Paddle Frigate
polycounter lvl 10
First project here for me at Polycount. Would really appreciate some solid feedback.
This will be a large scale summer project. I'm looking at creating a full paddle frigate and putting it in Unreal eventually. These ships really epitomize the transition from sail power to steam power (they came just before the switch to screw propellers), and thus, in many ways, the transition into the industrial revolution. Plus they look bad-ASS. Here's the best example I can find of what I'm talking about.
Some more info on them is available here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_frigate
Artistically, I'm going to go for a pretty high degree of realism with this. It will be largely modular (texturally), so I'm hoping that it will be manageable.
First crack at a palette for the exterior (obviously other areas will need separate palettes like the main cabins or the engine room), I used http://kuler.adobe.com/. From left to right, the colors will be the hull above the water line, worn wood, the boat below the water line, varnished wood, and trim (including the water line itself). The scheme is roughly analogous.
I'll need to put a lot of effort into really building the ship in order to have it be properly navigable for a player. Hopefully I'll get the chance to check out Old Ironsides in a couple of weeks.
The modeling will be challenging in that a large amount of it will need to be automated because there are a lot of repetitive shapes deformed organically. For this type of modeling, I'll use Blender's curve and array modifiers. Blender will also be used for most of the UV work, and for simple cloth dynamics on sails. I can use Maya for the material editing and low poly work. Here is an early test of the array modeling workflow. Needs a lot of kinks worked out, but so far it took almost no energy or time to set up.
It is all created from this extremely limited amount of geometry that is very easily modified, and changes are reflected across the entire ship.
I got a simple sail test up and running. It's very easy to do, so I may be able to get some animated normal maps.
Eventually, this will end up in Unreal, so I will need to find solutions for adding AO (hopefully Unreal has SSAO support!), and information about adding multiple UV sets so that the ship overall can have blemishes, decals, etc.
Early Material List:
### Wood (most will be Douglas fir and southern yellow pine)
- Shellacked Wood
- Worn wood (decking etc.)
- Large Beams
- Trim
### Rope
- Simple hemp rope should do it
### Cloth
- Sails obviously
- Flags
- Hammocks would be great as well
- Longboat covers?
### Metal
- Rusted and corroded metal will be necessary for exteriors (paddle wheels, stacks, anchors, etc.)
- Cast iron for heavy machinery of the engines
- Bronze is needed for a lot of the dials, pipes, and misc metal bits
- Large steel support beams and hull pieces are needed
### Coal
- For the engines
This will be a large scale summer project. I'm looking at creating a full paddle frigate and putting it in Unreal eventually. These ships really epitomize the transition from sail power to steam power (they came just before the switch to screw propellers), and thus, in many ways, the transition into the industrial revolution. Plus they look bad-ASS. Here's the best example I can find of what I'm talking about.
Some more info on them is available here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_frigate
Artistically, I'm going to go for a pretty high degree of realism with this. It will be largely modular (texturally), so I'm hoping that it will be manageable.
First crack at a palette for the exterior (obviously other areas will need separate palettes like the main cabins or the engine room), I used http://kuler.adobe.com/. From left to right, the colors will be the hull above the water line, worn wood, the boat below the water line, varnished wood, and trim (including the water line itself). The scheme is roughly analogous.
I'll need to put a lot of effort into really building the ship in order to have it be properly navigable for a player. Hopefully I'll get the chance to check out Old Ironsides in a couple of weeks.
The modeling will be challenging in that a large amount of it will need to be automated because there are a lot of repetitive shapes deformed organically. For this type of modeling, I'll use Blender's curve and array modifiers. Blender will also be used for most of the UV work, and for simple cloth dynamics on sails. I can use Maya for the material editing and low poly work. Here is an early test of the array modeling workflow. Needs a lot of kinks worked out, but so far it took almost no energy or time to set up.
It is all created from this extremely limited amount of geometry that is very easily modified, and changes are reflected across the entire ship.
I got a simple sail test up and running. It's very easy to do, so I may be able to get some animated normal maps.
Eventually, this will end up in Unreal, so I will need to find solutions for adding AO (hopefully Unreal has SSAO support!), and information about adding multiple UV sets so that the ship overall can have blemishes, decals, etc.
Early Material List:
### Wood (most will be Douglas fir and southern yellow pine)
- Shellacked Wood
- Worn wood (decking etc.)
- Large Beams
- Trim
### Rope
- Simple hemp rope should do it
### Cloth
- Sails obviously
- Flags
- Hammocks would be great as well
- Longboat covers?
### Metal
- Rusted and corroded metal will be necessary for exteriors (paddle wheels, stacks, anchors, etc.)
- Cast iron for heavy machinery of the engines
- Bronze is needed for a lot of the dials, pipes, and misc metal bits
- Large steel support beams and hull pieces are needed
### Coal
- For the engines
Replies
I've begun work on the engine which is a ridiculously complicated machine.
I've built the cylinders for the pistons:
As well as the crankshaft and pistons themselves.
Using a few constraints, I've gotten them to behave properly.
http://dim.blenderge.com/Images/paddleFrigate/constraintTest_01.avi
Unreal allows the use multiple UV channels, yes. You could also try a vertexblended material. For instance red for above water, blue for underwater, green for .. those animals that latch onto ships and stuff.
[ame]
Simmo: This era in particular is fascinating to me. It's basically actual steampunk.
Snader: Thanks for the video! That looks fantastic and exactly what I need. The hull will probably need a lot of layers if I'm going to have the amount of wear and damage that I'd like.
Edit: Unrelated, but I should probably have posted this in the sketchbook thread...
The denser it gets the harder it is to see what's up
Here's one of the boilers that supplies the steam for the cylinders that drive the pistons, that drive the crankshaft that turns the wheels. Still a few more things to do to it, but it's pretty much there.
I know renders are requested, and never fear! By next thursday, many should be up.
Modeling is super slick though. Awesome dude!
barnacles!
I like to see a blender user make art. I will join you one day, i promise.
That could be like smokers saying "ill quit one day"
but i mean it, i swear
From here, I'll start rendering, then call it done for the highpolys. The chimney and ventilation(?).
Alternatively, if it is possible, I would LOVE to do animated displacement maps (if they are supported) to have the sails actually move.
Edit: I'm also not sure how I can possibly make cloth dynamics loop perfectly....any ideas?
sculpt the sail for pinching and large shapes
create a second set of tiled uvs...with a ripple normal map plugged into it with a time controlled scroll...masked out by a vertex mask at the edges...then bone the entire sail so that it could rotate fill etc
if you use real time displacement. i would do the same as above instead of normalmaps
[ame="
[ame="
SHEPEIRO, could you explain this a little more? I'm not sure what you mean:
Anyways, sorry for the high res, but it's sort of the only way to see the rigging.
How on earth are you going to bake all that?
Tea Monster: ha! I'm not is the answer. I'll create little components and then propagate them throughout the ship. All of the highpolys I created previously will be baked though. The engine will be broken into pieces, as will the boiler and chimney.
Turnaround: http://dim.blenderge.com/Images/paddleFrigate/Renders/AO_Turnaround.avi