|
Post by jrboddie on Sept 6, 2015 13:10:27 GMT -5
This thread is for sharing some of the finished output from my 3D model of 1836 Bexar. Work-in-progress and more details can be found on my blog Alamo.2.0My latest work is Bexar Dawn and depicts sunrise over the scene of the final assault on the Alamo compound as viewed from an elevated position west of Main Plaza.
|
|
|
Post by rayjr on Sept 8, 2015 16:34:09 GMT -5
Beautiful!!! would love to see the north end of main plaza and even the west end from an eastern pov. Interesting to see the buildings adjoining the church. outstanding work!
|
|
|
Post by jrboddie on Sept 9, 2015 9:31:22 GMT -5
Thanks, Ray. The other buildings need more work to be presentable but here is one from a few years ago.
|
|
|
Post by rayjr on Sept 9, 2015 10:03:25 GMT -5
This looks great!!
You know Rich Curilla is also working on a model to support a lecture he is working on. He is using it to help describe the "Siege" in greater detail.
I am amazed by the realism of the work you and Rich are doing.
I wonder if you have a frontal view of the "Priest's House" occupied by Refugio de la Garza on the North end of the Main Plaza?
Best regards, Ray
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 9, 2015 16:34:15 GMT -5
Thanks, Ray. I have a conjectural image of the Padre Refugio de la Garza's house, but this forum won't let me post any photos. Since I believe (based on eye-witness accounts) that the Priest's House was severely damaged during the night of December 8 when Sanchez-Navarro's four-pounder and howitzer were pounding it from the church yard 275 feet away, I can see no opportunity to get any idea of what the original house might have looked like. However, the lot is a different question. The north side of the plaza was originally divided into four lots 60 feet wide each. Manuel Yturri owned the westernmost two between the middle and Acequia St. (Main Ave. to those of you who live in the 21st. century. LOL), Padre Refugio owned the third lot and Fernando Rodriguez owned the fourth lot on the corner of Soledad St. The Plaza House hotel was built on this lot years later, but I have not seen any evidence of how much restoration, if any, the good Padre did after the revolution. This house was the Texians' key to breaching the plaza during the Battle of Bexar. Hopefully, Jim has already super-detailed his Priest's House and can post an image from his awesomely CGI'd model.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 9, 2015 17:03:17 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 9, 2015 19:30:17 GMT -5
Thanks, Ray. The other buildings need more work to be presentable but here is one from a few years ago. Love this one too. A lot of real feel. And it just occurred to me, Jim, that you corrected Michael Corenblith's and my error on the north buttresses. Yours are properly spaced. Mine (following Michael's plans) are too close together. : /
|
|
|
Post by jrboddie on Sept 10, 2015 6:06:40 GMT -5
Thanks, Rich. My north block of Main Plaza looks too unfinished right now and I am busy with another project.
Amazing that I started working on modeling Bexar so that my Alamo model would have a realistic background. San Fernando was my first big project along the way. That was about 5 years ago and I have not had the time to do much of anything on the Alamo compound itself!
Learning a lot though, and of course, having fun doing it.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 10, 2015 10:28:24 GMT -5
You must have one heck of a computer to handle that file (those files?).
|
|
|
Post by jrboddie on Sept 10, 2015 11:21:13 GMT -5
Blender handles files a little differently than SketchUp. The model information is separate from the textures/materials. Textures can be reused in the scene with low overhead. Also, models like trees, rocks and grass can be "instanced" meaning they are not fully duplicated until render time. So, for example, my model is only 150 MB. (I don't actually know the total size of the textures since they are in folders mixed with other stuff.) When the scene is rendered, the memory usage is about 1.5 GB and fits in the memory of my graphics card.
Blender is free, BTW.
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 10, 2015 13:37:11 GMT -5
In my case, my model with the Alamo and Plaza de Valero (super-detailed) and no town across the river is 181 MB. The model with Bexar and the whole 3x3 mile ground base which is also super-detailed (but just with a "stand-in" undetailed Alamo and no Plaza de Valero buildings) is 166 MB and growing. I'm continuing to develop them on a borrowed 4GB laptop, but am very limited with certain actions. Obviously, on this low a level of hardware, I can't even think of combining the models and have been using my filmaking cinematography and storyboarding skills to "cheat" angles in image lifts so that it all appears to be in one model. This will work for the illustrations in my Symposium PowerPoint presentation well enough.
Since I'm on a borrowed laptop with Windows 7, I am no longer operating with Windows XP (which neither SketchUp nor Blender supports) I can't even view my model in my OTHER borrowed desktop since it is XP and the model files have been updated to SketchUp 2015 standards. What I clearly need is to get a computer with the basic requirements for SketchUp which includes a high level graphics card that will solve everything. But the money!!!!!
|
|
|
Post by rayjr on Sept 10, 2015 17:56:43 GMT -5
Rich, Nice work! I like your little soldiers too I wonder - the two-story house next to the Acequia battery - do you know who owned this? It is on the Main Plaza and fits the constraints for windows petitioned for a two story structure by Fuentes in 1780. Also - I suppose I should know - but who owned the buildings flanking the Church on the Main Plaza? I saw the new iPad Pro announcement yesterday - they advertise that it might be great for viewing sophisticated graphic renderings...I wonder if it might be a creative way to interact with a model... Best, Ray
|
|
|
Post by Rich Curilla on Sept 10, 2015 20:33:47 GMT -5
Hmmm. I'll check into it Ray. Although I have no desire to do my work on an iPad. (Yeah! I know! I know! LOL) The two-story is no longer a two-story in my model. I have not been convinced that it was there in 1835-36. Padre Fuentes may not have been allowed to build it. I can't seem to get solid info on this and haven't found the necessary approval in the Bexar archives yet. In any event, it absolutely was NOT the "Priest's House" in the Battle of Bexar. I have seen documentation on Refugio de la Garza owning the second house west from Soledad St. on the north side of Plaza de las Islas AND primary accounts by participants saying that the house they used to link them to the plaza was Refugio de la Garza's. Nobody who was there referred to a two-story house, and one of the Texians even commented on all the buildings on the side of the plazas facing them were one story high. I agree that the window orientation fit the dictum saying "only facing the street," but I still don't believe it was there or actually completed. The one in the later photos is so "photoshopped" that I can not tell much about it. There seems to have been a lot of photo alteration done in the mid-ninteenth century, probably to make them usable for publication, in whatever form that was. The property south of San Fernando was owned by Domingo Bustillo, but I think somebody else ran it as a Fandango House (Madame Bustamente, according to unreliable information). The property to the north was owned by ____ Trevino. The George Washington Fandango the night before the Alamo siege began was held in Domingo Bustillo's house and yard, but that supposedly was on Soledad St. -- and I think actually Quinta St. (the southern extension of Soledad.
|
|
|
Post by jrboddie on Jun 24, 2016 10:45:27 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by jrboddie on Nov 10, 2017 19:21:09 GMT -5
|
|