oakchas

Here's an update... Finished tweaking the action of the engine. Changed the pushrod for the valve into a piece of old coathanger wire, appropriately bent. Tweaking the materials still. Added a cheesy "flame" to the alchy lamp. Put the whole shebang into a standard chor... changing the two main lights. Still a lot to do. candle_engine6.mov Now some questions. For the flame, which is part of the lamp model (there are 3 models in this chor; the engine, the lamp, and the cheesy wood base) I plan on using a decal and a distortion box for moving the flame and distorting it. Should the candle and flame be part of the engine model in order to do the action in the only action? Or should I animate the flame in the chor as a stand alone model? Or... you guys tell me, you're the experts.

Stian, Please send me Your version of A:M... mine doesn't seem to work as well as yours... I'm pretty certain, in fact, that mine is just completely broken... You are a scary good modeler, Stian... How much time did you spend on this so far? I see you forgot a rivet or two.. I could model one for you in about a week, if that would help... Sincerely,

Thanks, There are several little "glitches" and bumps. I am not certain what happened, but I am assuming I moved something in the first frame of the action.... or, in the model itself... I'm not too concerned with it right now, but I do want to correct it so that it looks just a wee bit eccentric (imperfect) instead of a definite "bump" (as IRL, the lathe I have, and my skill level in using it, probably wouldn't create perfect surfaces anyway).

New update... Some beveling done, tweaking materials, added alcohol lamp. candle_engine4.mov

John... Thing of beauty! 1. create your design in the top view (5 on num pad) Select it and rename it in the group in PWS. 2. create your path in front view (2 on num pad) select it and rename it in the group in PWS. 3. Stay in front view, Right click your path in Project WorkSpace and scroll down to plugins > sweeper 4. Stay in front view, Select your named design in sweeper dialog box and make adjustments in parameters if needed/wanted. 5. click ok 6. bingo! done! Proof: Thanks John!

couldn't resist any more.. fixed the cam action a bit and put it on a cheapie wooden base... casting shadows... much more to do.. I have a lot to learn about lighting and shadows... I'd like to make this look REAL... cant afford the time to do Radiosity renders in an animation.. so I have to learn alot about lighting and faking it. Here's the update, though. candle_engine_1.mov

Flapper valve in place. Since I built this to specifications in the plans, I really suspect it was never built. The flapper valve needs to open more and there needs to be a more sudden closure on the valve. This will require futzing with the cam and spring, I think. But I do think its coming along pretty well. The flapper valve, actuator, small nuts, hinges, and pushrod are all of brass... but it doesn't much look like it, YET. Tomorrow I'll be tweaking the materials a bit... and that's about all I'll do... more updates after this one, on Monday (probably) my_piston_5.mov

Thanks. The wobble, I kinda wanted to fix that! I agree, it looks more likely with the wobble, but it annoys me... That's why I asked Martin if we could make the modeler have 3-4 decimal points accuracy in the modeler. Short answer was no. I think I inadvertently moved something a bit off center. The flapper valve is what I'm working on today. I'll try to post the result before I go to work this afternoon.

another update: overhead view of the cam and spring action... Had to check if cam was actually touching the spring, which it was not in the previous update... fixed here. my_piston_4.mov

Here's an update. modeled the valve opening and the spring (which is activated by the cam). The spring is dark blue, on the left side viewing it. some tweaks in materials plus a change in lighting and position. my_piston_3.mov edited, changed the file a bit made the spring a more (spring)metallic blue, with some reflectivity.

looks good so far... very retro mask... the one I use frequently has 3/4 of the face covered by a clear shield instead of goggles

I like him... He kinda looks like a walking sponge with a beak, and no pants (square or otherwise)

I love the sound of the fans kicking up in my pc, it's the sound of rendering! Here's an update: The cylinder head is in place and the engine is in its horizontal position. You can see the piston reach TDC through the intake valve opening a couple of times. There's still quite a bit of modeling and texturing to do and then it has to be put in its environment but I am making progress a few minutes at a time. Another too big file, I've got to remember to cut the render in half... looping takes care of it for now. my_piston_2.mov

KeeKat has always had that "flocked hard plastic toy" look... Or, since you're in the dustbowl... try blowing off the monitor..?

