More East Side Stands

So, as I figure out a way to texture the sides of the stands, I come bearing some shots of the East Side Stands in afternoon and evening conditions.

It was all well and good to model individual pieces and texture them as a part of the larger picture on the front of the stands as these sections are identical in almost every regard.

However, the side "triangular" sections are a little more difficult. While they include pieces from the front side, they don't line up the same. Therefore the textures don't line up the same. And when it comes to bricks and lining up, yeah, that's kind of important.

And then throw in the gradient I am trying to apply to the whole of the wall, and things start to look a little dicey, to say the least.

So while I figure out the best way to texture and line everything up, I leave you with a few shots of the area I've already completed.

One is of the sun at about 15:30 and the other is about two hours later. I just really like how the lights from the concourse plays with the gates.

East Side Stands

More on Cazibahar University's Football Stadium. I'm feeling good about this right now, don't want to lose it.

(Of course I probably did just jinx myself right there.)

I did a lot of work finishing up the West Entrance today, as well as completing the bleachers for the entire western half of the seating (3/4) bowl.

I am almost ready to mirror it to the correct side and get to work on the press box and other extra goodies that are present on the East Side. I just want to sleep on it to make sure I'm not forgetting anything in my rush to get done.

Although, now that I think about it, I should really texture it before I mirror it. *sigh*

I'm just happy I don't have to work on anymore bleachers. Getting them to fit and align around the corners while also expanding as the stadium bowl went higher was so time consuming. There has to be a better way than moving vertices of each and every individual one, but I couldn't find it. I experimented with the array tool, but it was a lot of guess and check to get it close, but in the end I still had to do a lot of vert moving.

Anyway, three pictures to end the day. One Z4 day, one Z4 night and a shot of the West Entrance all lit up.

(Click for full size.)
All of these shots were taken at 800X500 which is my monitors native ratio (1.6) in an attempt to minimize the interference pattern generated by the stands.

Apparently it didn't work.

Something A Little Different

I know this isn't OPaCY, but there is a good reason for that. I can't work on one thing for too long lest I lose patience with it. It's a problem I know. I like to think it's ADD, but then I realize I don't believe in ADD. I just have a wandering mind.

But that's just me.

So anyway, what we have here is the football stadium for Cazibahar University. What does it have to do with OPaCY? Well, walls on the outside of Cazibahar Stadium are eerily similar to the ones adorning OPaCY.

Like so awesomely similar that modeled them modularly so I can merge one section of the wall from CaziStadi into the scene for OPaCY and copy that around the stadium. It's an awesome plan, I think.

So while I have "wasted" my time from OPaCY, this could mean the actual modeling of OPaCY could go quicker. When, you know, I get around to it.

The thumbnail on the left shows what I had made prior to doing my first Zoom 4 (Z4) preview. The one on the right shows what the stands look like now, after making them 33% larger. I'm not good on judging scale, especially on something like stadiums which are so large. That set me back half a day, but I worked through it and I think it looks much, much better now. Certainly looks the part of a large stadium.

And the bleachers fit better too.

This second group of pictures shows how things have advanced so far. The one on the left is a Z4 shot of the stadium when the last of the Sun's rays peek over the west stands before it sets for the night. (Did I mention I like playing with the sunlight system? No, well I do. It's fun to track the sun throughout the day over my model.) The picture to the right is the front plaza as is completed now (during the day). This is where all the lights are coming from on the other picture.

And We Put it All Together

So, instead of doing something mildly productive, I decided to, instead, go for some 'action shots.'

I took all that I have done with the stadium itself and added what I have done with the Warehouse. Just to see what it would look like and if the whole thing lined up awesomely or not.

I like the look.


Thumbnails to click. Clicky-click!

Also, I have found out some terrible news. The west wall, the one everyone photographs cause it's facing the playing field, and the east wall that's facing the city, are not exactly the same. Who would have thought that? It turns out the lowest level of the warehouse on the east side does not have stone pillars. Something I was not aware of. In fact, that side looks mildly plain. I guess it's something to do with when that side was up against rail, but I'm not sure. It seems documentation before 1992 is hard to come by. So I'm gonna have to remake the lowest level of the east side, but that works for me cause I'll need to redo that one to make it suitable for commercial development in SimCity 4.

