NSB Stadler Flirt V2

[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bxekN/e8ddd1727c.jpg]

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I hope English is allowed on this forum. I'm making a Norwegian train set, and I'm starting with the Stadler Flirt, in the variant NSB is using. Here's a couple of renders of the work in progress. Essentially What it will look like from the in-game perspective. And a couple of closer shots to show some of the details to the texture map. More to come later!:)

[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/b8cvf/b3f21a0c64.jpg]

[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/b8cvG/5eff4934f1.jpg]

[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/b8cvs/c390b8f0c6.jpg]

Thank you guys!
The train model itself isn't so detailed, so all the magic happens in the textures. I'm planning to make a quick guide on what's going on. That'll come later.

I'm taking a big step in a totally different direction than before. After more than 10 years in TV and video production, I'm stepping out of the comfort zone to study 3D and pursue a hobby and hopefully make it into something great. So in periods the development of these trains may be slower than it's been these past few days.

During the lunch break today I made the "rubber buffer" (what is it really called?) between the wagons, as well as made a new bogie for the part between wagons. It's not finished, but it was as far as I got while eating and chatting with classmates.

Usually there's 4-5 wagons, and they're never as short as this. But you get the idea with the bogie.

[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/b8PjM/712fd79241.jpg]

I take this type of train back and forth to the city where the school is every day, so when I'm not in a hurry, I stop and wait for the area to clear up, and take reference photos which may also become textures. So today I focused on taking photos of the bogie between wagons and the orange doors.

The orange doors are on 4 of 5 cars (or 3 of 4 for shorter trains). These wagons are used for those with a valid ticket. If you don't have a valid ticket and need to have your ticket punched or purchase from the train conductor, you're supposed to enter the wagon with grey doors. It's coming soon. But I'm not sure whether it'll make it to the game. It's not a big deal whether it's there or not either way.

Thank you guys.
I've seen a couple of these trains have an additional sticker just under the side window in the front. So it's clear they've made themselves popular with the color choice as well as the way the train looks too, compared to other Flirt models.

No big news about the model yet. I thought I could show you a little bit about the work behind the scenes.

I started out by searching all over the web for reference photos, but very few proved to be usable. So I registered on a train community where fans and drivers and others who work on the railway discuss and share pictures. I was lucky enough to get in touch with a very helpful guy who donated dozens of photos which helped me a lot.

Here's my latest reference photo. I wanted to get a good image of the vents, and possibly use it on the texture. You can only imagine how people stare at me when I stop and take tons of photos like that..
[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcnAa/07b9d31ebc.jpg]

I started the model by doing a curve outline. It's called a "spline cage". From this, I made patches of polygons.
[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcnR9/6f05c6e753.png]

Making the model this way proved much easier than traditional polygon modeling. Especially for the shape of the drivers cabin. Select three to four curves, patch it up, and the application fills in and make the polygons wrap around in the shape you want.

Things don't come out perfect every time, so some fine adjustments need to be done after the patching is done. The next step is to mirror the model and merge the vertexes.
[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcocA/dc482b56df.png]

The UV map was created based on a photo which unfortunately was a bit too low res to use as a texture, so it was used as a reference. From this I made all parts of the livery by using the Pen tool and creating shapes with slight gradients to make the color more lifelike and interesting.

Below is the texture map, with the reference image present. In the bottom is the left side of the texture. The reference image covers up the right side which is mirrored to get letters and stickers look correct on the model.
At the very top you see the front part. I have taken new reference photos for the doors, these will be added soon.
[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcoEW/78d5a472ca.jpg]

The goal is to reuse as much as I can from this texture file on the passenger wagons as well, since they're basically the same, except for the driver cab.

The photo reference for the new doors are crisp!
[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcoS0/5bc2402db5.jpg]

Here's a full res snippet of the texture, which is 2048x2048 at the moment.
[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcoQA/aea28ea729.jpg]

I hope this has been a fun read, and if you're interested I may do more of this as there's more progress on this, and any other train.

[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcoW7/bc285511fe.jpg]

Thanks Maetel.
Yes I'm making this model exclusively to be used in Train Fever.

As soon as I get my hands on the game next week, I will start to figure out how to convert and make the model playable. Hopefully the mod community who's already been playing the beta will share some insight on what tools are needed to convert the model, and what's needed to make the bogies and and door animations work.

A little update here regarding the textures.
I have been talking with a train driver who told me about the bogies. Some are motorized, some are not. And some are Jacob Trailer Bogies. With this information in hand I understood what the different markings along the side of the train mean, so I'm aiming to add all of that into the texture of all the different cars.

Here you can see the left hand side of the texture vs. the right hand side. The left have been updated with new door textures (with proper marking with stickers such as "Validated tickets only") and the bogie markings.
[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcCSC/acd87845dd.jpg]

And a super close up...
[Blockierte Grafik: http://puu.sh/bcCRT/5b1f6deaff.jpg]

Thanks a lot guys I'm still doing the passenger carriages, which is fine. I won't get to learn how to make mods for the game until it's released anyway. One thing I'm worried about is the unusual bogie layout. Some passenger carriages share bogies. If the game can't cope with that I will need to modify all the units so they have their own separate set of bogies.

I'm planning to spend the weekend to learn how to put my mod into the game. Can't promise anything about release since it's completely new territory.

MineTiger97 The Norwegian variant of Flirt was ordered in 2008, and the first units were delivered in 2011. So I guess I'll have make it available in 2011 in-game as well.