Modeling a Pirate Ship?

[DirkGently42]

Hey,

I actually had the same problem when working on a contest entry. I never satisfactorily solved it, but I did come up with a couple of resources that might help you along.

This website http://www.m3corp.com/a/download/plans/index.htm actually has two good blueprints (look under 'sailing ship master' or 'Ship Plans/ then 'The French Warship Couronne').

They may not be period accurate, but they are a very detailed guide to everything that would be on one of those fancy old school sailing ships.

As far as turning them into models, well... my own results (first with sweep nurbs, then with box modeling) were less than beautiful, but it was definitely a good starting place.

Hope that helps.

[mbw]

Hey, these are nice pictures, that will help with ideas. I've started my first attempt and it is going to be a huge learning experience. Hey I appreciate the link its a good reference.
Were you able to finish a model that you liked?

Thanks

Mark

[dfaris]

I have a ship I have been working on for longer then I should be but its just a project for me. I would say go the the hobby store and get yourself a good model with some plans that you could use to get the right scale of things. Depending on how detailed you want to get like for all the ropes and rigging for sails and such I would get solid splines pro that will save you tons of polys.


I did mine using HN's and just started making the ship in parts like the hull and deck then added deck details ect ect and kept them all seperate so you can turn thing on and off to work.

Here is a pic of the ship so far, I have been reworking some of the mesh to take advantage of the new fetures in R9. I'm doing the USS constitution.

[DirkGently42]

[QUOTE=mbw]Were you able to finish a model that you liked?

Heh. Not really although I think I got a decent hull shape in the end (in my opinion the hardest part). I ended up cheating and using the camera position to cover up mistakes :) But, hey... it was, as you say, a huge learning experience.

I wish you the best of luck on your ship and would be interested in seeing the final work.

[mbw]

[QUOTE=dfaris]I have a ship I have been working on for longer then I should be but its just a project for me. I would say go the the hobby store and get yourself a good model with some plans that you could use to get the right scale of things. Depending on how detailed you want to get like for all the ropes and rigging for sails and such I would get solid splines pro that will save you tons of polys.

Wow, this looks great. How did you create your hull? I like the idea of going to the
hobby store... Hmmm any excuse works for me. :-)

Thanks for sharing.

Mark

[Ph0n33z]

Here is a great modeling tutorial for a ship of your type. It is for lightwave, but the steps and tools can be adapted quite easily.

http://67.15.36.49/team/Tutorials/viking_ship/vikingship_01.asp

[dfaris]

Wow, this looks great. How did you create your hull? I like the idea of going to the
hobby store... Hmmm any excuse works for me. :-)

Thanks for sharing.

Mark

Hey Mark sorry it took so long to get back to you. When I did the hull it was a pain in the butt also I just shaped it by hand. I have come up with a better way to do this.

Use a plane object on the Z axis then use the magnet tool to pull out the top corner vertex on each end. The magnet tool should reach from the top vertex to the 2nd or 3td vertex up from the bottom. Once you have that done clone each side and switch positions so the forward part is the back and the back is the front. This way you will have a good starting point for the fron of the ship and for the back. I know that is a bit hard to understand so here is a pic.

[mbw]

Dfaris,
Now this is an interesting approach. I'll have to try it out. I chose to
use a couple of splines to define the hull and then lofted between them.
After that I used the magnet tool to deform the ship. Starting from a plane
might give me a little more freedom at the start.
Now the biggest problem I'm having is textures. Can't seem to find
a good tilable planking texture. (one that has multiple planks not
ending at the same point). Also need to figure out a good rope texture.
It's been a blast trying to put it all together, but I fear the biggest
challenge will be trying to get the water to move around
the hull correctly when animated. Splashes are also a big concern...

Whew... Just a lot to think of. :-)

Thanks for the help.

Mark

[dfaris]

Dfaris,
Now this is an interesting approach. I'll have to try it out. I chose to
use a couple of splines to define the hull and then lofted between them.
After that I used the magnet tool to deform the ship. Starting from a plane
might give me a little more freedom at the start.
Now the biggest problem I'm having is textures. Can't seem to find
a good tilable planking texture. (one that has multiple planks not
ending at the same point). Also need to figure out a good rope texture.
It's been a blast trying to put it all together, but I fear the biggest
challenge will be trying to get the water to move around
the hull correctly when animated. Splashes are also a big concern...

Whew... Just a lot to think of. :-)

Thanks for the help.

Mark

Textures should be pretty easy to find or you could make your own in c4d and render it out. For the ropes I would really go with soild splines pro if you can. it lets you render splines and saves tons on the mesh count, lets you make real rope out of splines. I bought add the sea for the water stuff and that will get what you want as for the spray you will have to go with thinking particals or storm tracer.

[mbw]

Textures should be pretty easy to find or you could make your own in c4d and render it out. For the ropes I would really go with soild splines pro if you can. it lets you render splines and saves tons on the mesh count, lets you make real rope out of splines. I bought add the sea for the water stuff and that will get what you want as for the spray you will have to go with thinking particals or storm tracer.

Wow,
It does look like both plugins are very useful, but I wasn't expecting ATS to be so
expensive. Is it easy to use? Does it give you results that you expect? For the
price, I might go for Psunami in after effects. I plan on downloading the demo
to try it out, just thought I'd get your opinion.

Thanks again for all the help.

Mark

[dfaris]

ATS works really well and I must say it saves tons of time doing it other ways. I do wish they would lower the price a bit but I have no say in the matter. Solidsplines pro is a must have for any kind of work the needs things like rope.

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