Nice engine, Shane! I am modeling a single cylinder engine. Its power comes from a candle (I am changing the power source to a spirit lamp... alcohol lamp similar to what we got with chemistry sets as kids). This type of engine is commonly called a vacuum engine. The flame heats the cylinder head causing an expansion of gasses in the cylinder. As the gas expands, pushing the cylinder to bottom dead center, a cam on the crank closes the valve at the cylinder head through a push rod. A vacuum is created by the cooling of the gasses in the cylinder head and the piston moves to top dead center by means of that vacuum. Hence, the power stroke is actually caused by vacuum from whcih we derive the name. The plans call for the cylinder and head to be made from common (1" diameter) iron pipe about 2 1/4" long and a cap. The flywheels are 3" in diameter. So, it's a tiny little engine that may not have enough power to turn itself on its own stand in real life... but in A:M, it will! Piston, flywheels, cam and cylinder are modeled. Cylinder head (pipe cap) is being worked on.

Many thanks to: Glenn for the link Charles Babbage for the original posting Anders Averö For the Make Normal Map plugin Matt W Bradbury for more experimentation And I can't forget Martin, just for making a great program to start with. (practicing for something here... is that music? Oh, my time is up...) Here's the same animation as before with normal maps instead of reflectivity maps... What a difference a day makes! warning: bigger file normal_machined_test.mov SSS may be all the rage.. but not too many mechaincals will need it... now back to modeling and animating!

Why? New, BORED

YES! That is what I am trying to do... Here's what I tried before the link. untitled.mov Using my previous map as a reflectivity map instead of a bump map

Still working on this engine. I am wondering how to handle a machined surface... You've seen 'em before... popular with '50's Hot rods... dash boards, guage clusters, etc. etc. they look kinda like this. I've made the concentric circles in a cad prgram, and exported them as a graphic to a photo editor. Then I appled them as a decal in A:M In this case (which is a model view only) I have applied it as a bump map. In the Chor environment, the sides will relfect the floor color (I made a blue floor). It doesn't look quite right. It picks up too much blue and not enough specularity, or refraction or whatever it is I'm looking for. I'm tweaking away on the type of decal it should be, and then I'll try it on a checkerboard field with different colors on checkerboard walls. It should be somewhat prismatic.. and I don't know how to get the effect... any suggestions whilst I tweak away would be helpful.

Finally! I'm getting it... thanks for all your help, everybody... seems I'm having to relearn everything. Lot's of tweaking and finishing left to do but it's a great start.. and I owe you guys for the help. Proof: Thanks again, my_piston.mov

Yes it does have a chor action. Just delete it? why is it there? I'm going to try deleting it. Thanks again,

Thanks robcat, I see what you have done... now I need to apply it to mine... I've tried this before (exactly as you have it) What happens is that the action still ceases after one cycle?? I don't understand it... but It seems as though A:M keeps going back to the default 1 sec animation... as it now doesn't seem to make a full cycle. It may have something to do with my action taking 01:06 to complete one revolution. My animation may have to expand out to multiple of the length of the action? Actually I need to refine the action anyway. I was "armstronging" the revolution 10° per frame hence 36 frames to make one cycle.... I probably could have fixed that with euler as opposed to quat setting. I'll get it, certainly appreciate the help, though! Thanks everybody.

thinking about it, since it doesn't move along a path... that's why stride length won't work... ??? you're probably right goodguy... If I don't have a path, I have to use repeats... I'll try that. And your Idea too. Thanks

yes, stride length is on... and that's as I'd prefer it for now. but the cycle won't repeat throughout the chor. If i set repeats to a certain number they would speed up the action over the length of the chor... not what I'm looking for.

Okay, I can make the piston cycle nicely once, and if the animation is looped, it does not hesitate at the top as I did not chor the last frame of the action. However, the engine needs to turn more that once. I have tried futzing with all the numbers. Cycle length, chor and crop... nothing seems to make the action cycle over a longer chor... right now, i'd settle for 3 seconds. with the action repeating about 2.5 times. then I would know I can go on. Here's a screen shot... what am I missing?