Wow! this must take you hours on end to get this much detail! I think I would die if I did this

I am sure there were reasons to feel this way.

Thanks Sears, yep it takes time, but I'm getting quicker gradually.

I have made some standardised components for the roof, which can be copied to speed up the workflow. The watertowers are obviously NYC inspired. The aircon plant are a mixture of industrial sized units down to household products.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/4080/73985219.jpg

http://img816.imageshack.us/img816/7585/85429767.jpg

Looking good there, Pingyao

amazing work!

Jesus freakin Christ! This is amazing, you are a sketchup God. You should go to work making components to SimCity if they ever come out with another one.

Thankyou guys. I do not use sketchup, this is all made in Cinema4D, but thanks for the compliments anyways:).

Have had a little break, went away for a week and now busy with work. But here's an update from week before, showing where I am overall.

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/4818/14278520.jpg

And here is a detail of the wall of the building on the right in the image above. This is the elevation facing the service alley.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/7750/28597454.jpg

Here is a map of the city so far. Classic NYC style grid. You can see not a hell of a lot has been filled so far. Making these roads is a laborious task - I'll probably concentrate on filling up these blocks now rather than extending the map out further.

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/8484/42893115.jpg

Ok, so I have been concentrating on street details, namely lamp-posts. This is an example of the street lights, again based on New York style designs.

Central split double.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/7528/66840081.jpg

Side single.

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/4605/97365843.jpg

New building on the corner of 5th and Gloucester.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/7626/19411543.jpg

And at the other end of the spectrum in terms of detail, a fire hydrant.

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/858/38505734.jpg

I am now creating a camber in all the roads to create a more realistic feel - making a gentle curve from curb to the crown of the road.
Work in progress screen shot showing how this looks.

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1628/12887025.jpg

I have also made a render of the service alley. This is the first render that I actually feel I'm getting close to with creating the kind
of realism I imagined originally.

I have the image below as wallpaper set at 1920x1080, which looks kinda cool on the desktop. I want to add a delivery truck to the alley eventually. All the vehicles are courtesy of dmi-3d.net.

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/6783/37981494.jpg

This is just epic....... !!!

I would love to have youre texturing skills :)

Thanks Tolbert, well believe me texturing comes with practice. The most important thing is good quality textures.

it seems like the road is too angled, as though it is on a curve on a highway. make it so it is about 1 degree off of flat.

It is quite angled, but that's the effect I want to get - quite steep cambers.

Great details!

A few test renders.

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5959/77726907.jpg

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/6474/98980515.jpg

Conceptual sketches for various parts of the city.

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/1182/20715628.jpg

Damn this forum is dead at the moment....anyway, not done much recently, but have begun making some lowrise storefronts along 4th Street between Wiltshire and Gloucester.

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/4083/35967161.jpg

There is also a roof garden on top of the Pharmacy, its part of the dance studio which is on the 3rd floor (remember this is US floor numbering, ground = first).

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/4103/31485854.jpg

Anyway thats it for the moment.

Loving the lowrise... do you plan on keeping this city more lowrise?

What is the numbering in other countries? I only recognize ground = 1 ;)

Here in the UK and rest of Europe, also I think Australia and possibly Asia we have ground floor, 1st, 2nd etc, so our 1st floor is actually your 2nd floor...the plan will be predominently highrise and midrise from now on.

Oh, that makes some sense :rolleyes:

Going back to your post 68, the building with the white arches over the windows is so neat! It's nice to have people who still like these buildings

Looking at your sketches, I really hope you do more with the 1930's era skyscraper concept :worship:
So much potential!

Love it! :D

Thanks NYCluver. Work continues along 4th st, there is more low rise storefronts plus the 4th Street firestation.

http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/9660/70889729.jpg

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/5905/76953662.jpg

This block is pretty much complete. So I need to turn my attention on the block the other side of Wiltshire Av, where that original highrise residential was placed. If I can get 2 blocks complete by end of next week I'll be happy.

I've been thinking of a name for the city and I've settled on Pinghattan! Anyway it does need a name as certain adverts/signage will show this.

What an awesome start. You have some great talent.

you're right. this forum is almost dead. but you'll keep it alive :-P
your work is amazing. keep it up.

Wow. These are fantastic. I'm very impressed. Keep up the good work. I especially love the amazing gritty detail on every wall. I guess it would be cool if you extended the same level of detail to sidewalks, with occasional cracks, manholes, gum spots, plumbing markings in paint, etc, but I'm just being picky.

Thanks very much guys, comments always appreciated. 'Lecom' I did begin to add manhole covers to this blocks sidewalks, however it is just so labour intensive positioning them and such a vast amount of detail that could be added, I just don't have the patience. It is something that I can add in post prodction, namely in photoshop, so its good to bare these kinds of details. in mind.

