Custom Scenery Exchange / Very First Thrill Ride WIP

Been working extremely hard on this whole ride making thing lately and wanted to give you guys a peek into the stages of designing it. Also, I would kind of like to get some good honest feedback about it in general, like anything that just basically seems out of whack.

So here's the idea, I wanted to start small, so I decided, on a whim, to do a spooky type of thrill ride. I really don't know why the hell I chose the spooky theme again, but it seemed to make a good first ever ride project. Glad I started small though like this.

Still tons more ideas yet, like adding more arms with the rotating cars, lots of texturing work, which comes towards the end, want to do some lighting effects, maybe even have the arms go up and down while rotating, and lots of other little detail additions.

So it's a rough start and I'll just keep posting updates here when I feel the need, as this helps me stay motivated and focused to finish this damn thing. Again, this is just pretty much the barebone idea of what I'm going for, no fancy textures or other arms.



By the way, I know the animation is kind of glitchy, like a stutter when it reaches a full rotation. Something I'll fix later.

For a start, that's really good. Are the base and car colorable?

Seems Legit.

Peace.

@MikaRCT2 - Thanks, not yet though. This is serious barebone yet, but I've been working on this pretty hard so I felt it would help me stay on this just by showing a little bit here and there as I move along. I have plans to have recolorable cars and base, but I have to get the movement and everything just right first. This was a little bit of a headache just to get the movement this way, which is where I spent most of the time so far.

@shotguns? - Thanks, I know it's a pile of shit to look at just yet, but I'm hoping by the time it's done, it will have gone through some radical changes.

I tried making an animated ride too once, so I know it's hard. The movement is the most important (and the hardest, like you said), but when you get that right, you'll be fine.

It's looking good so far movement seems right I like the touch of lighting so far when you get it to the last stages I will be glad to test it for you.

when it's at about 4 o clock, the pumpkin keeps spinning but the car doesn't.

Really good start. We haven't had a good custom ride maker in ages.

Glad you guys think it's headed in the right direction.

when it's at about 4 o clock, the pumpkin keeps spinning but the car doesn't.

You're right, and that's the glitch I was talking about, it does one full rotation, then sticks at that one point for a brief second. I'm kind of struggling lining the animations up which is why it does that. That's really why I haven't got very far with modeling much of the ride but more trying to make sure it basically does what I want first. I'm looking to try something kind of chaotic, but not deadly chaotic, if you know what I mean.

It's looking good so far movement seems right I like the touch of lighting so far when you get it to the last stages I will be glad to test it for you.

Thanks, and that would help immensely to have people test things for me, just to try and catch mistakes I made. I'm pretty notorious for overlooking the smaller details.

Just another little update. I'll quit with daily updates after this and spend more time trying to work on this. Animation is glitchy as hell since this time I used video capturing instead of making a GIF from the frames. Oh well. Anyhow, added on the other cars just to get a feel for how this would look with more arms and tried to change the way the cars swing. I made it more oval shaped tracking so the cars actually extend out, then back in while spinning. I also didn't bother lining it up to the brown base, just didn't seem worth the effort just yet.

I can't figure out how to make them raise up and down as that was another way I wanted to go. I'm just not really good with animations so I'm kind of making this up as I go and learning as I go. I guess you get the basic idea but I promise the animation will be much better once it's finished.

Anyone think it moves to fast? Too choppy?. I know I get sick just watching the cars spin.




Quick Edit - It was bugging the crap out of me, so I slowed it down to a more respectable level and tweaked it for a smoother loop. Changed the in and out motion too.

wow, it's amazing! the only thing is: base and car colorable.

Thanks. glad you think it's moving along nicely. One other thing I was wondering, would anyone think it would look better with open cars, like this style, or an enclosed cars but have the front open?

I think that is pretty good like it is.

Add a few more frames in there.

I like the open cars it is a little fast though but otherwise looking pretty good.

Good idea for a few more frames. I'm just a little limited to working in 24 frames since I'm doing this in the object editor. Haven't quite mastered the ride maker. I've been trying to watch the default spin rides for patterns and stuff that makes them so smooth, like the snow cups and diamon ride. It just kind of fizzles my brain at times trying to think my gameplan out. Thanks for the input guys.

I think that the wheel in the center of the car that give the ability to spin faster is missing... But the animation looks good to me, maybe doubling the number of frames would make the animation more fluid?

Try to add peeps in the cars to see how they look in those cars.

Ok guys, I lied. I know I said I would chill on the previews, but I'm kind of bursting at the seams here with some excitement. I have been making a lot of progress in just the last day so I just really wanted to show where this ride is headed again. Got the animation smoothed out, which you can't really tell based on this preview, got some texturing done, modeled in some peeps, which suck, but I guess they work for the time being, and rigged up some new lighting. Still more to be done yet, but this is where it's at right now.

Sorry about that damned annoying stutter in the animation. I did a quick screen video capture, and the software I used kept doing that. It was just a quick way to make the GIF though.

It would be cool if you made the base colorable. Make the pink on the cars a colorable yellow and the base pink.

Oh yeah, I'm still getting to that part. This is just how I left the project when I called it quits for the night. I'm slowly doing texturing and feeling out how I want to apply them, but I do have plans to do base and car recoloring of some sort.

By the way, the pink on the cars are actually supposed to be light tubes, not just colored geometry. If you look closely, the illuminate onto surrounding surfaces a bit. I hope I'm thinking the same as you though with the pink comment.