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Post by jnr on Jan 3, 2023 20:03:39 GMT
Hi all I am open to suggestion's on this one , As you can see this is in the very early stages of development I am quite happy for you to make comments on the colour scheme or if you would prefer a diesel engine of a steam engine Please note the steam version will animated the diesel version will not. It can easily be changed at this stage. So lets have your comments Best Regards Jnr
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Post by starfighter on Jan 4, 2023 17:47:41 GMT
Interesting, but what types of steam and diesel locomotives are these? š¤šš²
STARFIGHTER
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Post by jnr on Jan 5, 2023 19:51:24 GMT
Hi Starfighter Scale plans for any type of models are very hard to get hold of, when I make a model I donāt make an exact copy of a full size real locomotive , I use a lot of my imagination and what I know as fact . I do a lot of research before even start making a model, a lot of model making is making some thing that looks like a real example and what looks good ,model makers tread a very fine line between getting it right and getting it wrong.
Best regards Jnr
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Post by starfighter on Jan 6, 2023 2:23:14 GMT
Hi Starfighter Scale plans for any type of models are very hard to get hold of, when I make a model I donāt make an exact copy of a full size real locomotive , I use a lot of my imagination and what I know as fact . I do a lot of research before even start making a model, a lot of model making is making some thing that looks like a real example and what looks good ,model makers tread a very fine line between getting it right and getting it wrong. Best regards Jnr Hi Jnr Are you using some universal model as a base for steam locomotive models (even some diesel locomotives) with that universal base modified to at least look a little like the type of locomotive you want to build..? Am I understanding this correctly? What is the success rate of this procedure of creating a model to match the real locomotive...? š²š¤š
STARFIGHTER
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Post by boots127 on Jan 6, 2023 2:56:38 GMT
Hi all I am open to suggestion's on this one , As you can see this is in the very early stages of development I am quite happy for you to make comments on the colour scheme or if you would prefer a diesel engine of a steam engine Please note the steam version will animated the diesel version will not. It can easily be changed at this stage. So lets have your comments Best Regards Jnr View Attachment View AttachmentI have 1 suggestion. Can u make an old swedish steamer? A B2 1289 (2-6-0). It's no hurry! - Boots127
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train
Conductor
Posts: 114
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Post by train on Jan 7, 2023 20:52:21 GMT
Hi all I am open to suggestion's on this one , As you can see this is in the very early stages of development I am quite happy for you to make comments on the colour scheme or if you would prefer a diesel engine of a steam engine Please note the steam version will animated the diesel version will not. It can easily be changed at this stage. So lets have your comments Best Regards Jnr View Attachment View AttachmentDo you know how to make steam engines in RTR? So far I have believed that everyone who knew how to do it was no longer active, so its good to see that animated models are slowly returning. Do you build and animate your chassis from scratch or you reuse the ones from the existing engines?
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Post by jnr on Jan 8, 2023 16:21:23 GMT
Hi Train Yes I do make steam engines for RTR, I tend to use existing animated wheel sets it easier,I donāt know why but members of any forum will just not share the process of animation , I think itās the old escape clauseā this mine and you are not getting it ā I have experienced this on other forums, but what the hell we will get there in the end
Kindest regards Jnr
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Post by dad3353 on Jan 8, 2023 17:14:18 GMT
Hi Train Yes I do make steam engines for RTR, I tend to use existing animated wheel sets it easier,I donāt know why but members of any forum will just not share the process of animation... I found this somewhat intriguing, and may be overstepping, but I came across an RTR loco which seemed curious (Ganz 2BB2 401 or something...) and wanted to know how it could work. The original was an MSTS model, it came from railatelier, and was modelled, apparently, by Pascal Grando. All this to say that, from that download, I was able to create files suitable for Blender, and using this I took it apart and modelled the wheel and con-rod mechanisms, animating them for MBS (3D Train Studio...), where it runs well. I don't know how to do stuff with other software (I gave up on SketchUp; it's not for me...), but I have converted my animated Gltf file to DirectX '.x' format, using UUP. I've attached the resulting '.x' file; can your read it in any form..? What would it take to be able to use the information in there for creating RTR-compatible models..? Why do I ask..? The creation of suitable animations is relatively simple with Blender, I find, so I would like to see if there's a simple path to get from Blender to RTR, including animations of the sort. Here's the file, anyway; is it legible for you..? 2BB2_Ganz.rar (177.48 KB) Here's a short video of the loco in MBS... ... and here's a Blender view of it... Any use..? Douglas
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Post by jnr on Jan 8, 2023 21:02:31 GMT
