Sketchup Time-Lapse | Part IX is up! Download coming 4/20/13!

[Goku1910]

For those interested in 3D modeling with Sketchup, I'm doing a time-lapse series for my next ride.

As most of you know, I stick to a simple style. I don't really stick to a theme.

UPDATE!!


Model will be available for download on 4/20/13 and will be available in both Sketchup and 3DS formats.



VIDEOS:
Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part IV:

Part V:

Part VI:

Part VII and VIII:

Part IX:


Update 4/9/13: Part IX (Nine) will be up tomorrow! Also, Part X (Ten) will be the final video in this series!.....For now. The Finale includes minor detail work and clean up along with a surprise. I'll give you a hint, the surprise object is something I've never attempted until now and it IS ride-related. I have tested the 3D model in the Sim and it does kill FPS a little, but it's not as bad as Blackout.

Nice work on the saddles.

Nice work on the saddles.

Holy sh*t the music was anooying.

Cool video though.

[Goku1910]

^Watch it muted then. I had an idea of which music I wanted to use, but I wasn't able to find it. It was a little less "loud".

How did you get that rectangle to follow the track spline at 2:57? Did you have to build the spline manually or does Sketchup have a way of figuring it out from the track mesh?

[Goku1910]

^It kinda sucks that Fraps hides the dialog boxes....In the video youll see me drawing a line along the track before making the rectangle. That line represents the path I'm going to follow. I select that path then click the rectangle with the "Follow Me" tool and it will automatically make the shape along that path. Simple really.

Got to 2:20 in the video to see the line I draw first.

I see it now. Looks simple but effective, although I have to find out how to do the same in 3DS Max without getting into curves/Beziers/NURBS. (Then again, I haven't even tried anything remotely similar in Max yet; I'll get going when the time comes, i.e. when I have to build a spline matching the track in Max.)

[Goku1910]

I find it extremely difficult to make things line up PERFECTLY with the track. Because my 3DS exported track doesn't match the one in the NL editor exactly. All the straight sections like the brakes and the lift all line up. But the first brake and the turn are slightly off.

This was a pain when I was making the Akka Model because the catwalks on the first brake were too far left....I had to constantly adjust it and export and repeat until it "looked" right.

As a 3D modeller myself, specifically trained in cinema 4D, I cringed. not at your modelling, it's fantastic. you have serious skill.
What made me cringe was sketchup. watch you extrude every single face one by one was just... ouch...
Wonderful work though. Very impressive.

[Goku1910]

Assuming NL2 supports more 3D object features I might move away from Sketchup. Who knows. Sketchup lacks a lot of features that you can get with plug-ins.

as for extruding one-by-one.....yeah. I didn't realize until later that there was a much faster way of doing the same thing. That's when I started using Arrays.

So, how are the transfer tracks going to move if its permanently grounded?


Edit: Sketchup is fun, and I'm about as good as you, but I'm learning 3DS Max, AutoCAD, and Revvit right now in school. Anyone recommend any other good programs I should learn?


Edit: also, what is the slope on your roof? But first, what is the theme/climate of your ride?

[Goku1910]

Originally posted by Jcoasters

So, how are the transfer tracks going to move if its permanently grounded?


Edit: Sketchup is fun, and I'm about as good as you, but I'm learning 3DS Max, AutoCAD, and Revvit right now in school. Anyone recommend any other good programs I should learn?


Edit: also, what is the slope on your roof? But first, what is the theme/climate of your ride?

Lol, The 3DS transfer track is hypothetical and for appearance. That's it. If I really wanted to make it realistic, I'd take pictures of real ones and replicate them with the rails and all. All this is a support structure. Like I said, for appearance. Sure, I'll update them for No Limits 2 and make sure they don't interfere.

Climate is say, for a seasonal park. The Building would protect trains from the elements. But like I said, I never stick to a particular style; I only make it based on what it looks like.

Roof slope(s):
Storage Building (in next video) is ~10.2 degrees, this is after I raised it.
The top center is ~15.5 degrees.
Both sides are ~14.4 degrees.

I still have yet to extend some of the roofs because real ones go farther than what's supporting it. I've taken inspiration from real park stations and outdoor structures.

Originally posted by Goku1910

Assuming NL2 supports more 3D object features I might move away from Sketchup. Who knows. Sketchup lacks a lot of features that you can get with plug-ins.

Sketchup was built for drawing ideas and concepts, particularly for items that may be made in real life. It appears to lack the means of creating models suitable for game engines, although I'm just judging this based on every single one of the hundreds of Sketchup to NL models I've ever seen. (Instead of from experience with Sketchup.) Even if you do things right (i.e. not have railings composed of 20-side cylinders that are double-sided), it can't connect and apply smooth shading where needed, nor can you even get into most of the important material settings for .3ds export.

Perhaps the plugins resolve those issues though? Hmm...

[Goku1910]

^Also, No Limits doesn't support shading. That's why all faces need to face "up"....Otherwise known as the white side. when you orient faces in sketchup, it will determine what it would look like when you're doing a render. So if you input a location in sketchup and orient the faces it would automatically put the darker sides opposite of the light source.

