
Show HN: A stop-motion video of an engine - AlexMuir
https://www.howacarworks.com/engine
======
alexwebb2
This is neat, but based on the title, I thought this was going to be a bit
more informative about _how_ engines work, and how each subprocess contributes
toward the end goal.

What I saw instead was a subset of subprocesses in isolation from each other,
presented in an admittedly artistic fashion. It's impressive, and maybe the
purpose is more to whet one's appetite for more information rather than be
informative in itself, but that's not really what I was expecting or hoping
for.

~~~
Lukeas14
This is what you're looking for ([https://animagraffs.com/how-a-car-engine-
works/](https://animagraffs.com/how-a-car-engine-works/)). It's a breakdown of
pretty much every automotive internal combustion engine used today.

Once you understand the basics, the stop-motion video becomes pretty cool as
you can try and label every part that's coming off

~~~
metaprinter
Just to be clear that animagraff is showing specifically how a 4cycle
gasoline-powered reciprocating engine works. Diesel engines account for
roughly 50% of automotive vehicles in the world.

~~~
somecallitblues
Isn't diesel also 4 stroke? I know it has no spark plugs for ignition and
there are differences but the main principals would be the same.

~~~
KGIII
Usually, but not always.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-
stroke_diesel_engine](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-
stroke_diesel_engine)

~~~
userbinator
I'd bet most people in the US over ~20 or so have heard the sound of, or
ridden in, a vehicle with a 2-stroke diesel:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfI6ipuPQQE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfI6ipuPQQE)

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
That one, the 6V92TA, does the 'TA' imply it's Turbo Aspirated?

Those things sound amazing. And oh so dirty!

------
AlexMuir
It took 2,500 photos and 4 days to shoot, followed by about 8 days of
photoshopping & grading.

~~~
jacquesm
Beautiful! Are you planning on rebuilding it? Another shoot? Is there a reason
you don't mark the parts original location or is that simply because you
intend to replace them?

~~~
AlexMuir
The honest truth: This whole car is headed for the scrapyard at the end
because it's not worth the extra time ($$$ per hour) while we film to mark
parts, directions, alignments etc. I mark things when there's time. We're also
modeling the whole thing in 3D and I'm sure the guys doing that will be mixing
the bolts and fixings up. I'm kind of interested in how well it runs after
this reckless teardown and rebuild.

~~~
rl3
> _We 're also modeling the whole thing in 3D ..._

Can you elaborate on the process for this? I'm curious what software you're
using, how many modelers you have, and if you're using 3D scanning equipment.

Modeling everything by hand has to be unimaginably laborious.

Incredible work by the way, you've already sold me as a customer. :)

~~~
AlexMuir
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](https://twitter.com/howacarworks/status/895417122385481728)

~~~
rl3
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.

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

BLENDER IS AWESOME.

~~~
slimsag
Blender is amazing. Check out the new Eevee realtime renderer[1] in 2.8 as
well! It's astonishing :)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAVjwXEjDdo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAVjwXEjDdo)

------
burntwater
As a hearing-impaired person, I just wanted to thank you for clearly
mentioning that it's subtitled. That shows it's more than just an
afterthought, and seals the deal for me!

~~~
AlexMuir
I don't understand why everyone wouldn't subtitle their content. I used
rev.com and it costs $1 per minute and the results are great. So to subtitle
three hours cost $240. With many non-native English speakers as customers it
is a no-brainer.

It's good to hear this too, because the text in that box originally said
'Filmed in 4K' and I only changed it to 'Fully subtitled' at the last moment.

~~~
sametmax
Because it's lot of work. Like everything, it depends of the investment vs
reward, unless you are driven by virtue.

~~~
nxc18
I came from a school with a large Hard of Hearing population... I've really
come to appreciate captioning on all videos. Mainly I just don't like
listening to people say things very much, most videos have super annoying
soundtracks and effects or other distortion, and really reading is just as
effective.

Have captions on your video for everyone, not just the deaf people in your
audience (unless you just really love the sound of your own voice so much that
you want to force other people to suffer through it).

~~~
sametmax
I don't say it's not a good thing to have them.

But it's not free. Either it's worth it or you are a good doer.

------
laurencei
IMO what is really clever about this is that it is a "sales" video - except
you dont realise you are being sold to until the end, by which time you've
enjoyed the video so much, the pitch at the end is reasonable.

And you've shown what the value is long before I asked myself the question
"how much" \- which I usually ask early in the process - but not here.

At least that is how I found it... great work.

Would be interesting to see conversion figures for something like this.

