Been building a 3D City for my Graphic Novels!
 

I've been designing an entire 3D City for 2 upcoming graphic novels. one is 'Durty-Bug' and the other is the serious 'Intruders on Earth'. The city is where its all based. tons of locations (Think of them as sets) but a full City.. also using the city for the Unreal Engine for some mods or a full stand-alone game in the future. I began this in 2008! I knew it would be about an 8 year work-up, and the city is almost ready for first shots.

(For Intruders on earth, I am actually modeling area 51. using the limited images of the base, I've had to make up some stuff :) but realistic stuff.. and it's all to scale... some UFO people will freak when I render it when finished) :D :D

As of now, including every model, tree, stoplight, signs, buildings and cars, the city is pushing 6-10 million polygons. I had to break up the city into 3 files. each scene file is over 400mb in size. I've made all my own textures for most of the city, and the rest are textures from texture CDs I purchased. the detail in the city is super high--all the way down to the molding around windows, roads and gutters and all kinds of crazy stuff..

I set the city with a art design style--not SO realistic, but a good medium. I could make it photo realistic with a simple texture change--which is why I left that option in. just in case I sell some city assets as models.

(I have the redesign for my website for the content ready, just gotta finish the first issue--which will be in normal renders, and look like a comic book, as well as animated short films). SO much to use this city for. I could even sell assets (3d models) from the city!). Already got a contact from Petsmart. may be doing a commercial using the building. (they need the inside done though). but no problem..

I've run into an issue kinda.. I bought 3DS Max 2011, which was expensive ($3200) if I recall, but it doesn't work in Windows 10, so I'm stuck with Windows 7--no worries... don't need to upgrade yet anyway. :) But I'd LOVE to upgrade to 3ds max 2016 or 17 soon. (tons of new features in the new versions). Once I get the comics going, I hope to gain some revenue and buy it.

Here are some early renders of the 3D City: these are the early buildings, and I'm about to upload a bunch of new buildings (most all, of my design, except like the old style burger king etc). :)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/danhuling/