Sta Fee - 3D city

Pingyao · #1 Posted **Sep 24, 2009, 3:15 PM**

Sta Fee - 3D city

Some maybe aware I had a thread on SSC forums called San Christoph, which was a city, now retired. It was just too labour intensive and so I have set about building a new city, but in a different kind of way. I also thought I should share it on SSP forums as well.

Sta Fee was an old city I sketched about 5 years ago (the name came from a dream I had - seriously). However being the nerdy city designer that i am, I actually detailed it and did a map, although thats now lost. So this is all in my head basically. Sta Fee is sited on a river and is a sprawling urban landscape with skyscrapers, smoke stacks, factories etc and a historic core. It dosen't have the pretty-ness of San Christoph, but hey I'm a sucker for gritty smoggy skylines.

Here are some of my original sketches.

Urban jungle view looking south towards the city centre.

The river looking east towards city centre.

Main commercial heart looking north across the river, these buildings you can see in the distance in the previous sketches.

So far I have been experimenting with the modelling and commencing work on the first section. I am using google earth images to create a road layout, which is then applied to a 1km square plane. All the building will be extruded up from this plane. Once thats complete I can plonk the next plane in beside it with an applied texture and gradually build up the city. I am planning this city to be 20km x 20km which means I'll have to make 400 planes, but still - try not to think about that yet. Heres a quick render showing the first 1km plane with the twin bridges being modelled.

More will follow as and when theres progress

toyota74 · #2 Posted **Sep 24, 2009, 5:13 PM**

Your last city was cool and im sure this
will be too

Mocholate · #3 Posted **Sep 25, 2009, 7:57 AM**

i saw you online yesterday and was hoping this was happening

Which programs are you using ?

Pingyao · #4 Posted **Sep 25, 2009, 8:47 AM**

I use Cinema4D http://www.maxon.net/. Its a great 3D and animation package, although my last city tested it to the limit in terms of detail, which was the main reason I retired it. Hopefully this time I can build something larger, but with less overall file size by using textures instead of polygons.

Flamesrule · #5 Posted **Sep 25, 2009, 10:37 AM**

oh great!! a new fourmer!I roam aroungd SSC and saw the city.Nice job!This one I hope will do the same1

Lets give SSP a spark!!

Pingyao · #6 Posted **Sep 25, 2009, 2:40 PM**

Completed the 'twin bridges'. The unusual arrangement with one bridge offset to the other at an angle across the river is one of the cities key landmarks and is an obvious point of reference on a map of the city. Both bridges carry a 6 lane highway and are crucial transportation links between the commercial northern side and historic southern side.

Flamesrule · #7 Posted **Sep 25, 2009, 3:39 PM**

So how big is sta Fee?Nice bridges!

Pingyao · #8 Posted **Sep 25, 2009, 3:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamesrule

So how big is sta Fee?Nice bridges!

At present it is 1km square. I'm modelling a 1000m x 1000m plane, although the river cuts out the middle portion.

Pingyao · #9 Posted **Sep 26, 2009, 8:57 AM**

Low impact former industrial area along the waterfront has been added. This area is apt for regeneration, maybe in the future.

I'm not sure where Sta Fee is located yet, I'm guessing the States somewhere.

toyota74 · #10 Posted **Sep 26, 2009, 9:00 AM**

excellent ,let the city begin mr.p

huggkruka · #11 Posted **Sep 26, 2009, 10:15 AM**

That looks great! I really love the shot of the two bridges and the motorway overpass. Those buildings are great quality too, I'm guessing you have a good camera and take texture pics? It looks better than Google Earth quality.

Pingyao · #12 Posted **Sep 26, 2009, 11:49 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by huggkruka

Those buildings are great quality too, I'm guessing you have a good camera and take texture pics? It looks better than Google Earth quality.

Funnily enough i don't take my own photo's. I started too, but it takes so long to do. I mainly find textures through trawling around in the photo threads on SSP & SSC forums, swiping an image and tweaking it in photoshop. This is still time consuming, although so far I've got 400 different facade textures in my own library.

treras93 · #13 Posted **Sep 26, 2009, 4:46 PM**

Well although it sucks to see San Christoph end... this is amazing!

Great idea to make the streets a texture. That save millions of faces and polygons. Buildings and the bridges look great too.

From the looks of this city wont have terrain near that of SA?

Pingyao · #14 Posted **Sep 28, 2009, 1:41 PM**

A little more done.

Experiments with trees, same principle as the trees I used in San Christoph, but i have now discovered a faster way of constructing them - won't bore you with the details.

First batch of buildings under way. UAM tower is the cities tallest 255ft to roof, 334ft to tip.

verticalextropy · #15 Posted **Sep 28, 2009, 2:27 PM**

I just logged in to congratulate pingyao,
Those hand-drawings are fantastic, I strongly recommend you don't stop hand drawing.

The latter 3d models are quiet cool, and I'm glad to see a port, but for your own sake don't stop drawing by hand.

cheers,

PD: Hi, everybody I'll come back when I've got something cool to show off for City-R

Flamesrule · #16 Posted **Sep 28, 2009, 7:55 PM**

I agree you shouldn't of stopped drawing.They are fantastic!!!

The first buildings are awsome!Will that be your tallest for the city?

Pingyao · #17 Posted **Sep 28, 2009, 10:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by flamesrule

I agree you shouldn't of stopped drawing.They are fantastic!!!

The first buildings are awsome!Will that be your tallest for the city?

Thanks guys for your encouraging comments about the sketches. I'll have to post some more when I've done them. The UAM tower is the tallest so far, but it will become lost once Sta Fee grows in size and height, so no it will not be the tallest. Anyways its a pretty crappy 1970's eyesore of a building, I could hardly allow that pink turd to be the cities tallest!

nevets2001uk · #18 Posted **Sep 29, 2009, 9:25 AM**

It's already looking very good. I'm just thinking about starting my first city after recently finding sketchup and it's inspirational to see what can be achieved. I'm worried I may have detailed my models too much and should perhaps think about texturing more instead but I'm not really sure where to begin as most of my attempts don't look too good with photo textures.

Pingyao · #19 Posted **Sep 29, 2009, 10:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevets2001uk

It's already looking very good. I'm just thinking about starting my first city after recently finding sketchup and it's inspirational to see what can be achieved. I'm worried I may have detailed my models too much and should perhaps think about texturing more instead but I'm not really sure where to begin as most of my attempts don't look too good with photo textures.

I don't use sketchup, i use cinema4D. I know sketchup runs into memory problems and lags like hell when your model gets too detailed. Cinema 4D is better for that, but eventually even that has problems. I'm trying to use textures more than polygonal detail to limit such problems. Patrick's Staunton also employs textures, which probably explains how he's managed to avoid these problems so far. A lot of people don't like applying textures and prefer to model facades and details, but I don't have a problem with them. Plus you can make a much larger model.

The southern bank is now completed.

I have now started work on the north bank which will eventually make up the cities main commercial area - Los Madras. Not much to look at, at the moment.

ertiikus · #20 Posted **Sep 29, 2009, 11:10 AM**

it is an honour to witness a start of an ownage