London cable car station

rustim

I've picked up a lot of tips and tricks from lurking here so i figured it was about time I actually started posting stuff. This is hopefully going to be a modular building design for a Victorian styled London cable car station. Here's where I'm at so far...



I'm pretty much self taught so any comments or crits are most welcome, no matter how obvious :poly142:!

PeterK

Hi rustim,

welcome to Polycount. Thank you for posting your WIP. It looks like a very nice start, and I'm excited to see where you take this. I have a few comments which I hope will help you with the piece.

The attached image outlines the sections I mention below

1) Any player will interact most directly with the lowest level, so make sure to give that section a good bit of detail. Consider flower pots, slightly varied objects hanging from walls, and so on.

2) Your rail car could use some more "LIFE!", make it's shape more extravagant, embelish the details a bit, give it some nice wear and tear in the textures. Pay special attention to the "connective tissue" of this, what part gets used the most; damage that part slightly more.

3) You can do some nice things on the corner using Decals. I recommend you create a decal sheet (basically a new texture with detail items and alpha maps). You can use decal sheets to great effect to break up tiling sections. Don't be afraid to do decal brickwork surrounded by some mortar, I've always gotten great effects when doing that. The corner is a great place for decal chips/breaks. You can put the decal on a plane, and then cut vertical sections so you can bent the plane around the corner.

I hope to see this textured, and rendered in an engine with some nice lighting soon.

rustim

Thanks for taking the time to comment! The current cable car was a quick block out to try and get a feel of how it would look in the scene. I agree, the whole shape of it is too contemporary and dull atm so hopefully I can make something that fits in with the piece better.

n88tr

I think the cable car just looks like a rectangle with some shallow extrudes. A bit plain and unimaginative, that's what I mean.

rustim

Updated the cable car, still want to try and improve the silhouette some more. Finished off a few high poly bits on the top section of the building as well...

HughieDM

Nice work cant wait to see it textured

rustim

Lampost excitement mania :poly122:!!!

SaferDan

can i see all the modular peices? to see it all broken down?

rustim

I've addedsome purty colours so you can see how it's being broken down atm. Quite a lot of the model is just block out stuff which iv smooshed together without much thought so it will probably change quite a bit by the time I'm finished. Also I'm by no means a pro, so I can't say whether this is the best way to do this, but it seems to be working out ok for me so far...

hi poly stuffs:


block out smoosh:

mkandersson

Love the architecture and it looks great so far. Keep it up!

Barnstable

Really nice start. I like the modular idea was well.

rustim

Been horsing about with the layout, so it's all a bit messy atm . This is the corner bit in working on tho...


Thanks mkandersson & Barnstable for the positive comments, helps keep me chuggin' on!

pangarang

see attached

rustim

Thanks for the feedback pangarang. Most of the scene is still in its concept/blockout stage, which is why there are quite a few low poly/rough edges floating about! I'm trying to figure out how to add more interest to the lower sections at the mo, might try adding an ornate gated entry system and some shops/market areas.

rustim

Updated corner piece...

vofff

it looks better and better^

rustim

Howdy, been busy with work n bidness so iv not been able to get as much of this done as I'd like :shifty:. Anyways, here's where I'm at. Quite a lot of it is still block out, hence the blockiness.

Ark

Looking good man, although the building on the right has most of the details at the top of its structure, if your not sticking 100% to the reference then id suggest simplifying the upper level stuff and using those polys lower down where your camera would be 90% of the time.

rustim

Yeah, you have a good point, I've just been making everything high poly atm. Not really sure whether I'm going to try and get this in UDK yet, or just do some renders in max. Either way I'm gonna go back and try and optimise everything once the high poly pass is done.

mkandersson

I’m liking this more and more. But if I may suggest you make those steps a bit bigger (like 2 units or something) on your staircase. They look kind of compressed and tiny compared to the rest of your environment. Other then that it looks nice. Keep up the good work!

rustim

Had a few other things going on so I've not had much time to work on this recently! Been trying to improve the composition and start to bring everythign together, still some block WIP bits that I need to work on, but comments on the overall composition are welcomed!

MoP

Hey, this is shaping up really nicely!

BlvdNights

I like where this is going.

rustim

Few more details added...I can almost see the finishing post! :poly142:

arun

I like the way it is evolving

paulsvoboda

Looking really good so far. Liking the details your adding.

rustim

Few more details...nearly done modelling now :thumbup:

Medestruit

The pulley mechanism in the middle of the arch makes no sense, the gondola supports that keep the car on the line would hit it, and stop the car completely. For that to work, the wire has to go over the top of the pulley, and the armature that holds the car has to curve to fit around the pulley as it passes over it.

Note how the arm holds the cable and bends outward, and the little wheel type system passes over the pulley wheel(which is grooved to accommodate the gondola arm):


In doing this, you really can't use the archways you have now. You'd have to construct a central tower, and have the car pass over 1 side. Something like this:


Essentially, the way the system works is the cart is latched to the cable and doesn't move, the cable is then pulled along the system and cycled around a turn-about to be sent back the other direction.

rustim

Yeah I was kind of hoping no one would notice that! I've been trying to figure out a way of doing it that visually looks good and is actually feasible. I will give it some attention soon and try and bring it closer to the realms of reality!

Jungsik

Nice modelling! cant wait till its textured !!!

Kiser Designs

I love the progression. I agree that the street level could use some more detail. Great work so far!