15 miles on the Erie Canal

Started by sboerner, January 25, 2018, 11:05:04 AM

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WAS

Quote from: sboerner on May 02, 2018, 10:27:17 PM
Quote1) It looks like the wake flow should be translated forward of the boat at least a few feet so that first initial push of the water is setting in on the curve of the boat, which is actually pushing the water up.

2) An initial water break from the bow of the boat.

Great suggestions, thanks. Added to my to-do list. The Kelvin wake pattern that I borrowed for this was generated from a single point, so the bow wave and break will have to be added by hand. Shouldn't be too hard, right?  :D

I can't imagine what all else goes into this scene considering what you've been describing.

sboerner

Thanks, Luvs. No deadlines here, either, at least on this project.

bobbystahr

Good looking truck so far.  You may want to check out Hannes Material set in File Sharing as he has some real time savers for metals for sure
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist

Dune

Your skills are obvious. There's going to be an enormous amount of detail in your final setup. I imagine it's not meant to be for 'just' one final render? You could easily make an animation out of it.

archonforest

Great stuff!! Love that model.
Dell T5500 with Dual Hexa Xeon CPU 3Ghz, 32Gb ram, GTX 1080
Amiga 1200 8Mb ram, 8Gb ssd

sboerner

Thanks, archonforest. It's funny but I've wondered ever since I was little how these things worked. So I got to indulge myself here. The truck in the model is a Baldwin M.C.B. high-speed interurban type, powered by two GE-207 electric motors. Two trucks on the car means four 140 hp motors geared for speeds up to 80 mph. This was 1909. And we think light high-speed railways are something new!

QuoteThere's going to be an enormous amount of detail in your final setup.

Maybe too much? We'll see . . . so far the larger models are averaging a million polys. I like modeling and tend to get carried away, but Terragen seems to be handling everything just fine. It just eats these big models for lunch.  :D

I appreciate the kind words, Ulco. Your panoramas have been a major inspiration. I don't see how this scene will approach the level of detail and sophistication that you manage to include in your scenes. But they certainly give me something to aspire to.

Dune

Don't flatter me too much (or I'll get arrogant  ;)) I'm sure you'll pull off something terrific with this setup. And my modeling skills are at least very poor in relation to yours.

Hannes

This is going to be fantastic (it already is!!). Looking forward to the final.

bobbystahr

[quote (or I'll get arrogant  ;))
[/quote]

Not much chance of that. I've always found you to be a most modest genius no matter what we all say!
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist


Hannes



sboerner

Haven't had much time to spend on this lately – life and paying jobs have been getting in the way – but the interurban passenger car model is finally done. Mapping UVs now in preparation for shading, but wanted to do a test to see how the curved surfaces render in Terragen.

I'm learning that Terragen's renderer is unforgiving when it comes to object meshes – much more so than mental ray or Arnold. They have to be just this side of perfect or you run into trouble. But if you give it a good mesh it will give you an amazing rendering.

One thing I've noticed in this one are some strange vertical striations in the shadow areas (front of the car).The shader assigned to the model now is a plain, 50 percent gray default shader, diffuse only, zero displacement. The striations appear to be following the UV map so it seems to be texture related. Have to investigate further.

I've decided to post regular updates about research and general progress on my blog, while continuing to post Terragen-related updates here. The blog is at dotsandlines.steveboerner.com. Please check it out! I need a few more visitors!  :D

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bobbystahr

Wow, you sir are an amazingly fine modeler. Best rail car I've seen bar none... As they seem to be electric have you figured out how to do the power lines?...just curious.
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist

sboerner

Thanks, Bobby. I lucked out with references on this one. Found a complete set of plans plus several vintage photos of this car and others from the same shop order. It is a specific car that was used by this railway – each company seems to have ordered customized models from the manufacturers.

I don't think the trolley wires will be a problem. I have several photos of the area that show the pole locations, and have a terrain mesh – exported from Terragen – that I can use as a displacement guide in Maya. The plan is to model the poles and wires in Maya and place them as a single object in Terragen. The trick will be adjusting the car's trolley pole to align with the wire.