Been building a 3D City for my Graphic Novels!

[Ziroc]

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)

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/