Status Report

Burgen Hall is done:






I think this may be the smallest file yet, at around 2.3k.

I'm working with color correction and brightness/contrast with Turner Hall and Montgomery to make them a little less bland, but none the less, they still look good.

Starting Monday of spring break, I'm going to really rip into these textures since so many buildings are stuck at that step. The percentage of buildings done seems a bit low at the moment though, but that will change quite rapidly since the majority of them are modeled and mostly textured but just need a few extra shots to wrap them up.

At the end of break I would like to be close to 50% done with everything and even though it may seem like finishing another 50% in another 10 weeks is going to be a tall order, I think I should be able to handle it, even without extra help. But with just one or two other people helping me spit these out the deadline would be much less of a hassle.

Be sure to check out the next few updates though. I'm going to try and pick up a copy of Sketch-Up Pro, so that I can export them as .obj's, import them into Maya and make some turntables since the stills don't really do much justice. So we'll see how well the .sku's transfer over to Maya.

I've talked to a few people who seemed to be interested in helping after the break, but we'll see.

Update

Turner Hall WIP:




So far, about half of the buildings that I've modeled, I've had to or need to go out and shoot more angles for textures. I could fake a few of the textures, but I would like to get a fairly accurate representation of whichever building I'm working on.

While driving around town, I've found some more SCAD buildings that are going to be incredibly difficult to get clean textures for, even getting dimensions using photo-match. Pulaski House sits right next to a square and is draped in trees. I'm not sure, but I think some buildings like the Bell House or the American Hall have either been sold or are just placeholder buildings that aren't labeled at all.

The deadline is June 1st, which is only 12 weeks away. So in theory, in two weeks I should be half way done. (Started getting it underway about two weeks into the quarter). If I kick a lot of ass over spring break, I might be able to make it to that mark, but it's going to be a lot of work. So I think my best bet is to try and get a few other hands involved with this project. So, this weekend it's time to print, get approved and put up some fliers. And hopefully if the weather permits, take pictures of the buildings that are modeled that I just need a few more angles for.

Montgomery is done...

Got one of the bigger ones out of the way.
Next up, Turner House, Weston, Dyson and Boundary Village/Hall.

With Turner, I'm trying a very mixed technique with modeling in proportion. I've found that by applying a texture to a surface I can adjust the position of the geometry while keeping the texture in place, making it able for me to do "on the fly" adjustments, like adding roofs and getting there height just right.

So far it's been a faster process than the other techniques I've been using.

A Lil' Som'in

Montgomery is going supprisingly fast.

A few more

I think Savannah has had the nicest weather it's ever seen for winter/spring season. Great for people who wanna take a stroll outside, but bad for someone who wants to take pictures of even lighting on buildings.

A lot of my buildings are modeled but I have to re-take and in some cases re-re-take some of the pictures for my textures.

Another problem I've encountered is the ability to manipulate UV's isn't present, so complex "single" faced polys can be a hastle to texture.

Here's an example:
The top face of the Library's flair, as many bends as it may have, is still considered one poly in Sketch-Up. The obvious solution is to sacrifice smaller file sizes and add a few cuts to the poly to make texturing a bit more manageable.




Ex Libris:
3.08k




SCAD Cinema Post:
4.46k




Burgen Hall:
5.76k





Kiah Hall:
3.64k

Halfway update.

Somewhat of a large update.

Here's an overview of my progress:

Marked all buildings on Google Earth.
Photographed 20 buildings.
Modeled 11 buildings.
Completed 6.

Optimization of the models has been going well, the final models are averaging to be around 5k.

Here are a few sample screenshots.

Here we have Crites Hall,




Wallen Hall,



Bobbie's Diner,

New Projects

While trying to come up with ideas for a Studio II project, I happened to talk to Joe Pasquale, who mentioned a competition being held by Google Earth. The project seemed like a good idea so I've decided to go ahead and work on it.

The Build Your Campus in 3D Competition, is contest to see which student can model their campus in the most detailed and complete way possible by June 1st. I will be trying to assemble a team of a few people to try and speed the process up.

The situation so far, is SCAD has roughly 71 buildings on their official Savannah Facilities map. A few of the buildings have been consolidated so I'll have to get a more updated listing of what buildings are in use.

By the end of this weekend, I would like to have taken pictures of a few buildings and model them in Sketch-Up to try and get a feel for how the process works, and if need be, explain the process to other people who would like to jump on to the project.

Also while working on this project, I would like to do a few tutorials with Maya fluids and work on building a new computer so I can utilize a few more programs.