Pierpont, Idaho Mk. IV - A Google Sketchup City

[BoiseAirport]

Hello all!

I can't promise that I'll be able to keep this up and regularly post, but over the last few weeks I've had deep frustrations with current events in my hometown of Boise, Idaho, which has ultimately inspired me to work on Pierpont again, developing what I would consider to be my own perfect vision of what my hometown should be like. :)

I'm taking a TOTALLY different approach, inspired heavily by Pingyao's monumentally wonderful approach to Sta Fee. I've realized that by modeling every detail, no matter how much effort I put into it, renderings still seem to have that computer-generated feel when I really want it to look like a photograph. Also, by modeling with so much detail, I couldn't get very far before ultimately giving up due to frustration and lack of inspiration.

Instead of going with a detail heavy approach, I'm going light on the details for each individual building, and working more toward photo-realism. Also, by saving on the detail, I can model a HUGE portion of the city in much, much less time.

Another thing different that I am doing... rather than modeling the roads and cars and everything... I've stitched together ultra-high-res satellite photos of Boise, Idaho, and HEAVILY modified them with Photoshop to turn it into a very different looking city than Boise.

I'm also working on a much better and more realistic backstory for Pierpont. :)

[BoiseAirport]

Oops! I should probably upload the pictures! :P

Overview of what I worked on so far in this version -- the Pierpont Institute of Technology. One of the qualities about Pierpont in this version is that it is a leading city in the nation for education. I'll go much more in depth with the backstory on this and other important areas of Pierpont as I further develop it.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_vCnrFVDIpiE/TNa1JmxLgGI/AAAAAAAAAFk/P9stbwZCrL8/s1280/6.jpg

Overview of the level of detail in both the buildings and the trees, while giving a view of the Pierpont River. It doesn't look great up close, but from a distance it's just as good (if not even a little bit better) than if I had modeled each individual detail. I plan on ultimately creating every building in the satellite map as well as landscaping all of the trees in the long term.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_vCnrFVDIpiE/TNa1FYb4VII/AAAAAAAAAFY/d_Fw59pRZaA/s1280/3.jpg

Another overview of the campus and a couple office buildings nearby.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_vCnrFVDIpiE/TNa1GkenfJI/AAAAAAAAAFc/upsQy4L_7go/s1280/4.jpg

Overview of residential areas near the campus currently under development.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_vCnrFVDIpiE/TNa1H9FNJII/AAAAAAAAAFg/NpkgpuVD_xw/s1280/5.jpg

Another view of the riverfront and PIT.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vCnrFVDIpiE/TNa1DfZ5BII/AAAAAAAAAFU/M5bKgBmU4J4/s1280/2.jpg

And finally for now, the layout. I will depict an actual map that's easier to read, but this what Pierpont will ultimately look like, and like I say, it's my plan to model every building and tree you see in this map. I've covered a ton of ground in very short time, and I think at this pace I can do it. :)

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_vCnrFVDIpiE/TNa1CIu8XgI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/DxAPyX8Rq5U/s1024/1.jpg

More backstory and further details to come!!! :notacrook:

[BoiseAirport]

Oh, and I should note that one of those buildings is from 3D Warehouse that I didn't make.. I forgot to take it out.. I just inserted it in there as a temporary building. In the first picture, it's the highly detailed brick buildings in the middle, I'm going to take out all of those. The reason I put those in there is that I wanted to model buildings around it before modeling the central University buildings, and I put those in as a placemaker so I could create something that would blend in with the main University structures.

[YingBlanc]

it looks great can't wait to see it expand, oh and welcome to the lowdetail clan :haha:

[Flamesrule]

As much as I loved your cities(inlcuding the first Pierpoint) I'm very excited for the new pierpoint.


Also i'll ad pierpoint to the new map right on top of Boise.

Can't wait for other updates!

[Pingyao]

Looks interesting, I'm impressed so far. So you find it easier to model using the satellite data as a template? It does give you an 'instant' background and also helps enable you to judge how much more you have to do. Are you going to redesign individual buildings or do straight copies?

Funnily enough I'm now looking at moving away from satellite imagery and reverting back to a cleaner look.

[verticalextropy]

The campus building with those 60* and 120* angles are my ideal of low rise architecture, they just make me happy, I believe they have integrity. The wonderwalls is a beautiful, simple, green touch.

And what a relief that those red bricks were not yours!