candle engine

[oakchas]

'kay, so here's the piston, cam and flywheels. yet to do are the cylinder and the stand.

 

I'm trying to work (at this point) without using decals or materials. they will be added later.

 

It's based on an old Popular Mechanics article where a candle is used to "power" this engine. The flame from the candle fills the cylinder, then a valve closes off the flame. This creates a vacuum in the cylinder which is the "power stroke" which opens the valve and the flame is then readmitted to the cylinder. and so on.

 

I've got to get the flywheels and piston to look as though they were machined stainless steel. This is just a start, and I need to study up on reflectivity and specularity to try to make this more realistic looking. But I have to say I'm terribly impressed with what A:M can do to make the materials without using materials or maps yet... I'ts pretty cool in just it's base surface properties mode.

my_piston.mov

[KenH]

Excellent start. Do you have actual blueprints for it? The piston arm seems a little fragile to me....I'd expect it to be thicker and maybe rectangular.

[oakchas]

Going off the original drawings. The piston is only ~1" in diameter. The cylinder is ~ 2 1/4" long... The Connecting rod (piston arm) is 5/16" square at the ends for a 3/32nd" piston pin.

 

Originally designed to be made from a 1" ID plumbing pipe, pipe cap, and various scraps.

 

This (particular) candle engine may never have been made... there's some speculation on that as vacuum engines are notoriously finicky to operate, though when they do, they are fascinating.

[GAngus]

Ahhh, great modle.

Will be watching your progress with intrerest.

I Love these working/animated mechanicals.

Brings back great memories of my mechanical drawing classes in High School.

Will there be a cylinder wall for the piston, with perhaps a cut away in the wall so the motions of the piston can still be seen.

Perhaps that's not part of the plan but just a thought.

Great job, nice metalics.

[oakchas]

Actually GA, I'm thinking of making a bit of a "story" out of it.... from magazine article, to CAD drawings, to primitive CAD animation, replaced by the model in wireframe and then a transition to the working model, with some transparency to begin.. finishing off with a blue screen composite of it "in situ" on a coffee table...

 

That's the dream anyway... we'll see how reality works out.

[oakchas]

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.

[noober]

Building a engine is a great task to take on. While I was in school I had a teacher say that a "student" was not capable of building a running engine. That was all I needed to get started. It took two weeks. But I got it. I used a 3d software that was not Animation Master so I wont post it. Unless someone would like to see the wire frame, perhaps Hash won't mind.

[Ganthofer]

Check out the Engine Finish MOV, I think this is what you are looking for Normal Maps

 

Glenn

[oakchas]

Check out the Engine Finish MOV, I think this is what you are looking for Normal Maps

 

Glenn

 

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

[oakchas]

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!

[noober]

I did this back in school. Remember I did this with competitive software, but perhaps you could get some tips on helping yours along. Hope y'all enjoy.

[oakchas]

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.

[oakchas]

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

[noober]

Looking really good. Keep at it. It took me a while to finish mine.

[oakchas]

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.

[oakchas]

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

[BrainLock]

wow. that's awesome.

 

You even got a slight wobble in the wheels as they turn, which makes it look much more real. How did you do that? Are the wheels not quite perfectly round?

[noober]

Looking good. I see the spring and the cam, but I cant see the valves.

[oakchas]

wow. that's awesome.

 

You even got a slight wobble in the wheels as they turn, which makes it look much more real. How did you do that? Are the wheels not quite perfectly round?

 

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.

 

Looking good. I see the spring and the cam, but I cant see the valves.

 

The flapper valve is what I'm working on today. I'll try to post the result before I go to work this afternoon.

[someawfulbridge]

That's looking really sharp!

[oakchas]

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

[oakchas]

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

[oakchas]

New update...

Some beveling done, tweaking materials, added alcohol lamp.

candle_engine4.mov

[BrainLock]

It's looking really good. The only glitch I noticed is that the wheels make a bit of a "bump" when the loop ends and restarts.

[oakchas]

It's looking really good. The only glitch I noticed is that the wheels make a bit of a "bump" when the loop ends and restarts.

 

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).

[nf1nk]

[

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).

 

one thing that can cause the bump I am seeing at the end of the loop, is where you have your last frame the same as the first frame. If this is the case ending the render one frame early fixes it.

[rusty]

Shades of my old 'Visible Engine' which I got for Christmas at about the age of nine! Cool! The next year I got the 'Visible Pregnant Woman' (what were my parents thinking!) but after the initial thrill I liked my clear plastic V8 better (girls were of course one thing but a clear plastic pregnant woman complete with baby and organs... at that age... like yuck!). :-)

 

Rusty

[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.

[oakchas]

You see just how far I have to go when you view this similar engine...

But it gives me somthing to shoot for.

Untitled.mov

 

I had NO IDEA they were capable of this speed!

[oakchas]

minor update:

Got rid of cheesy base, working on tweaking the walnut one.

tried messing with flame... almost lost everything... just ended up losing the ground. (whew)

Tweaked the metals a bit and the lamp.

 

candle_engine9a.mov

[oakchas]

The story begins to unfold... added the pages from a 1939 Popular Mechanix... The scale is off, though; the engine on its stand is hardly as long as one page wide... But I'm getting there... I think i need some reflective fall off on the brass parts as well.. they shouldn't reflect the pages so well....

 

candle_engine9b.mov

 

I would like some crits and some inputs as to how to progress if you've got the time.

[oakchas]

Here's a still from frame 26. The scale has been corrected in this shot.

[Rodney]

Hey thats nice Charlie!

 

I'm only just now catching up in the forum so this is the first I've seen of your candle engine.

I like where you are going with it.

[oakchas]

Thanks Rodney,

 

You're always so positive!

 

I'm trying to figure out distortion box action for the flame. then it's mostly just environment and tweaking the materials on the models.

[Rodney]

You're always so positive!

 

Hardly. My A:M persona balances my dark side.

 

I'm trying to figure out distortion box action for the flame. then it's mostly just environment and tweaking the materials on the models.

 

I have yet to try to tackle flame effects but its something I look forward to.

So you definitely have my interest there.

[oakchas]

Aging the pages... one at a time... my tape's a bit too yellow... but it's getting there