WIP AT&N Class 280-157 Consolidation

[PapaXpress]

You are giving "some assembly required" a whole new meaning.

[mrennie]

Actually, I'm learning a lot about how real steam locomotives were put together, from the inside out. Once this is done, I'm hoping you'll be able to go into the 8 view mode and go and look at all those mechanisms under the boiler, and that what you'll see is 95% of what there would be in the real loco. That was my aim, to make it as real as I possibly could, because I like looking at the models, studying the details and trying to understand what all the bits and pieces are there for, not just driving the locos. For a start, I now recognise and can name all the different parts of the Walschaert's valve gear, and I understand how the spring rigging worked, with its leaf springs, coil springs, equalizers, etc. etc. :)

[buzz456]

The big question is will we be able to get it to run without the computer spitting up?

Buzz

[dogmouse]

Beautiful Work, M! Just Fabulous. Superb modeling, Sir!! I think that one of the benefits of modeling a loco such as yours, is that you get to learn where every bolt is located. I know it sounds goofy, but you really do end up becoming "one" with the model ... like a Vulcan mind-meld or something. Anyway ... Top Notch. Outstanding work! '

Rich

p.s. if you ever need to commiserate about Max, feel free to pm me! Have you played around with "hinge from edge" yet? I think that would be the #1 poly tool to use for building all the pipes associated with a steam loco ;-)

[mrennie]

The big question is will we be able to get it to run without the computer spitting up?

Buzz

I've done many tests, on different routes, and so far I get the same fps as with other locos. For example, I made a scenario on the HSC, and when I substituted the Consolidation for the EMD GP7 (or was it GP9?, I forget now), the fps were exactly the same. I've even run a triple-headed freight with fps around 17, on the HSC, with everything on maximum, AA on x8, resolution 1920x1200. If I run it in windowed mode at 1024x768, I can lock the fps at 30 and it stays there, rock solid.

[mrennie]

Beautiful Work, M! Just Fabulous. Superb modeling, Sir!! I think that one of the benefits of modeling a loco such as yours, is that you get to learn where every bolt is located. I know it sounds goofy, but you really do end up becoming "one" with the model ... like a Vulcan mind-meld or something. Anyway ... Top Notch. Outstanding work! '

Rich

p.s. if you ever need to commiserate about Max, feel free to pm me! Have you played around with "hinge from edge" yet? I think that would be the #1 poly tool to use for building all the pipes associated with a steam loco ;-)

Thanks Rich!

Max? I can't afford Max. This has all been done in 3DCrafterPro. I'm doing the shadow baking manually, taking screenshots of the parts I want to "bake", pasting the screenshot as a template layer into the texture file in Photoshop, and then painting the shadows onto another layer by hand. It's hard work, but worth it. For the pipes, I use 3DC's "piper" tool (it takes a lot of trial and error, but it actually works very well).

Cheers,
Mike

[mrennie]

No no no! You must put the threads on the nuts and bolts! Hahaha just kidding, those can be put on with texture

That's what I've already done with the large bolts in the tender truck sides, either side of the axle boxes ;)

[mrennie]

That's what I've already done with the large bolts in the tender truck sides, either side of the axle boxes ;)

Hahahahahhahahaha Outstanding

I'm a stickler for detail

[mrennie]

I'm reworking the animation to remove the little bumps (caused, I think, by a bug in 3DC that happens when animation groups are nested) and to add in the animation of the lifting links (they connect the radius rods to the reverse rods, to change the phase of the valve movement).

[dogmouse]

Hi Mike,

..oh! I thought for some reason that you were a Max dude. My bad! Nonetheless, you're doing an incredible job on your Consolidation loco! I look forward to more progress shots.


~Rich

[mrennie]

Hi Mike,

..oh! I thought for some reason that you were a Max dude. My bad! Nonetheless, you're doing an incredible job on your Consolidation loco! I look forward to more progress shots.


~Rich

Thanks Rich! I'll post another video soon, once the valve gear animation is updated. I found this thing called PlayClaw that works much, much better than FRAPS.

[mrennie]

I've got this annoying problem with 3DCrafter and wondered if anyone else has seen it, and if they know of a solution.

I'm animating the motion (again!) and for things like the wheels and eccentric crank it's fine. But for other things like the eccentric rod, where one end doesn't follow a circular motion (it's attached to the link, so it swings back and forth) I can set most of the animation positions extremely accurately, but in just a few cases, at certain points in the timeline, the thing just won't stay exactly where I put it when I release the mouse button. It snaps to some other position nearby. It means that there's a little bump in the animation at a couple of places in the timeline. I've tried removing all the nesting of the animation groups, so now all the parts are in their own individual groups, and that helped get rid of other bumps that appeared in RW (caused, I found out, by a bug in the export function), but these remaining bumps are there in the 3DC animation itself. Really annoying!

[jpetersjr]

Dick of Brittkits might know of the answer.

[mrennie]

Dick of Brittkits might know of the answer.

Does he use 3DCrafter, or Max? It's a bug in 3DC.

[PapaXpress]

Mr Cowen uses 3DC.