POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.binaries.images : The Shallows - Instalment 1/3 : Re: The Shallows - Instalment 1/3 Server Time
29 Mar 2024 02:51:32 EDT (-0400)
  Re: The Shallows - Instalment 1/3  
From: Thomas de Groot
Date: 18 Sep 2022 08:03:44
Message: <63270920$1@news.povray.org>
Op 13-9-2022 om 19:33 schreef Bald Eagle:
> "s.day" <s.d### [at] uelacuk> wrote:
> 
> This is indeed coming along nicely.
> 
> For a railroad track in a swamp, I'd suggest that you give those railroad ties a
> good amount of texturing and "rot" - especially on the ends.  Having grown up
> around them and sawed them apart on a sawmill, I can tell you that the grain
> will be deeply displaced and quite pronounced.   The ends are almost always
> crumbling away with plenty of deep cracks.
> Maybe isowood is the way to go, although that would add to the total render
> time.
> 
The railroad track is Friedrich Lohmueller's, and adapting/replacing his 
(part of) objects is always a challenge as important details may be 
dispersed over several include files. You are certainly right about the 
"wear-and-tear" shown by well-used ties. I have a couple of them in my 
garden, and there are more in the neighbourhood. They are deeply 
impregnated and their weathered colour is close to greyish, while not 
too crumbling or too rugged in fact. However, that is the local 
situation here. I am presently exploring the possibility of replacing 
those ties by an isowood version as you suggested and I'll see how it 
goes. In any case, I went back to the original texture used by 
Friedrich, which looks much better. Another option would be to replace 
them by meshes with displacement mapping.

>> My main criticism would be some of the textures on the train, the top of the
>> roof looks great but the wheels look too clean/smooth. I know that part of the
>> wheel is pretty smooth/polished but it looks a bit plastic rather than metal.
>> Whereas the top of the track looks correct.
> 
> I'm sure TdG is still working on it - it's always a never ending list of things
> to tweak and adjust.
> 
> But yes, the wheels caught my eye as well.

Indeed. Initially, I was not very satisfied with the original texture 
used by Friedrich Lohmueller, and I changed it, which made it worse. I 
went back to the original, identical to the top of the rails.


> The tracks I think could use some dents and striations just to de-perfectionize
> them.
> 
>
https://pixels.com/featured/railroad-train-car-wheels-hitting-the-tracks-james-bo-insogna.html
> 
Hmm... maybe...

>> Also, given how rusty the top of the roof looks the rest of the train looks
>> untarnished.
> 
> I'd say a little bit of added normal to the textures ought to address most of
> those issues.
> 
Yes, that was still a matter to address and has been done now.  Note 
however, that the front of the trolley is not illuminated directly and 
the normals are not very visible there (even with radiosity {normal on} ).


> Although the clothing could use some wear and dirt as well --- unless he's going
> for that 80's Duran Duran music video vibe...   :D    Put skinny leather ties on
> those guys, and then it'll all be good.
> 
LOL. I use the conforming clothes from Anton Kisiel's Apollo Maximus 
figure (Poser) as a basis and those are not uv-mapped, which makes 
things a bit more complicated. Apollo Maximus is devilishly complicated 
too as you may know! I shall explore alternatives to simulate that wear 
and dirt you ask for :-)

I am currently looking at all those issues, and some additional ones 
too. Installment #2 is on hold as a result as many things are applied 
there too.

-- 
Thomas


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