Train abduction

[igorstshirts]

I have a question...

[igorstshirts]

I was not sure if I could upload an image but there it is. I am almost ready to texture this train car as soon as I finish up the bottom. The scene requires an U.F.O. to lift the train of the tracks and spin it around before stealing it to take home to it's planet. I can keyframe the car's movements but what I would like to do is...
Use the George Lucas effect and move the camera as opposed to the object to give it a great "floaty" look. How can I do this if alot of the other parts of the scene are done in LW also? (Tracks, grass, light posts).:confused:

[riki]

Nice train, will the entire scene be done in 3D?

[John Fornasar]

Is this what you want?

Target the Camera to the boxcar
Parent the Camera to a null, pull the camera to the distance you want and rotate the null

[hrgiger]

Looks pretty good, the wheels look a little unfinshed. Are they really flat on the insides like that?

[igorstshirts]

Riki, Most of this shot will be in 3d except maybe some backround layers.(video and 2d photo).
John, not exactly what I was thinking but you gave Me GREAT idea for a shot, thanks.
hrgiger, You are right, it is more concave and needs work for sure! Here are a few tests.

[hrgiger]

Makes me miss my model train set....

[igorstshirts]

I know that this is not the most exciting model here but I've done some more work on it... (My first model in Lightwave).

[igorstshirts]

A little Photoshop Comp.

[Mclaren]

Try using some area lights cause the shadows are unaturally sharp, especially for a cloudy day.

And the orange thing around the doors looks to bright and it draws too much of your attention away from the train itself. Maybe make it duller like the orange part behind the ladder.

I'm loving the wood and the crossroad signal. The signs on top of the signal seem to clean, maybe dirty them up to match the rest of the pole and lights.

[igorstshirts]

You have a pretty good eye dude. The whole thing is so W.I.P.... It's not even funny. Only ten percent of the box car is textured and the composite shot was just a small test for an animation. I will have to look into area lights though, I've never used those... Thanks.

[richpr]

It's looking pretty sweet!

Play around with the size of the area light... The bigger, the smoother the shadows... However, more render time...
They are like a big squares/bounce cards hanging in the air... You should lower their relative intensity...

[igorstshirts]

I textured a door last night... When I did a test animation of the door layer sliding left to right, My image map stayed in the same spot and did not move with the door. I checked Global coordinates but had no luck... What am I doing wrong?

[Zafar Iqbal]

Uncheck "World Cordinates" and make sure you are not using any reference object.

[igorstshirts]

Thanks Zafar...But... I'm pretty sure that Global was unchecked and had no reference.

[Mclaren]

Did you apply the textures in LW or Modeler. Sometimes when I apply them in LW they do the same thing to me, but if I apply them in modeler they usually work. If all else fails you can always go for UV's.

[igorstshirts]

Okay... The doors ar pretty much done.

[igorstshirts]

Here is a close-up of a spec map. (My handles might need to be scaled down a bit).

[igorstshirts]

AND I GOT MY IMAGE MAPS TO STICK!!!! Lightwave Rocks!!!

[smileyn]

Looking good!

Theres so much detail, and the texturing on those doors looks great. :)

Did you solve your problem of moving the camera rather than the object?

[igorstshirts]

Thanks Smileyn... I guess I'll have to keyframe the object and smooth out the motion within the graph editor.. No biggie. Here are some procedurals for the bottom.

[Kenshin_X_66]

i love that graf on the front, every train in the world is tagged up!

[igorstshirts]

Thanks... I guess I'll have to add some more... Having a hard time finding nice tags.

[igorstshirts]

More work on the lunchbox... Happy Labor Day!!!

[Matt]

I'm very impressed with your texture mapping skills, are you creating them from scratch or using photos, or a combination of both?

[igorstshirts]

Thanks Matt...
(Huge Dragon's Lair fan here too). I make them in Corel and Photoshop...From scratch mostly with some rust photos... I've been shooting 35mm slides (Graf on side of train car) for about ten years now... Modeling for five months... I guess that explains why image maps, not modeling, are my strengths. Thanks again. (OH YEAH... and procedurals too... They rock in LW!!!!).

[riki]

Looks great love the general colour scheme.

[igorstshirts]

Thanks Riki... Did a small test animation last night... MIght post it soon.

[igorstshirts]

http://www.igorstshirts.com/temp/cash.mp4
http://www.igorstshirts.com/temp/3dzoompan2.mp4
Both are MPEG-4 QTs about two megs each.

[RAZ]

Insane detail....good to see your work, its inspired me to spend a bit more time crudding up my work. Particularly like the harmarite power coating texture on the door. Whose your target audience?

[igorstshirts]

Anyone who wants to see a CG short for free!!! Thanks Raz... You have the funniest little animated Gif anime.

[igorstshirts]

Train car is done... Now to make the rail and ties!

[igorstshirts]

Djzhyeaaah!

