[UE4] Making Ships - Sails of War

lukas_s

Styled after a Royal Navy SwansClass Sloop (1766) this Sloop-of-war model I made for my personal game project Sails of War.
I posted a link to my ArtStation on the Polycount Discord yesterday, but thought to share it here as well. C&C Welcome and much appreciated!

She was quite the beast to make. Water and sky – pretty much everything you see is made by me.
As the title reads it's all UE4 and the water and ship materials turned out to be quite complex in the end.
The ship one mixes tiling textures, titling overlays and unique overlays – all of them with switches and parameters so they may be turned off.
Flags and sails are on their own material, again with possible UV2 overlays (especially for the sails where the extra detail is needed).

The game itself will see ships from a behind in a typical vehicle following fashion – so some of theses screenshots get a bit closer then the game will end up being.

It super awesome to finally be able to share this work, and I am really looking forward to making and sharing more ships. Production should speed up now that master materials and such are done!

Again C&C is much welcome, hope you like it!

lukas_s

As planned I have moved on to the next ship and now that the pipeline is set up I feel like this one is going a bit quicker than the one before.

The next ship is the smallest we will see in-game. A naval cutter mostly styled after the  French privateer "Le Renard".

I am not too concerned about making it 100% the same, this is after all our "cutter" class. I am, however, using the modern day recreation of the aforementioned French ship as my main source of reference.

Any keen sailor will spot the differences I am sure, but she should hold up nicely as a representation of small, nimble and very quick ships. 

These screenshots are taken directly from viewport.

I will be posting progress as it is being made - you can surely spot all the rough blockouts - but do if you have some chip in some thoughts! 

BoonS

I don't consider myself a vehicle artist, let alone a shipwright, but I have some some thoughts... At a glace I kind of saw your sloop as more of a ship-in-a-bottle model than a gigantic ship that a crew of people will ride on. And that might be due to the DOF of the shots and it could very much be what your were going for, but if you're interested in having your ships stand more as an object for awe there's a few things you can keep an eye out for in texture and design.



-Reading the details of the hull on your sloop from side to side, to me is a little monotonous. It'd be nice if texture-wise, you could put in some kind of swath detail that encompasses large horizontal sections of the ship. I.e. wide patches of  water-damage texture rising up on the hull, or maybe specific planks of wood that are slightly different tones from the rest if the texture system is capable. Something to break the evenness.

-I'd also advise bending the designs of the ship more towards creative liberty. It would compromise the authenticity of the designs, but if you were to prioritize having it pop as a 3D model, it'd be best to adjust the visual narratives. Right now I'm essentially reading evenly-width, evenly-colored, and evenly-distributed planks of wood across the hull (along with ropes that crisscross for the sake of function, but visually they're more distractions than narrative statements.) It'd be nice if you could break the evenness with specific concentrations of intentional detail (i.e. a specific section with an irrational number of ropes, sections of complex decorations with thinner planks, a very detailed railing, etc.) and other unique items that you can put on the hull that can't be found anywhere else on the ship.
-I'd also ask for a grungier-dirtier look to offset a "recreation" atmosphere but that's my selfish-preference.

I don't imagine you'll drastically change your work process or your commitment to accuracy, but if I was helpful with finding avenues for micro-adjustments or in clearing tunnel visions, I'd be glad. Good luck.

lukas_s

Thank you so much for your comment! It points - in part - at things I noted down myself.
I think one reason it looks much more like a wooden toy model then a real ship is the lack of ropes. Ropes to tie down stuff, loose ends of the rigging etc. It's indeed one thing I will do going forward and also likely revisit the Sloop.

I really do like the comment for more color variation (had not thought of adding more) within the texture maps - or at least overall. Whilst ships were constantly cleaned and painted - while out on the journey - color variation between repairs and paint which had been out in the sun for a couple weeks would be a lot stronger then what I ended up giving the Sloop. Thank you for pointing at it! I shall have another look at adding it to the material, I should have at least 1 texture channel left.

I also much appreciate that you posted AC Black Flag as it's been a huge inspiration and one of the main reasons I went for this setting! Though that said I have always disliked - for the upcoming Skull and Bones as well - just how far they stray from historical accuracy and go into creative liberty. Then again that's me and the old problem of wanting ever more accurate models and missing the greater picture.

BoonS

Mmm yes, if only mainstream audiences can innately appreciate accuracy... but alas..
Best wishes on your future design decisions.

Olingova

I totally see your point, myself i really disliked those ugly "rams" on the AC Blackflag ships, but i thin sometimes a bit of exageration in the proportion can really help to catch the essence of the design. They used that a lot in AC Origins ( like here : https://www.artstation.com/artwork/E0800 ). But the first goal of my comment was to cognratulate you for that work, i tried multiple times to start a wooden war ship but aaaalways got stuck to that "details" phase, it can be really tricky and yours looks good! Look forward to see "Le Renard", it's especially great since i had the chance to see it irl i'm looking forward for that!!

lukas_s

Progress! Well, a bit. Spent a lot of the weekend exploring better ropes and doing high and low-polys - those will come into play later.

The rest of the weekend was spent on additional details for Le Renard and on a blockout and high poly of her carronades. For gameplay reasons I think we will skip her having cannons on top of the carronades. I'll lowpoly, unwrap and texture them tomorrow, then onward with the cutter. 

Thank you so much for your comment Olingova. I think my model is a bit elongated - but you will be able to tell me once its done -- I agree with the part about larger objects making them more important in visual design. Maybe the fact that I showed the Sloop in open waters made it lack any sense of scale - I was watching airplane spotter videos from right before 747s landing and up in the air with only blue sky the very much real planes looked like toys. So I am thinking: Maybe going forward we need islands with trees and possibly small shanty houses - that would give a better sense of scale.

