Shultzy's Showcase - Riverholm

[canyonjumper]

These are some nice pics I'd like to see more of these in the Picture Competition (I know rady does). I'll definitely keep an eye on this MD!

                             -Jordan

[Connor]

All I can say is: WOW

Exactly what i was going to say. Fantastic pictures 

[bat]

That are really beautiful pictures there of that nice nature, ShultzCity! Great rural area!
Looking forward to more from Riverholm!

[Battlecat]

Very nice indeed!  I see this MD is going to be a wealth of inspiration for natural landscapes!  Love the way that marshy are turned out. 

[ShultzCity]

Thanks all for the wonderful comments, they are much appreciated 

Fabian, you saved them on your computer? hehehe!    Well, I'm glad you like them...
Rady, I mostly use flora from jeronij (search on LEX), as well as a this pack by PEG: http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=22701. Having a variety of ground textures annd small shrubby bushes are often the key to making a nice landscape. Having said that, I never really use anything other than the RRP pasture flora and PEG's pack. There is one other bush I use, and in game it is called 'medium scrubby brush', but I have looked and can't seem to find the pack it comes from.

Canyonjumper, I acn't seem to pic the right picture to enter    -  I'll have to give it another go...

Here are two for today. Adam (ennedi) explained a technique in the Show Us your Rural Area thread, and I gave it a try. I'm not overly happy with the result, but I'll keep trying 



And some coastline further along:



Enjoy, Jacob.

[canyonjumper]

Hmm... maybe I should follow in Fabian's footsteps These are great pictures!

                -Jordan

[Ennedi]

Again great pictures Jacob! And don't worry about the path, it was your first experiment 

1. The first picture would be better if you would plop a few trees (better tall than rounded ones) closer to your path. You could plant taller trees closer to the viewer and some smaller ones away. This way we would have reference points to our eyes and the terrain shape would be better visible.
2. The ploppable path will never be ideal, especially if we merge various ploppable stuff as I suggested. But you can cleverly hide the path imperfections (and borders between the terrain texture and ploppable grass) by trees and bushes  . Paths on the open space look better from a bigger distance.

Adam

[Jmouse]

Jacob, in case you hadn't noticed, Adam (Ennedi) is one of our most gifted and talented masters on SC4D, so heed his words. He'll be a great help to you!

I agree that a few trees would help the first picture, but understand your interest in and focus on the path. I grabbed the same package of files, and look forward to trying out the props myself.

There are many different textures at work in the second photo which makes it an interesting study. The little spots of color you added work very well with the otherwise near-monochromatic palette you've used, too. Block them out, and there's nothing to catch the eye - you obviously have some artistic talent going for you!

As always, looking forward to more...
Joan

[Connor]

I saw Ennedi's picture in that thread, and it looks like you've done a great job with that path as well, it looks great.

Second picture is great too, such a nice a variety in texture, flora etc.

[Delecto]

Beautiful pictures, hard to believe that it's still SimCity ...this is so colorfullllll! 

DEL!

[Rady]

@ ShultzCity: Thanks for the hints ... as I see, I do have anything installed that you mentioned .. so obviously it's just a matter of taking my time and experimenting ...

Congratulations to your coastline!!

[bat]

Great coastline there! Nice work on it! Looking forward to more...

[Rayden]

Nice work, I like it too. But like Adam said, it can be improved. For example, on the first pic above, the footpath, people tend to take the shortest way from one point to another, on a straight line, unless they had a couple of drinks too much or there are obstacles on the way. So, if you do a zig-zag path, put some obstacles like trees or stones to justify the path taken and at the same time hide some imperfections or similar.
Keep up the good work.

[Battlecat]

Looks good so far!  I'm really never going to get tired of your coastlines. 

[Tomas Neto]

Fantastic work!!! Great!!! 

[ShultzCity]

Thankyou all for the comments 

Adam, I never thought about creating perspective with trees purely for a picture - I'll have to give that a go as well - thanks for all the tips

I certainly did realise that Joan, after looking at his MD. Absolutely spectacular!

Rayden, thanks for that. Looking at it now, it does seem a bit odd that there are sharp turns in an open space...  I am struggling to find a realistic ploppable rock that works well on open terrain (instead  of coastlines or rivers), so I will try using trees in the way that Adam suggested, to try and justify the paths turns

Here are two more images:





I changed the perspective of the picture in photoshop on the above pic. What do you think? Personally, I prefer the standard isometric view 

Next update will be a small tutorial on creating a coastal landscape   
Cheers, Jacob.

[Tomas Neto]

I prefer the standard isometric view too!!! Nice images, great work again!!

[Rayden]

You can find nowadays many ploppable rocks (boulders) right here on the LEX and also at Pegs site. I don't have the links right now but I'm sure someone else will provide that if in the meantime you don't find them. 

[Rady]

The only rocks that I found up to now are PEG's boulders from the PPond Kit

http://simpeg.com/forum/index.php?action=tpmod;dl=item993

and the ploppable rock collection over at Simtropolis:

http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=17010
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=17006
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=17005
http://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=17004

but I'm sure you have them already ...

[Jmouse]

Well, I was going to ask if you'd do a tutorial, but I didn't want to nag too much too soon! All my teammates cringe at the very thought of seeing my posts in their MDs because I occasionally ask them about population and traffic data.

The first photo looks good, but I've never figured out how to create an effective transition between TPW and game water. I suppose it would be possible to do it  in Photoshop, but I'd rather find a way to do this in game.

The second picture seems to be missing something - a bit of color perhaps, or a center of interest. You've done a good job on the ground textures, though, and you're really good at placing trees.

Looking forward to seeing how you create your beautiful coastlines...
Joan