No I agree it doesnt, If you read the previous couple of posts (which are rather long winded), you will see that I’m not at all sure about it, I may well do the sky in photoshop. In the meantime, I am trying out one or two different variations
In this I’ve added some detail to the rail towers, The sky I’m still thinking about.
One thing bugs me about that tower. You have the cylindrical “grips”, that the train rides on, completely encircling the monorail tube, yet at the tower you have a support going from the tube down to the base of the tower’s ring.
This aint gonna work. Your train is going to be stuck, and this bugs me. It’s like an MC Escher staircase.
I’ve been rumbled, I’ll think of something, magnetic levitation maybe?
This should fix the problem, I may add more detail to it tomorrow. Of course when I first did it it was a tiny part of a different picture so nobody would spot my deliberate mistake.
Ah good old maglev, when all else fails we use maglev - I worked on the British project to achieve this, we got it working and then the government or whoever dumped it. This STILL p****s me off!
I like this project though - I am trying to keep up with the lighting you are using.
Cheers, Clock.
I should learn more about lighting myself. At the moment I just throw in Sun and Sun Tzu and move them until I can see what I’m doing.
I remember that too.
Anyway, I managed to locate an HDR image of an evening sky, which suits this much better, so I think I will go with it.
That has a pretty good feel to it, although a daytime shot would be good too. Or perhaps some moonlight.
I’ve been adding some detail to the train, I’ve remodelled the engine to make it look a bit less twee.
The new sky is better and I like the idea of the moonlight. The new sky does not distract that much. Now imho the question is what should attract the viewers attention, in other words what’s your hero object? At the moment it is a peaceful still image. Maybe that’s what you are going for now, and that would be alright of course. I’m just asking because your approach for the competition was different.
I think if you were going to add a visible moon it would need to be toned down a fair bit. That wasn’t what I was thinking of though. Moonlight is polarised and has a distinctive look to it. I’m not sure how you would get that effect in Blender but someone would know. It may add to the feel of the shot. The moon itself wouldn’t necessarily have to be visible, since there is already a fair amount of content.
Depends on what feel you’re going for, of course. The catch with subjective stuff is that everyone will have a different opinion. Don’t take them all too seriously.
The train is looking much better now.
@minoribus, I am looking at the area around the station as the main focal point and will be extending that area soon.
@Gumboots, I think getting the moonlight right is going to be easier in post process.
New version with a few adjustments.
Changes are looking nice, I like the idea of a moon lit scene. One thing just for consideration… in some ways the zepplin seems to distract from what I think is your major focus the train and it’s station.
I wonder if you could use the zepplin in a different render maybe with more focus over the town or with the mountains as a backdrop. Yourself and others may completely disagree, it’s just a thought.
Some time since my last post, very busy at work with parents day and other stuff. However I was able to spend some time on this yesterday.
@ Harlynut You may be right about the airship, but I’ll leave it for now as I see how the rest comes together, and decide later what to do.
Another occasional post (I’ve a pile of other stuff to do at the moment).
I’ve lightened the sky a bit, and actually am liking this better.
The nearest railway carriages have now got a decent texture. The livery is based roughly on a carriage from the London Underground in the 1890’s and I am pretty pleased with the way it has turned out.
Nice render - I like it. I am not sure about the airship though, it looks too plain against all the other detailed parts, maybe it is too dark, I am not sure what it is, just don’t look quite right to me… sorry!
Cheers, Clock.
I haven’t got to that bit yet!
That last one is coming along really nicely. Has a great feel to it, apart from my pet grumble about non-vertical vertical elements at the left.
The moon could be a bit more ghostly as IMO it’s a tad too sharp at the moment.
I hadn’t forgotten about the vertical distortion, but I will have to deal with it at the end in post process, likewise the moon, I will have more control over the effect in photoshop.