 |
||
|
Animation on the WR&N IV Rick Spano's influence on me was visible the strongest for the degree of animation featured on this layout. I'll admit to being very fussy about animation: it's not just enough to make something move—it must do so at a realistic speed. If I cannot accomplish realistic movement, then I won't bother animating it. The list below includes all of the animated scenes that were featured on the WR&N IV, not all of which presently have their own detail pages:
1. Each of the four enginehouse doors operated independently. Threaded rod drives slowly swung the doors open and shut, taking roughly six seconds for the action to complete. 2. The windmill on the farm was quite a challenge. Cramming a right-angle drive mechanism into a space the size of a match head meant working with some of the smallest moving parts I'd ever fabricated. But I didn't stop with the spinning blades; I also made the whole assembly slowly and irregularly swing side-to-side, as if responding to an ever-changing breeze. 3. The excavator is a big crowd-pleaser. It has four degrees of motion: raise and lower main boom, raise and lower upper arm, raise and lower bucket, and rotate cab. The only thing it doesn't do is roll back and forth. Beginning with a GHQ kit, I carefully articulated every joint and simulated functional hydraulic cylinders. Except for rotation, all of the movements are accomplished using monofilament thread wound onto motorized drums. The excavator removed gravel from a pit and placed it in a large dump truck parked next to it. When the truck was full, it would dump the gravel back into the pit. Although this sounds silly, it provided an unending supply of material for the excavator, and given the time it took to fill the truck, one visitor rarely saw both actions consecutively. Many of the animated scenes also included special lighting effects, so there is considerable overlap with the clinics on lighting effects. |
|
Copyright © 2006-2010 by David K. Smith. All rights reserved.