Playing with Blender

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Pencil
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Playing with Blender

Post by Pencil »

I've been playing a bit with Blender, trying out some of the render to texture features to try and reduce the number of textures on some of my older models. A nice side affect is that I can bake some shadows onto these models, which I couldn't do when I was using tiled textures. Here's an example (I was even able to lower the polycount on the shed a little bit :) )

Image
NormHart
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Location: Calistoga, California

Re: Playing with Blender

Post by NormHart »

Hey Curtis, I noticed these on the DLS and they are great!
normhart_20130510_0000.jpg
normhart_20130510_0000.jpg (50.76 KiB) Viewed 55489 times
but... not to look a gift shed in the mouth, is there any way you could resurrect the old version with the wood stacked neatly as a new kuid? Perhaps with a red roof to match your other yard sheds?

On another subject I would have sworn I saw 36" gauge trucks for your Porter around here somewhere but I have not been able to track them down. Was I having a 60's moment?

Thanks, Norm
Pencil
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Pencil »

Hi Norm,

I'll add it to my list!

Curtis
NormHart
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by NormHart »

Thanks Curtis, no hurry. I just have a slew of these sheds scattered about a half dozen routes and having some variety would be nice.

I guess I must have hallucinated the 36" bogies for the Porters since I've been through your site three or four times now with no luck. However, my main impetus for seeking these was because I was having difficulty cloning narrowgauge's Porter but now I've found a download of it that allows me to clone it. No problemo.

:mrgreen:
NormHart
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by NormHart »

Thanks for the red roofed woodshed!
Pencil
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Pencil »

No problem!

With all the loco activity going on, I thought I'd start updating my moguls. First step is the tender - but the more I played with the textures, it became apparent that changes to the model had to be done.
rebuild.jpg
rebuild.jpg (66.89 KiB) Viewed 55415 times
First step was getting it into Blender, with a suitable drawing. I suspect there won't be much left untouched by the end. That's the hazard of doing a minor tweak - it tends to snowball :)
Trainboi
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Trainboi »

Nice! It seems to be going well.
Could you do a version without the rear toolbox? It'd be a near perfect(if not truly perfect) model for the larger moguls that way from what I can see, and that'd definitely save some time getting them out of the car shop.
Thanks for rebuilding an already amazing set of engines. Your skill and attention to detail is an example to us all.
Pencil
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Pencil »

Of course - doing one without the rear toolbox will be trivial. I'll also pass you the .blend files once I'm done, in case you want to make any other changes.

Curtis
Pencil
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Pencil »

(Slowly) making progress.....
tender_wip4.jpg
tender_wip4.jpg (85.81 KiB) Viewed 55390 times
I'm not sure what to do about the grab bars - I've made them to Mike's drawing of the Empire's tender (which should be the tender originally from the Virginia), but it could have been modified before becoming the 15 (2nd)'s tender. ICC regulations did change over time, and I've seen several drawings of grab bars for this tender. I can't really make them out on the period photos, either......
NormHart
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by NormHart »

I'm one of those "as built" kinda guys, brass hand rails seem likely to me. Not that I know anything. :mrgreen:

V. C. & T. ??? Carson City or Comstock???

Umph, one thought in looking at the museum pictures; the handrails seem to be mounted more inboard on the curve of the tender body which seems likely since the less they project out the less likely they would be to get knocked off. FWIIW.
Trainboi
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Trainboi »

Nice! The textures are excellent, and the wood poles look like photos!
NormHart, I've heard multiple sources say it's from Virinia City or from Carson.
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ferroequine
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by ferroequine »

V. C. & T. was the "Virginia, Carson & Truckee". Apparently the "Lyon" was and sisters were all delivered lettered that way too. The reason for this is partly that Truckee Meadows (Reno) wasn't the initial destination, Carson was. So the V. C. & T. is a nebulous name like "Denver, South Park & Pacific", except the V&T did make it to Truckee Meadows after a few busy years.
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Pencil »

I believe No 6 (Comstock) was the first delivered with the now-familiar V & T RR - the previous ones were repainted after some time.
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Pencil »

Here's the current state of the tender (blender file and psp image file). I still need to do the normal map and some wood or something to keep the wood in the tender, but it's getting close...

http://carsoncarshops.com/files/tender.zip
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Re: Playing with Blender

Post by Pencil »

Back at work on the Carson turntable....
turntable.jpg
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