Very enjoyable video Rick. This tutorial alone is worth every penny of my membership fee. OH WAIT, MEMBERSHIP IS FREE! True value indeed.......

Ian

Nicely done video Rick. Very professional looking. Up until now, I just thought you had a really huge railroad room. Didn't realize you were using forced perspecitve on your signature mountain scene!

Russ,

Here's a picture for explaination to answer your questions:

The lake is a drop down piece held up by a spring loaded curtain rod ($1.29).  I wanted the hatch there so I could get a stalled loco out of the tunnel (never happend yet, but now that I've mentioned it.....!), change the light bulbs above the mountain, and do any maintenance such as removing cobb webs, etc...

By the way, I wanted a blue lake like in my dreams, but now that I see it I realize that it's too blue.  When I get around to it (which very likely will be never) I'm going to make a brand new hatch with more realistic water.

While we're on the subject of the mountain area, I'll be adding rope lights behind the last & highest area of the mountain between the foam mountains and the wall (there's about a 4" gap on purpose).  I'll be able to sort of do a sunset.  My hope is that I can automate the process using dimming of the main white lights, bringing up the rope lights while bringing up the blue ceiling lights.  It's on my wish list....

I hope that this answers your questions. 

Rick

Kevin,

Thank you for your kind words.  I love scenery and structures - they are the main focus of my railroad.  One of the really cool things about the camera is that you can make things (model railroads) appear bigger than they actually are.  My wife has given me the o.k to take over the rest of the basement (what a wife!!!) and I've now got an area that is 15-1/2' x 29-1/2' just waiting for me (and the $$$) to expand.  While the next phase will be more focused on operations (I belong to an operating group http://nciog.blogspot.com/ ) it will definitely be scenic.

Rick

Blue,

I appreciate your feedback and encouragement.  It helps to be a little thick skinned when submitting material.  I had a comment on a previous submission that said of my video that it had the " look of a B Grade Sci Fi movie".  Hey, it could be worse......maybe a F grade Sci Fi movie!

I do value reader's input as I use it to help improve the process.  I'm no pro - just a model railroader trying to help other model railroaders.  Almost everything I have ever learned about the hobby has come from other model railroader sharing.  I'm thankful for their help - pro or amateur.

Rick 

Maybe not but your video & narration sure seemed professionally done.  Excellent job and very informative.

Bob Hayes

The background music is a little "big" (loud) - I agree and will strive for future videos to be better in that area.

Rick, I do a fair amount of video work for corporate purposes. Assuming the narration and the music bed begin at roughly the same level (peak VU readings) I find that dropping the music bed 6 dB (soft music) to 9 dB (lively music) when the narration starts works well. Hope it helps.

BTW the video is just fine as it stands in my eyes and ears. Nice job.

Bob,

Thank you for your kind words.  I have done a little video & video production for my church, but I'm new at the model railraod thing.

Rick

LK,

Thank you for the specific advise - I will definately use it in the future.

Rick

If you want to blame someone for the level of the background music, that would be me. I added the music when packaging Rick's video for the MRH Theater area.

Charlie