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

[That_weirdo_Cage]

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?

Well...this is not actually a physical model. The "3D" part refers to "3D computer graphics", which point I should probably have explained up-thread. But if it looks convincing enough to be mistaken for an actual, physical scale model of the scene... I am flattered. Thank you. I feel a bit less discouraged about the quality of my scene lighting, for instance, if the images can be mistaken for real photographs.

In terms of 3D graphics, though, this is built using and for use in Poser 3D software. It is scaled for Poser's (wide) range of poseable 3D mannequins and figures. The scale of Poser models is much smaller than than for other 3D graphics programs, so the scene couldn't be pulled into Blender or something without some resizing. But, as noted, this is built for use in Poser, and porting it to any other software would lead to various problems with the texturing (the surface coloring), which would be a... erm... bigger problem than scale issues.

Sorry to have been so long since posting an update on this. Various real world events have recently reduced the amount of time I can throw at my 3D graphics hobby. I hope to get back to it, fairly soon.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

I've modeled Floor Eight of Barbara Gordon's apartment building, using the freeware Sweet Home 3D home design software. Attached are an updated floor plan and a render created using the software. The furniture currently in place is just a bunch of stand-in proxy objects from the Sweet Home furniture library.

Pretty nifty software, this. I can share the files if anyone wants them. Sadly my website has been down for awhile, so I can't upload it right now.

Note that I'm not sure about the floor dimensions. The software generated those automatically, based on the scale calibration I gave it. I measured Barbara's bed, assuming it would be about 75 inches long, from head to foot. That may be too big. In which case everything will still be to scale within the apartment, but the measurements generated by the software may be faulty.

[elmrgraham]

Excellent.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

It still needs a few tweaks, but I now have the same bedroom setup from Poser reproduced in Sweet Home 3D. I like this, because the software allows one to walk through the environment, much like a video game, as well as edit and modify the layout. The attached are an updated floor plan, and a render from Sweet Home.

[Jim Akin]

This is fantastic. Out of curiosity, which 3D modeling tool(s) did you use to create this?

Cheers,

QQ

[QuickBat Allan]

wonderful.

[svl]

That is Bat-astic! Kudos!

[That_weirdo_Cage]

This is fantastic. Out of curiosity, which 3D modeling tool(s) did you use to create this?

Cheers,

QQ

Almost everything was modeled in the free Wings3D modeler, which is probably doing it the hard way. I am comfortable working in Wings, after using it for many years, and more efficient modeling programs (Blender, Modo, 3D Coat, Hexagon, and Silo are all available to me) just seem awkward and baffling to me. I may not be very good at learning new tricks, as it were.

I think the main exception would be the ornate mirror, which I created by drawing vector shapes, converting them into a font, then extruding them In Wings as a text import. Several items were heavily reshaped or re-proportioned inside of Poser, using Poser's native deformation tools.

The UV mapping was created using UV Mapper Pro, Roadkill, and Wings. Textures were painted in Paint Shop Pro and (less frequently) using the 3D paint capabilities of Modo.

I have an offer to host my site from someone in the Poser community, so once that's up again I can upload the Poser and Sweet Home apartment files for use by others.

Some things need to be tweaked, in the current form. The stained glass window needs to be recreated as a mesh, rather than a texture. I still haven't finished the bed canopy. On the apartment layout, the verandas are too shallow and I need to verify that the freight elevator is large enough to hold the motorcycle.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

Aha. Here's where it becomes tricky. I'm trying to make real-world sense of a fictional building layout which didn't need to make any sense in its fictional depiction. So it is full of impossibilities and contradictions. I'm trying to faithfully retain (most of) the features that we can readily observe in the video evidence of the TV show, while filling in the blanks and reconciling the contradictions as well as possible.

But then we come to the freight elevator. The size I have on the previously posted floor plans is far, far too small. Batgirl in heels is between 5'4" and 5'6" tall, approximately. Properly proportioned for that height, her Yamaha Batgirlcycle must be at least 5'6" tall (perhaps taller), which makes it about eight feet long. The blue blob I have added to the attached image shows the outline of the Batgirlcycle, to depict its scale. The elevator needs to be much, much larger to accommodate the size of the motorcycle.

Which causes problems. The freight elevator is at the corner of two walls with known angles, both of which have exterior windows on them (marked as A and B on the attached). I can't move the walls much at all, yet the elevator needs to be larger. The only real option seems to be making it jut out of the side of the building. In which case it is an obvious structural trait of the building, and unlikely to be a secret. Meanwhile I have already fudged the angles and positions of the walls in the Secret Room, to try to allow the freight elevator to fit in at all. I don't have much wiggle room.

This is as impossible as the area I've designated as the Impossible Space on the floor Plan, which is a section of the plan where we have contradictory evidence about what lies in that space. Per episode 95, that is an exterior wall, with a window through which Batgirl enters on her return trip from apartment 8B. However, if that section is an external wall, then the outer contour of the building is absolutely surreal and unlikely, with the angles contradicting what we see in the bordering living room. This problem is smaller than the freight elevator problem, because the elevator is prominent in the storytelling while that window appears only in two seconds of one episode, and can perhaps be more easily glossed over.

On the attached image, I've shown known lines of sight which reveal relationships of elements in the bedroom and living room. We know how a lot of this has to fit together. But, this being a TV show, they didn't worry about whether any of it made sense. Barbara Gordon lives in an impossible, contradictory space. And now I'm having trouble figuring out how to resolve some of the contradictions. Hmm.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

View of the hallway.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

Living room and dining room with boring proxy furniture.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

I recently set up my website on a new server, and I have uploaded the Sweet Home 3D file for this project at the following link:

http://www.morphography.uk.vu/~cagepage ... or8_8.sh3d

To use the file, you need to install Sweet Home 3D: http://www.sweethome3d.com/

This is a very nice (and very fun) home design program, and it is free. However, if you install it you should be aware that the installer will try to install one of those spam programs if you do not explicitly forbid it to do so. Pay attention to the installer and the messages and options it gives you, to be sure you don't install the junk software. This is the only rotten(-ish) thing about Sweet Home, but apparently it's also part of what helps them keep the software free.

[Elkham]

What program did you use? I do like the photos.

[That_weirdo_Cage]

To construct the bedroom furniture and other props, I largely used Wings3D, a freeware 3D modeler available at http://www.wings3d.com. For the walkthrough floorplan, I used Sweet Home 3D, available at http://www.sweethome3d.com. The Sweet Home compatible floor plan is available for download at the link I included in my previous post.

[burkestudio]

Very impressive!!

-Jeremy