Hi Douglas Just let me say that if you can animate in Blender then you are a answer to my prayers. I once found a you tube video that showed how to animate a set of six train Wheels with connecting rods ,but unfortunately I lost it ,however If I could master the process of animating train wheels and con rods it would be the highlight of my modelling Abilities if you could teach me how to do this I would ever be in your debt I have Blender, Fragmotion, Milkshape and Sketchup installed on my pc, and I am keen to explore pastures new
I have had a quick look your model in Fragmotion and it appears that the animation is not working , what puzzles me is why there are so many sets of animation. RTR users are quite happy if the wheels rotate and the conrods rotate in sync with the wheels
RTR Model basically require 3 things Textures an x file and a xli file , many RTR modellers in the past have used x files generated in Blender to make very good models for RTR
Kindest Regardās Jnr
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Post by dad3353 on Jan 8, 2023 23:09:25 GMT
Jnr... That's not a difficult Challenge; I'm sure we can get you animating wheels and con-rods in no time flat. We'll start here; if it gets messy in this topic, or too much for the Forum, we can use direct email. I have a Google Drive if we need to pass big files around. Here's how to start... In Blender, make a Wheel. This can be a 'real' 3D wheel, or a simple square plane (two triangles, Ć la mode RTR for example...), it doesn't matter. You can texture it as a Wheel, as an option; it may help when we want to see it spinning. The size matters not. The only important thing is to have the object, 'Wheel', with its Origin at its centre 'that's the little orange dot around which the object will pivot...). It will be the case, generally, for a newly-created object, and a wheel is symmetrical, but other object can be different, so it needs checking, as it's important. OK, we have our Wheel. Here's mine... In Object mode, select the Animation Tab, to see this... Another important point : Make sure that both Rotate and Scale are set to 0Ā° and 1.0 respectively. If not, use 'Ctrl A' to apply transformations. Our starting point for animations depends on having the Rotation and Scale set before anything else. OK, now for the fun part. With the Animation set to '1' on the Timeline, and the mouse in the editing window, press 'I'; this will create our first key-frame. Select 'Rotation' in the list presented... The Rotation edit boxes turn yellow, and two dots appear in the timeline. Take the timeline to 100 (click on '100'...)... The edit boxes have turned green. Type '360' in the 'Y' rotation box... With the mouse in the edit window, press 'I' for a new Rotation key-frame... Set the timeline back to '1', and set the animation 'End' to '100' (bottom right of screen...). Press 'Play' and watch the wheel turn... Excellent; Good Job..! You will notice, however, that the rotation starts off slow, speeds up, then slows towards the end. That's fine for many things, but not for train wheels. We want a 'linear' animation. No worries; in the animation Action Editor menu, select 'Key/Interpolation mode/Linear'... The key-frames become joined by a green line, and the animation is now linear... How are we doing..? Too fast for you..? Too slow..? Any problems or snags..? Over to you... Douglas Anim_Whee.rar (207.19 KB)
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Post by jnr on Jan 9, 2023 7:08:31 GMT
Good Morning Douglas
This is a totally different blender than what I have used in the past even then I was just at the novice stage I can't even find the import button. you will have to slow down somewhat, what version of Blender are you using and can I import and export x files without having to install an addon
Regard Jnr
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Post by dad3353 on Jan 9, 2023 12:19:24 GMT
Get the current Blender (3.4...) here ...Get the x-file exporter from GitHub, here ... (Click on 'Code' to download the 'zip' file...) There is no importer for .x files; I import these into UUP (Ultimate Unwrap3D Pro...), then save, in UUP, as .gltf files, which I then import into Blender. We can go through the steps one by one, no problem Douglas
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train
Conductor
Posts: 114
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Post by train on Jan 9, 2023 20:20:14 GMT
Hi Train Yes I do make steam engines for RTR, I tend to use existing animated wheel sets it easier,I donāt know why but members of any forum will just not share the process of animation , I think itās the old escape clauseā this mine and you are not getting it ā I have experienced this on other forums, but what the hell we will get there in the end Kindest regards Jnr Ok, so you know how to make animated wheels from scratch? If yes, as I said, i would like you to help me the first ever tutorial document on doing this, since this is a dying skill here (as far as I know there are only me, you and maybe "dad" around that know how to do this), and I feel like an easy to follow tutorial is the solution for this. If we want more steam engines on RTR and to keep this game alive we need to spread knowledge about it. I'm sorry for these people's poor attitude of "this mine and you are not getting it", in the end things like this will only make knowledge on making these engines slowly die until no one knows how to do them anymore. Have you ever been in littleville depot? are they still around? I can't create an account and as far as I'm concerned it is one of the last bastions of the RTR community, since for now we are still a pretty small forum and I don't know how many people from there are still around (but may not be aware of RTR Central).
