Snow-Trac (WIP)
-
(for last image) - how do you steer a snowboard ?
Now do it on a larger and tracked scale -
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.
-
@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.
-
@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!
-
A couple views out of SketchUp...
-
Perfect. How did you get the soft ground shadows?
-
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.
-
@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.
-
i love it! keep up the good work!
-
Well done. Super-clean model, fantastic detail.
-
Well, I am humbled yet again!
-
That looks really nice. It would look great in my driveway and it would make my neighbors wonder.
-
@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!
-
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.
-
WOW I been lurking this since day 1, it really looks real. GOOD JOB
-
Fantastic
-
Wow, this is looking better all the time! Your skills are impressive, to say the least.
@unigami said:
My next step is to find a good background
Here's an idea....Dave's driveway
(or better yet, mine. Another Michigan winter getting ready to dump all over my parade
) -
simply perfect!!! stunning modeling technique!
-
Nice model Rick, clean modeling, the way I like it.
I'd love to get a chance to render it if possible.
-
Here's the final image...Kerkythea render and Photoshop.
Last couple bits of trivia for you about these...info I found on a forum from a guy named Lyndon that collected them...
"Snow Trac's were built in "Batches". The factory made all the parts and "Stockpiled" them in a warehouse. The sales Division would request assembly of a "Batch" which would then be assembled from parts. Batches were generally 10,25, or 35. Their biggest single sale was in 1961/62 when the Canadian Phone company ordered roughly 100 machines. If you look at the production chart it's the only year that sales exceeded 200 machines."
"When VW discontinued the Beetle they figured that they wouldn't be able to get engines and discontinued the line. Later on it was indicated that had they known that VW production was going to continue in Mexico that they might have continued. The story is that the entire last year and a half of production was made from 'Spare Parts'."
Advertisement