non-asian branch of SimFox' pixel torture chamber

[SimGoober]

Yep, I guess it is an optical illusion.. lol.

[Sciurus]

Very nice building

Guillaume

[art128]

Awesome, really awesome. The building looks quite nice as the original, great work man ! 
-Arthur. 

[SimFox]

here is a development on last project:

[superhands]

Fantastic as always    img the artist's impression never looked this good!

really like the landscape and the way that the building is reflecting detail.

-Dave

[nekseb]

Look's great 

Especially the ground base with all the different cobbels is really unusal.

[art128]

Oh wow ! The base of the tower is simply outstanding ! 

[Girafe]

Your work is always amazing Simfox especially concerning the glass effects



ps. any news about FT ? even if the project is stopped there in Moscow (

[SimNation]

Looks good SimFox. Glade to see you are paying as much attention to the base of the bat as you are the building.

[SC4BOY]

Great looking.. Love your attention to detail.

[SimFox]

Haven't had updated this thread for a long time, but here it goes...
This is my latest BAT - recreation of Mies Van Der Rohe's Seagram building in NYC - my first bat as a member of NYBT.

day:









Dark Nite:

[DebussyMan]

Not sure about that orange glass. I haven't seen the real thing, but in pictures it looks deep dark brown.

On the other hand those water pools are incredibly realistic, as well as the nightlighting. 

[Orange_o_]

I do not find very realistic windows, their reflection is not rather appropriate ( too many undulations in day view and night view)

Otherwise the rest is sensational, I appreciate quite particularly the water as well as the work on the lights

[io_bg]

Oh my God, it's so realistic! Awesome work!

[Sciurus]

It's juste amazing!

Guillaume

[Girafe]

Fantastic 
Foutains, trees and cladding are simply excellent 

do you explain anywhere how to get this kind of nightlights which are spectacular and how to model the foutains and their textures ?

[Une_ame]

As usual, the BAT is awesome, the cladding is interresting since I do not know the real building (there's so many differences in the RL).

The 2 little SimFox touches you always add (nightlights and HD details) makes this building a must have.

[art128]

do you explain anywhere how to get this kind of nightlights which are spectacular and how to model the foutains and their textures ?

Agree, a small tutorial about that would be very welcomed ! Anyway that's realy a nice tower you made there, Simfox ! Can't wait to download it ! (btw, i'm sendind you a MP, I hope you'll answer..  )

[SimFox]

Not sure about that orange glass. I haven't seen the real thing, but in pictures it looks deep dark brown.

On the other hand those water pools are incredibly realistic, as well as the nightlighting. 

well, since glass as such doesn't have any color by definition (diffused color that is) and it's reflections are color neutral too, unless glass is coated with some metals - more common in 80s and 90s, but not in time of this building construction - 1957. So the only way to see "glass color" is to see it refraction color eg how it affects the light that comes through it. In effect you see something behind the glass. Naturally the "color" you see is composite of many things. the defuse color of the surface.
Taking this in account "deep Dark brown" glass is more or less nonsense - you wouldn't see anything through it as brightness contrast would be so great that in most angles it would be a mirror like surface, yet glazing on this tower is although bronze tinted (to match the pure bronze of the facade) is none the less clear.
And than there is this issue of judging the color (as well as brightness) of something from photograph. Not totally impossible task, but one requires experience and understanding of how light works and how photography works. I can take any picture and make it look very different without actually doing any of the stuff people would expect, but by simply simulating natural phenomena. If you photograph something against bright sky, for instance it will look dark, much, much darker than it would appear to the naked eye, and darker still than it actually is etc, etc.

All that said I did a little "cheating" -virtually all the windows do have something behind them to show the color. There are blinds behind each and every panel of glass. And these are may be not ones that are in a predominant use nowadays - roller blinds, but the venetian type blinds - those that would be there (and still in many places are) by original design.
So I'm pretty sure about "window color". Of course warm lighting of the sun comes to play as well. But that is both natural (to a degree and white balance of you cam) and game appropriate.

So after this long and I guess boring to many, yet essential to keep in mind theoretical part let's look at the color of resulting pixel - one we actually see in place of an image that we believe to be "window"/"glass":



Two on the left are representative of eh sunny side and two on the right in the shade.

So would you still call them "orange"?

I do not find very realistic windows, their reflection is not rather appropriate ( too many undulations in day view and night view)

Otherwise the rest is sensational, I appreciate quite particularly the water as well as the work on the lights

would you care to show both realistic and  appropriate reflections?
Too many undulations you say? And how many is not too many, how do you think this whole thing work?
If you would care to look closely you would notice that reflections of near by (to the glass) object are virtually intact. There are scarce little "undulations" yet as the reflected objects move farther away these distortion grow. This is natural physical process, that you (as an artist who often draws things) should be very aware since you suppose to create illusion of reality. And it will only be that if you do still follow major laws of physics.

