The Alabama & Southeastern RR WIP Thread (Large Screenies)

[jadebullet]

I dunno what you guys are talking about. Doing a proper reskin on a Jointedrail locomotive is probably the easiest skinning that I have ever done. The mapping is a dream and the scaling on the mapping means that I tend to get the striping right on the first try. Not sure what you guys are talking about with a bump map though. I have had no problem with it, even with the SD50. Unless you are having issues lining up your redrawn cabinet doors with the bump mapping. If that is the case, I can understand how much of a pain that would be. I would say just blank out the bump mapping entirely so that you won't have that annoyance to deal with.

In any case, you guys may want to try redrawing your cabinet doors again. They seem a little faded looking. Try using a darker color for the cracks in the cabinet doors. Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to draw several hundred rivets. That RS1 was a pain in the ass to make textures for.

 

[Southern1581]

I missed my striping on most of my tries, I still have one out of alignment but it's hard to notice and I'm really not up for fixing it right now. I gotta say, A&SE maroon looks good on that SD50.

This is an A&SE SD50X, one of 7. Instead of it's normal 16-645F prime mover, it has a 20-645E from an old CSX SD45-2 that was upgraded to 3700 hp. Runs like a dream.

 

[Southern1581]

Just caught another one. Here comes A&SE A202 northbound.

 

[AMTRAKwannabe]

Not perfect but pretty good.

 

[Southern1581]

Thanks. It stills has a couple of spots that need fixing, there's white spots showing up on the left side nose, brake wheel, and left front handrail that I need to fix, and the black stripe on the roof is out of alignment and needs to be moved back, but that's a project for another day, that thing has already stressed me out enough.

 

[Southern1581]

All right everyone we got permission from CG and the slugs have been released. Only 1201 and 1202 are out now, I need to redo 1203. It is on TNSR on a brand-new download page specifically for A&SE content. There is a screenshots area, a about section where you can get a bit of history of the A&SE, and the downloads area, which has DLS links for my prjindigo, cubby links for the Slugs (mediafire was ticking me off), and a link to Slabay's C40-8's. Enjoy!

 

[Bluewater]

Hows the GSHL coming?

 

[Southern1581]

Today was a work-free day for me because that skin among other things had me stressed out, so I was just chillin' today. Overall, I don't think I've worked on it since I got all of the deps for the AL Division and CRfan kept on my butt about making my deadline.

 

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

That SD50 looks good! Better than anything I could do lol

 

[Southern1581]

Thanks! Still needs a bit of work but I'm overall very happy with it. That unit is the result of a little over a day's worth of work. Hardest skin I've ever made.

 

[Southern1581]

I fixed up the problems I had on the SD50X today, and took the opportunity to recreate the A&SE's 3 other SD50 rebuilds as well.
The SD46-3

The SD44-2

The SD47-2

And another shot of the good ol' SD50X

And there'll probably be one or two more later on, plans have already been made for a SD50 that was repowered with a 3500 hp 710 engine. I think it'll be a SD52 or a SD55, maybe even a SD57, but I'm not sure, I'll think on it, and in the mean time you guys can come up with what the other one should be (we picked up 5 SD50's not too long ago and we're not sure what to do with them).

 

[NorfolkSouthern9708]

Looks great! Just curious how do you keep the details of the doors and shadows that JR paints on the original engines?

 

[Southern1581]

Thanks! I use the bump maps from the original and white it out. Bentrain14 has a great tutorial on his youtube which I learned how to do this from. His youtube is bnsf1328 I think.

 

[epa]

Thanks! I use the bump maps from the original and white it out. Bentrain14 has a great tutorial on his youtube which I learned how to do this from. His youtube is bnsf1328 I think.

I was also wondering about realistic JR skins, and I'm confused about the doors as well. Searched YouTube for that user, and came up with nothing.

 

[Southern1581]

I screwed up the username, it was bnsf1238 (my bad). Here's the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUbx5vWa3WU

 

[bentrain14]

I knew it I knew it he used my tuorial, YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

 

[Southern1581]

XD it was good one, thanks! I'm considering skinning one more JR unit before I quit doing them (because you know I don't have enough friggin' stress in my life as is), what do you guys think I should do?

 

[bentrain14]

ES44DC/AC SD70ACe and you could try the SD40-2 (later version) but I think try the newer one cause of mapping. Havnt tried yet.

 

[Southern1581]

Don't have any of those, might go for a reskinning attempt on the RBMN SD40-2, I practically live for the start/stop features in those RBMN units, it's so much fun cranking over those SD50's before a good little run.

 

[jadebullet]

While doing a quick and dirty recoloring using the bump like that is and interesting workaround, your cabinets would probably look much crisper and overall look nicer were you to take the time to redraw the cabinet doors manually. It isn't really that hard, just time consuming, but by doing so you will learn a wealth of information. I remember when I started off skinning, I traced every cabinet door by hand and slowly but surely I got better and better at making cabinets.

The problem with recoloring a locomotive via the bump map rather than reskinning it after redrawing the textures is that the cabinets look like they were just drawn on with a pencil. A really good example of this problem is in the top picture on this page. The one cabinet door is only really visible on one of its sides, the other side just being a bump. A redrawn cabinet texture on the other hand will look more like a cabinet. This is because you not only have the low of the gaps, but you also have some highlighting(one pixel outline around parts of the door with a white brush set to about 2% opacity). I mean, since you don't have the psds, you are losing the bake anyway. There is no real reason to use the bake method other than it is faster, but as with all things, faster isn't always better.

This isn't meant to be nitpicky or anything, I just want to give you some constructive criticism. Taking the time to draw your own textures will add so much more to your locomotives and make them look really good. And as I said, you will learn valuable techniques by redrawing your own textures. I hope this doesn't come off as rude, but just using a bump like that is like coloring in a coloring book versus taking the time to redraw all of the textures then recolor, which is like, well drawing a picture on a blank piece of paper and then coloring it.

In any case, enjoy your skinning. It can be a relaxing and rewarding experience.