3D Modeling Tutorials.

[ragnar hairy trousers]

nice tutorial sir.

 

it is a pitty there are no decent ship modeling tutorials on you tube. most of what is on youtube seems to be for high poly models.

 

the method i use is a little simpler than the one show.. i shall try and put together something when i have time.

[SteelSandwich]

Hello all,

 

I gave the 3d modeling a shot as well (im a total noob), yet i was hoping some people could give me some tips.

i am using 3Ds Max 2013 and this is my progress so far:

 

This is the point where i am getting stuck. To my understanding the lower hull is just a flat surface with a texture on it eventually and the upper hull is in 3D.

When i look at how others 'fill in' the lower hull lines (as seen above @ iMack's 2nd image) i cant follow the steps they are taking.

Can anyone help me with this?

Edited October 4, 2015 by SteelSandwich

[IonAguirre]

Hi SteelSandwich:

 

I can't get what do you mean with a "flat surface". No plannar surfaces can be found in any ship of those ages. May we have a deeper explanation ?

 

Another thing is that MAX is not a good tool for accurate ships hull modeling, it is based on meshes, while hulls are built from NURBS.

 

I know MAX has NURBS tools(I've widely used MAX for other purposes), but are very poor when compared with comercial softwares like Rhino and even with free ones as FreeShip.

 

Regards

Edited October 11, 2015 by IonAguirre

[Malachi]

You don´t really need NURBS for a hull, especially if it´s a rather low poly hull for a game. Pixel pushing in combination with a good script or two is more than enough

 

Did this this afternoon because I was interested in the hull shape, the body plan looked a bit odd, but the result is pretty elegant imo.

 

 

 

 

that´s the danish Freia from the player selection thread, btw.

 

And a quick and dirty render

 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by Malachi

[SteelSandwich]

I kinda gave up on it all...

 

I tried making the hull out of splines innitially, as you could see in my images.

Then i figured I'd remake the hull out of Nurbs, which looked alright, but very shaky and with a lot of flaws.

Seeing the result above, i figure i'll let others do the modeling.

 

look at Malachi's image 1

What i meant earlier is that i had no clue to get from my hull-lines to an actual hull. Since i couldn't figure out how to get the texture in.

The result in image 3 is amazing! Nothing short of amazing!

 

Which program would you recommend if i ever will give it a try again?

Edited October 11, 2015 by SteelSandwich

[Malachi]

The one you´re feeling most comfortable with I´m using Blender.

 

Quote

What i meant earlier is that i had no clue to get from my hull-lines to an actual hull. Since i couldn't figure out how to get the texture in.

 

 

Ah, I think I understand your problem. You need to convert your NURBS curves (or splines) into an actual, editable mesh (that´s how it would work in Blender, at least).

There should be plenty of tutorials on youtube how to do that. And, by the way, no model in this thread had textures on it, what you see is just the surface of the mesh with a material setting. Three pics to show the difference:

 

 

Model with basic materials

 

 

 

Same model with textures applied to materials

 

 

 

Editable mesh:

 

 

Edited April 5, 2019 by Malachi

[zFireWyvern]

The one you´re feeling most comfortable with I´m using Blender.

 

 

Ah, I think I understand your problem. You need to convert your NURBS curves (or splines) into an actual, editable mesh (that´s how it would work in Blender, at least).

There should be plenty of tutorials on youtube how to do that. And, by the way, no model in this thread had textures on it, what you see is just the surface of the mesh with a material setting. Three pics to show the difference:

 

 

Model with basic materials

 

Pan4.jpeg

 

Same model with textures applied to materials

 

Pan5.jpeg

 

Editable mesh:

 

Pan6.jpeg

That looks excellent! 

[4535jacks]

Hi guys, I have some very basic modelling experience and so thought it would be fun to try and model a gaff rigged fishing vessel to develop my skills. Can you only use certain programs for NA? I use 3ds Max and blender but prefer blender.

Also do you require a plugin to convert the model into a format for NA?

What type of model file is supported by NA, does it use .edm files?

Finally what code language is used?

Thanks in advance,

Jacks

[SteelSandwich]

 

 

It has been a while since my last attempt, yet this is my progress so far.

Currently i am working on the shape of the stern, the model on the left is the actual model, which has more detail to it.

(It still needs to be polished on the sides a bit, so don't mind that^^)

Edited November 30, 2015 by SteelSandwich

[Malachi]

Looks like a good start

 

I´d avoid n-gons like the plaque, though, quads make for a nice, clean mesh.

 

Is that the Seven Provencien?

[SteelSandwich]

Indeed it is, or, is supposed to become^^

Edited November 30, 2015 by SteelSandwich

[freddykrueger66]

Looks like a good start indeed however I think your smoothing groups are wrong which causes the black spots.

Also for a first ship this is gonna be nearly impossible to model if you are new to it. I'd suggest you start out with something like a smaller frigate first.

You have to learn what every part of the ship should look like and with the 7 prov there just are too many details to start with.

I've started out with a rather difficult ship as well and it didn't look anything like a real ship haha I'll show you.

 

 

You see how bad that looks

The stern and bow are completely out of proportions.

But I've improved so far and this is my latest model

 

 

As you can see this looks more like a real ship.

Getting the shape of the stern and bow right is really difficult for these ships, looking at a lot of reference images helps though.

I hope I haven't demotivated you as shipbuilding is really fun to do.