~~~
AlexMuir
I can't really share conversion stuff yet. But one interesting observation off
the top of my head is that my customers MASSIVELY prefer paying with Paypal to
Stripe, even though I deliberately steer them towards Stripe.

It was a massive pain to implement Paypal and I hated every moment of it but
it produced an uptick in payments.

~~~
tome
> customers MASSIVELY prefer paying with Paypal to Stripe

That's interesting. Do you have a theory about why that is?

~~~
necula
I just paid for this using Paypal. I prefer paying straight from my bank
account rather than using a credit card. My debit card (Dutch pin card) cannot
be used for online payments, but Paypal is connected to my bank account. Is
Stripe able to do something similar?

~~~
tumblen
Just curious: would you have not purchased if PayPal wasn't available and you
had to use a credit card?

~~~
necula
I would've this particular purchase, I'm one of those "DIY auto repair
enthusiasts" :)

Using the debit card (PayPal) is just a way of tricking myself into buying
stuff really :) With credit card I am constantly reminded of how much I have
left of my limit (just like seeing how much cash I have left in my wallet) and
next month I'm hit with a big bill for stuff I bought "long time ago".

------
teh_klev
This was originally a "Show HN":

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4974055](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4974055)

And this was Alex's follow-up a year on:

[https://www.howacarworks.com/a-year-on](https://www.howacarworks.com/a-year-
on)

Very well done Alex!

~~~
AlexMuir
Thanks - that seems an incredibly long time ago. When responsive design was
noteworthy!

------
noonespecial
Top notch! It looks so easy! But you forgot the part where you spend an hour
banging, cursing, and blasting that one bolt with a torch because it. just.
will. not. budge, only to have it snap off and realize you're going to spend
tomorrow drilling it out and tapping that hole...

~~~
jacquesm
WD40 and an overnight soak... Force will always get you broken bolts.

Corollary: No amount of force or increase in cutting speed will substitute for
bad planning. (from my metal working guru friend)

~~~
damnfine
Even better than WD40 (which sucks as everything equally) is a mix of ATF and
Acetone for stuck bolts. From the store, pb blaster is the best. Wd40 stands
for Water Displacer, it is not the formula our fathers knew. They would have
used wax and a torch or wintergreen oil anyway.

~~~
cr0sh
If for some reason you don't have some ATF and acetone lying around, Kroil is
the next best thing.

------
radiorental
Inspired by this viral video from a few years back perhaps?
[https://youtu.be/daVDrGsaDME](https://youtu.be/daVDrGsaDME)

~~~
AlexMuir
Absolutely :) There's a great porsche one too, and the most crazy of all is
this one where they literally used an angle-grinder to erase a bike engine:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CqeOXqtNxk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CqeOXqtNxk)

I can only imagine the amount of dust that created.

------
nimrody
Beautiful work!

It's nice to see something that was designed with maintainability in mind.
Designed to be disassembled, repaired and re-assembled later. Impressive
engineering.

So different from most consumer products sold today which never use screws and
are not designed for repairing. If it breaks down you're expected to buy a new
one...

~~~
ajross
True, though this cuts both ways: a similar teardown of the motive system of a
Tesla would be like 8 or 9 seconds. Some fixed magnets, wire, a single speed
gearbox, that's it.

Internal combustion engines may be designed for maintainability, but they have
a __much __harder problem to solve to actually achieve successful maintenance.

~~~
damnfine
Yet, my ICE is cheaper to repair than an out of warrany tesla.

------
inthewoods
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.

~~~
InitialLastName
For me it confirmed that the basic things I'd learned from Car Mechanic
Simulator were relatively valid... I've never even changed the oil on a real
car, but I could name most of the parts in that video.

