Christmas Special - Geoff Goes to the Fair - Fully Automated session

Merry Christmas Everyone

Today I present a special Trainz short film. This short is entirely made using Trainz 19. The whole thing is put together using a Trainz session. There is no video editing. From start to finish it is 1 session. There is NO interaction from me other than pressing start at the beginning.The short film tells the very simple story of an man travelling to a fairground in a small village at a top of a hill on Christmas Eve.

Impressive video! That must have taken some creative camera and positioning work!

Well done, very realistic and well worth watching spoiled only by the updated tracking cameras of SP1 which causes the cameras to spin for a split second prior to locking onto the approaching train. I'm not sure which must have been the most difficult part of the production, following the route of the man or having the artistic flair and imagination to create the scenario in the first place but surely one for a mentioned in a future Trainz News Letter. A very merry Christmas to you also. Peter

Simply brilliant, well done.

Wonderful!

Regards
Swordfish

Thanks everyone.
It did take a while to do. Perhaps around 20hrs in total. There'll be a couple of "making of" videos in the next couple of weeks. One being a speed build and the other going through how the actual session works.

To be honest the ambition was to make a larger story. There was a little goods siding added for that reason that never got used in the end. I had the story planned but time caught up with me.

There were a couple of annoyances along the way. The first was SP1. I'm not a fan of this update. The "cinematic Camera" rule is now broken. I would have used it like I did with my "Big Build" video driving from "Perran Sands" a couple of months back but that wasn't to be. And I found out that you cannot focus on a hidden train that is AI controlled right at the beginning of a session. You need to swap to it at least 1 second in. Else it will become player controlled and not do anything. I downloaded all the available hidden locos and all were the same. The camera transitions between trains also aren't really designed to do what I did and so felt a little janky. The spinning camera as #wilts747 mentions and the diving effect the cameras have between the the two vehicles isn't the greatest. These were minor things in the end.

I think even with a story as simple as this you need to have a plan before starting. Don't over complicate it. This route is only 2 squares in size. Only the bits near a camera are really detailed in any way.
The hidden locos doing the camera work were the stars. The second hidden loco which was heading towards the train at the beginning is likely my favourite but I can't help to think that perhaps it might have been better to run it backwards extending its track above the steam train and having the cut to the next camera when it was above the train. Maybe next time

I look at the session as another learning experience really. I'll likely add some of what I've learned onto a future session for "The Big Build". Maybe when I finally build a finish its main line and create a session for that. Who knows... or maybe another special. Lets see

Oh... if you aren't familiar with the "Big Build", here's a vid of part of the route.
https://youtu.be/JBS0AfcKWiY
You can also download its session, route and region on the download station. Look up user "unknownplays" or just search for "The Big Build" and you'll find it.