Finer control when painting, raising & lowering landscape

[rickintucson]

Hi Folks!

In trying to Paint on a roadbed or raise or lower scenery (like putting the track on a fill), if going west, east or perpendicular to those directions, you can do an acceptable job. When going at 45 degree angles, not too pretty but it will work. However, if you are going at slight angles you have to fight it and it looks really messy, (maybe a drunk track crew???).

Is there any way you can get finer control? I found using the shift key gives you finer control when rotating objects, is there some magic key for the abovementioned tasks? It would seem if you could get the "square" size smaller for the brush (not just the brush size) you could get a smoother and more realistic result??

I thank you for any and all help!

Rick

[Kali]

No, the terrain is pretty coarse unfortunately; I think the idea is you use lofts for closer/more detailed lanscape features, although people don't actually seem to do that very often.

You can adjust the rate the brush raises/lowers landscape in teh tool flyout too. There is some elasticity to the landscape, you might find nearby bits popping up and down as you do it which can get a bit annoying.

[rickintucson]

No, the terrain is pretty coarse unfortunately; I think the idea is you use lofts for closer/more detailed lanscape features, although people don't actually seem to do that very often.

You can adjust the rate the brush raises/lowers landscape in teh tool flyout too. There is some elasticity to the landscape, you might find nearby bits popping up and down as you do it which can get a bit annoying.

Thanks for the reply Kali, you are very right it is annoying. I've even toyed with the idea of using only the 8 track directions that the program works well on.

To your point however, being a neophyte, I'm not sure how to use "lofts". Is a loft similar to a "layer" in computer graphic design? I see loft referred to often, but need to study up on the method you mentioned. Any tutorials or videos that you might point me at would be very much appreciated!

Last, does anyone know if it is possible to "rotate" the brush orientation as you can objects? If you could, that would go a long way towards making a track direction of 52 degrees on a high fill look much more prototypical.........

Thanks again,
Rick

[Kali]

The brush just shows parts of the ground grid, which you can't rotate;it's a bit of a pity it wasn't in hexagons which might have made our lives easier, but it's a pretty old design I guess.

Lofts; track is a loft! it's just a scenery item like track or a wall or in this case an embankment which you can change the length of, and bend and so on. Lofting is just a 3d modelling term for "drawing" a shape out of a 2d object that moves down a path. Anyway, practice a bit with walls and fences, lofts can be pretty irritating.

[rickintucson]

The brush just shows parts of the ground grid, which you can't rotate;it's a bit of a pity it wasn't in hexagons which might have made our lives easier, but it's a pretty old design I guess.

Lofts; track is a loft! it's just a scenery item like track or a wall or in this case an embankment which you can change the length of, and bend and so on. Lofting is just a 3d modelling term for "drawing" a shape out of a 2d object that moves down a path. Anyway, practice a bit with walls and fences, lofts can be pretty irritating.

Its too bad that a fill, complete with gravel bed , couldn't be run at the same time and with the same accuracy of laying track! It would save hours......and hair......

Thanks Kali,
Rick

[Kali]

Well, you can, to an extent; you can use the offset tool to align a loft to the track ( it's how you lay platforms too ). I've been messing around trying to get a decent UK steam-era roadbed; while actually making it look convincing is a big struggle, laying it is easy.

[rickintucson]

Well, you can, to an extent; you can use the offset tool to align a loft to the track ( it's how you lay platforms too ). I've been messing around trying to get a decent UK steam-era roadbed; while actually making it look convincing is a big struggle, laying it is easy.

Okay, you now have my full attention..... What kinds of things have you had luck with aligning to the track pray tell???