Modeling questions

[snaps1912]

I am not new to Trainz, but I am new to attempting to model equipment for the game. I have a few questions.

1.I want to create freeware for the community, without spending any money,(I.E. no 3DSmax.) What would the preferred modeling program be?

2.Could anyone with experience in modeling rolling stock please help guide me on my first project or projects?

3.Where do most people obtain schematics/blueprints for their modeling ventures.

I would like to add my idea. It is to add in PRR/PC/CR content, with items such as Ore Jennies,Hoppers, and Boxcars, with possible engines later on.

Thank you for reading this.

 

[BobCass]

snaps1912: What I would suggest is G-MAX or Blender(Both are free)..I personnly do not use them because the learning curve is to steep for me..But They both will animate and you can import into Trainz..I like sketch up and that what I use for modeling..But you can import into Trainz, but they are static items only(no animation)..

 

[slabay]

3.Where do most people obtain schematics/blueprints for their modeling ventures.

I would like to add my idea. It is to add in PRR/PC/CR content, with items such as Ore Jennies,Hoppers, and Boxcars, with possible engines later on.

Thank you for reading this.

http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/

Good luck! i've just started building stuff myself. It has been quite a challenge finding good drawings.

 

[wva-usa]

Not sure what era you're interested in modeling but here's a fairly detailed set of elevation drawings for a Pennsylvania X25 class steel box car (pic below) with wood floor from 1912: http://archive.org/stream/railwayagegazett88newy#page/422/mode/1up (right click to download as images -- you might want to enlarge the view first)

More info on the PRR's "X" family of box/express cars here: http://www.trainlife.com/articles/645/pennsylvania-s-x-29-and-other-x-s-in-the-family

X25 (above)

From the basic X25 dimensions you could also build a X25a

X25a (automobile car)

 

[snaps1912]

Thank you all for the answers, I'm sure the links can help me.

I still need one thing helped, however, and that is the basics. That is why I put Question number two in.
If I cannot get the basics down on my own, I'm going to be relegated to being a beggar who only can hope
that any content request I put in could be answered, and I do not like being a "gimmiepig".

 

[snaps1912]

Ive been trying for about an hour now and have looked at the tutorials on places such as WoT. I cannot get Gmax and I have no idea where to start in blender. I need help....

 

[slabay]

Ive been trying for about an hour now and have looked at the tutorials on places such as WoT. I cannot get Gmax and I have no idea where to start in blender. I need help....

I'm just now getting the hang of it myself. For what it is worth, I tried on 3 separate occasions to get started with gMax and Blender. Each time I started and failed. It usually ended up with a splitting migraine, Tylenol, and a Pina Colada to call it a night. Finally, I managed to make a flat plane, visible from one side only, in gMax that I could use for painting on the sides of bridges. I was never even able to make a simple box in Blender. Then, I made a squat little cylinder that I was able to texture and use as an attachment mesh for an End of Train light on some cabooses I was reskinning. Ultimately, I was able to get my foot in the door on gMax and I managed to make a primitive boxy grocery store, then a stupid little flatbed car to prove to myself I could do it using the WoT tutorials. Ultimately, gMax helped me get the hang of 3ds Max, and now I'm using that, although I can hardly say I'm "off and running" with it..... more like "still stumbling along".

For what it is worth, gMax is the free "baby brother" to 3ds Max, and is a great place to start if you want to eventually go that route. What I heard of Blender, it has more powerful features and can export better models (normals mapping and such), but PEV has a new gMax exporter that I believe can do them too. I was NEVER able to get into Blender.

I'm nowhere NEAR confident enough with what I am doing to teach (the blind leading the blind), but I can say this: If you want to create content, stick with it. Expect failures. We need our failures to learn from. If you persevere, you WILL get the hang of it. DON'T set out to make a boxcar. Start simple with a building or something. (Something boxy, not something complicated!!) Get your head around one of the programs with simple objects, then move on to the boxcar. It is the small successes that will push you on to bigger and better things. Try to make something big, you will fail big, and give up.

Once I felt I had the hang of it, I moved on to make my caboose. Wow, I over-reached in picking that for my first real piece of content! I got a lot of helpful advice and a little modeling help, and it is now available in a beta form, but I still have a lot I want to do with it. I also have a corrugated gondola that I need to upload, and I'm working on a new car as well. I feel pretty good with what I know, but I also know that I have a LONG way to go.

Maybe one of the more prolific gMax creators can reach out to you and give you a hand...... good luck and I hope to see good things from you!

 

[wva-usa]

Ive been trying for about an hour now and have looked at the tutorials on places such as WoT. I cannot get Gmax and I have no idea where to start in blender. I need help....

This video tells how to get and install Gmax and set it up for Trainz. Downloads @: http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax and http://www.auran.com/trainz/contentcreation.htm

 

[mjolnir]

...<snippage>...I have no idea where to start in blender. I need help....

