My Second Big Project: Locomotive!


The trees and sky are images.

Looking forward to your helpful critiques!

Quick Glance:

  1. Denoiser
  2. Principled BSDF for every shader.
  3. Used Filmic color
  4. Modelled everything else except the trees and sky.
  5. Using HDRI and Sun Lamp.
  6. The smoke is generated by smoke simulation.
  7. Hand-painted rust mask.
  8. Full HD resolution
  9. 150 Samples

About the Train: Relatively new. Reference from different locomotive types were used. I basically took my imagination and filled the chassis space with pipes and wires going on. I have no knowledge about train parts.

The smoke at the bottom is actually white (steam smoke), But after compositing, it got yellow, and I don’t know how to correct this.

I am not sure if this compositing is good or bad.

This is a work-in-progress, so all critique is welcomed.

I agree, the lighting looks dim.

For anyone wondering, my first big project was the Forest render (https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?432965-Forest&highlight=), which I will be updating very seen.

Updated it with more soft and subtle compositing:


It looks good so far! The modeling looks good and the update looks better than the first image. One thing that might add some interest to the render is to add some motion blur similar to this https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?438048-Steampunk-Grand-Prix.

There is an explanation of how he used motion blur near the bottom of the comments. That would add a little more interest and movement to the image because right now it feels like the train is just sitting still.

The idea is cool! I thought of it and did with directional blur, but the results were unsatisfying.

Frankly, I understood basically nothing from that comment. Just that he parented the train and camera to an empty. But the blur? How?

However, I updated the image with a new background:


I like that background a lot better! It looks more natural.

I’ll try to explain the process, and hopefully it will make more sense. Basically you parent everything that you don’t want to have the motion blur to the empty (camera, train). Then, give the empty some slight movement between two frames. It doesn’t have to be much. So on frame one set the location of the empty, and on frame two move it slightly and place another key frame. Make sure that you have motion blur checked on the render settings, and that should be it.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and hopefully that made a little more sense.

Thanks for the critique!

That background? You mean the one with the tress or the most recent ones?

Now I understand that. I recently added a motion blur to one of my image for the weekend project. I will now try the method you posted. But I want to give the train the motion blur. With the color of the dried grass, it won’t make the area look flat yellow? I will try this method, anyway, when I get more feedback :slight_smile:

Looks nice. Can see a good improvement with each image. I’d stick to giving the motion blur to the background not the train. Try adding some variation to the grass if you think the blur will make the area just flat yellow (maybe some ground popping through)

Composition-wise: The composition looks a bit wierd now. The train doesn’t really feel like its in the scene, you can almost divide the render into two images. try moving the camera back or down a bit to show some ground and sky. Also I’d position the train more on the left, you have a lot of details and lower values on the right and the left is like an opposite of of it (again, dividing the image in two separate parts). Use the thirds, easy and good:) (it’s all probably just my personal taste, feel free to ignore it, but i hope it helped a bit :slight_smile:

Good luck with the piece;)

Made the smoke more real:


Thanks for the critique TSF! I just finished, at the time of making of this comment, giving the train the motion blur, and it looked awful. I will tomorrow again work on giving the blur to the rest of the image.

So, you want me to move the train in the dead center? That’s interesting. But I will have to rework the whole scene. Anyway, here is a quick test render just to see if I understand what you are saying.


Again, its just a suggestion but i guess that was more or less what i was saying:


great sketch i knowXD

Also if you want your camera (spectator) to be stationary on the ground then the train will have motion blur. if its moving with the same speed as the train then the scene is goin to be blurred.

Blurring is giving weird results. I will still try again. I will try this setup.

This?


I don’t know why the motion blur is not applied to the particle system (grass)

It is better with the new background but it is a bit confusing when the sun on the train and the sun on the bush are in different places.

Added motion blur.


The sun is also a lot stronger on the bush than it is on the train, tracks, etc.
Awesome train model btw!

Thanks :slight_smile:

That’s because of the blur and the yellow color of the grass. The problem is that colors are becoming too white if I increase the sun. If I decrease the sun or HDRI strength, the scene becomes to darkish.

It’s hard for me to understand the position of the sun from that 2D image.

It appears (in my opinion) that the sun is coming from behind the camera and a bit to the left based of the bush picture.

It’s hard, right? Actually the sun and hdri sun placement is spot on. Don’t know why it looks odd. I first looked at the bush too, but that is way too confusing. Then after zooming in on the image I looked carefully at the grass bunch in the far right, and I placed the sun accordingly. The sun is actually shining from the left of the train.

It’s generally looking pretty good now, except for the shot in post #12. The extra visibility of the sides in that shot means a few bits are obviously fudged, so it doesn’t look as convincing overall to anyone familiar with steam locomotives. If you want to correct that it wouldn’t be hard, but then you have to decide how far you want to take it.