Olingova

Yeah a bit of environment might help even jsut some rocky riffs or jsut bigger waves or something. Anyaway i ll check your updates , cools models!

lukas_s

Hi there! Been a bit. And the cutter is mostly done. A pleasant surprise to start the month was being featured and made one of the recipients of the Nvidia Edge program. Certainly a great way of starting a productive weekend! So then here is the mostly done block out for the cutter:

This is just a quick preview render – no real materials.

Before I run off to doing a bevel and normal as well as unwrap pass I thought I'd post the progress here. The deck and details are mostly done, masts still need work.

I have been thinking about the rigging and the way I been doing it on the Sloop - it will most likely cause problems for ingame. So I am currently rethinking how to do it without spending thousands of polys on it. One option is less rigging but a combination of dynamic ropes and statics - will look at it later.

It'll likely be a couple of weeks until I get here in-game, at which point I will of course post here but also turn towards props and world models. As was mentioned before some palm trees, cliffs and shanty huts might be quite helpful showing the scale of these ships.

Olingova

I would be curious to see what references are you using? I tried to model a sloop once but finidng detailed plans is not easy at all so there's a big part of interpretation. Blocking looks solid so far! I know it's far from finished but i think spending a lot more in details on the bast of the mast will add a lot


I feel liek those kind of shapes help a lot with the overall feeling.

lukas_s

I have an entire PureRef (amazing little program!) full of images of the actual (modern) ship as well as handcrafted models people have made. Some plans for the wooden model kit someone is selling - which helped to get the basic shape down. (though i didn't actually buy the plans, just used someone posting his wooden parts as a base) But most of it is - as you say - just interpretation of images. -- Also Wikipedia having the dimensions of the ship was a great help!
Good point about the detail at the base of the mast. The real live ship seems to just have straight beams in the back and small indented once at the front (like so many are for ropes to be tied down).
I do though have to mention that you won't be able to walk the deck as the camera is following the ship. And seeing how we just moved it further away from the ship a bit the other day...  I'd love to add all those small details. Even though the real ones are flat the crossbars are fine carpentry work. But I just don't think you'd ever see it in-game - certainly not if it was a normal mapped detail, it would be mipmapped out at that point sadly. My main ref images of the base of the mast: (credit to whoever made them, found these online)

Some awesome close-up photos of the modern day rebuild. As we I think all agreed further up - real life really is just boring

lukas_s

Oh boy. So I had an insane June and half of July and got very little done. But finally back on track and (to get back into it) in the last couple days I made one of the major details for the Cutter. Hanging of the back is a small dinghy. So here she goes:

I did pretty much over-celebrate my joy of finally being back on Sails - so the dinghy is just slightly to detailed and renders are way to close for how far the camera will eventually be. But it will hang of the back of the ship in the player view, so I though "why not".

(more images on my Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/1mV5Z)

And now on to finishing the Cutter - then a shanty town environment.

defragger

With hinges on both sides of the rudder it will be impossible to steer this thing.

Even with hinges on just one side of the rudder it will still not be able to turn if the linear hinges are angled like this.

Only way this works is mounting the hinges 90 degrees (parallel) to the hinge line:

lukas_s

defragger said:

With hinges on both sides of the rudder it will be impossible to steer this thing.

Even with hinges on just one side of the rudder it will still not be able to turn if the linear hinges are angled like this.

Yes. I honestly didn't even think about the alignment. But yes. It's indeed entirely useless and locked in if it was like that. I think the most likely, even the cheapest hinge, would be a ring on a pin in the center - and only metal clamps on the outside. That way you avoid hinges locking up (or actually using door style ones at all) after water has them corroding and rather have the rudder sit on the pins, ready to be pulled out and replaced with no extra work required. :thinking: I did fail to do that here. Thanks though for pointing it out! -

Will take more care in future, cause now that you said it is actually starting to annoy me.. the way that such a setup would literally be useless.

Funny enough I actually have the correct style hinges on the larger ships.

lukas_s

Well the Cutter is all UVd and ingame. Did also improve the ships master material: Now incorporates additional edge wear and masking (though any paint mask dependent on normal and curv map will be influenced by camera position - the closer you get the more the mask has visible detail)

I started on a second scene to show the Cutter ingame. Also new super heavy wip Palm trees and shanty town behind. (mostly Palms and a Jetty atm, working on huts:

Also planning to add more low and mid level vegetation to block out the sun and give it a more dense look - thanks to feedback I got, pointing that out. ... Might also be worth to raise the islands mount on the left.

And yes before anyone has a chance to comment its to bright atm - will need dialing back.

Olingova

Cutter looks damn good with this point of view! Can you show a close up of thoses textures?

lukas_s

Olingova said:

Cutter looks damn good with this point of view! Can you show a close up of thoses textures?

Thanks! And yes of course: Enjoy some closeups down below. A word of warning. The background is WIP but also the color atm. I did tone down the LUT a bit from the Screenshot above, at close range it's not yet behaving the way I want. We are also still amidst gameplay considerations for how far the camera will sit behind the vessel: Meaning that I might end up doing a finer pass on the masked details (all parameters) once the camera is semi-final. One thing is for sure the very close up picture below I added for fun, nobody will ever get that close to the ship - but I couldn't resit showing it here anyway.

The cutter is also missing some ropes and sail of course. The dinghy of the back will be freely swinging ingame. Again: WIP and as far as ingame camera goes the second to last image is the closest to what we are going for - wip on that.