Seraf's Atelier

[thingfishs]

Brilliant work Seraf

I love those bridges, (esp. the first one) awesome for a nice park.
And that terrace you keep working on is nuts. (I assume the texturing etc still has work to be done?)

[seraf]

Thanks for all comments

MCS is finished. Model has 2.8M poly and I can't do anthing more

[thingfishs]

wow, very impressive seraf

I particularly like the roof of the lower section and the grills on the arched entrances revealing the shadows behind

So I take it that's the maximum polygon count one could achieve on a single model?

[kwakelaar]

Some very beautiful looking projects, hope we will see them all released to the community.

[io_bg]

That is superb! I hope you'll release it soon!

[mightygoose]

my only criticism  is that the textures are very plain (the roof) and quite repetative (the main brick texture) if you were to tweak those a little bit, and maybe add abit more roofjunk you would have a magnificent creation.

[seraf]

Thank you thingfishs Not at all - It's just the polygon count when my computer goes on strike 

kwakelaar - But of course, I always release my BATs once they are finished

io_bg - I think it will be on stex in a couple of hours 

mightygoose - In fact MCS is exported, I must only finish installer, readme, etc.  But thank you for that notices, and I hope MCS will be good BAT even without corrections

[MikulkaSP]

 
Cool MCS, now abandoned version.

[gottago]

I have to agree with mightygoose that the textures and the roofs look pristine and schematic--right now, the building looks like a highly detailed model, not a building.

There is no age, no variation, and no roofjunk at all. The floor of the main hall is too dark, and you can barely see the grill-work, and I assume there is glass behind those grills but it doesn't look like like you have included any there; in fact it doesn't look like any windows have glass--they are pure black.

It's a shame you won't revisit it, because it is beautifully modeled and there is no rush to upload it until it is as good as it can be, and also because changing textures and adding some roofjunk is not going to increase your poly count in any significant way. It would take another day's work to make it much better, and it is worth it, considering all the time you have invested so far and the quality of the modeling. There's no rush, do it right.

Edit to add: Also, looking at it some more, the cornices of the main hall have a strange gradient on them, going from light to dark, from left to right. That alone should be fixed. It also occurs on the steps.

[seraf]

MikulkaSP - Thanks, but I'm not planning to make devastated version of MCS. I find no pleasure in looking at its horrible current condition

gottago - Well... maybe you are right, I can delay the upload... but in this case, MCS will stay incomplete for a long time. I have other projects that need taking care of My intention was to make a building that looks like new. And I think I accomplished that. Regarding textures - many people like them, many don't. I can't make everyone happy ^^" I know that experiments with textures and roofjunk are easy with small models, but my MCS is quite large, and it makes things more complicated

Edit: Yes, I know about this gradient, but I don't know the cause. Something like that appears with any texture mapping as well as without mapping. I checked the geometry and everything looks OK. If you have any idea what it could be, I'd be glad to hear from you

[gottago]

When you are working with a large building, texturing it will take as long as modeling. You can't just tile a large roof area or a facade; the textures must be made 1-to-1 and worked in photoshop to avoid tiling. Even if you are looking for a "brand new" look, all the materials will show variations and differences that will give the building life.

The green roof, for example, has simply no change in color or tone. The texture represents standing-seam copper that when originally built looked like copper--bright reddish-brown metal--but has weathered to verdigris from exposure to air and rain. The weathering of copper will never be so perfect, and the copper will never be so dark--and that is a problem with your specularity/glossiness settings. This is another problem with the model--though there are a variety of materials--brick, stone, asphalt roofing, zinc, copper, glass (at least I hope there is glass)--all of them have the same matte quality to them--none of them are differentiated by their reaction to light. This is where you have to use the specularity and glossiness settings to achieve differences in reflectivity and gloss/matte. It will do much to make the model come to life and look more realistic.