------
Spacemolte
Wow, that was really awesome, great work! A small piece of critique, the last
part of the video was really garbled/messy? and i kept trying to focus on the
car parts, but was unable to due to it jumping around etc. So that part messed
a bit with my eyes.

~~~
AlexMuir
Sorry. The last part is too strong. I take full blame for it - I made it
myself on Friday night because I wanted to get this out before it burned up
more of my time and limited budget. I couldn't face another week of delays
while the end was put together so I just bunged a few videohive templates
together and went for it. I will redo it on Vimeo because I can replace the
video there, but sadly it's now permanent on Youtube and Facebook I think.

(This is one reason why I'm running Youtube through my own site - I can upload
a new version and anyone hitting this link in the future hopefully won't be
forced into a seizure.)

~~~
Gabriel_Martin
yeah I was going to comment on the accessibility piece. Never thought I'd be
one to say this, but since my job has changed recently, I'm empathizing with
people who could be affected by this much more.

------
mrspeaker
I've been meaning to play the hilarious-looking "My Summer Car"
([http://www.amistech.com/msc/](http://www.amistech.com/msc/)) recently as I
have been hankering to learn about engines... perhaps it's wise to do the
video course first!

~~~
AlexMuir
How have I never seen this before!!

------
awongh
Very cool.

The motorcycle equivalent is this:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkHJuU01-Wk&index=43&list=PL...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkHJuU01-Wk&index=43&list=PL8SLiVEQM9KNBccNx4p2W9W5ggKPFy30w)

I watched about 3/4 of these ^^ videos, really learned a lot about how a
combustion engine works.

~~~
monorepoman
I always kinda liked this one of a motorcycle engine with one end cut off. You
can see how the valves work, and how they are designed to rotate under load,
to even out the valve seat wear.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8hqoE1_7bA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8hqoE1_7bA)

------
catshirt
dang. this is so awesome. really makes the machine feel so much more
accessible.

and your ad is one of the best i've seen since MasterClass ads in my Facebook
feed. i felt like the ad was basically free content. i was learning!

------
ryandetzel
Wait, this course is only $20? This seems like a lot of content for $20...

Really great video too

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

~~~
AlexMuir
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.

------
AlexMuir
OT: Youtube hasn't tracked a single view from this being embedded on the site.
Does anyone know if Youtube doesn't count embedded views?

------
subpixel
Kudos for sticking with this project, which has not made you a ton of money
overnight, since at least 2012.

I don't mean to underplay the work involved in programming and marketing this
project, but just not giving up is perhaps the hardest part of things like
this.

~~~
jacquesm
Any success, ever will have had a period of simply not giving up and
continuing until it works. Overnight successes more often than not are years
of hard work under the radar.

------
tambourine_man
Congratulations, I can imagine the amount of work that went into making it.

I like to take things apart, and it made me a bit nervous, as each piece was
separated, that I would never be able to put it back together :)

------
Dowwie
This is beautiful. Love the synthwave soundtrack :)

Where is the Reddit post of this? You're going to front page, for sure.

~~~
AlexMuir
I'd never even heard of synthwave before I did spent 5 hours on Audio Jungle
trying to find good music for this video. Now it's all I listen to while I'm
coding.

~~~
Dowwie
check these out :)

1\.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9-TEHjUbA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9-TEHjUbA)

2\.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kF7u3tWlns](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kF7u3tWlns)

~~~
ddorian43
Mirror for Backbone of the night: [https://dadmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-
construct](https://dadmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-construct)

------
otto_ortega
Congratulations! This is a really nice project, it seems to have the right
combination between real knowledge about the car and audio-visual effects to
keep people engaged.

I just subscribed to the video course and I can see the preorder offer is a no
brainer, skimming through the PDF provided I can see there is enough value on
it to easily make it worth the $20 by itself.

So as a suggestion: Highlight the PDF and its content on the preorder page,
there is only one mention about it but it doesn't specify its contents.

------
LeonM
Really nice work!

I did have a slight giggle when the promo at the end says you explain
everything about 'modern cars', while you are working on a car introduced 27
years ago.

Of course I understand that disassembling a new car does not make financial
sense, I'm not trying to be negative here.

~~~
AlexMuir
I completely agree. This was basically the best choice of car that I could
afford to buy and effectively sacrifice to the course (the steering rack, the
wingmirror motors - it's all in pieces being modeled) I'd love to do it again
with Harley!

------
cdnsteve
All the visual effects starting a 2:03 nearly made me sick, literally. The
actual content was great.