This is why when I make catwalks, I group, copy and place the reverse face on top of it. This way, When I fix the ambient color in anim8or the faces don't disappear. Only problem is that it doubles the poly count for that object.

[Turbo]

I really enjoy these timelapse videos, they're really interesting

[Goku1910]

Thanks! I thought it was time for something new on Youtube, and this was a great way to show how I do what I do.

Part III will go through the innards of the station....like the booth and railings. One problem I haven't figured out is how I'll record around the constant exporting and checking if the gates line up in the NL Editor.

Don't get what you mean, but back faces are supposed to be culled. The inside of a catwalk step will never have any reason to be drawn, so there's no reason to put it in. Instead, the normals of the object need to be flipped properly. If it's a double sided plane on the other hand (i.e. a mesh fence), it should be copied, flipped, and the vertices welded.

Also, Sketchup already misses most of NL1's supported features anyway.

Anyway, I ended up using the exact same technique you did for the catwalks for one of my rides. (In 3DS Max.) Combined with array objects and you can get a good catwalk quite fast. I'd like to explore other NL-related applications of both tools (splines and arrays) but I haven't gotten to it yet.

I have ideas for lining up the station gates: use a grid texture on the station floor and take a screenshot. Build on the grid accordingly. Another method is to make the gates using supports in the NL editor, then setting the tube radius accordingly in the environment. (I used sim.supports.tube1.radius = 0.03) Once you line up the first few lanes by trial and error, you can line up the rest by the wireframe train in the editor, I think.

I'm pretty excited. Probably going to be interning at my CAD teacher's Architect firm over the summer. I'm 15.

Just thought this was relevant tho this thread....

[Goku1910]

Originally posted by coasteragent99

Don't get what you mean, but back faces are supposed to be culled. The inside of a catwalk step will never have any reason to be drawn, so there's no reason to put it in. Instead, the normals of the object need to be flipped properly. If it's a double sided plane on the other hand (i.e. a mesh fence), it should be copied, flipped, and the vertices welded.

Also, Sketchup already misses most of NL1's supported features anyway.

Anyway, I ended up using the exact same technique you did for the catwalks for one of my rides. (In 3DS Max.) Combined with array objects and you can get a good catwalk quite fast. I'd like to explore other NL-related applications of both tools (splines and arrays) but I haven't gotten to it yet.

I have ideas for lining up the station gates: use a grid texture on the station floor and take a screenshot. Build on the grid accordingly. Another method is to make the gates using supports in the NL editor, then setting the tube radius accordingly in the environment. (I used sim.supports.tube1.radius = 0.03) Once you line up the first few lanes by trial and error, you can line up the rest by the wireframe train in the editor, I think.

I've already made the gates and have them in, you'll see them in Part 3. I use the same gates every time with modification. Reason being is the ones I made line up with B&M Coasters almost perfectly. This time I remembered to fix the scale of them so they're not chest-height.

As for the catwalks, yes, they are copied, flipped, and then placed over the other ones. I tried using Double Sided faces in Anim8or but it didn't look right so I do this to make it cleaner. In the video it's hard to see me doing this because Fraps (recording software) won't show the dialog boxes.

This way the two groups when color fixed will show the catwalks no matter what angle you view them in No Limits Simulator.

[Goku1910]

PART III - 3/04/2013

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1) I revisit the roof structures and I start on the stairs that will be on the entrance side.
2) It's 25:00 in length
3) MOAR DUBSTEP!
4) Sketchup fights with me again about making a face, no longer how many times I try to make it.....Sketchup wins this time.

Originally posted by coasteragent99

Don't get what you mean, but back faces are supposed to be culled. The inside of a catwalk step will never have any reason to be drawn, so there's no reason to put it in. Instead, the normals of the object need to be flipped properly. If it's a double sided plane on the other hand (i.e. a mesh fence), it should be copied, flipped, and the vertices welded.

Also, Sketchup already misses most of NL1's supported features anyway.

Anyway, I ended up using the exact same technique you did for the catwalks for one of my rides. (In 3DS Max.) Combined with array objects and you can get a good catwalk quite fast. I'd like to explore other NL-related applications of both tools (splines and arrays) but I haven't gotten to it yet.

I have ideas for lining up the station gates: use a grid texture on the station floor and take a screenshot. Build on the grid accordingly. Another method is to make the gates using supports in the NL editor, then setting the tube radius accordingly in the environment. (I used sim.supports.tube1.radius = 0.03) Once you line up the first few lanes by trial and error, you can line up the rest by the wireframe train in the editor, I think.

10/10 avatar

[Goku1910]

Big Update:

The Sketchup Model is nearing it's completion and I only need to do:

*Operator Booth
*Loose Article Bins (These will look exactly like the ones at Six Flags)
*Details in Storage shed like track connections and stair access to the catwalks.
*Clean-up and export. Cleanup is when I thoroughly go through the model making sure that every face is visible in monochrome mode and that there aren't any unnecessary edges hanging around. Once I finish that, I purge the model of anything that I no longer need like the ground, track, etc.

[Goku1910]

Last update:

-Model is finished.
-The next video is the final video in this series and will have a trailer for Phoenix.
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