New Zealand History/Legend

[Templar_Vaxus]

Hi there

For the past couple of weeks I have been mulling over on what to do next with Blender. Many recommendations from other users (Modron) suggested that I manage my time in projects and correlate closely with this forum in order to get feedback and assistance.

I have decided to start my project very soon and it is going to be something about the heritage and history of my country (New Zealand)

This led me to think of recreating captain cooks ship which is in a battle with the Taniwha (In Maori myth it is a sea monster)

I plan to spread my time as follows

• Modelling - 3-4 Weeks
• Texturing - 2-3 Weeks
• Lighting - 1 Week
• Compositing - 2 Weeks

I have drawn a sketch of what I am trying to create (very similar to the New Zealand 50cent coin).
I will start modelling stage this weekend

Please let me know what you think or any additional suggestions

Oh and sorry for the dreadful draft. I am not at all skilled with Gimp :o (thats why I only left the Taniwha as a silhouette

Attachments

[Modron]

sounds like a great project, I will be looking forward to your updates. are you going to use the ocean simulator?

[portgas]

Such an easy scene will took you month to complete? It really can be done in a couple of days, of course if you have a lot of time. Nice idea though, i love ships and seas and such stuff.

[eppo]

@portgas: while it might sound easy - even to model such taniwha alone would be a Task (see capital T here) not to speak ship and surroundings.

Will visit here again! happy blending!

[Templar_Vaxus]

I have begun the modelling for the sails of the boat. I think they are complete although I might add some better scarring to the other sails. I used a rope with array modifier with the fit to curve option. Really got a nice result with that :D.

I have one major problem though at the moment. I am not sure what the average number of vertices are in a project like this but the mast + sails comes to 2,150,844 vertices already and my computer is taking a pounding with lots of lagging and crashes.

I realized some of it was due to the rope’s sub-surf but after using the decimate tool there still isn’t a very large reduction. What should I do?

@Modron I have never used the ocean simulator but it sounds classy so yes, most likely.

Attachments

[eppo]

Nice rigging you have made here!
Sounds like a lot of verts tho… I usually quit around 1.5 mio. Further is only frustrating waiting an breaking game.
As for ropes if you do shots like this, there’s really no sense to array something. That won’t be so visible. Bezier curve allows for easy model and less poly. I did set wood texture on, which gives diagonal stripes - cheat. If you go for a closeups, increase resolution for visible ones - that will smooth curve even more.

Happy blending!

[Templar_Vaxus]

Thanks for that eppo. I reduced the verts on my ropes and used some bezier curves for the extras. It is now working with only slight lag.

Now I have started modelling boat and I am a little concerned that I have but the holes to the cannons to low . I placed a plane where I am considering placing water. I will have the boat in a recoiling angle after firing once finished modelling. After this I am most likely going to go into finer detail.

Attachments

[eppo]

Yep… It really does look too low. Even slightest wave would disable to aim and pour a water in. Modeling wise, have you tried creasing openings? They look too smooth right now. Front (argh, terminology…) seems too low too.
Do you go by some references or just by imagination?

happy blending!

[Templar_Vaxus]

After you mentioned the front it really stood out. Hope the update seems better. Also changed gun windows. I am using reference images but none with cannon ships .

Suppose after a bit more work on the hull of the ship I will work on objects such as cannons.

Attachments

[Lancer]

Another kiwi here. Nice work. Your 3D is already looking a lot better than the initial sketch. Have you sourced some solid reference?

[Templar_Vaxus]

@ Lancer What a small world. I was in Kapati a couple of weeks ago. I have a couple of reference pictures (only for the boat) which I am alternating between. (see attachments)

@ Modron My version of Blender 2.6 does not have the ocean simulator. Where can I get it

I think I have finished the boat however I am concerned I might be stopping this because I am getting bored of the boat and want to move onto other stuff.

Feedback appreciated and any things I have missed or should be adding to the ship

Attachments

[eppo]

… yes, you did miss the point that if wind blows from behind, flag is pointing… Joking aside, ship’s ok. Maybe the boom on mizzen-mast is attached directly to the mast, not crossing it - see your ref.
What renderer do you intend to use, BI or cycles? For Ocean sim you look on graphicall.org - your OS, 32 or 64 bit, then choose from filtered list one which is listed with Ocean Sim. Install that monster. For a quick and dirty cycles version, see if this is of use for your project.

[Templar_Vaxus]

Wow that’s almost in an entire different language to me. Hang on Ive got to figure out what all these things are. (Bi , cycles)

[Templar_Vaxus]

Ok, from my investigation I think I am most likely going to do Cycles and I have just downloaded the Oceans Sim version to take a look how it works. I am wanting quite fierce storm like waves so I will see what it is capable of

[Templar_Vaxus]

Tried making ocean and Mountain. My only problem is I am unable to render. My computer crashes and I suspect that it is my vert count of 1142650. What can I do ?

Attachments

[eppo]

Now, does it do separate, ocean, mountain, ship? Then render each one with same lights and compozit, just click on Outliner disabled render for objects and try. Do you have them on separate layers? Then set up Render layers accordingly.

Then, how did you set up the ocean? One big plane, all at high rez sim? There’s Johnatan’s tut on cg cookie as far as i remember about setting up ocean scene. He used one smaller plane close to camera and lower rez duplicates further back so that front’s waves masked gaps.

[Modron]

Looking good, man. you have made alot of progress on this in a short time.

[RossBlenderArt]

Tried making ocean and Mountain. My only problem is I am unable to render. My computer crashes and I suspect that it is my vert count of 1142650. What can I do ?

If you haven’t already I suggest you delete unseen faces. Nice project, I like it so far.

[Kramon]

Now, does it do separate, ocean, mountain, ship? Then render each one with same lights and compozit, just click on Outliner disabled render for objects and try. Do you have them on separate layers? Then set up Render layers accordingly.

Then, how did you set up the ocean? One big plane, all at high rez sim? There’s Johnatan’s tut on cg cookie as far as i remember about setting up ocean scene. He used one smaller plane close to camera and lower rez duplicates further back so that front’s waves masked gaps.

that trick with ocean’s creates a DOF effect. and less time to render.

[Templar_Vaxus]

Now, does it do separate, ocean, mountain, ship? Then render each one with same lights and compozit, just click on Outliner disabled render for objects and try. Do you have them on separate layers? Then set up Render layers accordingly.

Then, how did you set up the ocean? One big plane, all at high rez sim? There’s Johnatan’s tut on cg cookie as far as i remember about setting up ocean scene. He used one smaller plane close to camera and lower rez duplicates further back so that front’s waves masked gaps.

I’m not sure what you mean. I have water, ship and mountain on separate layers. So I think I understand some of it. You think I should render them separately and then composite them together. You just kind of lost me when talking about outliner for objects, is that some kind of option ???

I’m about to start watching the cg cookie tutorial. ( One hour … goodbye life and internet cap )