Blender is a complicated package, and one would do well to learn to use the package before trying to make content for Trainz. There are several good resources for doing this available free on line.

1) There is a high school level course by James Chronister, available for free, through the auspices of Central Dauphin High School, in Pennsylvania, which can be accessed at http://www.cdschools.org/Page/455 This is a series of ~.pdf files with video tutorials which show the use of the software. The page also contains as a reference, a link to information about a book by John Blaine, http://silverjb.limewebs.com/index.html, which is quite good, but this book does not appear to be not free.

2) For something a bit more advanced, there is a college level course by Neil Hirsig, also available for free, through the auspices of Tufts University, which can be accessed at http://gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html. This is also quite good.

3) There is a Wikibook, Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro , available at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro.

4) There is a wealth of materials by way of video tutorials available on Youtube (and probably Vimeo, as well, though I have mede little use of those). If you run into a concept that you don't understand in one of the courses I refer to above, trying a search for that concept in Youtube (for example, animating a wheel, or a door), will likely result in a number of tutorials, of varying quality.

Any of these three resources can help one get started on the road to mastering Blender, though none of them specifically deal with Trainz issues related to Content creation. For example, Trainz has rather specific requirements for naming of textures to be used in game, and none of these resources deal with that. However, once on has mastered using textures in blender, adopting the Trainz conventions for texture names is trivial. A note of caution, though, Blender has many capabilities that Trainz does not exploit or implement.

ns

 

[snaps1912]

Yet again thank you all for the continued support. I will attempt to tinker with both for a bit and update this in a while.

 

[angelah]

All these threads plunge into a which is best 3D creation program and both free ones have their devotees who think their choice is the best thing since sliced bread.
I cannot say which is best, I have both but could never get along with Blender while others thrive on it. So I work in Gmax which as you know is a free utility and has all the tools within it to do just about anything you want. Running it from within TACS (Trainz Asset Creation Studio) means it is a snap getting your models into Trainz and working. Depending on where your interests lie you will need to learn a lot more about scripts if you want to produce rolling stock/locos for instance, than you would if producing static items such as buildings.
I took Gmax up because I couldn't find the assets I wanted on the DS so felt it better to make them myself. Mainly I make buildings so animation scripts are not necessary and that makes life a lot simpler. Most objects are made from quite simple things, boxes and cylinders etc which are then turned into a mesh so the various surfaces or edges can be manipulated and so change that basic shape.
There is a steep learning curve on both Gmax and Blender so it is always best to start simple, get to grips with the basics and then build on that. So start with a box or boxes and add these together to make something. The hardest part is getting textures on and getting them where you want them to be so the most basic of lessons is to make a texture map in your graphics program of 6 different colours areas each with a number from 1 - 6, turned that into a targa file to the power of 2 (2, 4, 8, 16 and so on) and then put that onto a box and so make a die (not dice). This little exercise will teach you texture mapping.

Don't expect too much immediately and please do not try to make a loco straight away, you will run into so many problems you will give up, believe me. Start simple and gradually build on that. I took up content creation and with the help of another creator who will remain nameless (but thanks a lot to that person) I got going fairly quickly, a couple of months I think. TBH my first creations that went to the DS make me cringe a bit now but we all have to take the plunge to upload at some point and people don't have to download them if they don't wish to. The main point there is that it gives you confidence.
Getting scales right is a good and important thing and that can be done from basic things such as the height of a door. Look at the things around you like the height of the ceiling in your home, usually about 7 feet which means a 2 storey house would be a touch over 14 feet. I work in metric so use a calculator to change any Imperial measurements into it by changing the footage into inches and dividing by 39, that gives you the metric sizes. Equally you can work in Imperial, this is your choice.

So good luck, Trainz needs all the creators it can get.

Angela

 

[ray_whiley]

This is very sound advice from Angela, and summarises my own 'route' in learning to use GMax (after a brief 30 minutes hands-on tuition followed by much trial and error -mainly the latter, as I have said before.) If you progress step by step from the simple model to the more complex, you will succeed.

To add to the above query about source material, I get inspiration from my collection of Railway Modeller magazines (UK) dating back to the mid-1950s and really enjoy making models of buildings from the drawings which were plentiful until more recent years when articles on kit construction seem to have taken over. My recent model of Clapham Junction (North Yorkshire) station building, for example, is based on a drawing to 2mm scale from the January 1965 magazine. For me, a lot of the pleasure comes from creating the necessary artwork in my graphics editing program. The sister magazine, Continental Modeller, may well contain similar drawings. These are not, of course, exclusively of buildings but include locomotives and rolling stock, and although I am not familiar with the American market, there must be similar magazines with drawings available there as a source of material.

Ray