How do you build cities without hitting a creative block?

I trust I'm not the only person that does this...

So most of the routes I build are set in rural, Midwestern US locales with not a lot going on, just because that's where I grew up. However, it's inevitable that eventually I have to build a town or city somewhere on the route. And then I stop. I get the trackwork through town done. Stations, yards, industrial leads, etc., but when it comes to building the actual city, I hit a creative block. Or rather, a creative brick wall, and the route dies, and it seems no amount of inspiration and research can get it moving again.

Those of you who build more routes than I do, how do you avoid these creative blocks?

Matt

I have found that I hardly notice the structures very far from the tracks in cities. I remember on the DLS blocks or parts of blocks that are pre-built. You can also cut and paste from other layouts, use backdrops.

epa said:

I trust I'm not the only person that does this...

So most of the routes I build are set in rural, Midwestern US locales with not a lot going on, just because that's where I grew up. However, it's inevitable that eventually I have to build a town or city somewhere on the route. And then I stop. I get the trackwork through town done. Stations, yards, industrial leads, etc., but when it comes to building the actual city, I hit a creative block. Or rather, a creative brick wall, and the route dies, and it seems no amount of inspiration and research can get it moving again.

Those of you who build more routes than I do, how do you avoid these creative blocks?

Matt

Click to expand...

If you're talking about a specific city, try Google Maps--both the satellite and street views will give you lots of information about what's present in a real city. If your city is imaginary, taking ideas from the prototype will give you an infinite number of possibilities.

Don't forget things like telephone lines, etc. They can add an amazing sense of realism to an otherwise fairly generic scene.

--Lamont

I use Dave Drake's (dmdrake) Cityscape city blocks. I blend in other buildings and trees in among them and sometimes in front to hide their flat textures.

I build cities and towns. I also use dmdrake city blocks. I have also put shops and apartments on the DLS.

I suggest that you decide on a standard city block size. I like 120m x 60m for small blocks, 120m x 120m for large ones. Lay down rulers to outline the blocks. Take care to lay out the rulers on the 10m grid lines, not the 5m grid. Also sure to change the baseboard to 5m grid. If you ignore these two rules, copy/paste will never work right. If you decide to use intersections, (I use YARNish) place them after you copy/paste city or suburban blocks, otherwise the paste function will delete the intersections. When you are pasting, rotate successive pastes if they are near each other. Residential 120x60 blocks look best if you use driveway objects IF the terrain is kept level. 120x120 blocks can either use driveway splines or pavement textures if these have a slope. Road splines can be placed anytime unless you are copy/pasting driveway splines if so put the road splines on last.

I also build mostly rural routes, well 2 so far. I do have a couple of cities and on the current one, Bathurst is rather large but I don't get writers block over it. That said, one does need to step away from time to time or you do get bogged down. This one has taken 16 months so far and a couple of months left. However apart from the good suggestions above I've found buildings (hundreds) by Colorado71 extremely useful especially is you have sloping ground as many have extra on the bottom to allow you to bury part of them. Look for co71 items.

Check out youtube videos for inspiration and how-to. I came across this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWDmCML-Ns
Starting at 15 min in he builds an entire village.

Some of his other videos concentrate on city building.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEfRt6VDS4o

It's not easy and also the reason why I tend to go for rural branch lines, or model railways. As others have mentioned you don't really want to be looking too far out from what can be seen from the cab. Maybe 200 metres either side of the line, beyond that just copy/paste/rotate a blend of several buildings and trees.

Watch a cab ride video and other than (maybe) tramways it is surprising how little you see away from the trackside.

I find that having Starship's "We built this city" on an endless loop will scramble your brain and you then work on autopilot.:hehe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1b8AhIsSYQ

William

Basically, what Vern said.

!. Don't try and model the whole town. It's usually sufficient to limit the number of baseboards either side of the track to one (sometime you can even get away with running your track up the middle of a single board). Use backdrops on the edge of boards to provide an horizon if necessary.
2. I model the detailed 'look and feel' of only the first block either side of the track. These days I use Street View as an aid with this, but b4 the invention of Street View I would visit the site and take photos. Don't fret if you cant find structures and scenery objects that match real life. Unless you need to include a particularly iconic structure, near enough is usually good enough. I have been lucky enough to get help with modelling particularly important/iconic structures.
3. Beyond the first block either side of the track I set up 'model blocks', and replicate these using the Copy/Paste/Rotate tools. Try and 'Paste' the blocks randomly, so the repetition is not obvious.
4. Take time out to have some fun. Drive a train. Take some screenies. Pick your best couple of screenies and 'publish' them in the Screenshots forum. Hopefully you will get feedback. I have found the critiquing and encouragement of others to be very helpful when I'm feeling a bit of creative block.

It helped that I cut my teeth building routes in MSTS where there was a very strict limit of something like 1600 objects in each 2km route tile, or the sim croaked - not so much of an issue now we run routes in Open Rails. However that instilled a certain discipline and restraint out of necessity when populating urban areas. Even with MSTS I remember spending ages getting an area looking what I thought was quite good, only to find you barely noticed it out the corner of your eye, even driving with head out view. Of course you will never satisfy those who like to drive their train from a helicopter 300 feet in the air, but they are not who I cater for, at least when building my routes.

In fact one concept I'm currently experimenting with is the "proto-model" where I take a real section of railway line, maybe 5 or 6 miles, with the DEM and mapping, but then strip it back to a model size linear baseboard of a scale 3 to 4 feet wide and enclose it in a model railway type room (barn!).