High Poly Viking Long Boat

Xelan101

Hey so I'm working on this long boat for a school project. It's going to be done in high poly and baked down to low with normal maps. The final goal is to import this thing into both the Unreal and Unity engines.

I know it's no where near detailed enough for high poly yet I just thought I'd post the initial base and then I'll post more high and low poly progress as I go.

Due to the curve of the ship I'm going to be modeling in most of the planks myself rather than trying to create them using a texture. I'll also be cutting in details for the dragon head.
I will be doing the mast, sails and rigging ropes in the near future. If you guys have any ideas of what other details could be added in the high poly they would be much appreciated.

haiddasalami

There some weird stuff going on at the back of the boat. Any chance for some wires

Xelan101

Thanks for the feedback so far.


This isn't the final high poly yet but I figured I'd put up the progress I've made. I'm working on modeling in the planks along the side and bottom of the boat, the rigging ropes for the sail and mast and then some more detail on the dragon head. If you can think of anything else to add or fix that'd be great. I've also included a render of the control mesh that's being smoothed to create the boat base model, which is rather messy near the ends I agree, however I think I've fix any major smoothing issues that show up once turbo smoothed.

Xelan101

More curve where do you think?

Xelan101

Ah, ok. Most of the ref I could find were simplified diagrams and they failed to indicate the curve of the hull. I love this image where'd you find it? Cause this would have been a big help earlier on

JonathanF

you can give it a curve easily by using a lattice on it.

Xelan101

A big thanks to everyone who's given me feedback so far.

I did a bit more work on the high poly (smoothed out the curves at the front and back of the boat and adjusted the curve of the wood slats along the sides) and built the low I'm gonna be unwrapping and baking tomorrow so any more feedback regarding both the low and the high would be appreciated.





The poles and ropes are just made out of lines and cylinders and as I plan on making this an asset you see rather close up in game the number of sides for those pieces are relatively unchanged.

The low poly with wireframe

Xelan101

Here's the final High and Low Poly. I'll get textures up sometime next week so you guys can take a look.

Will Faucher

Looking at your topology, I would suggest you even out those quads a little. They look really stretched especially in the front dragon area. Also, like it has been mentioned above, the boat should be curved the whole length. Not much, it's a subtle curve, but it's there. Yours seems too flat.
The oars, they were placed through the hull of the ship. Not above it. This prevented the oars from being washed away or dropped.

bbob

the width and shape of the hull/keel is also way off:



Try googling "havhingsten" (danish for seastallion) for good ref photos, as it is a painfully accurate reproduction of the longboat excavated in the roskilde fjord. "Gokstadskipet" is another query you might find useful, as it is a largely intact and beautifully preserved specimen that is on a museum stand, which should make it easier to read the shape.

But I would recommend you to make a clean shape with no lumps of the hull itself, before you start detailing with planks. Make sure your edge flow is nice and tidy.

Xelan101

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Unfortunately by the time I checked back and found the last 2 posts I was already nearly done with texturing and as this project is on a dead line I didn't implement those changes. However, I wholeheartedly agree with the crits and should I push this model further to make a portfolio piece I'll definitely take them into consideration.

Anyways, for the time being here's the finished product, textured and placed in a very simple scene in the Unreal Engine.

Ott

For the love of god, do not use this BSP texture for presentation. Need more light so we can actually see what is going on, and do not use the shadow casting light to be coming from the backside of your renders. 1-shadowcasting dominant light for this stuff.