R Reynolds Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 It seems appropriate that a new year brings a new model. This one is a PCC (President's Conference Committee) street car from the middle of the last century. The design was the final attempt by all stakeholders in the street car industry to sell a fast, quiet, state-of-the-art vehicle to cities with street cars and withstand the spread of diesel buses. And we all know how that turned out. Once it has an interior, its going to be painted in a scheme similar to the Toronto Transit Commission which had the largest PCC fleet in the world and kept running some "Red Rockets" into the 90's. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 2, 2016 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 2, 2016 Wow! that is lovely! Any idea why the far-side windows in the top pic are so bright? I'm guessing it's a "fog" problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted January 2, 2016 Admin Share Posted January 2, 2016 Wow. Seriously impressive. Love the detail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsjustme Posted January 2, 2016 Share Posted January 2, 2016 Looks fantastic, Rodger! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted January 4, 2016 Share Posted January 4, 2016 Yeah! Real cool! Can't wait to see it painted-up and living within your 1950 era cityscape! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Shelton Posted January 17, 2016 *A:M User* Share Posted January 17, 2016 Really great stuff!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ovni1 Posted January 18, 2016 Share Posted January 18, 2016 Impressive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Reynolds Posted January 21, 2016 Author Share Posted January 21, 2016 I started to play with texturing the exterior and as usual I got carried away and finished it. Any idea why the far-side windows in the top pic are so bright? I'm guessing it's a "fog" problem? For reasons unknown the reflectivity of the glass material got jacked up from the usual 10% to 35%, so the multiple reflections of the surrounding grey environment got out of hand. I don't know why I didn't notice this until you pointed it out. 10% looks much better. Thanks Robert. The detailing holds up well in this shot but it highlights why I need to install an interior (like I need a reason) since all the decals show on the inside. I modified the Toronto Transit Commision logo so they wouldn't issue a DMCA take-down notice. This last one really hasn't much to do with A:M but I just want to show off my success with resurrecting a JPEG of an old folded billboard graphic (top) and turning into a believable side mounted ad. Too bad I couldn't find a better substitute font for that craftmanslike hand painted script. I went through a lot of free fonts and the best I could do was use one font for the uppercase and a different one for the lower. The lowercase still had to be massaged to make one letter flow into the next. And what exactly is the connection between motor oil and a fine looking couple sitting on a beach? (At least I assume he looks fine, it's hard to tell behind that giant can he's leaning on). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsjustme Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Incredible work, Rodger! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fuchur Posted January 22, 2016 Share Posted January 22, 2016 Amazing model 👌 I'd say that the couple is there because they are just looking nice and because the beach is only reachable by car and the oil is the reason they could go there 😉 See you *Fuchur* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*A:M User* Shelton Posted January 22, 2016 *A:M User* Share Posted January 22, 2016 Great stuff!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R Reynolds Posted January 24, 2016 Author Share Posted January 24, 2016 Can't wait to see it painted-up and living within your 1950 era cityscape! Even with no interior, neither could I Matt. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Edmondson Posted January 24, 2016 Share Posted January 24, 2016 Mighty Impressive work Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted January 24, 2016 Admin Share Posted January 24, 2016 In the context of a scene that looks outstanding! Wow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted January 26, 2016 Share Posted January 26, 2016 Rodger, it is a process that inevitably leads to animation... pleeeease! (I love it!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnord71 Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Wow. Fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 27, 2016 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 27, 2016 Cool, the Nighthawks can catch the train home! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted January 27, 2016 Hash Fellow Share Posted January 27, 2016 . street_car_PCC_construction_05.jpg And what exactly is the connection between motor oil and a fine looking couple sitting on a beach? (At least I assume he looks fine, it's hard to tell behind that giant can he's leaning on). Until I read "gasoline" I presumed it was an ad for canned black olives or something. Which would make just as much sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Great ad- love the car in the bkgd... is this by the guy who did the Janzen swimsuit ads? In case anyone is wondering- the woman in the image is asking the man 'Where is your swimsuit?'... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blixien Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 The last render just needs people awesome model Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 "...just needs people..." You're probably right and I'm starting with the street car driver. As usual, for me, building believable actors is a long tough slog. This guy took about four months and I still think he needs more "complexion" decals on his face and ears to reduce the mannequin look. I'm hoping he'll look good enough once he's inside the street car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted June 7, 2016 Admin Share Posted June 7, 2016 Nice. And he fits well in the realistic style you've got for the streetcar too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Edmondson Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Roger Your model making is far away superior to anything I have made, so I hesitate to make a suggestion but, rather than go for a lot of detail on the face and hands, might it be as effective to loosen the regularity of the clothes, to make the overall look slightly 'softer' ? For example, the bottom edge of the jacket is very straight and regular. A slight curve in the line as it moves over the figure would make it less mannequin like. Similarly with the trousers. Its still a lot better than anything I can do. regards simon 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 A jolly fellow with a great job! He looks fab- love the wrinkles under the knee! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 ...might it be as effective to loosen the regularity of the clothes... Good call, Simon. I lengthened the jacket so it folds slightly at his legs and tweaked his cuffs a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckGram Posted July 21, 2016 Share Posted July 21, 2016 That is some really great stuff right there. Nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 3, 2016 Share Posted August 3, 2016 Began detailing the front of the interior around the driver's seat. Still need to clutter up the "dashboard" with things like a change machine and clipboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 For the street car's recently celebrated 1st birthday, I gave it a detailed front interior. I turned up only a few reference photos of the driver's area and each showed a different piece of hardware. I decided to put them all into this model to give it a "lived in" look. I'm still tweaking the driver's face in an attempt to have him looking less like a mannequin. He's getting better but I have yet to reach the uncanny valley. