Ugh.

Finished the A3 map(rough)
Will get it done neat&proper in keith' lesson and then I can start modelling properly, albeit textures still proving to be a pain.
Finding the ones I want is...

Fountain - > pool

Slow progress is slow.
Made what was going to be a fountain into a kind of "pool" (obviously it would have a water texture in it)
I probably overcomplicated the process as I;
Made a box
Copied that box, raised it above the previous box and then changed the dimensions appropriately.
Turned the box on the top into an editable poly and then selected the inner polys and extruded those to create a "pool".
However the sides became 2 dimensional so i selected those and did a face extrude ( 5.0 extrusion ) to finish it off.

shadows / worries

Added a skylight, changes the advanced lighting to bounces : 2 and rays to 500.
shadows seem ok, would probably need more models to judge properly...

Although I have started! some 3D modelling, but the scaling of it is worrying...I'm thinking of doing everything a set size and selected all then scaling them up.

But scaling is worryingggggg aaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Texture sites

http://mayang.com/textures/


http://freestocktextures.com/


http://www.texturelovers.com/

Displacement/reflections

Watched a tutorial on displacement.

From this I got a nice idea of surrounding the small town in hills/sand dunes, to really emphasise how secluded it is (may or may not do this, could be a final touch).

Also looked into creating realistic reflections using raytrace and then attenuation to create a realistic reflection drop off(fade off). Not sure how useful this will be as I was mainly imagining the only reflections to be in windows reflecting what's opposite them.

Related videos showed how to make water using reflections too, although the animation in this tutorial wasn't great it still showed me an easy way to make somewhat decent looking water.

Bump maps

Researched into bump maps.

Bump mapping basically makes takes a flat texture and adds detail to make it appear more detailed, and in most cases more realistic. Example;

To make a bump map you take the original image and make it black and white, then in 3DS Max you would apply it as a bump map, then change the settings until you acheive the look you want.

This gives a realistic look without changing the model.

http://www.reallusion.com/iclone/Help/iClone3STD/15_Multiple_Channel_Texture_Mapping/Types_of_maps.htm

This link features a few mapping types I'm interested in including;
Opacity mapping
Specular mapping
Reflection mapping

All of these will be useful to me, especially reflection mapping as I'll have quite a few objects which reflect in real life.

Looking at maps

I looked at manhattan for two reasons.
The first being It's designed the way I want to design my city (grid style)
So i looked at this for inspiration on how to map my own city.
I also used it to look at the distance between Manhattan and The Bronx.
It's relevant because I'll have a large city and a run down area, so in looking at the distance between
those two I can judge a decent distance between my rundown town and the city.


I'm looking into route 66, research on that+reasoning will be posted later.

CityCreator

Whilst looking for city designs/blueprints(which i still have not found) i came across the site citycreator.com

the site basically allows you to create a city, albeit with not too much detail and not the largest selection of models, however I used this to somewhat model out a simple city center, which includes paths(the plain gray), roads, shops, a "park" area(the green) and some office buildings.

Grid planning

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_plan

I looked into Grid planning, as it seems an efficient way of designing a city because It’s a neat and as I said, efficient. Once you’ve designed your city you can essentially just start designing block by block, which is why this is interesting. So I think I will be taking aspects of grid planning ( streets running at right angles) into account when designing my city. Many cities were planned using a grid system,  one of the main problems with a grid plan is the lack of specialisation and most of the conveniences being around the cities main arteries(although that's only in real life)

I think I'll be going for a loose grid plan kind of look on my run-down town, which would make it neat but look empty with the spacing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_planning

I looked into Urban planning, mostly for the Aesthetics aspect, as I’m hoping to combine the style of grid planning whilst still adding some Aesthetically pleasing things(hopefully). For example; Bath  was designed with Aesthetics in mind, so I wan't some aesthetically pleasing buildings as oppose to blocks of stone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_square

I also looked into Town Squares and the relevance they can have in planning, as the developed side of my project will have a town square, with a fountain located in the center (It states that Town squares often have a statue or fountain in the center). I may change it from a fountain a standard fountain to a "pool" style fountain.

I'll probably start with the town square and build outwards, but this may change.

From Wiki : The basic plan consisted of a central forum with city services, surrounded by a compact, rectilinear grid of streets - This is the way Romans designed their cities and I like this, It fits my idea of building around my town center and then branch outwards.

IntroooOooh

Eyyyyyyyyy.

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