RailwayStation.com - RR Art Gallery Artist Notes
Tools Used:
I am not an artist and I do not even play one on TV. But thanks to some amazing software programs, anyone can create realistic pictures on their computer. The images in this Gallery were composed using MetaCreation's Bryce 4.0, which is a 3D modeling and rendering program. Human figures were created with MetaCreation's Poser 4.0.
Where am I going with this?
For many years, I've been an "Armchair" model railroader, lacking the time, money and space to create my railroad empire. Computer art offers the opportunity to build "Virtual Model Railroads", limited only by time and hard disk space.
Constructing 3-D models on a computer is in many ways similar to modeling with brass, plastic and wood. Detailed models can be assembled from many smaller parts which can be individually textured. There are a few advantages:
- A part only needs to be produced once, an unlimited number of copies can be made with a few mouse clicks.
- No mess.
- Scale is not an issue - I can make a part of any dimension and re-scale it.
Resource Credits:
Many of the textures and models have used in these Bryce and Poser images came from the following sources:
To view some of my non-railroad artwork, please visit: 3D by Paludan
Click for more info on Bryce (new official site)
Click for more info on Poser (new official site)
Or check out the retail purchasing info at these following links:
Bryce 5 is a perfect application for both beginners and advanced users because it comes loaded with libraries of presets to use in your own work, both static and animated scenes. As you become more proficient, Bryce allows you to easily create your own surface materials, skies and more.
Start by building your scene using wireframe primitives or meshes, then assign different realistic textures to the wireframes and render the scene when you are finished (or render as you go to see how things will look). Then use the animation controls to create breathtaking movies.
Bryce comes with hundreds of megabytes of content to explore: Scene files, models, materials, texture libraries, sky presets, objects to import, animation paths, movies and lots more!
Bryce can create beautiful skies easily! $246.99 (thru Amazon.com) - Bryce 5.0 is for designing, rendering and animating breathtaking natural 3D worlds and abstract 3D sculptures. For Windows 95/98/NT/ME. (Also available for Mac)
Poser 4.0.3 includes 2 CDs with over 40 ready-to-use, hi-resolution 3D human, animal, and robot figures,
Realistically textured, fully poseable models, Swappable clothing collection, Libraries of characters, props, body and hand gestures, facial expressions, poses and animations, cameras and lights,
Photo-realistic and sketch art rendering, Transparency, reflectivity, shadow rendering,
Animated spot and global lights, Full Inverse Kinematics, Automatic Walk Designer,
Sound and motion import, Export web-ready 3D models with MetaStream, Tools for building custom characters, and it
includes Painter 3D for texture creation.
$219.99 (thru Amazon.com) - Poser is the premier 3D-character animation and figure design tool. For Windows 98/NT/ME. (Also available for Mac)
© 1997-2008 by Railway Station Productions, LLC, All Rights Reserved.
|
