Nice video - and nice model work, too!

Video, lighting and sound all came out great, IMHO.  Even catching the green trim at the edge of the yard was a nice touch, to lend perspective to the size and depth of the scene ("yes, it's a model!")

Port Andrew has a very Port Angeles look to it (though larger, of course).  I used to see the Longview, Portland and Northern cars lumbering around behind Seattle and North Coast F-7s all the time, usually after being staged at a mill to pick up a load of newsprint, phone directory paper, or packaged pulp rolls.

Nice work (as always)!

Nice Work

The video was great, as is your modeling.

Thanks for sharing.

Very realistic video Kevin...

Kevin,

Great job on the video, I wouldn't say you need to do much more to what your doing apart from actually doing more videos!

Cheers,

Jas...

Great work

Great job, Kevin.  I always enjoy seeing your offerings.  Thanks.

Question for the audio experts:  is there a way to add a doppler effect when the train passes?  As the WN Dash 8 passed, I found that I was expecting the bell tone to lower in pitch.  I know it's a model, but it didn't look like a model!

Great Video

what's next?

I hear the Washington Northern might grow. What's the scoop?

Very nice, Kevin!

Kevin,

A very nice video, and it's always great to see your railroad in any format!

Rick

WN video #1

Nice color and lighting Kevin.  What type of camera, lighting, and video editor did you use?

Lance

Thanks Everyone

I appreciate the kind words on this first video attempt. I feel the lighting is probably adequate as far as brightness goes, but it looks a little too yellow for my liking in compared with the lighting in the room.

I will be attempting more soon and trying a little more advanced video editing as well. I'm just a baby at this whole video thing.

Joe: The rumor is true. I've acquired the other half of the room. You might remember the treadmill in the corner when you visited? Well it has been relocated and the Washington Northern land grab has been finalized. Excited about adding more layout and hope to incorporate a much larger staging area, continuous running ability, and hopefully some rural scenery. Lots of planning to do, but I've got some ideas I will be sharing with the MRH community as plans develop.

Lance: The lighting is just the room lighting which is track-lighting with incandescent bulbs and an additional spot light (100 watt) placed a fair distant above the scene to give all around better lighting and I reasoned it might help eliminate some harsh shadows. The camera is a Samsung SSD HD camera. It ran me about $265. I wish I would have spent a little more money and got one with a external microphone jack and a less touchy zoom control. Other than that, it does seem to take fairly nice video. As I mentioned in my original post, I shot this in HD but the final version you see hear didn't end up in HD. I think the downgrade actually happened in my editing. It was my first attempt at using my Pinnacle StudioHD Ultimate software. Version 15.

Adding doppler : Yes/No/Maybe

Dear Don,

1- Is is possible to add doppler?

Yes

2- Is it easy to add doppler?

Depends on the editing app in question, but for iMovie and Windows MovieMaker users, no.

2a - Is it easy to add "Good" (accurate, scaled, point-source coherent) doppler?

Definitely No (Even Pro Film, Foley, and Sound-Design houses can't do that "blindfolded", repeatedly. They have to work darn-hard on each and every effect they deploy, particularly when it's recreating/emulating a psycho-acoustic effect that "should have been captured in the location record" against known picture/footage... )

3- Is it worth the effort to add doppler?

Depends on who you are pitching the video at.

- Those with "trained ears" will hear the lack of doppler, and say "there's no doppler"

- Those without trained ears may notice that "something doesn't sound right",
but will be highly unlikely to identify it as specifically "lack-of-doppler"

- Majority of Model RRer's, within the context of a model RR video on YT, will likely not care...
(and if the vision is obviously of a model, "better/prototype-sourced audio" is only going to emphasise the fact...)

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

 Factory Tech : FairlightAU
http://www.fairlightau.com

Exporting in HD

Dear Kevin,

Next export you try, give these settings a spin:

Export Format : Quicktime MOV

Export Codec : H264

Export Frame Size : 1920 x 1080

Pixel Aspect Ratio : Square Pixels

Export Frame Rate : Whatever matches the rate you shot/edited your footage at
(being US, presumably this is 29.97 or 30frames-per-second)

These should give you a 16:9 "widescreen" format in true High Definition resolution.

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

Very nice.  I think the sound

Very nice.  I think the sound is great, and honestly, the train is moving rather slowly so dopler would be subtle in any case.  I like the working gates, too.  It's something I want to see on the Sudbury Division as well.  One thing, though...isn't it against city ordinance to blow the 14L crossing signal within city limits?  (just kidding...) 

Looks great

Kevin

Thanks for the video.  I am really impressed with your modeling skills, especially the weathering on your rolling stockl.

Thank you

Jurgen and Tim. Great tips Prof Klyzlr. I've printed them out and will try them on my next production. Thanks for sharing your expertise.