Barbara Gordon's apartment in 3D... revised

[That_weirdo_Cage]

It's been some years now since I posted the original efforts to model Barbara Gordon's apartment in 3D, at the old board. I have finally gotten around to doing some more work on the project. There's been a lot of revision to existing elements, based on better reference images or closer study of screengrabs from the show, as well as some new additions.

The bedroom is getting pretty close to completion, with all the main elements now in place. Some detail work remains, much of it in the area of texturing and surface decoration more than modeling. The knick-knacks on the shelf near the dresser are placeholders. The authentic objects are very detailed and kind of scare me as modeling projects. A lot of porcelain animal figurines, that sort of thing. Sigh. The carpet and bedding patterns are as close to accurate as I could manage, both being beyond my skill to draw by hand and thus being based on images found online. The Picasso-esque painting is rather inaccurate, but as close as I could manage to paint myself using a Wacom tablet. I had better luck with the weird birds painting near the bed. The stained glass patterning is also wrong. I think I may have to use a physics simulator to solve the problem of optimally fitting circles into a rectangle, so I can get a better pattern.

I have had to do a lot of guessing in some areas. The armoire and window on the obscure "fifth wall" (actually the sixth wall, but I've been calling it that for a long time...) are only glimpsed once, in episode 95, and only two frames from that source worked as screengrab visual reference. In order to make sense of the overall apartment layout, which I still hope to build, I had to modify a couple of the angular relationships of the walls, specifically with that armoire area. This apartment makes no sense, which is fair enough, but I'm trying to make enough sense of it to model it as a virtual space, so I'm having to compromise in a few areas. Alas.

Anyway. Assuming the board lets me upload, here are a few renders of the project. If anyone has thoughts or pointers (or access to more accurate reference material), please let me know where I can fix things. I'd like to try to tighten up the detail where I can.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

Another one. Here's the bedroom, seen from above using a very low lens length, to show where everything is placed.

[Robin's Girl]

Wow, that entire project is amazing and incredibly cool. Very well done. I love everything about it, though I would have preferred the drapes and canopy around the bed in order to be as accurate as possible, but understand if that was difficult or kept out to showcase the bed itself. I loved the little detail of her father's photo, making it very realistic. I would suggest adding the bird cage of her pet canary, unless there was a particular reason why you left that out. Again, this was incredibly well done and amazing overall. Thank you for posting and sharing this. You're right, the room space-wise does not make any sense, haha, but I love it. And all the bright vibrant colors, very classy.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

Wow, that entire project is amazing and incredibly cool. Very well done. I love everything about it, though I would have preferred the drapes and canopy around the bed in order to be as accurate as possible, but understand if that was difficult or kept out to showcase the bed itself. I loved the little detail of her father's photo, making it very realistic. I would suggest adding the bird cage of her pet canary, unless there was a particular reason why you left that out. Again, this was incredibly well done and amazing overall. Thank you for posting and sharing this. You're right, the room space-wise does not make any sense, haha, but I love it. And all the bright vibrant colors, very classy.

Oh, I forgot the bird cage. Aha! I built the cage and parrot way back when, but don't remember where I have them saved. I'll have to dig those up.

The main reason I've omitted the canopy from the bed is that I prefer to expose the ornate headboard, which is my favorite -- and arguably the most distinctive -- object in the apartment. That head board was also a PITA to build, and I hate to hide it. It's also harder to render the room well with the canopy in the way. It always seems to be blocking the shot or casting undesirable shadows. Umm. And I will admit that it is currently the most ineffectively modeled item in the set. I should go ahead and rebuild it. Sigh.

The photo of her father is never really seen onscreen -- we don't get close enough -- but it is accurate. I bought a set of continuity reference photos for the apartment set from one of our fellow board members, and those have helped a great deal with the current revisions. The weird bird painting just looks like blue blobs onscreen, but the photo clearly shows what it really is. Good stuff.

