The Train Project

Most of my personal projects start out as a simple thought born from a simple visual seed. But like anything that starts from this simple beginning, quickly grows into something much more involved. The Train Project is one of those. A train runs up a mountain railway, smoke mushrooming from it's stack. Steam bleeds from the cylinders. A wooden trestle lies ahead, spanning a deep cleft in the rock. It's late in the day, the train cast in shadow. Warm light bathes the upper cliffside.

You get the idea. So how to begin. I start with some rough sketches to determine basic composition and what elements are needed. A train obviously, a wooden trestle, and cliffs or rock to mold into an environment. Then a plan to build and shoot the elements.

So here's what I gathered together. I was in Fernie one weekend and while driving eastbound on  highway 3 discovered a big cliff right beside Crowsnest Lake.


Somewhere about here.

Here are a few images of the cliff bits and pieces.

Then I started the 3d work on the trestle in Lightwave.

Next was to bring it all together in PS and start the process of creating the basic cliff and where the train would sit in the environment.

One of the techniques I like to use is creating a very rough (and I mean rough) model in 3D and place lights and a camera in the 3D set to help determine POV for the composite. This is where I started.

















Now I'm moving towards a direction for the cliffside and how the light will play off it. I used a place holder image of a train to drop in to see how things might interact. And what other elements may be useful.

There's a lot to think about. Position of trestle and how it marries to the 2D environment plus other elements such as steam and smoke, foliage and other dressing for the image.

In the next post I'll show you the next steps from texturing the trestle to shooting the train and the final composite.