What's this you say? Well, let me elaborate some. There has never been any doubt in my mind that I was going to make the entire complex of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. This includes, but is not limited to, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, The Warehouse at Camden Yards, Camden Station, the Camden Light Rail Station and the 'Time Will Not Dim the Glory of Their Deeds' monument. (While Ravens Stadium at Camden Yards is not included up there, it would be pretty nifty to get the whole Camden Yards area done at some point.) The great part of these is there ability to 'stand on their own.'

Take the Warehouse, for instance. With some extra lotting and moding and maybe a few tweaks here and there, I can make it go from Landmark to Commercial to Industrial to Freight Station in addition to it's placement in the larger Camden Yards area. This way I can release portions of the Yards in pieces all leading up to the largest and most spectacular upload of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. And it offers me a reprieve from the tedium of modeling at the same thing for days. When the stadium becomes tedious I can then move to the Warehouse or Camden Station or the Monument without actually stalling on the larger picture.

And finally, two (thumbnail) SimCity4 views. One at night and one during the day. The Warehouse certainly has shifted the center point away from centerfield.

Warehouse

So I took some time from modeling the stadium (actually I told myself that I'm not gonna model more of OPaCY until I start to work on the textures for that which I just showed you. You can see how much I really want to do those textures *sigh*) and worked on another part of the complex.

The Warehouse.

I'm not really sure what it's 'Official' name is. I've always been calling it the B&O Warehouse, cause, ya know, of the railroad company. But apparently, and this is the first that i've heard of it, it's actually called the 'Warehouse at Camden Yards.' Makes sense. But I think that makes it too corporate. I like either the B&O Warehouse (even though there are/were probably scads of them) or just 'The Warehouse.'

Anyway, I had actually gotten around to SimCity the other day and started to build the city where the stadium would go once completed. But as I was zoning in residential and the industrial areas, it just looked blank. So I saved, shut her down, and went into a modeling frenzy. I'm quite pleased at how quickly I was able to model the longest building east of the Mississippi. Not that it's done, for you shall see how far I got in the coming picture, but what's left would be details. And details I can do.

And then texturing. *sigh*

again, a thumbnail. click to view.

All of the colors you see there are standard CAD colors. Just to (hopefully) make grouping and texturing easier in the future. Instead of trying to make one long spline and then cut out each individual hole to allow setbacks and windows, I made one complete section that includes one column of windows and then instanced that 59 more times to create the long walls. Everything is flush so I don't think there should be a problem if I make one large texture and apply to the whole group as if it were one continuous piece. It was a lot quicker than trying to model and attach 100's of splines together. We shall see how it turns out...

And how about O's tonight? My goodness....

Picnic Plaza

So I've been slowly working on OPaCY, it just doesn't seem like I'm getting very far. Also, this whole 'lots of details because I want to' might just catch my computer on fire. That doesn't mean I won't do a lot of details, it just means I'm gonna have to do a lot of hiding while modeling, and then break the LODs into, about, 78 pieces. But we shall get to that moment when it comes. For right now, though, we shall deal with modeling.

Right now, the major pieces that I've worked on would be the two brick buildings behind the JumboTron, the bullpens and the plaza behind that. The shots I will show you are post-modeling but pre-texturing. For the JumboTron area I textured as I went, but I just couldn't stop building long enough to start texturing this part. I would rather texture now, as I go, instead of trying to texture the whole stadium at once.

I'm going to start actually modeling the main stadium, starting in left field and working my way around. My hope is that the outside facade is rather repeated so I should be able to use certain pieces over to keep modeling times down. It's just the seating area that I'm rather worried about. That seems like it could be a tad cumbersome. But that is for another day.

Let's take a look at this, shall we?



All are clickable thumbnails. Enjoy them, I know I'm real happy with how it is turning out right now.

Also, I debated whether or not to post about the 30-3 shellacking the Orioles received to the Rangers, but I decided against it. But right now, all I have to say is that it was pretty funny. Quite hilarious, actually. But it's a sad state of affairs when your team's losses become so routine they become comical. Sad state of affairs indeed.

Texturing Complete

...of the scoreboard. Worked on it earlier today. Got the MASN logos and the Coke Ad up for the back. I believe that completes the actual scoreboard itself, texturing wise. I'll have to add some lights, but those will go on the building that comes next.

Here's a view looking into Eutaw St. Still very far to go, but there is very noticeable progress, can't complain about that!