Spa's Atlantic Retreat

[kwakelaar]

Obviously I missed out on everything that has happened, but I will catch up and say congratulations to the both of you
Seems to me you enjoyed yourself on both occasions.

And the apartment building is looking great so far

[simdad1957]

In response to your question re: my lawyer brother-in-law; he is a partner at Burchell's.

Just wondering when you might be releasing your new residentials? I'm quite looking forward to it.

[spa]

benvoliothefirst: Thanks. My clapboard comes from photos. After I pull it from the photo, I just tinker with it until I have a good ratio of boards to the wall. Like bricks, the idea is to oversize it somewhat so that it's not just a blur. One of those things you have to fudge becasue of Sim City's fixed zooms.
Kwakelaar: haha it was a big month. Thanks.
Simdad1957: Burchell's eh. They're definitely one of the names around town. No timeline on the new residentials. Things have been going very slowly lately. So far only the Church Street apartments and Dundas Terrace are truly done. Knightsbridge is practically done (just need to finish tweaking the other colours) and the Victorian Apartments are actually farther along then the last image I posted (I'll dare to say the Victorian is on the homestreatch) so they won't be long. The Halifax boxes, however, are still just started since I'm aiming to have 20-30 different variations and right now I only have 3. So I'm a ways off from 7 uploads in a week tradition. It'll be another few months yet. On the plus side I'm back at it after taking 2 months off. Right now I'm on the road which always means batting since I don't have anything else to do with my evenings. I have my camera so I'll also come back with more photos of smalltown Atlantic Canada. I'm actually in Moncton until tomorrow so I'll finally be adding some Monkeytown photos to my possible bats library. After doing the Imperial, I was thinking the Capitol could be a nice addition to the game

[baconrocky]

Hey Spa, I was walking around the Beaches neighborhood in Toronto and I thought you your BATS, I was wondering if you have any Toronto buildings in the pipeline?

[spa]

Baconrocky: Nothing at this time. However, I'm going to Toronto to visit my best friend (he lives in Etobicoke) in August and I will be bringing my camera of course. I haven't decided what streets to walk on upcoming trip. I have done all of Bloor from the Kingsway to the ROM and I have walked Queen West to the old factory lofts from Yonge. So I'm not sure where to head next. I'm thinking the Danforth, College or Yonge as possibilities. I will say this though, when I'm done this batch of residentials, there is one Toronto landmark that I'm planning that will be a definite and recognizable hit

[simdad1957]

Glad to hear you finally made it to Moncton (the Hub of the Maritimes), and the largest CMA in New Brunswick.

While we have some interesting buildings, we are unfortunately a bit of an architectural wasteland. The city didn't really begin to grow until about the 1870's and as such, we don't have the architectural heritage of older cities like Halifax or Saint John. Also, many of the older grander buildings that we did have, have been torn down and replaced by non descript newer buildings. Moncton also tends to be very spread out and quite suburban and since it is a car-centric city with lots of big boxes and malls, the downtown has suffered. I hope you were able to find some interesting buildings to photograph.

I'm glad to hear that you may BAT the Capitol Theatre. It is a really grand theatre with a balcony, opera boxes and intricate plaster work and murals on the ceiling; but does not have the street presence or the facade of the Imperial Theatre in Saint John. It reminds me more of some of the theatres in Toronto like the Elgin and Wintergarden, in that it is quite inconspicuous from the street, but grand on the inside.

