18th Century Ship

Twotents

Hey all, this is my first WIP post on Polycount yay *throws streamers*

I am working on a 18th century ship for a college project, it is still in the early block out phase but I am not 100% happy with the hull. All of it has been done in Max and the hull was made by using the rib structure from images and then plane modelling along the ribs.

It has come out fairly blobby to my eye and would appreciate any tips on how to smooth the topology a bit better so it looks less like it has warts on it :P

I have included the wires on of the hull.

This is my first attempt at making a ship though so it's been a bit of a challenge to find a workflow that I can use on it.

AdamRodgers

Not a bad first go chap.

A lot of the issues you have with blobbyness are the edge loops aren't straight so defining those curves is made harder. Select the verts one vertical edge loop at a time and goto front or back view and 'Align to View' this will pull them all onto the same plane then goto side view and adjust position to get them back where they were and then tidy them up from front view or bottom view and you should find its a lot less blobby.

Goodluck

AdamRodgers

You might find defining the hull profile with Splines and then lofting along a path would be more realistic to the real construction and give you a more satisfying result, as well as a lot of ability to adjust each profile spline to tweak the shape.

Twotents

Thanks Adam , I was originally thinking about using NURBS in Maya to define the initial shape but decided to try plane modelling first. If all else fails I will head to maya to define the hull there, may just finish the entire model in Maya from that point though I am much more accustomed to Max

Twotents

Here's some new wires from a quick clean up,

I reduced the geometry drastically compared to the last wire frame spaced my quads a little bit more evenly and followed Adam's advice on straightening my vertical loops.

I think the result is much cleaner than my previous just have a lot of re adjusting to do now

AdamRodgers

Looking much cleaner, now try selecting and isolating (hide the other); the horizontal hull loops and tweak those to get a nice flowing form, you wont get much improvement but a little, you could also try using the RELAX to help here.

Max FTW, I still cant find the time to get good at Maya

Twotents

I did some tweaking and of the hull design and fixed the majority of the "blobs"

I am trying to keep the polycount low on it while maintaining the form. The hull comes to roughly 1700 polygons I could probably cull some more but this is honestly my first try at low poly modelling within a polygon count quota.

Still have a lot to learn about it and honestly I don't know what range of polygons I should be looking at as a "low poly" asset of this type. Some advice on what would be an acceptable poly count would be much appreciated so I can figure out how much wiggle room I have.

I still have a lot of optimizing to do on the decks and then move onto building in the cabins masts and rigging so all in all still have a ton to do.

Slow going but it's a trial and error process as I go along

I am going for a fairly stylized hand painted approach when it comes to texturing
(I love hand painted textures)

Thanks for taking the time to check my thread and replying Adam

AdamRodgers

To get a valid input on your poly budget you'd need to give us a rough idea of its intended use, ie.. Its this a sailing game and this the central ship? or is this some scenery in a FPS etc. Things can change dramatically depending. Try to have some use in mind when making it to set yourself realistic goals and limitations.

LP wise you'll want to make one mesh, so removing the keel and using the existing geo of the hull to extrude out and create those areas is a good plan. If this is still blocking in and feeling your way then that's fine but at some point you'll want to make one mesh so keep that in mind.

Looking good so far.

No problem Twotents, only to glad to help.