... more blueprints

Finally found the most important blueprints I need. Got around 10 different ones which I can base on. Those will definetively help with modeling.

Train Car Blueprints

Did a bit of research today towards getting some blueprints and technical specifications of the train cars I will be creating. I have checked some forums and websites devoted to trains. After that I figured out I could actually check www.pkp-cargo.pl which is the website of the company that gave me the permission to visit the train depot. There I have found a large PDF document with all the technical specifications, length, tonage and blueprints of every train car they own.
Those information will be very crutial in modeling because CryEngine3 uses the metric scale and having the lenght and witdh of them will make it all easier. Here are some quick shots I've made of the ones I will be creating.

Main Cargo Car that has sliding doors. Will propably modify it so that only middle one open.

Coal Car. This one can be duplicated and its colour will be changed to achieve some variation

Additional one that will be left to model last.

All of them use a very similar set of wheels 4 and 4. This way I can put the wheels on a seperate texture sheet and copy them over to save texture space and most importantly time.

Blockout Explained

Here I have explained a bit how each of the area of the blockout refer to the reference pictures I have taken.

Transit - Blockout

To visualize the place a little bit more I have made a simple blockout that will serve me as a guidence for spaceing out the modular pieces.This also will help in understanding the space a little bit more.

From this point in the production phase I will be creating modular elements that will fit the grid.
The size of this project is still very big but a bit smaller then the dockyard. To be honest I am very happy that I went through the whole process of generating the ideas and the end one turned out to be a great one. Not only that but it's also much more menageable in the time ammount we have then the previous idea. If I would have sticked to my previous one without the first hand reference I would be stuck in it several times and that would lead to not finishing the project in time.

Visit to the Trainyard & Big Change

After Christmas I recieved a letter from the Trainyard authorities which allowed me to take pictures all over the place. I have phoned them and set a meeting which I had today. Unfortunetly I was unable to get to the shipyard and the dock area. I phoned them and send letters but they refused to give me a pass. Don't know why exactly. They said that they can't let anyone take pictures even tho I stated it's for academic use and I am not from any newspaper or something.
Anyway it's actually good becouse being at the trainyard today inspired me very much to create an interior scene from the main carrige reperal hangar. At the moment I don't have any interior environments in my portfolio so that will be a plus. Also the scene won't be too big to manage for one person in the ammount of time I got. Its still gona be big but not as open world as my previous blockout one. Being at the place made me realize what I need to create and how can I approach this. It also made me understand the overall feeling and lighting conditions that are there. Without having the same thing in the shipyard it could lead to a massive confusion and a fail..... So in one word. It's bach to the drawing board. Now with all the reference I got I can properly do a prep and a blockout for the stuff I need to create.

Here are some photos I have taken from the trainyard.

Those were taken outside. Tons of ref and detail for modeling my train carriges. Then I went inside the big hall where all the fun part was :)
This is basicly the are I will be doing for my FMP. A train carrige Transit.

Overall I took around 400 Pictures at the place. Most of them are detail for modeling and textures.
Now I finnaly know what I need to do so I'll be blocking out the area and carefully think what to add to it to make it more interesting. Will post some updates soon.

I have also renamed the project to "Transit" as well as the blog site.

Multipass...

First day I am back home and went straight to business. I have tried to get today some mood photos for my FMP. As I have thought it may require a bit of work to get into those places. I have went to the shipyard and the trainyard today to see how things look and as it turns out I actually need a proper pass for those places so that I won't get cought by the security and my camera won't be taken away from me. In order to get a permission to take photographs I need to contact a larger contractor which is in another city to get a permission from them to enter the shipyard and take photos. This will also require me to write an application for it which explains that I am a student and what I need the photographs for etc etc.... The same thing goes for the trainyard. However I have already written it when I was in the office asking for the permission. Hopefully they will get back to me soon. There is still one place I will propably need to do the same which is the Dockyard Administration so I can also get in there and take photos without any problems. Good that I have done it the first day...

CryENGINE3 .... yeah Baby !

Today Me and Kristian got green light on creating our FMP's in CryENGINE 3. Was quite happy how it all went. Making my environment in it will be very interesting and challenging at the same time becouse I will have to learn the engine as I do it. I will devote a part of my christmas break to lure into it a bit more. Maby I will reimport all my Palazzo assets into it and rebuild it there to see how would the workflow be when I have all the assets done already. This will make it easier to learn all the Engine stuff. Looking forward to that :)