Any tips for big city scenes for animation/film production?

Support Modeling
#1

Hi,

I’ve had a short film idea for ages now and have come to start building the set but I have no idea what I’m doing. I thought this would be the simplest part of the tasks I set for myself but for some reason it’s proving to be the hardest.

I want to model a city, and I’m sure I cant get away with modelling all of it in one go, so I want to split it up into scenes, where I know the camera work. Thing is, for some reason I can’t get the handling of buildings which is crazy because they’re just block!

The kind of buildings I’m going after are bladerunner type buildings, dunno if you ever seen that movie, but it’s a sci-fi short I want to make.

The biggest problem I’m having is well, it just looks very 90 degree. I’ve tried adding bevel mods but it still seems weird. And engons are proving hard. I cant seem to not ‘fill’ to make a face but then I cant loop cut.

Thanks for reading.

tyko

#2

If I recall correctly, the Blade Runner vibe was not weird shaped buildings, but advertising run amok. Billboards and in-your-face neon and animated light displays every time you turned around. But I think it was mostly placed on (or between) ordinary rectangular buildings.

Bladerunner-lower-city.jpg804×343 85.4 KB

blade-runner.jpg1600×874 548 KB


#3

Love them pictures.

I’ll just keep banging away at them. The problem is the close ups, far away buildings I can just do a plain, maybe 2 and add details, but the closer up ones where you might see openings (reception areas) are boxy as hell, looks like lego.

#4

Might I suggest simple bevels on the corners of things. A bevel can go a long way towards separating one flat edge of a building from another. Even a corner that seems very hard has a slight “soft spot” between the sides that connect it.