Back Deck!

The furthest deck needed some attention so I placed a very basic primitive to give me a idea on how to make the deck. This deck had to be placed in the back and it also had to curve like the rest of the ship. I needed to place it behind the current deck. Which was quite a challenge.

I also worked on making the supports for the masts too, this is also going to be the place where the rigs are going to connect to. 

I couldn't get much work done today but hopefully tomorrow will be a much more productive day. I need to finish the deck according to my planner too and start working on the cannons in a few days, so I still have a little time to get this all done which I think will be more than enough. 

Supports!

The rigs are now it perfect position as they weren't yesterday. I also worked more on the masts of the ship.

The watchtowers is duplicated on the other mast too. I also added mast ropes on every mast. And the mast cover-ups are now in place too.

This is the mast table which is going to connect and form rigs with the last mast of the ship.

Just to make the mast connectors look more dramatic and also to add support to the watch tower. I added a very basic support. Alot of the additions are duplicated from the previous meshes I have made such as the framework piece is running around the ship in different ways so it doesn't cause too much repetition. 

Placing Rigs/Tables and Made Watchtower!

I made the watchtower on top of the ship which is connected to the mast and I also placed and positioned the rigs with the tables in it's positions.

Using duplicate special I placed the watchtowers elements properly by using it +20 rotation. I also made coverup's for the masts and also ropes to connect the masts.

I also added a mast on top of the middle two to hold the upper sail which I didn't do previously. The masts are perfectly in place, also the watch tower is also finished now I am working on the right pace which is a great thing.

Connected RigTables

I made a connection to make the rigging components combine it to the ship so it doesn't look like it is just flying in mid air. I saw this in my reference images.

It is pretty hard to see from the reference image but I tried to improvise and do what I could. I had some problems with the placement but after the first three it become easier to first place the nails and then the connecting element because it was easily moved. I am going to place this around the ship where it is needed. to connect to the masts.

Placing Rigging elements!

Today I placed rigging elements that would connect the wiring for the sails etc. At the moment they're in a very rough position and I will modify and change the position so it matches the flow of the ship. I also have made a rough adjustment to the masts.

Placing these elements was quite challenging because I had to predict some of it and most of it was done using very small reference. Some of the parts need some small adjusting but it all is going great. It is the first week into the modelling

According to my planner I am a little behind I need to get this rig placements on the other side of the ship. I don't want to fall behind and I want to stay on top of work.

Refinement

I made a blocking for the upper deck so people wouldn't just fall off, i also added the same type of decoration that was outside to the blocking so it binds the ship together.

Small supporting assets!

I made very quick small assets to do with a ship, I also covered up the upper area properly and also worked on the placement of the ship's body. The supporting assets have a stair in it that is to be placed into a wall, it's for climbing without support. I saw this in some of my reference pictures. I also made a very simple bucket and a rigging element which will hold the wires that support the upper part of the ship like the sails etc.

Made Covers

I made covers which light would pass through to a lower deck which i am not going to make depending on the time i have i might think about making a lower and a better in-depth interior.

I also worked a little parts and small modifications, due to the fact i forgot to bring the fbx version i couldn't work on it in college which i intended to to get a lot of things done.

Decorations and Masts!!!

I made some decorations on the side of the ship which can be mirror over. This took a lot of time because every piece had to have its own angle and rotation. This took a lot of time to do. I need to cut out the windows from the framework making it look like it is cut. So the geometry has to show that. That is something I might work on later. I also added a side part which is a piece of equipment every ship has to have. I did some work on the frame too. 

I also made the masts of the ship which is a main element and it has some problems which I can fix later. These masts have to much resolution which I need to reduce. I  might consider making masts again and using the ones I have now as a place holder. I still need to work on the upper deck the one right at the back which looks very untouched. I know am finished with most of the framework and the masts are also in place which means I am working on the right pace.

More good work done!

Made some work on the front and back of the ship. Looks very reasonable a lot of the things I am creating are referenced from pictures from google. I hid the decks to show the work more easily. The problem and time consuming thing today was the wooden boards at the front. There are all at a different angle so it wasn't that easy to get the right. But as you can see it looks very neat.

More Frame Work!

Today I made more framework pieces like a line following the decks hiding the top and bottom of the deck. I also added little elements of support pillars. It looks good and at the pace I am going. I think it will done by the time I challenged my self to. I need to work faster though.

I also added some framework around the edges and upper deck as well. There are now walls around so you can't see the inside of the ship. The framework looks good. I also worked a little on the supports. The back of the ship is now covered with a rail going around hiding the separation between the ship. Very proud of it at the moment. Still needs a lot of work. Its the 3rd week going into the 4th. So fast.

Framework!

Today I worked the frame of the ship it was a lot of duplication and recycling old geometry. The planks for the ship act as a support for the ship which makes it look a lot more realistic and gives it a stronger feel. I also duplicated the door and changed some of them so I have two door designs which I can cycle. This would make the model look a lot better because when I am playing games I don't seem to like copy and pasted of the same thing. So I am going to try to avoid that.

This is a view of the ship without the mainframe. The detail is very low at the moment but it won't take long for me to kick everything together. The framework needs to be mirrored which is very easy and I can do that once I have everything perfectly placed.

Balcony for the Back!

Today I made the back of the ship where I placed a balcony, it works very good at an angle I focused on making it low res and also tried to make it fast. I also added a door and a very simple window which I might refine later.

The balony parts are seperate because it's faster and more effcieint on polygons to keep them seperate. The door is also made up of different primitives. So the polygon count is minimum.

This is a viewport view of the balcony, it looks good enough to be left at this stage. I need to move on to make the rest of the ship, times always the enemy.

