Wooden Toy Train
Sometimes we start off with grand ambitions of making a quick animation to render in Unreal Engine. But then out of hubris, we forego proper documentation and then we realise we didn't rig the train correctly and, defeated, render in Blender instead where our FBXs and alembic files import correctly.
A fun small project in February of 2022. The aim was to create a wooden train and animate it moving along wooden tracks, like a childrens toy come to life. A small bit of trial-and-error rigging was involved in getting the coupling rods on the side of the train's wheels to rotate correctly, and in getting the carriages to correctly follow the train.
Audio files from Soundsnap.
A wooden Train moving along brio inspired tracks, pumping out little wooden smoke particles.
A render of another model I created. An alternative train design I had considered.
The initial drawings I made when coming up with the idea. The final clip deviated from this starting point as I experimented with different shots.
Wireframe of the train, tracks and carriages. I offset the train along a spline that I created to follow the middle of the tracks I had laid out
A render of the wooden train tracks inspired by the brio toys of my childhood.
A render of the train and its carriages.
Side View
Top View
Reference image for the train, the carriages were improvised using the train model as a base.
Reference image for the 2nd toy train model