North Bay

[BillM]

Welcome to North Bay!

I've been working on this for about 18 months now.

This is an aerial view looking north.

[Vellu]

Huge city with an interesting and realistic-looking skyline and layout! I definitely want to see more.

Is that modeled using SketchUp? If so, what did you use to render the image?

[verticalextropy]

18 months and you can tell! Please post more or direct us to photostream!

[BillM]

Vellu, Verticalextropy:
Thank you for your comments!

This is a sketchup model (free version). The image is simply an exported image of the current scene.
As you can see, I like to use some fog in panoramic scenes to fade out the undeveloped areas. I am also trying to keep the file small. Right now, it's about 14 megs. (I did a detailed model of my house that is double that.) Buildings are kept simple. I made about a dozen or so textures that are tiled on the faces of buildings. Many buildings don't have textures yet.
My main goal is the overall vibe of the metropolis.
Ground level detail will come later. Priority will be based on where scenes are set up. Downloaded and edited some components (trees, cars) that were created by other people. They are scattered throughout the model.
2D Tree Conifer –Blue Marble Project
City Bus – Manager
Ford Edge – ZEE PROduction
London Bus – Enerth3
Oak tree 2 (2D) – marurb (over 3000 so far!)
Suspension Bridge - Jai

Here are a few more views of North bay
The first 2 are looking to the northeast




The next 2 images feature the tallest building in the city.


Should we check out the observation deck?


Looking north from the observation deck. There is a lookout on that hill that is around the cove. We'll go there next.


Looking south from the lookout


looking south from the drive

[softee]

Cool, my hometown is North Bay, Ontario.

[verticalextropy]

Absolutly fantastic, it's got a Transatlantic character,
Love the art deco building when you introduce us to the observation tower

[Vellu]

This is very inspiring! Even with the simple buildings and few textures it looks really, really good! Like I said before, the layout, the skyline, the distribution of the buildings and their masses and the geography all look very realistic.

What is that pyramidical building in the center of that park?

[BillM]

Vellu, Verticalextropy, Softee: Thanks for stopping by!

A few subtle updates might not be too noticeable. When I find time, I will expand, fill in and add detail in areas.


Soon I will post some tours of the city:
Along the Boulevard
High Point Park

[verticalextropy]

Pretty cool. What is that spiral looking building in the back?

Love the scraperscape and the beautiful suspension bridge

[Vellu]

I'm looking forward to seeing the tours! Like I said before, this city looks very, very realistic even with the low detail and simple textures. It's one of the best Sketchup cities I've ever seen.

[gregSt]

I like the foggy atmoshere, it gives a lot of realism to the already realistic skyline.

[BillM]

Here are a couple of street level images. For now, I will dub the park on the right "Monument Park". It has that pyramid type building (not in this pic) that Vellu was asking about. Vellu, I think that bldg. can be a monument, but it can also be functional.

This view is looking to the east.


Similar view


An aerial looking to the northwest.

[Pingyao]

Excellent city making, and very evocative even with simple textures. Whats the height of the building with the spires on top? You've got a lot of work to 'fill out' the city, look forward to seeing updates.

[Skydragon42]

Wow your city is cool! I want to go there

[Vellu]

The city feels very alive in the street level shots, great job! Looking down that street to the sea it feels a bit like San Francisco.

The aerial looks great too with the hill in the backround. May I ask what version of Sketchup you're using? Does it cause you any problems with this large (in terms of dimension) model? Are you able to zoom in very close without any problems? I'm asking this cause I'm still using SU 6 and it can't handle large models very well (dimension measured in kilometers rather than meters).

[Patrick]

Beautiful city, I'm surprised I haven't commented on it yet!

I would love to see more street scenes they are very convincing, in that last skyline shot, what is that oddly shaped structure in the distance?

[BillM]

Thanks Pingyao, Skydragon, Vellu, Patrick!

Originally Posted by Pingyao

Whats the height of the building with the spires on top?

That building is about 825 feet. However, it is on higher ground than the immediate surrounding area. In the pic below, you can see that the ground is about 50 feet higher from where you would be standing. There are also 2 streets that go under this complex.

Originally Posted by Vellu

May I ask what version of Sketchup you're using? Does it cause you any problems with this large (in terms of dimension) model? Are you able to zoom in very close without any problems? I'm asking this cause I'm still using SU 6 and it can't handle large models very well (dimension measured in kilometers rather than meters).

I'm using SU 8. I don't seem to have any problems. I actually have my dimensions measured in feet. If I need to zoom closer, I'll widen the field of view. Incidentally,the file is currently 13.5 megs.

Originally Posted by Patrick

I would love to see more street scenes they are very convincing, in that last skyline shot, what is that oddly shaped structure in the distance?

Is it the building with the disheveled looking floor plates? I imagine it to be a residential building on the "other" side of the river.

I'm also about to put together a post that features some street scenes.

For now, here is a skyline update.

[Vellu]

That neo-gothic / art decoish post-modern (?) building looks great from the street level. Very dominating! Great aerial too! Looking forward to seeing more street scenes.

[Skydragon42]

I love that skyline! It's so big!

[Patrick]

Can't wait to see the other side of North Bay!