Hello!
This is my first post here, just like to say hi! I’ve been working on this ship for what seems like forever - I’ve included my first attempt and the most recent render.
Its been a fantastic learning experience and I’m far from done. One thing I can say right off the bat though - reference pictures (especially the orthographic ones) are a real pain to follow. the never want to line up!
Cheers, and please any comments, criticisms or suggestions are more than welcome!
nice modeling, renders could be better,
fab anyway!!
Looks like a lot of care and work went into your model. I’m curious about the thing off to the side. is that the interior set up?
Indeed it is, I’ve tried using background images but I can’t get them to line up, so i created a “box” of 2-D planes and mapped the reference pics onto them. Still get the occasional mismatch but its much more consistent. Appreciate the comments!
Myrmedon
Try to better crop your renders and use Raytrace AO instead of Approximate (slower, but more detals would be visible and whole image would look better). You can always decrease the sample to 8-10. Even with some noise RAO looks better than AAO.
I think I am doing that? I’ve uploaded my screen here with the AO settings. Crop render –> less background? Thanks!
Myrmedon
I see… I think that default settings would be better (Add instead of Both, no Fallof, Energy at 1.0). You can also choose Adaptive QMC instead of Constant QMC. I always use these settings for clay renders.
Crop render ----> yes, this means less background.
Ok guys,
As far as modelling components its all there - now i just need to improve on it. I’m going to redo the hoists and the life rafts… can you otherwise point out where I can make adjustments or improvements?
Next I need an ocean to put her on, going to search for a good tutorial on the forums or a link to one, but feel free to post a link if you have one on hand!
Thanks for the critcism sofar - the renders are looking much nicer!
Myrmedon
You will find an excellent tutorial on ocean waves here;
http://www.cogfilms.com/tutorials.html
I really like the work you’ve put in on this model. I thought about doing one myself at one time but never got a ‘roundtuit’.
Appreciate the comments bobg! That tutorial looks fantastic, I’ll be starting on it later this evening!
cheers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX6oGeHb8IY
Created an ocean using the tutorial, the verions changed a bit so I probably missed a button or something but it looks “alright”. Need some suggestions on how to improve it, and also how to bring my ship into the scene? I tried appending it but the scale was horribly wrong, any tips are appreciated!
Myrmedon
In your ship model file, parent the model to a single bone armature. When you append the model, also unclude the armature;
control click on objects in the append menu to select more than one object for appending.
Once appended, Make a ‘Proxy’ for the armature;
Object->make Proxy
scale the armature which will scale the model as well. perform motion animation using the armature and add bones if desired to do things like rotate a radar dish.
What if I want to make an animation where the ship sails through the scene? How do I get it to interact with the “ocean”?
Thanks for the tips bobg, ill try those later today!
Myrmedon
If you are going to use the Cog ocean, you are better off to leave the ship still and let the ocean ‘sail’ past the ship. Use a combination of camera movement and small ship movement if you want to make it look like the ship is getting closer. The visual result is the same. just give the ship a steady small rocking motion using keyframes. For bow wave and spray you can use a particle emitter although I don’t think the Liberty ships were very powerful and any bow wave would be minimal.
Edit: You can also do what movie makers do; they call it forced perspective. Slowly scale the ship up without changing it’s position. It will look like it is getting closer.
