NYC Chinatown — Bo-Ning Li

A small Chinatown corner grows into a longer street and a dense block, with changing roads, buildings and shops. — One corner, a lot of different streets.

Rotating variants of buildings, storefronts, awnings and facade panels.

Rotating variants of rooftop equipment, fire escapes, windows and people.

Rotating variants of shops, windows, projecting signs and vehicles.

Buildings, shopfronts, signs, people, and the bits in between.

If procedural systems get quick enough to build, I’d use them for things I wouldn’t normally bother automating. One scene, one shot, a quick experiment. I like the idea of making these tools as I go.

Close-up variations of Chinatown shops, awnings, signs, windows, air conditioners and pavement activity. — Down at street level.

A frontal street view with changing building heights, side streets, lanterns and storefronts. — Looking down the block.

A few steps along the way

Seven saved stages, from the early elevated-rail NYC corner to lower buildings, Chinatown shopfronts, street detail and the final scene. — Early NYC blockout → Chinatown. Saved previews in order.

The first motion test, in which the block stretches and building heights shift slightly. — The first motion test mostly stretched the block. I wanted the buildings and shops to change independently.

Early sparse NYC corner with elevated railway and two brick buildings. — Started here. The railway went once I settled on Chinatown.

First Chinatown scene with sparse signs, repeated storefronts and mostly empty road space. — Still too tidy. More shops, thinner signs, less empty pavement came next.

An earlier 5 by 5 contact sheet of 25 Chinatown street layouts, with different buildings and street details. Open full image. — An earlier batch of 25. This is where I kept checking density and what the camera could actually see.