The fantasy ship model is one of a whole set of 3D models a bought a long time ago, to feature in the Abraxas project -- that web comic I was planning at one point ... the model has remained shelved ever since. I would love to get back to the Abraxas story, but it takes longer than you think to render up a dozen or so panels per day! There's a whale of a lot of work to be done before I can return to the story and tell it for its own sake, but I do intend to get back to it, when I have the chance. Maybe I'll produce it as an illustrated narrative ... that would be quicker than trying to do a comic, which is, I have to admit, next to impoissble.
In the meantime, I finally, finally, broke the model out of storage and got down to playing with it! It's actually quite a nice model indeed, though I would like to have seen more rigging on it. If you've ever been anywhere near a real, genuine sailing vessel, you'll know that the amount of rigging on them is phenomenal. This vessel is officially billed as the "elven trading ship," and there's an element of fantasy ... if it were a real ship, it would take magic to hold it together, with this little rigging on it! On the good side, though, there's some nice wood textures, nice detailing -- and I particularly like the fact the ship's interiors, below decks, are modelled. You can actually take a character down into the cabins! Must do that next time.
How much of these renders is 3D, how much is painting? A bit of both. I did the water as an .obj...
The sky in the first one is a backdrop, but in the second shot, with the galaxy rising on the horizon, the ship, ocean and all, have been placed inside the planetarium! All else ... the spindift, sea mist, bow wave, whitecaps, all were painted in GIMP using .abr brushes, and some sea birds finished off the shots.
Then I wondered -- okay, you've got the ocean and the ship inside the sky dome, let's see how close to the deck we can get, and why not add a Michael 4 character into the scene, for some character? So...
Michael 4, in full costume, with custom lights, on the deck of the ship, on an OBJ ocean, inside the planetarium. Complicated?! Noooooo, what gave you that idea?! The fact that the background is a sky dome really adds to the shots. Notice that when the camera moves, the sky moves too, which is so neat.
The last shot was finished with overpainting, and this is worth seeing in closeup. Here's an outtake at 1:1 size:
The effect is really pretty, and by changing the diffuse maps on the sky dome, and changing the lighting, you can make it look like the ship is sailing through day, night, storms, balmy weather, whatever you want. I must take the character below decks next...!
Jade, 19 May
***Posted by MK because the internet is AWOL. Intermittent crap. Be warned, guys: our connection is going to be in and out for a week or two, as of this point: Telstra (or whatever) is doing a lot of work on the landlines in this area. And as you know, if you've been looking at the "poster notes" on these journal entries in my looooong adventure through the world of CG, 3D and digital, even at the best of times we can find ourselves with dialup speeds in this area. This is why MK has been making many posts for me, since Day One -- Keegan has the fast connection, not me! (This should change in the near future, when the cables or whatever are updated, and they stop working on them. At least, s'wot Telstra promises.) Credit where it's due: this blog would not have been possible without the support of a pal with decent internet. Because ours sucks. We moved into this area about six months before I got into Studio and blogging about it, and I almost quit right there: DAYS to download something from the DAZ store, at one point. Argh. Thank gods for friends when you need 'em!