------
mschuster91
That's just awesome. Back when I had a VW bus, I disassembled it and did most
maintenance myself - but never down to THAT level of detail. Especially, I had
to spend around 40 bucks on new screws because I misplaced the old ones (or
they broke off due to old age)

------
martin-adams
Very nice indeed. If you liked this video, you may also like this rebuild of
an engine over 11 months.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daVDrGsaDME](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daVDrGsaDME)

------
creeble
Fantastic video, and timely -- just spent a few days cursing at a Mazda Z5
engine (in a 97 Protege) myself!

Really, it's a pretty great engine, but with 233k miles a little grumpy.

------
j-me
Very cool video! Purchased.

I'm really interested in seeing where you go with the 3D modeling. As a
coder/DIY mechanic (one of many I'm sure), I'm pretty psyched by how this tech
could be used.

I also want to say that I appreciate your price point. I think it's at a good
point where it might be less than the potential value of the product, but
attracts those who would otherwise dropout of purchase or seek other means to
obtain the media.

~~~
gr3yh47
this is cool but i had to leave part way through the main video. it gives me
anxiety thinking about getting all those parts back together without loosing a
screw or messing something up.

~~~
Practicality
Right. As someone who has torn apart an engine before I was constantly
thinking "where are those parts going?" "Are they just throwing them on the
floor?"

~~~
mod
He bags & tags them, calm your anxiety guys.

------
chaostheory
I really like the parallaxed, knolled layout of a car's parts that you did for
your ad for your 'Ultimate Video Course' (middle of
[https://www.howacarworks.com/basics/the-
engine](https://www.howacarworks.com/basics/the-engine)). How long did that
take to finish?

------
jcoletti
Very cool, well-shot video. As others have said, I was more interested in a
detailed explanation of the inner-workings. After finishing the video and
exploring others, I found my way to the video course preorder page. $20 paid!
Great concept, best of luck. Plan to start watching this weekend.

------
srikz
It reminds of the time I spent with Car Mechanic Simulator. A nice 'fun' game
on Steam if you like stuff like this.

I have the 2015 version and there seems to be a new one out now (2018 version)
but the reviews warn about the many bugs

------
dave7
This looks awesome!

How is the course delivered? Downloadable or streaming only? Can I watch it on
Linux?

~~~
santix
I was wondering that too. (I was happy to see that the demo videos are HTML5,
though.)

------
kazinator
Very nice; and playful. How some of it is done is not obvious, like the
pistons "taking off" out of the cylinders without the support mechanism for
taking the shots being obvious.

Nice tip of the hat to _Luxo Jr._ at the end there.

------
edpichler
What a beautiful work, very satisfying to watch this introduction, as people
commented, just at the end you realize it's a promotional video of the course,
and not just a piece of art.

------
NIL8
Great job! I wish there were sites like this for more... things.

------
kerbalspacepro
I don't want to sound like a fake commenter, but this somehow sold me on the
course concept even though the part of a car I least car(e) about is the ICE.

------
sharpercoder
Great video! Really enjoyed watching it. Great lighting. Towards the end, the
images get flashy (don't do this please filmmakers, it makes my head hurt).

------
kikkoman23
Pretty cool. Learning more about cars is something I need to definitely brush
up on, especially when it comes to things under the hood.

------
nichochar
This is impressive marketing, I purchased the class, am happy about it, AND
liked the way it was marketed to me.

------
westmeal
The sound design was excellent! Well done.

------
peoplee
For someone like me who spent hours watching engine videos on youtube, this
was an instant buy. Well done!

------
d-roo
Really cool idea but my eyes actually hurt watching the end though and had to
stop the video.

~~~
jweather
Agreed, the glitch effects were a bit overdone on the second half. Looks like
incredibly high-quality content, though. I'm seriously tempted even though I'm
not a petrol-head and have trouble changing turn signal lamps without breaking
anything.

------
vincnetas
And the first thing i thought when seeing this: and thats why electric motor
is the future.

~~~
cr0sh
Electric cars will only be the future if the battery technology gets much,
much better. Pound for pound, the energy density of the best available lithium
battery chemistry comes no where close to that of gasoline.

Given how we've seen how lithium-based batteries like to die in catastrophic
ways, I am not sure I would like to have a battery with the same energy
density as gasoline. So it's a question not just of density, but safety.