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Wooooow! Are you going to fill the entire bus with that level of detail? Awesome stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xtaz Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 Your work is superb. Maybe some changes in the driver to make him more relaxed, he is looking like a robot in this pose. The elbow should be away from the body with your hands more centered. Tilting the spine will also help in naturalizing the pose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Are you going to fill the entire bus with that level of detail? Well Matt, the rest of the interior won't be that cluttered. It made sense at the driver's end since it's his work space. But I'll probably just fill the bus with multiple Action Object copies of the two sizes of seating. Action Objects will also work for the ceiling mounted light fixtures. After modeling the the rear bench seats and decaling in a few curved advertising sheets above the seats there should be enough detail to be convincing for most shots from the outside. Maybe some changes in the driver to make him more relaxed, Thanks for the suggestions Marcos, any help with human modeling is greatly appreciated. I'll give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 The following clip of the street car driving slowly towards the camera, which starts with this frame and ends with this frame, was rendered to see if the driver's believability could withstand the camera being this close to him. (Please ignore the volatility of the internal seating which changed over the course of the multi-night rendering sessions). street_car_drivethru.mpg I'm still not sure of the driver but my attention was drawn to the reflections on the interior wavy sheet metal, clearly visible between the two rows of windows.In my opinion this material is too reflective but reducing it makes me run into a A:M limitation that I've known about for some time and would appreciate if it could be fixed. These two images show a developing material on a spherical cube in the environment I use for testing. In this case I was playing with levels of dirt added to the right side of the model. Both materials are the same except their reflectivities. As noted, the left material's reflectivity = 0.501 while on the right, its' reflectivity = 0.500. I'm no expert but it would appear that a float value is being incorrectly converted to an integer, making reflectivity = 0 for any value less than or equal to 0.5. I've tried using various combinations of combiners and turbulence to get smaller reflectivities without success. Any chance this could be looked at for v19? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted January 23, 2017 Admin Share Posted January 23, 2017 Very cool Rodger! Any chance this could be looked at for v19? Put in an A:M Report and link to your post (post 32) If it's what you suspect I'm confident Steffen can assess and fix the problem. If no report is submitted the answer leans more toward 'no, this won't be addressed in v19'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 I followed your advice and discovered I had already submitted this to A:M Report for v17 on 2014-03-17, ID#0006493. I added a note with a link to this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted January 24, 2017 Admin Share Posted January 24, 2017 discovered I had already submitted this to A:M Report for v17 on 2014-03-17 I hope you put a note in the v19 listings (i.e. created a new report for v19) I doubt v17 get much attention any more. I don't see a report for v19 related to your issue so will guess not. It doesn't appear that older reports are editable to bring them forward (at least not with our permissions). As such I would suggest creating a new report for v19 that refers to the old. I was going to create a report on your behalf but I'm not entirely sure I'd be reporting it correctly. I'll see what I can do in referring 6493 for v17. Update: Reported on your behalf as #6781. Added: I'm curious about your surface's specularity settings as specularity size has some control over reflectivity. In other words (I think), make sure your specularity size is not zero. Here's the write up from Specularity in File Info Properties: There must be some size to the specular highlight or there will be no highlight at all. The higher the value, the larger the specular highlight, which causes the object to appear softer or rougher (conversely, small specular sizes make the object appear harder or smoother). Because "Specular Size" makes a surface appear smoother or rougher, which is a visual consequence of light reflected from a smooth or rough surface, it also controls two other reflectivity related render properties : Soft Reflections and Fresnel reflection. When "Soft Reflection" is turned ON (in the render properties), "Specular Size" controls the width of the reflection softness on reflective surfaces. The reflection softness will be the same width as the specular highlight. See Also Soft Reflections When "Soft Reflection" is turned OFF, "Specular Size" controls the Fresnel effect on the edge of reflective objects. See Also Fresnel Term Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bigboote Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Yeah! Viva animation! Looking good Rodger... I don't know why a reflectivity setting that low would cause such a hot reflection... I think I have noticed that 'all-or-nothing' point at .5 reflectivity too. Do you set the reflectivity falloff distance? Maybe that could help. I find reflectivity falloff very helpful and miss that value in C4D as an option... I think they counter it with a fresnel value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted January 24, 2017 Admin Share Posted January 24, 2017 Here's another thought... Are you rendering out to a format like EXR first to gain the additional precision of that format? Once rendered the image (container) can be selected in the PWS and re-saved as another format via Right Click>Save As Animation (even if it's only one still image). I'm not sure this will make any difference but it might. Unrelated aside: To gain the look of black and white photo or film you might try the grayscale GPU post effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Rodney Posted January 28, 2017 Admin Share Posted January 28, 2017 Good news Rodger. According to A:M Reports this reflectivity problem (report: #6781) has been addressed and is closed. The fix should be coming your way as of the next release. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 That's good to hear; v19 here I come. Thanks for your assistance, Rodney. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Yeah! Viva animation! Matt, since you like that one, here's a 14 sec. test drive-by who's middle frame looks like this. The awkward framing is to show off the three completed buildings and to disguise the fact that the streetcar has no interior or driver. streetcar_drive_by_crane_shot.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsjustme Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Looks fantastic to me, Rodger! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maniac Posted February 14, 2017 Share Posted February 14, 2017 That is very nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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