The Conductor

#1

Hello all. I’ve been very slowly working on this project and I thought it might be a good time to hit the forums. I modelled and rigged him some time ago (Rig Video), but I recently got around to textures. My inspiration for the character was early black and white cartoons from the 20’s and 30’s, but with lighting and details in the textures. I was thinking his environment might have some muted colors and be somewhat desaturated, but the character himself would be shades of grey and have an overall high contrast about him.


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I’m liking some of what I have going on here, but I’m not convinced with what’s happening on the body. My initial idea was something similar to Pete, the bad guy from old Mickey cartoons.

He has a kind of patchy, shaggy fur, but I don’t really want to do a hair simulation, I was hoping to just get the idea across through a bump or displacement. Maybe I just want to break up his silhouette a bit more. Mainly though, it’s such a dark grey that I don’t want it to read flat, like so;


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Any reactions would be appreciated, and maybe someone out there has some ideas on what I could do with the body.

Thanks,
Zac.

#2

Never seen a 3d version of an old cartoon. I’d say that it would look exactly how you made it, if it had another dimension.

#3

When I first saw this, the old Mickey cartoon style popped in my head. :slight_smile:

There is one thing I do want to point out though - if you didn’t say “conductor”, I wouldn’t have gotten it as a conductor. It could be someone working on the railroad, a prisoner, or just someone that likes wearing a cap.

First thing that came in my mind is have stripes. Just slightly darker.

However, I looked at references, and it’s weird that the “costumes” and cartoons have stripes, but in real life, from 1920’s-40’s, there was no stripes. Just a label.

So, have some sort of reference on the cap that shows it is a train conductor.

#4

Very lovely Idea, :lightbulb
A couple of weeks ago i found this one, Maybe you can use for the reference

http://vimeo.com/23391885

#5

Thanks for looking and commenting everyone!

You make a good point, maybe his hat could use some sort of graphic. I assumed that it would be more clear in the animation when he’s on a rail yard and such. I haven’t actually developed a story, so the conductor tag was more for my benefit than an actual description.

I built a rail car for him, but it’s more like one of those carts that Donkey Kong rides in on the cave levels. The cart is somewhat personified, with the headlights acting as eyes and a suggestion of a mouth, I just have to rig it and I can post the progress.

I had an idea where he’s either trying to escape from or catch up to a runaway train. If I did a train engine it would also be personified and be the aggressor, with down-turned, angry looking headlights, the front grill looking like a grin of teeth and a large billow of black smoke coming out the top. I always loved in classic cartoons how just about everything from animals to cars to houses can take on human characteristics and participate in the story, so I wanted to get that in here.

I’m only one person working on this in my free time though, so I may end up simplify the story.

Zac.

#6

Bit up progress to post. I modeled and textured a cart for him to ride in. I’m still half convinced I need to paint the rust in. Right now it’s just procedural mapped with a cellular map, which might work fine for an animation. I kind of want to model in a hand break too, might come in handy when the animation comes in. Really I just need to storyboard out some ideas before I get too deep into this.


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#7

I really like the cart, but I agree that there should be some indication that he is a conducter. Good work!

#8

It may be me, but don’t take my word for it.

It looks like the Conductor should be a Miner instead. Hard hat with old school light (shouldn’t be hard since you already modeled out the light for the cart). Easy enough to model/replace.

It just looks a little bit confusing to have a Train Conductor on a mine cart. I could be totally off, but that’s how I look at it. The cart looks fabulous and so is the character. But the two of them together gives me a juxtaposition feeling.

I look forward for more work! I really like where this is going. :thumbsup:

#9

Seeing as how there has been zero story development for this as of yet, I wouldn’t get too hung up on the “Conductor” title. Like I had mentioned, it was just a jumping off point for me. Making him a miner is a pretty solid idea though, and it would work well with the cart I developed too. I’ll toss some ideas around in my head and see if i can’t solidify this projects intention. Maybe storyboard some stuff.

Thanks for your interest!
Zac.

#10

Just wanted to post a quick update on the cart textures before I moved on to the rig.


Maybe when it comes time to optimize the model I might tweak some stuff but over all I’m pretty happy with it.

I started a thread over in the rigging section to get some ideas on how to initiate this rig, so if you’re interested in following that or giving your input there it’s located…
HERE!

thanks,
zac.

#11

I didn’t really plan on doing Train Troubles as a 3D short, but I thought it’d be fun to do a test with a quick shot I finished.

Train Troubles - 3D test

#12

I really liked the direction you were going with the character. As someone else said, if I thought of what that era of cartoon looked like in 3D you would’ve answered that. I do however think there is a big detail disconnect between the character and the cart. It just looks to real. I’m not sure if there is a reason for that, that I’m missing but it jars me a little.

I could see maybe a pixar+ like world with simpler black and white characters ala yours running around in it but I think even for that the texturing, etc. just looks too real for me.

#13

Thanks for the feedback!

I was wondering if you were maybe basing your opinion on the image a few posts up and not the link I had to the animation. That last image I posted was a progress image for the cart, so I had some less expensive textures on the Conductor to speed those renders up. The image below is a frame from that animation with the blur off.

Just the same you might be right. I’ve always been a fan of more realistic textures on cartoony shapes, but I was a little worried that I might have over-textured the cart. Since I’ve been developing this thing in an ‘as-I-get-to-it’ manner, it’s something I’ll definitely have to look at again and try to balance it all out further. I’d like to put some more love and attention into the environment and I still have to model and texture a steam engine and a coal car. So I was thinking that once I had a few shots down with the sets built the way I like it I’ll really start to lock down the look. I’m sure there are more efficient ways to work but it’s just me working on this so I’m taking my time.

Thanks!
Zac.

#14

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