Girafe:
Fountains, as well as "ground cover" plants under the trees and hedges at the lower roof are particle systems – Fountains sprays are, appropriately SuperSpray, and hedges and ground cover is particle arrays. There is really nothing too complicated about them - the point to create illusion and I believe they do a passable impression of reality. Individual settings are to be tuned on case by case basis – particularly for the fountains. Only real requirement is gravity force, otherwise you spray will go on forever, and perhaps, a deflector at the water level, or slightly below so that particles that finally fall could disperse on it a bit, creating the "foam" at the point of impact.
The material is also quite simple - all are modified Arch&Design mats of 3ds Max. Fountain is just white with a slight hint of turquoise-blue hue in defuse with FG only reflectivity (Fresnel BDRF) set to quite high gloss (80% or so). Leaves of the ground cover and hedges are shades of appropriate green, or yellow-green to be precise.

The water of the pool is more complex. Its final appearance both day and night is dependent of physical properties of the material. Like with glass water doesn't have any defuse color, so it is black (black means NO reflection - in this case no defuse reflection) color what you see is also refraction one. Plus it is dependent on the depth/thickness of the material. So, at the thickness of 1,5 m this water would be of this color:



Of course what it means is that this is a tint neutral light will acquire after passing through 1,5 m thick layer of water. Another key element in the appearance of water is the way this type of material creates shadows. Unlike solid opaque materials that simply block visible light transparent ones do nothing of the sort (well not completely anyway), They don't create so called "transparent shadows" typically used in 3d either - those are cheap quick and dirty tricks employed to make things easier and quicker, either. Instead they rather bend light in various ways. And in most cases they work marvelously.
However, when, thickens of the transparent substance become considerable (like with this pool as opposed to the plane of glass) the shortcomings of this method become rather apparent. Here is an illustration of the principle:



on the left is "same" water but with "transparent shadow" model, on the right is with proper caustic light distribution.

Caustics is a bending of light when it comes with the contact of the boarder of two transparent substances, like say air and water, air and glass, glass and water etc. If index or Refraction of both medium is exactly same - light continues on its way. If it is different it bends to a certain angle to the normal of the point of impact. If that surface -eg the border between two substances is ideally flat than all light would be bend in exactly same way and although you'll see "picture shift" the brightness of it will be totally uniformed. If the surface is uneven - like, technically speaking all surfaces are, you'll see distortions in both the "picture geometry" but also MUCH more easier noticeable brightness patterns - eg that typical web of light at the bottom of the pool one sees on a sunny day. And of course water surface of the pool is rarely very flat, particularly when there is a fountain present...

So I guess this is that simple tutorial. The matter of the fact is that this is ether very simple or very complicated. It all depends on the perception and ability to create illusion, which in terms based on the ability to see and "deconstruct" what you see in the first place. You can write the instruction of what button press in what succession, but it wouldn't really get you there by itself. The rest is just an eye... You know some don't see the proportions, for instance, or pay no attention to them when they model things. can you teach it? You can tell that they arte important. And in a give case tell what they are, but does it mean that the person who didn't pay attention to them this time will do differently next time?

With hedges it is more "paint by number", of course there too some customization and tuning may improve things, but you will get decent result doing "parrot thing". There are numerous tutorials on the subject available on the net. Method I used doesn't really differed in a any principle and meaningful way, so just Google 3d Hedge and you'll find many. But here is one for those who wouldn't bother: http://www.cgdigest.com/how-to-model-a-3d-hedge/
it is generally good idea to go through at least two three different ones if they are available to see if the rare some particular points of interest in different approaches. Of simply experiment more by yourself...

Art128:

I hope it's OK if I answer it here, as it may be useful for someone else as well:

HI !

I was wondering if you could help me with 3Dsmax (2009). Well my problem isn't really a problem, it's just I don't have any more free "balls" for the textures... Girafe told me that with using the Arch&design it will create new balls, but no it doesn't. Is it that or something else to use ?

Thanks in advance.. 

Max2009 ... May I ask you if your Keyboard goes all sluggish when Mental ray is rendering?

As for the material balls... well it i's very simple really. In MatEditor you can only have 24 samples. But you can have huge number, may be unlimited, of materials in the scene. So once all of the sample balls were used just delete some of the sample. If you have already applied the material you are dealing with it will not be deleted from the scene (unless you select that option), no will it be removed from the geometry it had been applied to.

Here is what you should do:

[callagrafx]

well, since glass as such doesn't have any color by definition (diffused color that is) and it's reflections are color neutral too, unless glass is coated with some metals - more common in 80s and 90s, but not in time of this building construction - 1957.

Er... Actually, because of the increase in the popularity of air conditioning in the 50's, building constructors started to use tinted glass that would absorb heat from the sun, rather than transfer it indoors.  It was in the 60's that they started to add metal to give a more "mirrored" look.  This particular building has bronze tinted windows, and the real building appears darker, mainly because of the surrounding buildings...



Good stuff though