Also, the roof coping--there are no joints, the textures do not look like metal, which is what would be used. Rather, they look like a solid color and that no texture has been applied to them. The attic story as well---the columns, though beautifully modeled, do not look as if they have a texture applied, but rather that the light ochre color has been done by using the Max color wheel function. This makes things look plastic-y and unrealistic. 

I know this criticism sounds harsh, but it is not meant to be; this is a wonderful model and deserves that equal attention be paid to texturing it. Invest the time and it will pay off handsomely.

Edit re: the gradients: Did you boolean-merge the cornices into one element from a number of smaller elements? This will often cause strange texture warping like what is going on there. The texture maps just can't handle complex geometry, and using boolean will often create objects that have a faulty internal geometry and so will not render correctly. If so, the only way to fix it is to rebuild the piece and don't merge all elements--leave it as separate pieces and texture each separately. 

[seraf]

"New" doesn't necessarily mean "freshly built". What I meant is that the building is undamaged and not devastated. By the way it's easy to create patina on the roof in a short time I appreciate your opinion about not "tiling" large areas, but I think that if texture is good, it's perfectly acceptable to do this. On the other hand, I have showed my progress with textures some time ago - and there was no criticism. At this stage, it's impossible for me to modify all instances of textures in model (brick texture alone has at least 15 variations)...
About the look of attic floor - at this zoom, it would be difficult to distinguish the nuances of texture on the columns, I hope that is understandable.

I am grateful for any constructive criticism and presenting your point of view, even if I (partially) disagree with it

Edit: all cornice elements are separate - I didn't use boolean there.

[MikulkaSP]

Oh, and are you going to make the train sheds at the back of the station?

[gottago]

Not wanting to change something because you like it that way is one thing, and that's fine with me--it's your work, after all--but it would only be "impossible" to change the tiling of the brick textures, or "too late" to comment upon the whole, if you had a hard-drive crash or otherwise lost the model file, or if this was already uploaded.  Having already exported it is hardly a reason--you have to export any number of times to plop the model in-game to see what it looks like and tweak it. The only deadline you are meeting is one of your own making.

Regarding the attic floor, in real life, the material there is same whitish stone as used on all the other architectural details, and indeed it is possible to distinguish the overall effect of the texturing, if not the nuance.


[Re: the gradients--did you change several things about the UVW maps on the cornices? If you change UVW parameters several times, the render of the texture can become messed up and you need to delete the UVW maps entirely and apply them again fresh.]

I assume you are posting here to improve your work as well as to display it, and to have it praised as well as critiqued by others who will see things in it that you did not, because they are looking through different eyes (and might not see your posts immediately). The praise is always welcome; the criticism, sometimes not. In any case, the model is first-rate and impressive, and it will be a very handsome addition to the game 

[seraf]

Textures may be changed all right, but at this point it would be particularly annoying.
Regarding UVW maps - I checked it several times. I made a new cornice but effect was still the same. I don't know why it happens and I agree that this shadow is unrealistic and not nice...
Anyway, the BAT is already exported and uploaded. I don't reject your criticism, I just can't seem to be able to make it any better at this moment. I'll get back to this model after some hardware upgrade when work won't be so awkward. I uploaded it now because I know that a few people are waiting for it.
In fact - Thank you for your criticism because it's important for me after all

I made another prop for Kew Garden:

[thingfishs]

very nice

I'm a big fan of your Kew garden stuff.

FWIW I'd love to see the MCS finished off one day, I just find it a bit flat & lifeless - and I know you can do it. It's sad to see such great BATs as this not be everything they could be...

[jmyers2043]

Hi Seraf

I like the gold ring at the base of the dome. You've found a very nice texture.

- Jim

[seraf]

thingfishs - Thank you As I said I'll get back to MCS when I upgrade my computer.

jmyers2043 - Thanks

The last prop for Kew Garden Prop Pack:



I'll make remaining small buildings later, for Kew Garden Prop Pack 2

[kimcar]

  &aplsMarvelous work

[manchou]

Wowo ! All of tour are superb ! You make very good things  , and your two props are beautiful