Snow-Trac (WIP)

Dave R · 3 Oct 2011, 10:47

numbthumb · 3 Oct 2011, 11:33

Indeed,
Great stuff. Can´t wait to see it textured & rendered.

majid · 4 Oct 2011, 13:24

wow , this is gonna be a great model, seeing forward to see the texturing/modeling

Dave R · 4 Oct 2011, 14:44

Rick, that last render is really good. I almost thought it was a photograph. By the way, I like your clay renders with the lines overlaid.

hellnbak · 5 Oct 2011, 03:47

Your modeling is so smooth, clean and detailed. Great model. I really love the lines of this vehicle, the shape of the hood and fenders, the way the body goes straight back and the tracks angle down. I'll have to take another look at The Shining, been awhile since I've seen it. I do remember that Nicholson was great, and the ending was terrible, nothing at all like the book. I don't remember what kind of vehicle the cook used to get back to the hotel, was it another Snow-Trak?

Anyhow, came across some sort-of interesting photos and thought I would pass them along.

derei · 5 Oct 2011, 05:55

(for last image) - how do you steer a snowboard ? Now do it on a larger and tracked scale

Dave R · 5 Oct 2011, 10:39

I want one now.

I've seen film of that second to the last one running. It looked pretty neat and went like crazy. A guy would wonder about what had made the tracks if he didn't know about the tractor.

That last one looks like some tinkerers idea and it never occurred to him until after he built it that he wouldn't be able to steer it.

unigami · 5 Oct 2011, 12:51

@hellnbak said:

I don't remember what kind of vehicle the cook used to get back to the hotel, was it another Snow-Trak?

Anyhow, came across some sort-of interesting photos and thought I would pass them along.

Thanks for the nice comments guys, and the pictures!

The cook drove a Thiokol Imp...it appeared again near the end...here's a picture from the movie.
(BTW, Stephen King is currently writing a sequel to The Shining!)

Of course, the other famous snow cat from Movies/TV is The Chariot from Lost In Space. This was a modified Thiokol Spryte.

hellnbak · 5 Oct 2011, 13:33

@unigami said:

(BTW, Stephen King is currently writing a sequel to The Shining!)

Wow, I had not heard that! I just hope it's more like the old King books, like he used to write back in the days of The Shining. Seems like every book he churns out nowadays is touted as "he's getting back to his roots", but he never really does. Maybe he needs a root canal

In all fairness I know a writer has to evolve, I just enjoyed his work a lot more before evolution overtook him

Even tho he'll be writing a sequel to the book, not the movie, it's main character sure to be compared to Nicholson, and that's gonna be tough!

Well, whatever it turns out to be, it's sure to become a movie, guaranteed. Ka-ching!

Oh, wait, this is a SU forum. Ummmm......nice model!

unigami · 6 Oct 2011, 11:13

A couple views out of SketchUp...

hellnbak · 6 Oct 2011, 11:35

Perfect. How did you get the soft ground shadows?

Dave R · 6 Oct 2011, 12:08

Perfect! Almost looks like you set it down on fresh snow.

I bet I know how he got the soft shadows.

I was watching some videos of these things. I really want one although I have no place to drive it.

unigami · 6 Oct 2011, 12:14

@hellnbak said:

Perfect. How did you get the soft ground shadows?

I selected the shadow and added Gaussian blur in Photoshop. I also used a filter from Topaz Labs to give the red paint a bit of a rendered feel, and I put the profile lines on a separate layer so I could control them separately. That's about it...

I'm going to try some renders in Kerkythea next...I'd like to composite it on top of a nice winter landscape.

bulbangs · 7 Oct 2011, 06:36

i love it! keep up the good work!

EscapeArtist · 7 Oct 2011, 14:54

Well done. Super-clean model, fantastic detail.

mitcorb · 7 Oct 2011, 18:54

Well, I am humbled yet again!

Dave R · 9 Oct 2011, 12:51

That looks really nice. It would look great in my driveway and it would make my neighbors wonder.

unigami · 9 Oct 2011, 13:12

@dave r said:

That looks really nice. It would look great in my driveway and it would make my neighbors wonder.

Yeah...wouldn't that be great!!!! Thanks for nice comments Dave!

unigami · 9 Oct 2011, 13:15

Here's my first attempt at a render for this model. I used Kerkythea with HDRI lighting + an omni light for shadows. No post-processing or any attempt to make things look grungy yet...

Any comments/advice from the render experts will be very helpful from this point on, because I'm such a newb with rendering and feel like I'm shooting arrows at a target in a dark room half the time...

My next step is to find a good background and see if I can composite this in some kind of realistic way.

Blah11 · 9 Oct 2011, 15:43

WOW I been lurking this since day 1, it really looks real. GOOD JOB