North East Model Railway (Trenholme Junction)

[Enterprisingwestern]

21 hours ago, dougattrenholmebar said:

In last weeks film the main object was to take away the walls from the film and to replace them with an image of the sky. The sky had to be actual footage and therefore plays out in real time. Lots of people seem to like this idea.
In the past, I have produced film in 4k and in order to preserve the superb quality this gives I had to cut off the tops of the films. 
This camera has a wide angle lens, which means it films a lot of ceiling as well as the bit you want to see.

Cutting off the ceiling takes away the view of the lights and gives more reality but the walls, whilst tolerable, take it away again. Last weeks film addressed this issue and was I think quite successful.
For those of you who follow the blog will know I intend to dismantle Trenholme Junction and move house. A new layout is planned and I was thinking of using the 'shelf' idea (building the layout on many levels around the outside walls of the room).
As I want to film the new layout, it has always been a worry that the level above the one I was filming on would be obviously visible and how I would get round this disadvantage of this type of layout. The closeness of the levels would play a key part in the design of the new layout.
In this film I have solved this anomaly with software and in this film I have used the full size video and replaced both the walls and the ceiling with sky.
Not exactly perfect in some places, but proof of concept achieved.....

 

 

Please take this as constructive criticism as I realise the sky "concept" is work in progress, but it looks a little unnatural to have clouds suddenly appearing out of the ground, on a flat landscape, if the layout views were set in a valley then it would more realistic.

Keep up the good work though.

 

Mike.

[dougattrenholmebar]

Calvin, 57' * 13'

[calvin Streeting]

6 minutes ago, dougattrenholmebar said:

Calvin, 57' * 13'

AKA huge  

[dougattrenholmebar]

 

Mike, point taken. This is filmed mostly from the lower level (effectively a valley). The upper level represents the railway at Port Clarence on the Tees and the clouds appearing over the embankment is exactly as this looks. When looking from the upper then this needs to be addressed.  

[dougattrenholmebar]

This is a short film to demonstrate how dramatically it's possible to change a layout by substituting the backdrop.

These are the last scenes from Watching 19 published last week.

In this excerpt the hills are the backdrop. Watch the trees in the final scene.

 

 

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

IMHO the best so far.

 

Mike.

[calvin Streeting]

if you could get those clouds moving it would be perfect.. but bloady good still  

[dougattrenholmebar]

3 minutes ago, calvin Streeting said:

if you could get those clouds moving it would be perfect.. but bloady good still  

They are moving, look at the trees on the left, they are blowing about. Last scene.

[calvin Streeting]

ooo very slowly...  scrap my comment i wil  pay more atantion, but was looking at trains

[dougattrenholmebar]

 

Here is a scene from the Main station 17 film published last year further demonstrating the blending of model and real world images.

 

 

[Theakerr]

Re filming multi level layouts have a look at the Colorado Museum layout videos.  BTW I do prefer the full screen video.

[dougattrenholmebar]

21 hours ago, Theakerr said:

Re filming multi level layouts have a look at the Colorado Museum layout videos.  BTW I do prefer the full screen video.

Thanks, have had a look at this, very impressed.

[dougattrenholmebar]

We open this film with a Super D tackling the long incline between the lower and upper levels at Trenholme Junction.

A Class 25 on a parcels train passes through the South East station followed by a Hymek moving some empty passenger stock through after threading its way from the passenger to the goods road.

Another western diesel, a Warship on an empty mineral train, grinds to a halt next to the station.

Finally, a BR Standard running tender first passes through an another tanker train.

 

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Very nice, the sky effect adds a certain something.

Have you considered/is it electrcally possible to have/do you want a banking engine for the incline, say, attached at the bottom?

 

Mike.

[dougattrenholmebar]

If you look back on these pages you'll find a film or two with bankers.

[Enterprisingwestern]

2 hours ago, dougattrenholmebar said:

If you look back on these pages you'll find a film or two with bankers.

 

Apologies, your output is so prodigous I have all on keeping up!

Are they attached at the bottom of the bank?

 

Mike.

[dougattrenholmebar]

17 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Apologies, your output is so prodigous I have all on keeping up!

Are they attached at the bottom of the bank?

 

Mike.

Its the very first one of this thread.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Blimey, 6 years ago, no wonder I couldn't remember!

