Concept Images

I've been working on some ideas and so I sketched up a couple of them, I also took them into photoshop and added a bit of colour so you can see what i'm thinking of in terms of lighting, space and general colour; i'd like to hear comments on these as to what you all prefer for a colour palette; what objects should be placed inside the space and preferences on lighting.

At the moment I'm still thinking that this could work nicely as a hotel or shopping centre; again, let me know what your opinions are.

Lighting

While Lisa and Ben are working hard on retrieving floor plans and creating a sketchup model and with Ste off looking to create concepts; I started further researching into lighting and came across a few images that interested me; I think that some of the lighting effects here could work very well for us, leave your opinions and I'll begin sketching up some thoughts. Also if anyone has some good suggestions and images of what we should turn this space into that would help; at the moment I am thinking shopping centre or hotel, something like that.



I particularly like this image which is actually a concept for the interior of an airplane but the I think we could put that blue light to use in under the walkways and mezzanines to preserve the stylish contemporary theme even in the poorly lit areas of the interior space.

Some images are not particularly interestingly lit like the one featuring the curved wall, I simply wanted to show you this building for that wall; very stylish.

The last interior is a screenshot from the game Mass Effect; Noveria, Port Hanshan Plaza. Ste recalled this space after seeing a similar interior in on of the interior design books in the library; an interesting find, I particularly like the various lighting effects of this scene such as the lit staircase and soft light falling from the ceiling.

Changing the Theme

So we decided to go down an alternative route today, we are now going for a new, clean, renovated look, in this way we will be able to more efficiently use the are presented by the station; also it allows us to experiment a bit more and attempt to be more creative with our chosen setting.



I found a few images of slick contemporary interiors, I especially like how the light is balanced even though spotlights are mostly used and how the water is illuminated to add a nice glow to the surrounding area; then again i'm not studying interior and this might be something commonly done; it just caught my eye :)







N.B. There are just a couple of images in there that show new contrasting with old; John Ryland's and a building with a large, new, glass section built right on top of it. Just something I wanted you all to see.

First rough plan uploaded

No annotations or images attached yet since we're in the progress of refining them. This is a our first rough idea of where we want to go and we're just trying to get a general idea of the route to take without being to delicate in recreating the station brick for brick.

We'll refine these layouts in illustrator, photoshop and possibly simple sketchup models as well as adding photos to help illustrate our routes and points of conflict/interest.

Hopefully this will help us progress with more purpose.

Interior Plans and Simple External Elevations

Found some interior plans and elevations of the part of the building that faces the victoria approach street.

Going to try and chase up the council to try and acquire some more plans of the station, however I'll have to do this on my lunch break tomorrow as I'm working.

Found these numbers on the manchester.gov.uk website so hopefully if I'm unsuccessful perhaps Lisa you could attempt to acquire them as I know you have had previous experience with this?

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500207/planning_and_buildings

had some good information on how to go about requesting plans.

Failing that, I'm working on a simple model to try and work out the layouts of the building to help build up a simple greybox model in the unreal engine. However I could probably do with visiting the station yet again for more sketches and photos...

Some Gameplay Videos

Just thinking about the cover mechanics, there's a few games that I like and that I think you should take a quick look at, they all feature cover mechanics but are all different in some way especially Time Crisis which is completely unique, but it was not the mechanic itself I was looking to but how the environment is utilised for cover like tables, chairs, walls etc. GTA works nicely in that it uses blind spots so you can't see what's around the corner waiting for you. Uncharted has a lot of z-axis fighting, the video shows how the environment is overgrown with plant life, it is overall a very good looking game.

Sorry about the quality of some of the videos but it was the best I could do with youtube.


Grand Theft Auto IV
Play from 1:03

Interior space used in a convincing manner for cover points.

Time Crisis 2




Uncharted
Nice environments overgrowing with foliage too!

Decay in Buildings

Changed the blog theme, the previous one seemed a little obtrusive.

Anyway, I gathered some images from the internet that might be of use if we are to make Victoria Station look old, derelict and decaying with overgrowing plant life.

plant feature walls:

http://www.greenfortune.com/

Very interesting read guys:

http://www.mark-magazine.com/magazine/25# Page 110

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2848/an_architects_perspective_on_.php

Pictures of Victoria Station

Hey guys, I figured out how to upload all the images I took to Google Picasa,

I've sent you all emails so you can view them but let me know if there's a problem somewhere.

I'll try and print them off tomorrow also so we can stick them up on the wall..

Victoria Station