A minor update, although this block is now officially complete. Render showing the completed block, the highrise building on the right is on block 2, partly complete and the next stage.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8821/27123106.jpg

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/893/89043541.jpg

I've also been thinking more about the post production work and how I can achieve better results in photoshop. At the moment most of these renders are 'work in progress' views, I really want to try and create some proper artistic quality visuals with atmosphere as well as detail. I think I'll probably need to build a bit more of the city before I can get to that stager though.

A few bonus pics, showing some of the facades on Block 1

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5262/73133838.jpg

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/3774/55186913.jpg

Incredible!!!

there're just not enough superlatives to describe your work :tup:

I hope i'll find some time and motivation to do some more work on my own city soon, sometimes your brilliant work just depress me when is see my city in comparison :haha:

:previous:thks Tolbert. You should definetly do more modelling of your own.

Block 2 is not too far off completion. I've made a few more historical midrises.

First shot has the residential block 45 4th st removed to make the buildings rears visible.

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/9596/64197161.jpg

View from 5th St.

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/9696/73800526.jpg

Wow it just keeps getting better!

Familiar view looking at the base of 45 4th Tower with some advert hoardings to the top of the lowrise buildings added.

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/9638/101wt.jpg

Still need to complete one building at the opposite end of this block then thats block 2 done.

YAY! loving the company being advertised ;)

Thanks Insertnamehere. Yeah block 2 pretty much complete now apart from street furniture and cars which need to be added for final renders. The following are 'work in progress' renders of the last building on Block 2, which sits at the between 4th and 5th streets and Somerset Avenue. Cotains offices, residences and an award winning Indian Restaurant 'Spice' (my fav cuisine!)

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4561/103rao.jpg

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/5472/104as.jpg

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/3682/105ap.jpg

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/2438/107co.jpg

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/3396/108ix.jpg

Completed building with roof services added.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/894/109tm.jpg

Finally this is a concept sketch for the city I did. NYC inspired in particular lower Manhattan. How much of this I can actually create at present detail remains to be seen. Away for a few days now, so know more updates for a while.

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/3693/115ox.jpg

Amazing! :tup:

There's just one thing i dont understand on your sketch...

Way the hell are you blocking the waterfront with this damn f***ing highway ?!?!?:haha:

:previous:LOL...so true, nobody said this was a perfect city. I love the urban errors created in the 60's and 70's and indeed New York has a large amount of its waterfront areas bisected by ugly freeways. The grand plan would be to have a Battery Park City complex somewhere in the mix to reduce the impact of the freeways.

Great! Can't wait to see where this goes.

OK, all i have to say now is... Do it, do it, do it... :yes:

With the completion of 2 blocks I have begun playing with renders, trying to get better results. Its still hard to do decent renders as there are limited buildings, and I'm trying to avoid showing parts of the model that are empty. Anyway a couple of renders firstly near the 4th Street firestation and secondly advertising hoardings on the corner of Wiltshire and 5th.

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/7294/102bn.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/5129/100wq.jpg

Dude, you are a sketchup God.

^ not sketchup ;) its cinema 4D! (thought i'd answer this for you pinyao. )

I'm currently planning other blocks, in the meantime here's a render from the intersection at Wiltshire and 4th. This image has subtle haze/fog, not my favourite effect as I feel it can be overdone, but when used sparingly can increase the sense of depth in a render.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1507/111bsg.jpg

Looks great! Just needs some people ;)

Bus shelter design (with spider-webbed broken window)

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/4011/114wk.jpg

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7053/119xf.jpg

The detail is incredible!!!

I'd live in the Matrix if you designed it. As always, your work shines.

:previous:thnx, Oh how I'd love to have that job! Right I have actually begun work on block number 3 this will be between 5th-6th st and Wiltshire-Somerset Av. However I've no renders to post yet, so here's a pic of a bus. Thanks to http://www.dmi-3d.net/ for all the vehicles in the city. I have bastardised the bus slightly with my own ads and company name - Metrobuz. More soon.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/2261/112wm.jpg

Love the intersection at wiltshire and 4th...great detail but would
wish to see one or two humans to give it that extra reality.

Great work tho.

That's the part I hate about doing renders. I have to start going through my flickr photos and cutting people out in photoshop, mapping them to generic 3D bodies. Usually now I just shop them in post-render

The city is great. Looks like it's a got a bit of crime with that broken window though!

Thanks guys. I know exactly how you feel about people Hayward. I started adding them in at street level views in my previous city Sta Fee, and it took along time. I always did them post pro, but then you need to make sure they have correct lighting and shadowing on the ground. In relation to people for this city I'm waiting at present. I understand it looks a little empty, but I have been concentrating too much on the architecture and environment to bother. That may change in the future.

New render looking west along 5th St.

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8267/116cn.jpg

is this city supposed to be in north america? because if it is, that car wouldn't be there :P

that's a Renault, only sold in Europe.