Made the Decks !!!

I made the decks of for the ship, using the top view and the polygon tool, the decks look good. I made square inserations for the framework of the ship which will go through them points. That added a lot of topology to the decks but it was still in a reseaonble stage. A lot of adjustment was done in the perpestive and view because the lower half of the deck has to be wider so it covers the ship.

This is the ship's decks without the ship mainframe. The square holes in the decks are for covers for air I saw this in one of my reference pictures which was very good to consider early. Everything is going to plan but I still think I need to speed up, texturing might take longer than a week which I think I need to work around in my timetable.

I am pretty much finished with the base of the ship and now I will start on the framework. According to the calendar I have 5 days to finish framework and other parts which is a decent time fame.

Mirrored, Looking like a Boss!

This is a image of the ship mirrored, I also joined the new object I made to the rest of the ship. It added a lot of polygon count though. I also made the bone of the ship using my orthgraphics and reference. The section above the ship is not part of the ship it is actually a duplicated face from the bottom, then adjusting the shape a little I made the top of the ship which looks very reseaonble. It is a separate object and therefore the separtion has to be covered with something which I will consider later.

More refinement, Looking good!

 Below is the ship refined further and  most of the topology is fixed some flaws but on the right side (black wireframe) is the unsofted version which I used the geometry tool on to relex and softed the edges which gave a very good effect and made the ship look very smooth which was great. I will fix some of the tolopgy which needs to be inline with the rest of the edge.

 I also modelled a little design which will go infront of the ship using the polygon tool, which in my opinion is a lot better than starting of with a cube because fixing the topolgy at the end is a lot easier. I have a image of the softed and unsofted version to show the comparision between the both. The results are very admirable.
 

The resoulation of the model can be retopolgised but I don't think I will be able to do that because of the time it will take to retopolgise everything. By the end of the forth week I need to have the model finished so I have time to texture it. Today is the end of the second week, time is going too fast, so I might drop the idea of keeping the topolgy very low. Although I will try as I am creating primitives for modelling to keep them low as possible.

Refined and Windows Added !!

Today and yesterday I refined the model and made the shape a lot more ship like. Using various tools such as soft selection, lattice deformer. This was a great help because if I was to make the ship by moving around vertices and egdes it would of taken too long.

A little problem is some of the topology is not smooth and needs some work but the shape is getting there. And I'm on track too. Actually ahead, but because I got the orthographics and the research for the ship was there I had a enough reference to get the modelling phase started a week earlier because it will take long i suspect.

Started Modelling :D

Making the base for the ship is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I tried a lot of ways to make the base of the ship look very flawless. The reference was very good and the shape is quite easy to make, that's what I thought at the start making the curvature is not as simple. First using the cv curve tool I made a surface loft which later after a little positioning I converted to polygons. That was a great help.

The way I got around it was by using the lattice deforming tool on a square subdivided, even with that the shape took a long time to process.

This is the ship using lattice and some shaping I moved it around and got the shape. There is too much geometry which I will reduce because its unneeded. Also according to my planner I am supposed to be started by today which means right now I am on the right track and hopefully I will finished in time!

Some Reference Images!

Making Orthographic for my ship!

Above is my orthographic front view, using a lot of reference from my mood-board  It looks very reasonable. I will number the decks in order so I don't get confused when I am using for modelling reference. I made all of these drawings using Photoshop and the line-tool which was a great help and it really speeded up the process.

I also completed the side view of the model the main thing I will be using from these orthographic drawings is the outline and not so much of the inside because all of that can be done without relating to these drawings. 

Some bits of the drawings are a little wrong, but they're reasonable and I think I can use these to make my model. I am going to get started on modelling the ship now because the faster I start the more time I have to fix any problems I have later. I am also gathering more reference of inside the ships like assets that support and make a ship look more alive.

I also made a very brief concept art it doesn't have much detail but it is there to nail down some of the things I need for the ship.

According to my planner I know need to gather some reference pictures which can be useful for my work.So this is what I am going to start now!

Using Google Calender

To stay organised and to work efficiently I decided to use google calendar I set up deadlines which I will update as I progress into the modelling process. Google sends me a email on every event and this way I can never miss what I need to do by what day.

I made the full process of the 6 weeks plan. This way I won't get lost with work.

Finishing Unit 15!

I finished unit 15 which I might need to revisit because I think I need to complete the proposal. I also worked on getting some more reference and I also thought about how I need work on the base mesh of the ship. I can start by making half of the ship and mirror the rest. I would work in the side view making the side of the ship then shape the ship and give it form.

The above image is a 3d render of a ship. The best thing about this ship is that it is very low res about 17k polygons. I want to achieve something like that and I will try my hardest.

Writing a brief!

Today I rewrote the brief which is part of the project. I got everything that I need to do for this project, I made the timetable plan for what should be done by what week. It is a guideline so I should be able to work faster if I focus on the result.

Week	Session Activities	Personal Study Targets		Research Targets/additional reading
1- 8 to14 Apr	Brief and Ideas	Complete brief and create multiple ideas		Professional expectations
2- 15 to 21 Apr	Moodboard, Research, sketches	Design ships identify final design		Create designs and final drawings
3- 22 to 28 Apr	Orthographic and start modeling	Create orthographic and start initial model		Start the base model in mid-week
4- 29- 5 May	Model the ship	Model the ship to a distinctive level in Maya		The more detail the better
5- 6 to 12	Major modelling done		Small and quick decorations for model	Finish towards the end of the week
6- 13 to 20	Load into Unreal (collision, put it water, small cinematic) Evaluation and reflection	Create a small scene so the ship can be walked around in. Make a small harbor		Using the same ship create a harbor (by scaling, deleting),