[igorstshirts]

Is it possible to use two seperate images for bump maps? Like... One for the close-up texture at one amplitude and another one on the same piece for the rust at a different value?

[HowardM]

you could fake LOD for the 2 bump maps, using a gradient with Distance to Camera....
very nice model!

[igorstshirts]

Thanks Howard. Denver on the boards!!! Here is a test render of the tracks. Anyone have a good technique for making good rocks? These look okay in the foreground but look flat towards the rear under the tracks. Bump percent, amplitude, and strength aren't working here...Been tweaking for two days but...:(

[John Fornasar]

Igor, coming along nicely...

this may be nitpicking, but with your closeups and the quality you are aiming for, you'll need to use a correct rail profile...

here's a cross section of rail, and another shot of extra detail...
the tie plate is a flat piece of metal placed on the wooden tie to distribute the weight of the rail and train... the spike goes through the tieplate and holds the rail flange in place.

[John Fornasar]

rail cross section (rough)

[igorstshirts]

Thanks!!!! Workin' on it!

[adrian]

Yeah thanks for the pics John as I'm just starting work on a train scene myself.

BTW that is a very nice train car with equally nice rustic texturing!

How did you texture the rails? Multiple surfaces? Is it just the top that is shiny? From looking at pictures it seems that the "inside bits" are brown and rusty colour.

As for rocks, maybe a *few* (not too many!) HVs scattered around?

Good work,

Adrian.

[igorstshirts]

A little more... Some of the rail ties are showing alpha...:confused:

[igorstshirts]

night scene...

[Matt]

I have to congratulate you on your textures (again!) Are you creating them all yourself or using a library CD?

Either way just goes to show you can't beat a good texture! Texture goddess Leigh would be proud! Great work!

[igorstshirts]

Thank You, again.
Alot of the stains are sooo easy to make... Just about any shape works. The key seems to be to drop the opacity on them to almost nothing in Photoshop. Lots of layering.

[igorstshirts]

Okay you guys... I've been trying to figure this out on My own but can't... I have a 300 frame 1280 by 720 HDTV scene complete with keyframes for light, objects, etc... When I hit F10, Layout crashes and sends me to modeler. Are some of My image maps too large maybe? I have a dual 2.4 Xeon with 4gigs of ram. No radiosity, caustics, or D.O.F. are enabled. I have Hyperthreading turned on and four threads checked within the render options... CAN SOMEONE HELP ME?!

[igorstshirts]

More renders...

[igorstshirts]

Another...

[igorstshirts]

...and the last.

[glassefx]

Igor,

Great work... I was browsing your images here at work and a "train-freak" walked in and offered his two cents worth.

He said the tracks on top should have a polished look to them because the train cars are constantly "polishing" them via. friction.

He had some other garb to say about the crossing sign on the tarmac is hardly ever used in that application anymore?

I just thought the polished track was of importance.

Either way I think it will be ok. :)

Keep it up!

peace.

[igorstshirts]

Thanks... I am not so much a train freak, I would have done an engine instead but I'm new to modeling so this box was a good exercise... I'm going to post my question again because I would love some help animating this scene. Thanks again...

Okay you guys... I've been trying to figure this out on My own but can't... I have a 300 frame 1280 by 720 HDTV scene complete with keyframes for light, objects, etc... When I hit F10, Layout crashes and sends me to modeler. Are some of My image maps too large maybe? I have a dual 2.4 Xeon with 4gigs of ram. No radiosity, caustics, or D.O.F. are enabled. I have Hyperthreading turned on and four threads checked within the render options... CAN SOMEONE HELP ME?!

[glassefx]

Originally posted by igorstshirts
Thanks... I am not so much a train freak, I would have done an engine instead but I'm new to modeling so this box was a good exercise... I'm going to post my question again because I would love some help animating this scene. Thanks again...

Okay you guys... I've been trying to figure this out on My own but can't... I have a 300 frame 1280 by 720 HDTV scene complete with keyframes for light, objects, etc... When I hit F10, Layout crashes and sends me to modeler. Are some of My image maps too large maybe? I have a dual 2.4 Xeon with 4gigs of ram. No radiosity, caustics, or D.O.F. are enabled. I have Hyperthreading turned on and four threads checked within the render options... CAN SOMEONE HELP ME?!

Igor, humm...

That aint NO GOOD! LOL

I Know NOTHING of about Hyper-Threading besides what it is... I use an older dual p3 system...

First off try turning it off - Im sure you have. re-boot - I am the re-boot king. then...

Check the entegrity of all the files (images).

If they are all ok. then I would re-save your latest scene file so it stays un-touched... then start taking out plugins being used one by one. Test the render potential after removing one plugin, saving scene over the new "test-scene" and re-saving. Heck, Im such a freak that I will shut down wave and its task-bar entity and re-starting lw to test a bad scene. Heck Ive even been known to re-boot in-between. This sounds like a bunch of work and it is but its better than digging in the scene file all day.

With your memory you should not encounter any problems.

good luck igor.