Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: A stop-motion video of an engine

howacarworks.com

41–50 of 197 posts

Re: Show HN: A stop-motion video of an engine

#42

The raw complexity here is astounding. Something something electric motors are far simpler. ;)

You know what I discovered doing this! It looks more complex but there's not much chemistry or invisible magic here. It's all pieces of shaped metal that fit together and move when a piston is pushed down. In an electric car you've got chemistry that you can't see or feel, magnetic fields that are invisible and electron flow that is hidden.

Re: Show HN: A stop-motion video of an engine

#44

Wait, this course is only $20? This seems like a lot of content for $20... Really great video too

I thought the same. I guess you could charge way more for this kind of content. Great work!

It's not finished yet! Maybe when it's finished I could charge more but at the moment I'm happy if I can just recoup some of the production costs each week.

Re: Show HN: A stop-motion video of an engine

#46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're making it all by hand because it needs to be relatively low poly for the app and website :) I'll write about the process when we've figured it out completely. I'd say we are about 70% done on the modeling. Rigging and animating is a whole other animal. This was the state of the engine a few days ago - all internals are done. https://twitter.com/howacarworks/status/895417122385481728

I'd be as much interested in a 'making of' as I am in the final product you are making.

The amount of things to do on this project is incredible. When I embarked I thought we'd shoot 'making of' stuff all the way, but the reality is that even filming the film is hard enough work - to film the filming of the film would just be too much. I'd like to go back at the end and cover how we do some things - we really learned a lot. The other reason it's hard to do a 'making of' is that I actually don't know how to do this stuff, so we'd waste a lot of time explaining how to do it, only to discover a better way two weeks later.

Re: Show HN: A stop-motion video of an engine

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the same. I guess you could charge way more for this kind of content. Great work!

It's not finished yet! Maybe when it's finished I could charge more but at the moment I'm happy if I can just recoup some of the production costs each week.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: A stop-motion video of an engine

#48
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're making it all by hand because it needs to be relatively low poly for the app and website :) I'll write about the process when we've figured it out completely. I'd say we are about 70% done on the modeling. Rigging and animating is a whole other animal. This was the state of the engine a few days ago - all internals are done. https://twitter.com/howacarworks/status/895417122385481728

Very nice. In that case, I suppose the most utility 3D scans would have is as references to enable a faster low-poly modeling workflow. Then again, scanning would likely incur a non-trivial time cost—one that can't outweigh the very benefits the process affords.

We use photogrammetry for the block, head, dashboard and transmission. It's invaluable for these organic parts. Then retopologized.

BLENDER IS AWESOME.

Re: Show HN: A stop-motion video of an engine

#49
What I found surprising about the video was that it made an engine seem, somehow, less complex and daunting. I'm sure that's a bit of an illusion created by the way the engine is taken apart (and the fact that it's not in a car and therefore you can rotate it as you need it, etc), but amazing work.
Post reply on HN