[SimNation]

Loving all of these that you are doing for this set Spa...btw how many will be for this set? Seems like its turning into quite the family of low rise apartments..which is sorely needed in my opinion

[spa]

Simdad: Yeah it was a long-time coming. I met up with a friend while I was there and she couldn't believe it either that I had never been to Moncton. It's kind of like Truro in Nova Scotia. You always drive by it so it's all too easy to skip it with the intent of stopping next time. I agree with you about Downtown Moncton. How much parking does one city need? It really felt like there was a moat separating Main from everything else. I did find some neat buildings though. The Tim Hortons (Merchant Bank), Capitol, the Transcript Building and that oldie with the pink Gifts Galore in it. Strangely, although it's absolutely hideous, I really found the Scotiabank building fascinating. It has to be one of the few truly large-scale brutalist buildings in Atlantic Canada. The only comparable one I can think of is City Hall in St. John's and it's a different style of brutalism. I really liked the Thomas Williams House up by Victoria Park. I'm considering doing a batch of old mansions and the Thomas Williams would fit in nicely with that theme. Of course I always have way more pictures than time so who knows.
SimNation: I'm looking at 4 old wooden apartments. Dundas Terrace which is done and the Victorian Apartments, plus two others that are just plans right now. The other 3 will be Church Street Apartments, Knightsbridge and the Halifax's Boxes which are all either done or well underway. It will certainly add a lot more wood to the game!

So as mentioned, I finished the Victorian Apartments and rendered it this morning. Below is how it looks in game on a lot with everything textured.

On the whole I'm pretty happy with it. There is only one thing I'm not sure about and that's the gravel roof over the Hollis side. The real building does have a beigey gravel roof that probably replaced tarpaper somewhere along the way. What do you guys think about the one on my bat? Too busy? Too beige? Just doesn't fit? Or is it fine? My first reaction was no, but it has grown on me and it's what's on the actual building. Thoughts?

I have also finished the nightlighting. Nothing much to say on that, it's my usual style and technique.

[rushman5]

beautiful as usual. tyhe lot is gritty, but not slummy good work there!  Looooove the bay windows especially at night!

one thing, whats the point of the fence on the short side balcony? it seperated to top balcony, but it is cut off from any doors.

anyways, that is very minor, I would love it just as it is! oh and is it slope-enabled?

-sean

[tag_one]

Looks great Samuel! I really like the details you put in the building. Especially the back side of the building looks great   

[threestooges]

Not sure which building it was I was thinking of, I'd have to go back and check, but I like the progress of this new one. I think the texture of the gravel part of the roof might be a bit saturated. Either some dirt up there or some junk, of just add a bit of gray to things. Aside from that, well done.
-Matt

[zero7]

I download most of your buildings and this one will be no exception.  This is another great building that will be a perfect addition for the sort of mainly lowrise cities that I like to build.

On the subject of nightlighting, one of the things I've done on my last two releases is assumed the presence of streetlights and placed a couple of dim orangey-yellow lights in the scene about 16m away and at streetlight height.  It might work well on this building, especially with the facade being busy with balconies and bay windows - plenty of opportunity for bringing out the detail and casting interesting shadows.

Although having said all that, I'm not sure it will work as well with standard Maxis night as with Gizmo night - the extra ambient light may detract from the effect.

[beutelschlurf]

moin spa,

for the roof with the beige color ... as you said by yourself, it just does'nt feel right ... maybe add some puddles (is that right?) and darken it up a bit. 
... but apart from one roof-texture it just looks great ... it will be an enrichment to the game! 

b_schlurf

[simdad1957]

The roof texture is fine but I do think that it might be a tad too much beige in colour. It might detract a bit from the excellent facade that you have created for this model.........perhaps if you darkened it slightly.

[spa]

Sean: haha I have wondered that too. They're on the real thing. As far as I know, it's because they have "officially" closed off that portion of the roof as unsafe.
Tag: Thanks
Matt: Thanks for the suggestions. I did a blur on the texture to take off some of the black spots. The change is slight, but I like the new version.
Zero7: Thanks. I considered doing some lighting on the balconies, but, at the end of the day, it wasn't something I wanted to get into.
B_Schlurf: Thanks. I blurred it.
Simdad: I ended up blurring it!