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train
Conductor
Posts: 114
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Post by train on Jan 9, 2023 20:21:52 GMT
Hi Train Yes I do make steam engines for RTR, I tend to use existing animated wheel sets it easier,I donāt know why but members of any forum will just not share the process of animation... I found this somewhat intriguing, and may be overstepping, but I came across an RTR loco which seemed curious (Ganz 2BB2 401 or something...) and wanted to know how it could work. The original was an MSTS model, it came from railatelier, and was modelled, apparently, by Pascal Grando. All this to say that, from that download, I was able to create files suitable for Blender, and using this I took it apart and modelled the wheel and con-rod mechanisms, animating them for MBS (3D Train Studio...), where it runs well. I don't know how to do stuff with other software (I gave up on SketchUp; it's not for me...), but I have converted my animated Gltf file to DirectX '.x' format, using UUP. I've attached the resulting '.x' file; can your read it in any form..? What would it take to be able to use the information in there for creating RTR-compatible models..? Why do I ask..? The creation of suitable animations is relatively simple with Blender, I find, so I would like to see if there's a simple path to get from Blender to RTR, including animations of the sort. Here's the file, anyway; is it legible for you..? View AttachmentHere's a short video of the loco in MBS... ... and here's a Blender view of it... Any use..? Douglas I kinda know how to make animated steam engines using existing wheelsets. I have no idea on how to do these from scratch though. I also don't know how to make RTR models on blender 2.8, as my methods are outdated as of now and there are no tutorials regarding blender and RTR. So far my current method for creating steam engines is: making the "bodies" on RTR and putting them over existing wheelsets using Fragmotion.
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train
Conductor
Posts: 114
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Post by train on Jan 9, 2023 20:26:02 GMT
Jnr... That's not a difficult Challenge; I'm sure we can get you animating wheels and con-rods in no time flat. We'll start here; if it gets messy in this topic, or too much for the Forum, we can use direct email. I have a Google Drive if we need to pass big files around. Here's how to start... In Blender, make a Wheel. This can be a 'real' 3D wheel, or a simple square plane (two triangles, Ć la mode RTR for example...), it doesn't matter. You can texture it as a Wheel, as an option; it may help when we want to see it spinning. The size matters not. The only important thing is to have the object, 'Wheel', with its Origin at its centre 'that's the little orange dot around which the object will pivot...). It will be the case, generally, for a newly-created object, and a wheel is symmetrical, but other object can be different, so it needs checking, as it's important. OK, we have our Wheel. Here's mine... In Object mode, select the Animation Tab, to see this... Another important point : Make sure that both Rotate and Scale are set to 0Ā° and 1.0 respectively. If not, use 'Ctrl A' to apply transformations. Our starting point for animations depends on having the Rotation and Scale set before anything else. OK, now for the fun part. With the Animation set to '1' on the Timeline, and the mouse in the editing window, press 'I'; this will create our first key-frame. Select 'Rotation' in the list presented... The Rotation edit boxes turn yellow, and two dots appear in the timeline. Take the timeline to 100 (click on '100'...)... The edit boxes have turned green. Type '360' in the 'Y' rotation box... With the mouse in the edit window, press 'I' for a new Rotation key-frame... Set the timeline back to '1', and set the animation 'End' to '100' (bottom right of screen...). Press 'Play' and watch the wheel turn... Excellent; Good Job..! You will notice, however, that the rotation starts off slow, speeds up, then slows towards the end. That's fine for many things, but not for train wheels. We want a 'linear' animation. No worries; in the animation Action Editor menu, select 'Key/Interpolation mode/Linear'... The key-frames become joined by a green line, and the animation is now linear... How are we doing..? Too fast for you..? Too slow..? Any problems or snags..? Over to you... Douglas View AttachmentYour idea is magnificent in theory, however... Does this animation work on RTR? (Please test it) I have seen that RTR's models have an entire skeleton structure that animates them, and even that is built in a fairly odd way which I don't understand, and all bones need to have "B_" in the beginning of their names to prevent the model from moving away of it's origin. If we find out a way to make scratch-built chassis in blender I think making steam engines will become an infinitely easier task and what will make steam engines survive on RTR. rule-the-rail.lima-city.de/?p=186Check this tutorial, it is very important, and is the only tutorial for animated steam engines that has ever been made, and please keep me updated, as I want to if possible, write a tutorial document on all of that.
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