Light Rail Tram

[omeone]

A tram I'm almost finished, renders are pretty basic, no raytracing and default lighting + key

criticisms on modelling and surfacin appreciated, thanks!

http://homepage.eircom.net/~omeone/CandC/tramPREVIEW08.jpg

http://homepage.eircom.net/~omeone/CandC/tramPREVIEW09.jpg

http://homepage.eircom.net/~omeone/CandC/tramPREVIEW10.jpg

http://homepage.eircom.net/~omeone/CandC/tramPREVIEW11.jpg

[mharter]

That is a very nice tram, the reflection map helps a lot on its rounded surfaces. The glass could use a bit of the same ref map, unless you are trying to make the interior less obscured. The other thing that could help is to use a dark texture on the seems between body plates, this simulates radiosity to some degree.

This rendering is quite effective overall, and I'm sure the curved body was quite a challenge, good going!

I have modeled several trams, they can be found at:
http://www.fastmodel.com in the graphics and models section.

Matt

[MorituriMax]

I LOVE the metal/plastic surface (not sure which it is exactly).. beautiful ... don't suppose you'd part with that particular texture preset to someone who thinks it would look awesome on some of his own spaceship work?

Pretty Please?

Vey nice modelling too, the little cracks between parts is very nicely done..

Hope to see more!

[omeone]

@mharter,
thanks for the coments and compliments on your own site and models, its great of you to share those models.

about the reflection: I had to keep reducing it to match the photos I have, as the glass is quite transparent, but I think I need more Fresnel there alright...

and you're quite right, I had forgotten to put my seam surface on the cockpit's seams

the curved body was quite a challenge alright, I started trying to do it with sub-d's and spent two days struggling, then I chanced on Splinegods free tutorial on a raptor head, tried it out on the Tram, and had the front finished in half a day.

I'm ataching the reflection map mostly for the surface in the next post, a happy accident here, this image works great as a ref map in general for me. As you can see, it was never intended for that...

[omeone]

MorituriMax

I dont see why not... you'll get the ref map used from the post above.

[starbase1]

Very, very nice. Where is that spline tutorial?

One minor suggestion - perhaps the deep blue stripe is a little over saturated?

Cheers,
Nick

[omeone]

Thanks Nick, I'd agree with that comment, I'll fix that.

Splinegod's free tutorials are here:
http://www.3dtrainingonline.com/support/sampler.htm
I like the one about "controlling flow"

and the one I was talking about is here:
http://www.3dtrainingonline.com/examples/spline_tutorial.mov

[richardo]

hi omeone

like i said it's looking good except for some pinching here and there.................check your pm :-)

this is the model i was telling you about, still not finished..............

http://www.geocities.com/frameload_da/citadis.jpg

used the standard campus hdri for the reflections and a couple of area lights........................no radiosity

regards

richardo

[mharter]

Here is a nice tram reflection map I made, it is nice because it hase the overhead wires and track.

enjoy

[omeone]

@Richardo,
nice work there, I modelled that one in Microstation for fun about 2 years ago, only the outside skin of the drivers' cockpit though, what kind of references did you use to model? I couldn't get anything from the company, I was basically stuck with using photos.

Comments about the pinching taken on board, I would increase the subpatch division level as suggested, but I dont think of my animations will get up close like the shots above.

Makes me wish the render subpatch level could be animated, or at least simply set by a distance to camera factor.

Will answer your PM now.....

@mharter
thanks again for sharing:) personally I have already leeched your models! so I think I got that same ref map already?

Unfortunatley, I'll have to animate the Trams, so I'll be raytracing the reflections, and adding 20mins per frame in the process :mad:

Now all I hae to do is figure out how to rig the Trams! I've never animated anything before... I guess I'll have to use bones to get the deformations on the concertina sections? or would morphing controlled by an expression be easier?