Well it's shaping up to be a wild weekend in Atlantic Canada. Hurricane Bill is going to brush the Nova Scotian coast tomorrow. It isn't expected to hit Halifax too badly, but it's going to be wet, 90-140mms of rain and gusts up to 90 km/h. Nothing Nova Scotians aren't use to in the late summer early Fall, but everyone is a little nervous given that the last one that came through the province was the storm of the century that left some without power for weeks. I'm hoping my power doesn't fail this time around as I have been in a batting grove. I added three more houses to the Halifax Box set. Check them out below:

The simple green one on left and the red and purple ones on the right are new. The roof junk on the three old ones is also new. About the only thing that I'm still planning on tinkering with is the glass on the purple one. It's not quite right.

[beutelschlurf]

moin spa,

i checked them - i like them - it's lovely to see that there are guys around who not always go for the modern stuff.
pleasure to eventualy have them in my city! 
btw. hope bill is not hittin' to hard on you over there in canada!

b_schlurf

[spa]

B_Schlurf: Thanks. For the most part, I'm not a fan of modern buildings. We use to build quality buildings, but it seems to have been an art that has either been forgotten or just sacrificed before the all mighty buck and business cases and such. It's a bit of history now at this point, but Hurricane Bill ended up being pretty weak. A typical tropical storm the likes of which Nova Scotia has seen many, many times before and will again. Nothing unusual. Tropical Storm Danny the following weekend actually packed more punch in terms of rainfall. At this point, with cooler temperatures setting in the chance for Atlantic hurricanes to stray North and actually do damage is closing for another season.


So time kind of slipped by on me there. I moved at the end of August/start of September and that ate up a lot of time in terms of moving and setting up our new place. My mom and I painted and varathaned the floors to make everything just right (great value to our landlord!) which of course ate up a week. Anyway, things are settling out now and I'm going back to my regular routine. This has meant new time for batting. The Halifax Box set is still coming along and there are now 4 more variations (the two on either end of the row). I have also gone back and added unique backs to all the houses. Up until last week, all of them had identical backs, but I decided to up my game and put in the extra effort. You can check them out below.

At this point, I'm almost done with the 3 window varieties. I still plan though on making an equal number of 2 window variations to round out the set.

[Jack_wilds]

Hello SPA, Jack wilds here...

So good to hear from you and the maritime weather report...    The northwoods has been too dry of late with a month of August noo rain -broke records of days consecutive no rains -some places its been up to 6 weeks...  moving is such a bother -even worse when what help was promised 'got too busy..." all of a sudden.  I might be moving too -not by choice, as well.  What hope I have is that a blessing/miracle of God will intervene.  The only to go is 'brothers place' that was mom & dads -they passed away awhile ago. 

BUT I write not to cry  but to say 'Hi'    I like the 'boxes' as they are turning out well... but could one of 'em have a nice deck out back for grillin' and such things even a bit of a veggie garden for grillin' ingredients  thanx 

from the northwoods

Jack 

[spa]

Wow cobwebs sure accumulate quickly don't they?

Jack: I hope, if you ended up having to, your move went alright. It really is a pain. I think you'll like the latest Boxes, the newer ones have more elaborate back decks for grilling or just chilling

So I didn't do much batting in October. It was a fairly busy month and included, notably, a few days up in Labrador on government business (I'll post some pictures from one of the Earth's last wildernesses soon). I have also been playing a fair bit of Civilization 4, which ate into Sim City's usual allotment. On the plus side, however, I have finished up all of my planned 3 window Halifax Boxes. There are 14 in all. Below is how they turned out.

I'm pretty pleased with them. They may be small, but this project has ended up being a lot of work! Each one takes just a few hours, but when you factor in that there are 14 of them it starts to become a fair chunk of time. With the batch of 3 window ones done, I'll be moving onto their 2 window counterparts, which will look something like these:

I'm planning to make 14 of them as well. I might start sending the 3 window ones through the render so I can start making some lots and testing out how well they work as props in game. I'll try not to let this go another month without updating

[magee_b]

spa, looks great!

Have you been checking out the new Spacing Atlantic blog? http://www.spacingatlantic.ca