Current Progress, 09/04/10

Here is the progress of the last few days. It've basically just added more buildings up the back. It's starting to look much denser.

Current Progress

Here is how the city currently looks.

Topping Off

The model has officially topped off at Auckland's tallest building - apart from the Sky Tower, of course, which has yet to see construction.

The Vero Centre, located at 48 Shortland Street, is the tallest building in Auckland, rising to a total height of 167 metres. It features an intricate halo set at an angle on the roof, giving it an image akin to having a "crown" over the city.

I finally completed it today, after spending numerous hours trying to figure out exactly how to model the halo - the angles were very difficult to figure out, but in the end, it worked well.

Building Britomart

I've added in the buildings that lie behind Britomart, as well as a few more of the lowrises leading up to Oaks Residences on the left. The city is becoming much denser.

Auckland City in 3D

AUCKLAND CITY 3D - The BIG Little Project

Hi, my name's Joel. This page is going to follow my progress as I build the Central Business District of Auckland City, New Zealand, completely in 3D, with the intention of releasing it at a later date for insertion into Google Earth.

The model will cover the larger area of Auckland's CBD and will vary in the level of detail and accuracy. For the most part, I will try to be as accurate as possible, but because Auckland is a much lesser known City than, say New York, information on each building is not widely available. Therefore, mostly, the model will be built based off of photographs and how I feel the constructed buildings fit in with the rest of the model.

While it will not be completely accurate, the overall idea is that it gives a basic representation of Auckland's layout.

As far as texturing goes, at the moment, I am leaving it as just standard grey; I may, however, end up releasing it as a fully photo-real model, to add to the realism.

This first image shows the first few stages of construction. In the foreground on the right, we have the Westfield Downtown Shopping Centre, with the HSBC tower in front of it. On the lefthand side of the image, the tall, slender building is the Oaks Residence. A few blocks behind Westfield, we have the Stamford Residences, and behind that, the tall building with the dome on top is the ANZ Tower.

In this screenshot, I have added the IAG building and the BNZ Tower, both of which are in the foreground. The short, diamond shaped building next to Westfield is the Southpac building, next to which is the Quay West hotel.

This image shows the model in its current state. Since the previous imaged, I have added a number of new buildings, such as the Ferry Building, which is at the very bottom of the image. Britomart Train Station has been added in across the road from Westfield, and on the other side of the mall is the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Building, and the AMP Tower.

Down the street a bit, across the road from the BNZ tower, is the newly constructed Deloitte Centre, which was topped off in late 2009, and is the newest addition to Auckland's skyline.

I aim to update this blog as often as possible, although I can't guarantee there will always be updates.