[NEWB] Blender Tips for engineers please

[ikarus]

Hy,

I'd like to create an alternative monorail sprite. I am (almost shamelessly) copying the design/artwork from the game "Tiberian Sun". I've got with Photoshop so far (I used PS only to make the tiles, the screenshot is authentic):

screenshot_01.png (37.7 KiB) Viewed 3649 times

I'd like to improve the graphics and I always wanted to learn Blender, so here I am asking for advice. Besides the 32bit Graphics Development page on the OpenTD wiki, are there any other guides/tutorials/guidelines I need to consider (like how wide is a monorail track in comparison to the square/tile?)? Also, are there any scripts to automate rendering different orientations (camera/light position)? Do I use the grass from the default materials or plug my render over Ben_Robbins_'s graphics (which btw are super ); in which case I would need his permission, which I can get how? Can I use Indigo Renderer?

Thank you for listening,
i

[Ben_Robbins_]

Hi Ikarus,

Main things to consider with monorail that I can think of are:

1) That it doesn’t sit too high up, so that trains going beneath the incredibly low bridges don’t push the ‘artistic license’ too far.
2) Width: The width needs fit everything the track goes over such as bridges, as these have a fixed width as some of the sprites are shared with road and other rail.

Your example seems to pass both of them.

For the different angles, I believe the blender LS on the wiki automatically renders the 4 angles, but you would need to ask Aracirion for further information on that. The light position would stay fixed relative to the camera, rather than to the scene.

The default materials page is actually just some sample materials. The title needs fixing.

If you want to use the grass I made then you can do, so long as the .tar is posted, and cheers for the compliment! Just to note: the grass is still being altered.

You can use whatever rendering software you want, but try to get the graphics to fit with other graphics. i.e. make a Light setup that is as close to as possible the other standard ones.

[LordAzamath]

Aracirion hasn't answered to my PM for over three months already (I deleted the pm at last)..so it's not clever to pm him. And default lightning is template already in..just append your things and scale them to right size..

[Korenn]

as far as general Blender guides go, read http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

it has great examples that you can follow and really get a feel for what all the shortcut keys are, etc.

[ikarus]

If you want to use the grass I made then you can do, so long as the .tar is posted

you are one tough negotiator Ben_Robbins_ . I've attached the files I've got so far. Please note: it still needs work, alignment-wise and missing-tile-wise; I don't know if I will do them soon, since I want to redo them in Blender.

And default lightning is template already in..just append your things and scale them to right size..

Do you mean a default lighting template? Is it "Template F middle contrast" or another one?!

as far as general Blender guides go, read http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro

thanks ALOTT. That's just what I need (btw, why do all beginner 3D tutorials start with a cube ?)

[GeekToo]

The default lighting setup is on

http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/32bit ... evelopment
In the Template File and Specifications section ( download setup f file)

The different views are not automated ( I believe Alltaken has made some scripts, but they seem to have disappeared from his site)

But in the standard light setup, the different angles are already predefined, so all you have to do is to select one of the frames 1-4 ( just below the 3d window, a number with a arrow left and right of it) and the sun and camera will move to one of the camera positions accordingly. In this picture: the frame is 1, click on the arrows beside it http://wiki.openttd.org/index.php/Image:AO-samples.png
Then you can render with F12

In the zip, different files are present for different tile sizes and standard materials.

[ikarus]

Since everybody has been so busy, I thought I'd catch up with what I wanted to do as well.

In my quest to learn some 3D modelling, I did this maglev track (view attachment, not textured).
It's modelled to scale after the transrapid track, since Ben_Robbins_ did a Transrapid 08 Shanghai for the 32bit Lev4 'Chimaera'.

My questions:
1. Any tips regarding texturing? The track is supposed to be concrete
2. Should I render the tiles with grass or overlay the track on Ben's tiles in an image editor? If I should render it, could you Ben please sed me the files?
3. How can I make the tracks tile (shadow: from left to right it gets thinner and lighter, ergo,it doesn't tile), other than editing the image?

[LordAzamath]

3. How can I make the tracks tile (shadow: from left to right it gets thinner and lighter, ergo,it doesn't tile), other than editing the image?

You can extrude the object, split it [P] and make the material for the new object to cast only.. That casts shadows, but doesn't render the object which has cast only..

[ikarus]

Thanks , I'll try that.

[Ben_Robbins_]

Although I like the track as you have it, and note that that was what I made the maglev train to, I think having the concave Japanese stile track may be better.

It is more fitting to the original stile, and make it noticeably different from monorail, but more importantly, it will make making junctions a lot easier. This does contradict a point I made in the past though, but I retract that... If you can make it work though, make the graphics how you wish.

For your questions.

1) for cement you could maybe add noise, just to give a subtle texture. I think if its believable though a smooth bit of rail will tile better, and should still look great. The 2 lines you have running along near the edge for example make the top of the rail more than just a flat plane.

2) It's easier to add the grass in an image editor I have found. Firstly grass takes a while to render, but also the latest grass sprites have been photoshoped so many times that the original max file would produce grass that needs editing in an image editor anyway.