Sketchup, up and away!

As it proved, yes it could be that simple.  Sketchup is a great little tool and quite powerful, although not in the same league as GMAX.  I tried both though, to make sure I was on the right lines.

GMAX is the superior of the two, but is clearly overkill for the kind of detail I need to do, so Sketchup was my 3D tool of choice.  I played around with it for the best part of a day to get the hang of various tools, and once I'd got my head round the way it worked it proved to be both powerful and relatively easy to use. 

At this point I started to feel very positive about the possibility of getting the scenery project off the ground.  Looking over Google and Bing maps I began to plot out where I would start and how much ground I wanted to cover.  Quickly it dawned that what I was attempting was no small project!  Every time I looked at an area it seemed that the next natural adjacent feature would need to be included as well, for fear of losing the realism.  I decided to be ambitious in terms of the total area to design, but to break it down into manageable chunks, as follows:

Aerial shot of EGGP and the surrounding area marked with the areas I intend to cover

1	Owen Drive Factory Units
2	Blenheim Way Factory Units
3	Premier Inn Hotel – Speke Hall Avenue
4	Spindus Road Industrial Estate Part 1
5	Spindus Road Industrial Estate Part 2
6	Spindus Road Industrial Estate Part 3
7	Fire Station Ambulance Station and Factory
8	Holiday Inn Express
9	Speke Business Park Showcase Unit Leeward Drive
10	Estuary Banks Part 1
11	Estuary Banks Part 2
12	Estuary Banks Part 3
13	Hurricane Drive Business Units
14	Dakota Drive Factory
15	Prinovis Factory
16	Estuary Boulevard Units
17	Speke Hall Road Car dealer + units
18	Speke Boulevard Part 1
19	Speke Boulevard Part 2
20	Woodend Avenue Industrial Estate
21	Speke Morrisons + units
22	Parklands School
23	Central Speke
24	Garston Gasworks
25	Speke Village
26	Hale Village

Even now looking back over this list I get a sense of trepidation and wonder if I'm not biting off far more than I can chew...  Most chunks only have 3 or 4 buildings in each one, but I'll need to take some detailed photography to get the textures right, and I'll place geographically correct additional scenery for outbuildings, vehicles and vegitation to make them seem even more realistic.  Even if I worked on nothing else, it would take some time to accomplish my goals with this, but as I have a full time job, not to mention a wedding to plan, I am realistically not going to get more than one building a week completed.  So, this project is going to take over a year to complete if I do it properly.

Next >> A test model - proving I can actually do this....