Hi all, I know I'm nowhere near close to a prolific poster in these forums (yet) but I have a proposal that I'm sure many of you could get on board with.
I was wondering what the feasibility would be of gathering content creators who could use some cash and asking them to devote some time and resources to the reskinning and/or modeling of all of the EMD E-Units. Capital could be raised via upfront crowdfunding (almost like TANE) and the models be released as freeware (not the preferred option of creators, I can imagine) or by hosting the models as payware on an unkillable website such as JR or TF, with provisions for links to creators' own websites if they currently maintain or want to create one (ensuring a constant revenue stream as time goes by).
As for the models themselves, I was thinking the community would benefit from near-JR or higher quality, though this obviously isn't a requirement. For existing models, there would ideally be a consensus on which one is the most accurate to base the reskins and additional meshes off of, and for models that don't currently exist I'd imagine a lottery system to decide who models what. This is designed to be completely comprehensive, with every model from the first EMC EA to the last E9s; from every railroad, paint scheme, time period and variations filling out this project.
The biggest hurdle to this that I can currently imagine is obtaining permissions and licenses, although I believe by offering the original creators of the existing models a percentage of royalties (if they choose not to be involved in the creative process) we can get a little more leeway.
This project is intended to benefit the entire community and hopefully permanently silence the gimmepigs still haunting Landrvr1, among others, and also benefit those of us who for whatever reason (college being mine) do not have the time or capacity to learn the skills needed to 3d model. It's a complete shot in the dark and if this proposal is in any way out of line I sincerely apologize. I just believe if we can find content creators who are new, up-and-coming, or existing that all have plenty of time and need money (or most importantly an intense desire to start modeling), we can collectively do a great service to the Trainz community and hopefully inspire creativity and curiosity in future members, as the immense work you all have done has inspired me.
Footnote: This entire project doesn't have to be limited to just E-Units, or even involve them at all. It could encompass merely reskins of DrChoi21's E60 unit or the entire locomotive and passenger car catalog of the B&O. It's just a thought to get the ball rolling, and in the event of the E-Units not being as pressing an issue as other content gaps, I'm perfectly happy to start an ideas thread as to what gaps are widest and to what degree they can be satisfactorily filled.
Hope you all have a great day or night wherever you are and if you have any questions or concerns just respond to this post in this thread.
I was wondering what the feasibility would be of gathering content creators who could use some cash and asking them to devote some time and resources to the reskinning and/or modeling of all of the EMD E-Units. Capital could be raised via upfront crowdfunding (almost like TANE) and the models be released as freeware (not the preferred option of creators, I can imagine) or by hosting the models as payware on an unkillable website such as JR or TF, with provisions for links to creators' own websites if they currently maintain or want to create one (ensuring a constant revenue stream as time goes by).
As for the models themselves, I was thinking the community would benefit from near-JR or higher quality, though this obviously isn't a requirement. For existing models, there would ideally be a consensus on which one is the most accurate to base the reskins and additional meshes off of, and for models that don't currently exist I'd imagine a lottery system to decide who models what. This is designed to be completely comprehensive, with every model from the first EMC EA to the last E9s; from every railroad, paint scheme, time period and variations filling out this project.
The biggest hurdle to this that I can currently imagine is obtaining permissions and licenses, although I believe by offering the original creators of the existing models a percentage of royalties (if they choose not to be involved in the creative process) we can get a little more leeway.
This project is intended to benefit the entire community and hopefully permanently silence the gimmepigs still haunting Landrvr1, among others, and also benefit those of us who for whatever reason (college being mine) do not have the time or capacity to learn the skills needed to 3d model. It's a complete shot in the dark and if this proposal is in any way out of line I sincerely apologize. I just believe if we can find content creators who are new, up-and-coming, or existing that all have plenty of time and need money (or most importantly an intense desire to start modeling), we can collectively do a great service to the Trainz community and hopefully inspire creativity and curiosity in future members, as the immense work you all have done has inspired me.
Footnote: This entire project doesn't have to be limited to just E-Units, or even involve them at all. It could encompass merely reskins of DrChoi21's E60 unit or the entire locomotive and passenger car catalog of the B&O. It's just a thought to get the ball rolling, and in the event of the E-Units not being as pressing an issue as other content gaps, I'm perfectly happy to start an ideas thread as to what gaps are widest and to what degree they can be satisfactorily filled.
Hope you all have a great day or night wherever you are and if you have any questions or concerns just respond to this post in this thread.
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