I’m currently building an aircraft carrier for the flight simulator IL2 -1946 (http://www.ubi.com/UK/Games/Info.aspx?pId=5263). It is USS Bon Homme Richard CVA-31 and has over 25k verts and has probably taken over 100 hours so far. The model is being created in separate parts, exported as .msh files and assembled in a hierarchy in the game and - the great part about it is - one is able to take off and fly onto it. Aircraft and crew will be added later in the game.
As a minor distraction I thought it would be useful to set her in a natural setting and see what she looks like when rendered in Blender. I’m using no more than the Ocean Modifier, a sky image mesh and the Cycles renderer and would like to improve the image. Has anyone any suggestions for improving this picture of a major naval vessel at sea? I need some ideas on wave and foam generation around the hull and some means of balancing the colour temperatures on the ship and sea. I ought to use camera focus limits instead of Gimp post production as well. Anyway, any ideas?
Looks good as far as the ship itself goes. (Nothing that I’d think would be glaring unless you’re an expert on the type. And even then there’s shipalts and revisions that make them vary depending on year.)
Things to add? (And make it more realistic.) Water tends to break up around the hull, more foam and swirls down there with a wake. Rare to see it that calm unless the ship is at anchor. Carriers have a large draft and typically don’t like operating in shallows, so ocean water should be darker. Also some more drains along the side of the hull with dripping water and steam in places. Boiler ships might also produce a haze of smoke off to one side. Sponsons and catwalks look a little bare. More random equipment, life boats, utility boats with cranes and stuff. Nonskid usually appears darker (it’s almost like asphalt), and the paint used on the ship itself may be a bit more reflective - paint used on ships tends to be more of a semi-gloss than satin or flat.
Of course you don’t have to ask me for that. Look at a bunch of reference photos.
I will try constructing hull displacement waves and foam and introduce a litlle more aerial perpective over the sea. I’ll probably aim to create a horizon as well. The flight deck tone and colour is going to be retained as decided after two years of studying many reference photographs. Too many models use fully saturated colours and it often negates the impression of scale; I’ve also tended towards the blue end of the spectrum to contribute to the effect of distance. No aircraft nor crew will be added - I’m doing this as a sideline so I don’t want to spend too much time on it; anyway the deck will be populated once its in the game. No smoke or steam will be used in this image. @pauljs75_ you’re right, I’m currently adding more details to sponsons and catwalks. It’s quite difficult finding good photo references for those parts of the ships though.
Just a few hours tweaking the image after a lot -a lot - of hours of re-modelling for the game. Some Gimp post production where I see that the sky and sea are not harmonised - and I’m not too pleased with the model looking too much like a model. I may try it populated next time as well. I’ll use as wallpaper for a while and maybe just have one more session on this.
The important task is to get the boat ready to sail in the IL-2 simulator.
