Trains at Keddie Wye

[Andy Tejral]

I'd love to get some feedback on this. What do you think of the maps? Amateurish? Good enough for a free web video? The idea is that there will be multiple episodes at different locations.

YouTube - RFTC Keddie Wye

[Paul R Johnson]

The maps were fine - the only thing I didn't really like was the font choice - somehow too 'modern' for railways.

I did actually watch the thing right through - American railways are so different to ours here in the UK.

[Andy Tejral]

Hmm. That's interesting. I wasn't consciously thinking about it at the time, but I do like the 'modern-ness' of the font. These videos are supposed to convey what railroading is about right now (well, two years ago).

Plus the series title is 'Railfan Transcontinental' and that looks really cool in that font!

[Eric Stemen]

It's an interesting video. I didn't mind the font or even that the graphics didn't extend to the edge of the screen. As someone who doesn't know much about trains I would love to hear more about the engines and the cars(forgive my lack of technical terms). I assume your video is more for people who are really into trains. I bet they will love it. The location seems nice, and I bet sometime in the future, if this video is still up, the average person will think its really neat since trains won't look like that anymore.

Good job! How long have you been recording?

[Keith Dobie]

Hi Andy. Nice job with the video. When I was 19 I worked a summer on the Canadian National line west of the Rockies in British Columbia. Love trains.

The map is fine if it's not a paying job. My suggestion would be to reposition/resize REDDING and CALIFORNIA so they each sit entirely on the yellow. You could also zoom the map in when you show the county, so it's larger. Would fill in the county so it's a different colour. Maybe show the location of a major city — San Francisco, for reference for people who haven't got a good "map in their heads" of northern California to begin with.

Your post reminded me of an Apple Motion tutorial I watched a couple weeks ago. It's about creating a moving dot on a map to illustrate a route. I can only hope to be that good at Motion one day. . . but shows you what is possible.
YouTube - Motion Tip - Motion Path Behavior

Keith

[Andy Tejral]

Originally Posted by Eric

I didn't mind the font or even that the graphics didn't extend to the edge of the screen.

Oh, you mean the second map? I'm not sure why it's doing that. Looks like I have a mask on or crop or something. Thanks! I didn't notice that! --Yeah, its a Vegas problem. Not sure what's going on there...

As someone who doesn't know much about trains I would love to hear more about the engines and the cars(forgive my lack of technical terms). I assume your video is more for people who are really into trains.

Yeah, on the one hand, it is 'beyond the scope' of this video. The is actually the first one with narration--others are just the trains. On the other hand, I don't have that technical knowledge! I had to do a bunch of research just to say 'pair of SD70Ms' and I'm still not positive its right!

Originally Posted by Keith

My suggestion would be to reposition/resize REDDING and CALIFORNIA so they each sit entirely on the yellow. You could also zoom the map in when you show the county, so it's larger. Would fill in the county so it's a different colour. Maybe show the location of a major city — San Francisco, for reference for people who haven't got a good "map in their heads" of northern California to begin with.

Moving REDDING isn't a big deal but CALI is centered and I liked that--I was thinking about a box? Earlier versions had Sacramento and Reno but I thought it looked cluttered; I think SF will be right about where CALI is. I'll futz with that some more.

What color for the county? I tried a couple but it didn't look right. A lighter yellow?

Thanks for your help!