Good luck with your model, I'll be waiting for some more pics hehe

 

 

 

[freddykrueger66]

Just noticed some other things with your mesh, there are a lot of lines that are coming from your gun ports that you don't continue through the mesh. Only create 3 or 4 sided polygons. So you could weld those points to one of your normal lines going across the entire hull. Also I've noticed you started making the stern from extruding from the hull, try making a plane or box and model that into the shape of the stern. You then move the stern into position and its k that the hull goes into it without it being connected. This lowers the poly count a lot and makes it easier to model as well.

The same technique is done for all the small details like knight heads, capstones, masts ,... they're all separate objects. Don't forget to remove polygons that you can't see as well, like the bottom of a mast. If there is no way you can see it in game, delete it. One very important tip as well is make everything as simple as possible first, make the general shape and only then start refining if necessary. This helps getting a nice edgeflow as well which is important.

I hope this helps. If you have other questions feel free to ask.

[Malachi]

Freddy, that´s a mighty fine model Nice to see a proper Sané ship. What´s the tris count? And what plans did you use?

[freddykrueger66]

Thanks! 33.2k tris and I can still lower that if I wanted, Think the tri cap is 40k for that size of vessel.

I used the original admiralty drafts made when the brits captured this ship and named it HMS Amelia.

These plans are generously provided to me by ragnar hairy trousers.

It's the ship as it was originally though and not after the refit by the brits, which there are also plans of.

I've sent this one to the devs but it's in review, one can hope they accept it though

[Rob]

So i started modeling a ship a year ago, which proved to be a bigger challenge than i initialy thought. I followed the tutorial from pirates ahoy(http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/ship-hull-modeling-tutorial.17259/) and got the following result.

 

 

What do you people think? i know there are a lot of things i can improve but right now i dont know where to start and what is most important. You could say i lack experience

 

Any feedback and help is greatly appreciated!

[freddykrueger66]

Good start.

First thing I notice is all the triangular shading on your mesh, you have to assign smoothing groups to make it feel more round.

You are making the inside of the hull for the entire ship, don't. It takes a lot of polygons and you will never see them.

The keel of the ship should stick out at the stern, it's merged with the stern on your model.

You also picked a very hard ship to model I would suggest easing into it with like a smaller merchant ship or a frigate.

As to how to continue start adding decks by making them out of a plane, make it like a plane with 6-7 segments instead of extruding them out of the hull. This is easier and saves polys.

Also remove all the polys on the inside of the hull and only keep the ones sticking out of the quarterdeck, perhaps even make the railing a bit thinner as its quite bulky atm.

If you start making details like a bell, knighthead, stair, ... make a new primitive and start working from there, don't pull it out of the hull that takes too many polys.

After that just place the object so it sits perfectly on the deck or even a little bit inside it to prevent Z fighting.

Besides that I would suggest looking at tons of reference images not only of the ship you are building but of others like it as well.

Hope this helps.

[Rob]

i had the same feeling that i started out too difficult.. I am thinking about starting with a schooner or brig. Maybe that is better. The coming weeks i will start with something new and use your feedback, which was great btw, and build something better  .

 

Did you learn it yourself? or is this your job? cause it seems you are experienced 

[freddykrueger66]

I learned it by myself and as you can see I started out bad, just keep going and eventually you will get the hang of it.

As with everything practice makes perfect

One other hint I can give you, don't model anything like you think it looks, always look at reference images and try to think how it would be made and how all the parts fit together.

If you need some feedback on your new ship feel free to ask and good luck!

[Rob]

Totally agree! i will keep practicing. You can only model it if you have enough reference, which is the case with the "Zeven provincien". But most of the ships from that period have a very limited amount of reference or just general information available. But some people on this forum seem to have acces to all kinds of interesting stuff. Also sail plans seems to be pretty rare to get, for most ships at least.

 

So i am doing some research now, cause for me its important to model something i like. Otherwise i lose interest.. something 

 

Thanks, i will post my progression here! Or is there a better place to post this? a different topic maybe?

[freddykrueger66]

If you are modeling for example a certain spanish frigate dont only look for that specific ship as a reference, take a look at other spanish ships for reference as they usually are built the same way.

The reference is just for being able to figure out what it all looks like once you know all the shapes you need less reference images and can build a ship from the plans alone.

Id suggest you get plans with a good top down view as well where you can really see every little detail. as for sail plans dont bother modeling masts or texturing anything just make the basic hull.

Don't model like gold details or anything like at too, they either get them in with textures or sculpt it.

As for a topic it might be better to make a dedicated WIP one and ask for help there.

[Rob]

Nice guidance there! i am probably going for the frigat "Minerva". I have already read a book about the whole shipbuilding process and it was done here in The Netherlands. According to that book it was quite different from lets say the british. Very interesting book, shame its only in dutch. So after reading that book i know better understand everything involving that beautifull era.

 

In case you are someone else wants to read it(http://issuu.com/otteblom/docs/boektest/1), you should learn some dutch 

[freddykrueger66]

Dat zal niet zo moeilijk zijn als je een belg bent Ik ga die zeker eens lezen ziet er indrukwekkend uit.

[Rob]

haha onverwachts! Have fun reading it!

[IonAguirre]

freddykrueger66

 

What a nice ship ¡¡

 

Just a question. What is required for a 3D model for being used by this game ?

I mean: What parts are required to be built ? I guess, many parts, that can be shared by many models, must be already modeled and kept into a kind of library.

 

What are the model size limits ?

 

Kind regards