A few years ago on RYPN we discussed the work that an artist had done re-creating the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands (1942) in computer graphics.

For a current look at the state of the art, see the recent movie GREYHOUND, featuring a FLETCHER-class destroyer based on the museum ship USS KIDD, located at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. According to an article published recently, the KIDD was photo-surveyed with over 10,000 images used to create the electronic model of the destroyer for the movie. Only limited areas of the ship were built as sets. Most times that the actors are shown on the bridge wings or other exterior parts of the ship, the background and sea conditions are computer graphics. The ocean and the spray were created by a computer program.

Yes, the movie does have a few technical glitches. One big glitch is that the first FLETCHER class destroyers were commissioned a few months after the supposed date of the events in the movie. But no examples of the earlier US destroyer classes are preserved to serve as a model.

Another recent movie, MIDWAY (2019), also made very limited use of sets. Only a small portion of the flight deck and island structure of the USS ENTERPRISE were built for filming, along with two full size replicas of naval aircraft. There is a documentary explaining the techniques that can be viewed on YouTube. Because YouTube video links tend to be outdated quickly, just search the movie title on YouTube to find it.

Just some things to consider for possible application to railroad museums. This rapidly advancing technology might prove useful in the future.

PC

I can't see what this has to do with "Rail Preservation".

Perhaps the suggestion refers to a future use such as when the film company scanned and measured Pere Marquette 1225 as a prototype for the engine in the computer generated animation in “The Polar Express”. I’m sure the monetary compensation for this to the Steam Railroading Institute was of some benefit.

I do. Representation ,interpretacion ,interaction stimulation ,etc .to increase the publics awareness and interest ,via cutting-edge technology, for displays/entertainment regarding any type of preservation/ history. Visit London's Museum of transport to see how media is used for displays.

This kind of computer graphics technology, combined with close-up projection equipment like the Epson Brightlink (which we have also discussed in the past) could at some point in the not too distant future allow you to view life size images of the equipment in your museum working against a historically correct background and all you might need to support it is a computer, a projector, and a wall painted flat white.

PC

The technology is clearly there now to show what stuff looked like in motion that never moves anymore. Yet, I watched that movie (and "Midway" before it) and it was clear to the viewer you were watching a CGI production filmed on a soundstage. Sure, it's way better than the large scale models on the studio water tank (which every studio had back in the day), but it doesn't fool anyone to think they're watching a real Fletcher-class destroyer underway on it's own power in heavy seas.
You can also visit them to see what a massive budget can accomplish.
I saw as many museums as I could when I was there the most recent time in 2018 and I didn't see any museums in London that could claim to be riding the ragged edge of poverty as many US railroad museums do.
Most museums in the US, you're lucky to even find a sign other than a rusted one that says "Keep off". If you find a sign trying to explain what the item is, it'll be badly faded, possibly broken, filthy and caked with bird poop. Even at a high-budget US museum with RR equipment like the Smithsonian or the CA or PA state RR museums, you're not going to see anything the likes of which you saw in the movie "Greyhound."

Don't underestimate the amount of money it takes to create CGI at that level. It is VERY expensive and time consuming. You could likely restore a C&O H8 for what a portion of the CGI in GREYHOUND costed the studio.

There’s no substitute for the real thing. However, CGI gives movie makers total control.

You know, I'd agree with that in theory... but then Black Mesa happened. I don't mean the incident with the casserole... I mean the fan reimagining of the game Half-Life -- which is an absolutely enormous game (this graphic doesn't even do it justice). Understand the game's playfield is literally the size of a city, and refining the already detailed detail was what Black Mesa was all about. All done from scratch.

So this is certainly far more vast in scope than making 3-D models of mere exteriors of some Navy ships.

See also the people who modeled the entire interior of the USS Enterprise-D from staterooms to Jefferies tubes in a game engine, so you can walk around it in 3-D or even VR. Even shuttlecraft you can fly around (though space isn't modeled very far). The Enterprise-D is much larger than an aircraft carrier (though the spacious rooms make it about the same difficulty to model).

So yes, modeling the exterior skins of heritage railway equipment is quite reachable, especially if you can photograph the surfaces to create the skin graphics.

Laser scanning could also help matters. iRacing for instance will laser scan a racetrack and any point in the scan is within I believe 1 mm of the real deal. That could do much of the hard work if one was recreating in CGI an extant artifact.

I believe a steam restoration did this recently just to aid them in their restoration, so the technology must be getting cheaper if it could be justified just as an aid.

The SFX or Special Effects budget for Episode 4 of Star Wars was just 3 Million dollars for the entire movie. For Episode 9 the last one done the Budget for effects came in at over 150 MILLION dollars on a 240 Million dollar budget.