On top of all that, the batteries need to be able to be charged quickly; 10
minutes to a full charge is probably the upper limit, 5 minutes would be
ideal. But that would take a massive upgrade of electrical infrastructure, and
I am also not sure you could make such a charger friendly for use by a
consumer (not the safety aspect - more the handling aspect, as the conductors
for carrying the current will likely have to be somewhat hefty).

There's also the fact that chargers would also need to be standardized (that's
an industry thing, though - and if things work out for electric motors and
batteries, I am sure a standard would come about).

But first and foremost is the battery tech, unless we want to say that, to go
long distances (4-500 miles per charge), you need to use an IC engine in some
manner (even as a hybrid), but shorter "in town" distances (which I agree,
most people only do) can be handled by electrics.

That said, until a low-cost, real off-road vehicle becomes available as an
electric (and I mean it has to be affordable for a regular person, not some
$60-100k fantasy vehicle, which is mainly what is on the drawing board right
now), I'm not very interested. But I'm not everyone, of course. I'm just not a
"car guy" \- I like my vehicles to be trucks or jeeps...

------
dmurthy
Wish something similar is made for an electric car since it is the future.

------
lucaspottersky
nice ad. however, the tech side doesn't seem to have received as much love.

#1 PayPal returned me to an invalid URL after finishing the payment

#2 I've paid & logged in, nevertheless the website still shows me links to
"buy the course".

~~~
AlexMuir
Sorry to hear this - when you say the website shows you links, do you mean the
app? There is a bug that I'm aware of that is pending submission for approval
to Apple. I will check the Paypal return right now. Feel free to email me -
info@howacarworks.com but I'll find your order and get onto you right now.

~~~
AlexMuir
I can't deduce your order from your HN name so please do email me.

------
pmarreck
The raw complexity here is astounding.

Something something electric motors are far simpler. ;)

~~~
AlexMuir
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.

~~~
pmarreck
You're right! And that's why it's cool. It's tactile. Always loved mechanical
things (and now am a programmer). The first mechanical thing I loved was the
differential gear! More people should understand mechanical cleverness.

------
rootsudo
Nice! A Mazda Miata Engine!

------
bhudman
Wow. I imagined it took tons of patients (well - 4 days worth). Amazing.

------
bitL
Wonderful!

How did you make those flying parts? Photoshopping out the holders?

~~~
AlexMuir
exactly. A lot of masking :)

------
aembleton
Just £16! I've pre-ordered, that's a bargain.

------
pg1
Really awesome stuff. Thanks for you hard work!

~~~
pg1
BTW: Did the car came from Hungary? I saw you found 2000 HUF. :)

------
aerovistae
The foley on that video must have taken some time.

------
kodeninja
This looks AWESOME, @alexmuir! Preordered :)!

------
lordshiny
Was sold almost immediately. Beautiful work!

------
alkz
shut up and take my money! :)

------
TheOtherHobbes
Wow. That was superb.

------
du_bing
Real cool!

------
perilunar
Nice!

------
matt_wulfeck
Very cool. It's amazing how complex the combustion engine seems, especially
compared to an electric motor. No wonder cars have a limited lifetime of
typically some 150-200k miles.

It's going to be really interesting to our purchasing and maintenance patterns
for EVs.

~~~
Pulcinella
Ehh modern engines are pretty reliable. They can easily do over 200k miles.
The actual combustion part is basically a solved problem. Modern fuel
injection (amongst other things) has done wonders for engine reliability. It's
usually other things that cause people to want to ditch cars around 150-200 k.
E.g. the automatic transmission failing, timing belt (instead of a chain)
failing around 100k, alternator and other electronics, pumps, etc.

~~~
matt_wulfeck
A typical car will "last" 200k miles[1].

It's not really still a fair comparison to EVs, because a typical combustion
engine will require significant and regular maintenance plus part replacement
to make it to 200k.

> _E.g. the automatic transmission failing, timing belt (instead of a chain)
> failing around 100k, alternator and other electronics, pumps, etc._

Exactly why EVs are such a game changer. They literally don't have any of
those parts.

[1] [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/automobiles/as-cars-are-
ke...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/automobiles/as-cars-are-kept-
longer-200000-is-new-100000.html?_r=2&ref=business&pagewanted=all&)

~~~
Pulcinella
Batteries in EV cars do need to be replaced at significant expense as well.

