Hi all;
First test renders of my latest project, the 1875 Clapp and Jones Steam Fire Engine. Originally built for the City of San Francisco, it was shipped around the Horn of South America by sailing ship. It proved too heavy for a two-horse team to pull on the steep roads, so it was sold to the City of Woodland, California, and was in use until 1940! It is the oldest piece of fire equipment in California, and is still operated on special occasions.
SolidWorks. Raw renders, no post except signature. 2,994,551 polys. About 40 hours modeling time, excluding research.
The biggest problem with my weird old stuff is how to present them, something I'm still grappling with. I'll figure it out. May have to get Zbrush just to model some horses! NOT!!!
Bill G
nice bill!
Exquisite... really I love this
J
Truly awesome modelling Bill, and those renders aint too bad either !! :P
Martin
Lovely... the wheels look fantastic! My only quibble is the 'too good' condition of all the metal work. I'v attached a png of a very basic 'scratch/grime' bump map I made some time ago. They are quite handy for adding a bit of wear and tear.
But very nice work all the same - I love the 'museum' feeling you get into your shots.
Ed
Great work as usual, Bill. 8) Are you sure this isn't a large portable antique espresso machine?
QuoteI'v attached a png of a very basic 'scratch/grime' bump map I made some time ago. They are quite handy for adding a bit of wear and tear.
Thanks Ed! But for some reason the .png was not attached.
I've always battled the issue of a pristine condition on my old stuff. They are usually restored to better than perfect, but in truth there's always scratches and wear patterns, as well as a very illusive "patina" that develops over time, which I've never found the answer to. It's a soft sheen, as you know.
Also, these are the first shots, which I do for posting on TurboSquid (search Gould Studios"), and they like "perfect" images.
I plan to do a full series of fire equipment, next up is the hand-drawn (sometimes horse) "Hose Cart". Also plan to do a Gould Steam Pumper, for obvious reasons!
Bill G
Hey Bill
I've sent you a PM...
Cheers
J
Slept on it, and decided to tweak both the materials and the geometry.
I remodeled the large suction hoses to better represent the rubber impregnated canvas wrap and interior iron binding that prevented collapse when sucking from the source. Used a carbon fibre bump, scaled down, as a close representation of the heavy square-cross weave.
Added minimal scratches to the paint, but in all honesty, the paint was flawless then as now- like a Pebble Beach Concourse 100 pointer. Added a bump to the tires.
Biggest change was switching the soft-yellow tinted nickel to a Nickel curvature, which I think is a great improvement. Took a lot of tries!
Also, I worked a lot on the "Russian Iron" boiler wrapper. Russian Iron was, guess what, made in Russia! It was popular but expensive, and also called "Planished Iron", because it was, in a very laborious process. There were many small companies in Russia in the late 1800's, and each used a closely held secret formula, but all based on carbon. It varied from a very dark blue-black, to greenish overtones, and sometimes reddish overtones. It was a very hard finish, absolutely impervious to scratches. On locomotives it always reflected the sky colors, changing from bluish to grey in bright vs. overcast skies. A very illusive material, I must say! Simply put, think "Stove Pipe"!
Also tested brass, which was not common, but was used as a cost-effective alternative to nickel plating. Remember, chrome had not been invented yet!
FYI- the early fire engines were the first use of the now universal red and blue lights, now reserved by law worldwide for emergency vehicles.
This prints beautifully on my Epson 4880, using Epson Luster media. The print will be 16" x 20", and it rendered in about 3 minutes on 32 cores.
Thanks all for your kind comments! J, I'll reply to your PM soon!
Bill G
Really nice work Bill!
Quote from: Speedster on March 17, 2015, 07:23:34 AM
Quote....They are usually restored to better than perfect, but in truth there's always scratches and wear patterns, as well as a very illusive "patina" that develops over time, which I've never found the answer to....
Sometimes there are fine production marks and scratch patterns under the paint, in the metal itself. A grand uncle of mine used to work in the Ariel motorcycle factory in England. I remember him telling us that they had to use very heavy primer on some parts in order to hide the fine scratches in the metal, and even then it didn't always work perfectly.
Anyway, excellent work you did here.