 

Mike.

[dougattrenholmebar]

The first part of this film was made about a year ago and published in 'Main Station 31'. If you watch the original film, the tops of the locomotive and brake van were chopped off in order to avoid having the ceiling lights in the building visible.

This re-edited piece has removed this anomaly and the sky has been added.

The second part has been filmed this week and joined to the original part to form a continuing story.

Doing this for me has two useful objectives, some practice in using full screen production, adding various backgrounds and also demonstrates the application of the 'Infinite Layout' concept. (see link to blog in YouTube notes).

 

 

[dougattrenholmebar]

Building a model railway requires the mastering of many skills, most of which cannot be learned overnight. 
In the recent past, the planning of the layout, building of the baseboards, track laying, electrical wiring, erecting and placing the buildings and adding the scenery was a minimum requirement. 
In the modern world you can add a reasonable level of computer related jargon, including a level of understanding sophisticated control systems, and an understanding of electronics as well. 
Trenholme Junction was built as a film set with the purpose of producing films and therefore this skill set has to be expanded to include script writing, camera and filming skills and post production. 
Within post production, a high degree of computer literacy, a powerful video editing application and a computer man enough to do the job is also required.
In the last few weeks, the films I have produced are taking the presentation of the films to a new place, including real-life backgrounds and the model, merging the two together. As with any new skill, getting it right takes some practice and there are a number of issues that needed a little refinement.
In this film, the concentration is getting a clean merge between the real and the model. In the opening two scenes note the handrails on the tank, the telegraph poles and the birds flying across.  A small section is also added to the end to further exploit the 'infinite layout' concept.

 

 

[dougattrenholmebar]

Trenholme Junction is a model railway purpose built as a film set. The idea is to use mini cameras to film the trains from the same angle a child would see them from.

When the set was originally built the quality of the cameras was so poor the detail of the walls of the building couldn't be seen clearly and there didn't seem any point in plastering them. As cameras however, have become so good, the details of the block-work walls have become more prominent and are spoiling the overall effect. In the last few films I have been adding a sky effect to the films in post production to take away and this film has a cloudy effect.

My idea of the 'Infinite Layout' (see link in YouTube notes) is also continued in this film where the views of the trains in the Main Station area were filmed some time ago and have been joined to the new filming and the sky effect has been added to both parts.

 

 

[dougattrenholmebar]

 

In this weeks film we start off with a Class 24 arriving at the Main Station to pickup a parcels train from platform 5. The first couple of scenes were filmed a little while ago and have been re-edited into this film and the sky effect has been added. The train exits the junction via the long incline.

The Warship with its train of empty mineral wagons which has been waiting patiently in the up line goods road leaves via the north junction, followed by a Black 5 with a grain train bound for a distillery somewhere in Scotland.

 

 

[dougattrenholmebar]

This is another film which combines previously released clips which have been enhanced to full screen size and the addition of sky background. The original clips have been merged with new footage to extend the original stories. This is further exploitation of the 'Infinite Layout' principle.

The 08 Shunter is on Station Pilot duties removing the ex-LNER coaching stock from the south carriage sidings and placing them in the Main Station, ready for its locomotive.

The Breakdown Train enters the North end of the junction and runs through Platform 5 heading south to the Lower Marshalling Yard.

 

 

[dougattrenholmebar]

There a different types of detail which can be sought after when building a model railway. It can be the design of the track work, weathering the rolling stock and buildings or maybe the natural world in which the railway sits. Most modellers are usually better a some than others.

In this current series of films I am attempting to use video editing software to adding effects to the films I usually make to add a modern dimension to hobby, in the hope of attracting a younger generation.

I think its important, if you do something like this, to make it as detailed as it possible. The principle of putting two (or more) videos together is not new, but this application is different from the usual weather forecaster standing in front of a blank screen. The early efforts of the weather forecaster resulted into the forecaster with a 'heavenly halo' around them. The joining together of the two images is the most difficult parts of producing the composite image.

To get this right, a lot of practice is required to get the blend detail correct. Once mastered many other effects can be added without taking away the original model.

As in this and the last few films I have been using scenes from previously released films and re-editing them into full screen and adding the sky effect. New scenes has been added to continue the story.

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

40 seconds in I was trying to brush a fly off my screen!!

 

Mike.