The attached shows the canopy. You can see the shadowing and the way it hides the headboard. And that it's a terrible model. I guess a better one is next, then.

[elmrgraham]

Nice Pictures.

[Robin's Girl]

Thank you for posting that photo. I see what you mean about the canopy adding shadowing, I had no idea. Without the canopy, the room does appear more open and perhaps bigger. I think I like the idea of the canopy in it, though - just because, though it makes the room seem smaller, it makes it seem a bit more cozy.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

I actually like the idea of the canopy, too, and I do like accuracy. I obsess unrealistically about the accuracy.

Looking at the source images, I think on the show they used careful lighting tricks to prevent odd shadows with the canopy. The lights seem to be aimed precisely so that the shadows are hidden behind the object itself. Which is fine for TV, where the space is only intended to be considered from a couple of controlled angles. If the space is being treated as though real, however, the lighting has to be handled differently and the whole thing should ideally be configured for viewing from multiple angles. I'm scratching my head now, trying to think of a way to use the canopy and avoid the problems it creates. Hmm.

[BATWINGED HORNET]

TWC, any plans to figure out the layout to the Batgirl cycle's passage from the aparetment (which is not ground level) to the apparently ground level alleyway exit?

[That_weirdo_Cage]

TWC, any plans to figure out the layout to the Batgirl cycle's passage from the aparetment (which is not ground level) to the apparently ground level alleyway exit?

IIRC, we discussed this back in an old thread. I think the conclusion was that there isn't enough information to discern anything which would really be based on the show. It would almost all be guesswork, with any guess as good as any other. Which is fine, but then we're delving into a creative project which isn't a direct adaptation of anything.

I think we decided that the passageway must not lead directly to any alleyway connecting to Barbara's building itself. There is probably an underground passageway, which travels an uncertain length and may curve around. Which raises the question of where this underground passage came from. That's an even more baffling question than where the secret room and elevator came from, in the first place.

I'm open to suggestions, though. Especially if they're based on any direct source material from the show.

Edit: I guess you could be referring to the elevator. I think the show itself tells us that the secret room contains a freight elevator which leads to the alleyway exit. It is assumed that the space where Batgirl keeps her Batgirlcycle is the elevator itself, but I'm not sure that is established on the show. In the current apartment layout (more or less the same as, but not identical to, the one we voted on in that old thread) I have assumed that the motorcycle space is the elevator, but it might not be.

The old layouts are attached. I have them up on my website, but my hosting server seems to be having trouble lately.

[elmrgraham]

Excellent Layouts.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

Excellent Layouts.

Oh, thank you. They may not be fully screen accurate with the episodes. Specifically, the furniture moved around a lot from story to story, and that window wall in the bedroom is only glimpsed once, in a very short moving sequence in episode 95. The wall angle in that episode is impossible for the building, so I altered it for the layout. I've represented it in the 3D model more as seen onscreen than as on the layout, but that creates problems that I haven't resolved yet. The fact that nothing is to scale in the layout has also become important, requiring some changes as I try to build it in 3D. The bedroom has has its size reduced and the hypothetical kitchen and bathroom areas have been enlarged. I need to update the layout, but haven't gotten to that yet.

At any rate, the layout for the apartment was at least partially a group effort. Others contributed observations and suggestions, and I put a few versions up for a vote. The thread participants decided that the version shown here was best. So that's what I've accepted since.

[Darknite69]

Truly an Awesome job friend!

[That_weirdo_Cage]

Working on an improved bed canopy has proven more involved than I'd expected, but it's finally coming together. I need to do some shaping and paint the cloth wrinkles onto the surface, but the basic mesh is there now.

[antman67]

VERY Impressive! Your talent is incredible+

[1966.batmobile]

Wow, I wish I had the talent and patience for this tyoe of project. i always wanted a batcave diorama.
My question is, what scale is this? Will the new figures fit into this?