JR East Yamanote Line E235 Trainset

The Yamanote Line is an urban rail loop line that rings the various wards of inner Tokyo. It is one of the most heavily used and busiest rail corridors in the world. Operated by the East Japan Railway Company, or JR East, the line features 11 car electric trainsets running on a clockwise and counter-clockwise course through the urban heart of the world’s largest city and the capital of Japan. These trains, the E235 series, are the latest generation of trainsets to run on the line.

This is my first proper project that sought to prototypically model an existing object in Blender3D. While my initial intention was to create a medium-fidelity low-poly style model of the train, the project eventually became among the most detailed and complex modeling and animation ventures I had undertaken. To create the final product you see below, I needed to learn various techniques and skills related to procedurally generated materials and assets. It as well gave me an opportunity to employ tips and skills I had learned from prior projects to this one.

Idea:

Since starting my journey in Blender3D, one of my goals was to create semi-realistic to photorealistic models and animations of trains and other railway ephemera. I tackled several other projects in different areas, not just because I was interested in those, but also as a kind pre-requisite to starting a larger project like this one. After some time, and gaining some experience, I felt it was time for me to try my hand at making something like a locomotive or railway rolling stock.

I ultimately decided to go with a passenger trainset because I felt it offered more interesting features while a set of repeated assets that could extrapolate into a full-fledge train. In particular, I had been fascinated with the design and make of the E235 series trainsets from when I was living in Japan. This combination is what led to me choose this as my first project.

Process:

The process began with two base models, these would become the basis for the cab carriages and the intermediate cars. While their dimensions were essentially identical, their arrangements were different. Cab cars had the iconic green front facia and a driver’s door, which meant the lead passenger door was shifted back a bit. This differed from the other cars and meant that the assets for the train could only be shared up to a point.

I first started with the cab cars. These, known as KuHa in Japan, have the front face and a collection of other unique features that I modeled first. I first started with the body shell, then made the wheels, and then the facia. The complex shape of the facia was one of the most difficult things that I had to try and model for this project. The keep to the proper dimensions, and to the proper scales, I had reference schematics that I regularly checked and used.

After working on the lead car. I started work on the intermediary cars by taking the design of the lead cars, bisecting it with a boolean, and then mirroring it. This effectively removed the front end of the lead car, making it into an intermediate car. In a real-life trainset. These cars are called either MoHa or SaHa, depending on their function.

The Yamanote line trainsets have a particular consist order. Within this consist are two carriages with a single pantograph structure, and one carriage with a set of two pantograph systems. To recreate these models, I pretty much just duplicated the existing model and then spent some time focused on modeling the pantographs. I then parented the models to the respective cars to complete the design.

Following work on the pantograph, I spent time focused on adding materials and textures to the model. I put particular focus to the pattern design on the front facia. The black and green square gradient pattern is a trademark element of these trainsets and I wanted to properly emulate that. To accomplish this I recreated the design in Adobe Illustrator and then UV mapped the final PNG file of the design to the model.

At this point, the train model was mostly complete, and I turned my attention to making a scene for the trainset to exist in. I started first by modeling some tracks for the train. I made segment of track and then copied and distributed them with an array modifier to create the stretch of track. Place holder materials were used on the ties. This would be later replaced with a procedural material.

After making the track model, I focused on other parts of the scene. This included ballast for the track, and pylons and wires for the overhead catenary system. Outside of modeling, similar principles were applied to these as I did with the track.

Finally, I turned to making the final components of the scene including grass. This was accomplished with using a hair modifier and certain settings to replicate a grass-type look.

After the scene was complete, I began setting up cameras and keyframes to create the final animations. The animations were then rendered out and processed, a process that ended up taking between 8 to 13 hours for each animated clip.

Conclusion:

This project pushed my skills (and my computer) to certain limits. There were definitely times where I had to put the project on the side and refocus. In the end, however, I feel like I grew a lot in the run up to tackling this, and I continued to learn through the trails and tribulations it took to make these models and animations. I still definitely feel like I like the speed and finesse that other veterans of Blender have, but I now feel a lot more confidence in the program and am really happy with the progress I have made and continue to make.

For now, I think reached a good stopping point with this project and model. However, I definitely would like to return to it in the future, and build something even more stunning and detailed.