WM Western Lines Engineering Report

[seusscaboose]

I am with JB and DKS on this one ... Extend it down and move on when you're happy... Then come back later to revisit.

[conrail98]

I'm not digging the "blob" as well. I think it would look better if it extended down beyond the factory and maybe continued a little to the left more before blending into the painted backdrop.

I'm in agreement with Ian here. I really think the blob needs to go to the bottom behind the building to make it work,

Phil

[wazzou]

I like david's treatment here .. also, maybe put a light under the shelf to illuminate the overpass

Isn't the idea to not draw attention to the termination of the overpass?

[John]

so, not being a theater major .. my eye was drawn to the darkness ..

[Ian MacMillan]

I actually like the back of the overpass dark, kinda makes it disapear.

[wm3798]

I can't do David's suggested treatment, because there's 1" foam that wraps down behind the building...


I can add some more ground foam over the offending puffballs, and extend the ground foam over to the left of the building.  I'm planning to put some 2-D background buildings at the end of the "road" there, so I don't want to make it too 3D.

To lessen the smoke effect, I can thin the puffballs immediately over the building, or perhaps replace them with some clump foliage,  but keep enough there to maintain the transition from the upper part of the hill.

There is a highway light under the shelf, hard to see in the angles posted, but I don't want to add too much light under there, as there are some things going on in the corner that are best left in the cover of darkness.  There are just going to be some angles that won't be photographed.

The more I look at the 2-D transition on Hoffman's, the less I like it.  I may just paint in some green blobs, maybe dust it with ground foam to texture it and be done with it.  Another thought would be to construct a "skywalk" between Hoffman's and the newspaper plant, which will be on the opposite side of the street.

Lee

[DKS]

I can't do David's suggested treatment, because there's 1" foam that wraps down behind the building...

But... (to quote) it's just foam...

[wm3798]

Not anymore... now it's foam with a coat of sculptamold, textured and blended with the surrounding scenery, with foliage attached (and yes, the dreaded puff balls)... This is over an increasingly complex scenery installation below...  setting up and cleaning up such an effort will take three times the amount of time it will take to effect the proposed change...  Let me rework the foliage, and see where that takes us.

Afterall, based on the comments thus far, there's an even split between extending the foliage to the left, vs. your proposal of cutting the whole mountain back to the right (which will also necessitate altering the building since more of it will be exposed)...

Regardless, all of the input is appreciated, and will be taken into consideration as I climb the stairs after work tonight...

Lee

[Zox]

Lee, if you're willing to entertain another suggestion, how about this--if you can't move the hill back, you can "virtually" move the back of the building forward.

If you put a parapet on the "back" of the building, but actually hold it about quarter-inch in front of the 3-D scenery, you can extend the 3-D scenery down and even from above, it will look like it's behind the building--after all, you can see the back edge of the roof, right? From lower camera angles, the rear parapet won't be visible, so the disparity between it and the side wall won't be evident.

I'll see if I can photo-edit a mockup of what I'm talking about, just in case I'm not making sense...

Here's a (crudely) photo-edited rendition of the idea:



(Okay, so I modified a bit more than just the roof. The extra "bays" of windows on the side wall make the building look deeper to me than the blank panels did.)

[wazzou]

I like what Lord Zox has done here.  Less blob, more background, yet neatly tying the two closely spaced levels together.

[MVW]

I wasn't bothered by Lee's original attempt ... but Zox has definitely provided an improvement IMHO.

Jim

[wm3798]

Here's another thing to consider...  There is a building permit issued for the newspaper plant directly across the street from Hoffman.  Depending on the design and massing of that building, the view of the skyboard at the street will be moot.

I'll be working on some mock ups of that tonight, along with some of the proposed fixes provided here.

As always, the input is appreciated and valuable.  (except for the parts that are idle piffle, of course.)

Lee

[seusscaboose]

+1 for LZ

Well played Sir

[MVW]

+1 for LZ

Well played Sir

It wasn't fair. Zox used his computer thingy to do ... stuff.

Jim

[wm3798]

Actually, Zox's illustration completes the illusion I was attempting with the water tank and the billboard...  That shouldn't be hard to work in.

Lee