.p.]

Thanks for the input Arne 

I don't really want to make it like that second-to-last picture because there are already enough pastel-colored buildings in this group.  But the fact that you brought up the colors and saturation probably means the colors/saturation are jarring or glaring for that building, and I want to avoid that.  So here is a revision.  I reduced the saturation for the clapboards and trim, darkened the clapboards a little, and also darkened the roof slightly.  As an added bonus, I added another building in the same colors

[vester]

Maybe turn the color of the clapboards, trim, the columns and the railing a bit brighter.
At the moment the columns and the railling is falling in with the shadowy background.

I know it can be a balancing act to get it as close to RL, but still get the best out of a model in game.


Been working with Adjustment layers a lot, especially Hue and Saturation and a few times with levels.
Then a have a pure area with color samples with nothing beside that. It makes it easier to check what the changes are.
If you do it on the texture, you get different result with the eyedropper tool.

A lot of times I use a lot of layer in grey tones, where I have the blending mode to Multiply and Soft light / Screen.
Some times I group these layers in two groups, one with "multiply layers" and one with "soft light / screen layers".
Then set the layers in the group to normal blending mode, but set the groups blending mode instead.
That is the way I add gradient to a texture (layer full black with a gradient black to white in the alpha channel)

Do you use gradients on your textures ?
If you do, it not very strong.
I think that the gradient (darker color at ground level) makes the house touch the ground.

[c.p.]

Maybe turn the color of the clapboards, trim, the columns and the railing a bit brighter.
At the moment the columns and the railling is falling in with the shadowy background.

Good point, the columns and tops and bottoms of the window trim in particular were too dark (I had assigned the wrong texture to them   But I lightened all of the darker trim for the renders below.

Do you use gradients on your textures ?

Yes, there is a gradient on all of the walls and on all of the roofs.  I do the gradients via the 3dsmax materials though, and not via textures.  (I avoid Photoshop like the plague whenever I can help it.)

So here is the 2nd revised version of this particular (very troublesome!) color combination:

[Simcoug]

I'm only able to view on my tiny phone screen, but they look great to me