# Spelljammer ~ Hammership



## Silverblade The Ench (Sep 16, 2015)

found this render as I was going through my  hard drive 

think I used it for a stat card.

(ship modelled in Rhino, rendered in Vue)


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## Homicidal_Squirrel (Sep 16, 2015)

Pretty nice. Is that the Lannister lion?


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## sabrinathecat (Sep 18, 2015)

I think it's the Scottish Rampant Lion.
Good work on the texturing.
Does Rhino use UV maps or something else?
Is there a bump-map, or is the texture all image?


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## Silverblade The Ench (Sep 21, 2015)

Homicidal Squirrel
thanks! 

as Sabrina notes, yes it's the Lion Rampant 

Sabrinathecat
lots of bump maps and dirt too using layered materials with a blend of fractal and image based transparency to get more worn look on the planking etc

ie, you start with a generic planking material I've already made, don't need to bother about fiddly textures form UV maps as long as the UV layout is done right, and I use templates from UV maps to make simple greyscale images to "cut out" from another layer on top of a varied dark grungy material for dirt, using a mix of the image for precision and some additional fractal added in to make a "layer transparency", I can make for example, darker at edges of deck with streaks of dirt across it
same material can be reused on many ships or other things just vary the UV map and fractal for dirt transparency 

Rhino can assign UV mapping, then I export it as obj format but Rhino's not so hot at obj
so afterwords I use UVMapper ot sort it out and generate/sort out UV maps way I want
from those I make templates for dirt mapping etc


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## gamerprinter (Sep 21, 2015)

I can't stand dealing with UV texture on 3D models with any program. These days, I generate light gray coloration on all rendered 3D objects, then use Xara Photo & Graphic Designer (a vector drawing program with powerful bitmapping features) and do all texturing at the post-render stage, while allowing the rendered shadowing to show through.

 @_*Silverblade The Ench*_ - I've been wanting to create appropriate stats for a custom Spelljammer ship posted on my Map Emporeum thread posts 141 and 148. Do you have any recommendations? I think I have too many ballista mounted on the top deck of my ship (by the rules), which I would adjust as necessary.


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## Silverblade The Ench (Sep 22, 2015)

oh a lot of the "rules" for Spelljammer don't make any sense, really 
after building a lot of the ships in 3D, Rhino is used for ship/car desgine tc so has true volume calculations built in
the actual ships tonnages in official Spelljammer are *WAY* off
the Hammership is much smaller than the Squidship for example
and the Death Spider and Nautiloid are big battleships!

what should be considered is: actual space, and crew ot man the weapons
2 to 5 crew per weapon AND space to move around it
and then, can your ship afford that many crew using air and cabin space?

just by physical space I think you'd want at least two less ballistas on top?

lovely art and design you have! 


one I did in cell shading


oh there's all kinds of ways to render things depending on your needs, some I do in cell shading as that actually looks nice for a change
some I try sort of photo real, others I go fantasy look

and link to original so it's not so squashed  
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/sj/tradesman/tradesman_view3.gif


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## Silverblade The Ench (Sep 22, 2015)

and this is one somewhat realistic, was messing around and made a twilight time pic 

full sized here:
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/sj/tradesman/tradesman_sunset_v4.jpg


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## Silverblade The Ench (Sep 22, 2015)

and final one I gave a strong "fantasy" style look using light set upe tc in Vue Infinite
where as one above I did in Maxwell
and cell shade one I did in Rhino's "Penguin" renderer

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/sj/tradesman/tradesman_cloudsv2.jpg


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## sabrinathecat (Oct 5, 2015)

Ah, spellJammer rules.
Yes, ship sizes were all over the place.
Back in college, I built scale models of all of the ships out of Foam-core board and hot glue. (yes, it _was _quite time-consuming)
Based on that, with the help of another player, we redid stats for all the ships. We used the Galleon as a 40-ton standard. Some ships ware "promoted" to larger size, but a lot were demoted. We also changed maneuverability ratings as we saw fit. We did what we had to. And it worked out pretty well.


On another note, I've just about finished texturing and building the Galleon. From there I'm planning on animating a short "music video" much the way I have done with the Star Trek ships I've built. With the Galleon textured, I can use that as a template for the other ships I've started over the years and sort of abandoned/been distracted from. I do intend to eventually have all of the SpellJamming ships done (except for the ones from the 3rd box set and the SpellJammer itself, because those were just dumb).
I might even build the Rock of Bral for a challenge.

I'm using Maya, PhotoShop, and CorelDraw. It's pretty efficient (or I've become efficient using them...). as a package set. Build & export the UV maps from maya. Import the tga files to CorelDraw for the basic coloring/design. Export the jpg. Once the fine tuning is done with size, position, etc, do any effects I need in PhotoShop. (weathering wood, scratching/scuffing up metal, etc) And the bump map is usually the same as the texture file, only in grayscale with altered contrast.
Then it is just a matter of making sure the lighting is about right, and rendering. Once that's set, it's time to animate.
After a few tests for effects, I pick a piece of music, time out & storyboard the events to match changes in the music, and go from there.

Bored? Youtube Channel
I have Transforming BattleMechs, Trek Ships, my white dragon, astromech (R2-D2 type) droids, and my (im)famous Samurai vs Bunny Rabbit cartoon.

Sorry for the self aggrandizement and shameless plugging.


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## sabrinathecat (Oct 6, 2015)

Work in progress.
Actually, aside from positioning my crude & blocky-looking crew, I think this is about done. Unless I find something else missing. Like furniture. Yeah, I only did rooms & walls, but no fixings...




Have a laugh.
Feel free to be cruel--all criticism helps.


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## Silverblade The Ench (Oct 7, 2015)

Cool! 

no idea on Maya but with Vue I found great easy way to make things look realistic was to add layer on top of the basic material, with "dirt", driven by fractal and/or a uvmap distribution using a jpg greyscale pic


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## sabrinathecat (Oct 8, 2015)

I tend to scuff things up in PhotoShop.
Planning on some layer effects when I redo the cloaking Warbird video.
Started animating the ships in the harbor I built yesterday.
Working through details.

Unfurling sails should be a fun mess...


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## Raloc (Oct 8, 2015)

[MENTION=89838]sabrinathecat[/MENTION] - I think your ship could use some more geometric detail in the planking and such, and that would help bring it to the next level along with some of the texture scruffing you mentioned. Awesome work btw


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## sabrinathecat (Oct 8, 2015)

Raloc said:


> [MENTION=89838]sabrinathecat[/MENTION] - I think your ship could use some more geometric detail in the planking and such, and that would help bring it to the next level along with some of the texture scruffing you mentioned. Awesome work btw




Yeah, I was thinking about that, on the main and castle decks, a couple of external planks, and maybe door frames...


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## sabrinathecat (Nov 8, 2015)

Was half way through animating my video, and discovered the way I was planning to create spray from the bowsprit, fog, and the ship's wake was completely wrong. Now I have to learn a new tool ("Fluid Dynamics") and see if I can get what I want from that. 4 weeks' work for naught. Oh well--I will look a lot better when it's done.


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## sabrinathecat (Feb 1, 2016)

May have found a class to help me learn what I need to know. Will find out Tuesday. Have had to detour to other projects, one of which is almost finished, and another which is coming along nicely. Also put together another banner for R2-KT


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