USS Tecumseh - Canonicus Class ACW Monitor

[tea monster]

Thank you.

I'm really, really done the modelling, (really actually this time!*). I'm experimenting with different textures. This is a test render using path-tracing, which gives much more natural-looking results. All the deck and hull mats are in place. I may turn down the hull plating bump a bit, but generally, it's going to look like this.

Normally, I weather my models a bit, but as the Tecumseh was only about a year old when she went down, she would still be 'showroom new' pretty much. I might add some soot marks here and there.

This is head-on view, with everything in place, featuring a complete view of the chains and deck gubbins.

Once she's done, she can go up on TS, then I'll start in on making some purdy renders. I've got two ideas. One is a river-bank scene involving a rebel gunboat, and another is a moonlit scene. I'll finish the figures, and set the crew to work!

Owen

*OK, the canopy needs some work, but that's it!

[Roscoe]

Man, that looks sooo good!!! you've really done a great job on this, it's so very realistic... (and I was just getting ready to ask about it too)

Looking forward to some more renders, and my vote goes for both render scenes.

Cheers,
Dean

[tea monster]

Cheers!

It will look a lot better with foliage, a realistic water surface and some river bank. I really need to crack-on with the crew members and get that sorted out. The funky renders will probably take a bit of time to assemble as I'll be using path-tracing (which takes a LOT longer) and I've got to get all the crew in position and make a section of the James River (and possibly some kind of gunboat). So it's going to take a bit of time. I've done some tests with compositing her onto a photo backdrop, with mixed results. I think I'm going to model the set.

I've thought of doing the 'climactic' scene where she sinks. All the extra props tend to put me off. I need several fully-rigged steam sloops for one angle, and I need a model of the Tennessee (actually WIP) and Fort Morgan (probably readily achievable with varous arch-vis tricks I learned).

So not out of range actually

Owen

[Roscoe]

I've done some tests with compositing her onto a photo backdrop, with mixed results. I think I'm going to model the set.

I've thought of doing the 'climactic' scene where she sinks. All the extra props tend to put me off. I need several fully-rigged steam sloops for one angle, and I need a model of the Tennessee (actually WIP) and Fort Morgan (probably readily achievable with varous arch-vis tricks I learned).

So not out of range actually

Owen

Wow...... Well, I'm sure you know where my vote would go , either way, I'm sure it'll be good!!!

Dean

[Devin]

Really nice work. Amazing.

[tea monster]

Thank you. I've been doing some presentation render tests. I need to bump the light rating on the turret interior, but it shows how it will look.

[DrPR]

Very nice!

Phil

[Ziga]

I see that it's almost complete. Nicely done! Now, all we have to wait for is the CSS Tennessee

[Roscoe]

Excellent, that interior shot really gives you a feeling of how cramped it was inside the turrets... nice work..

So how do you like Cycles so far, does it seem faster than Yafaray?

Cheers,
Dean

[Devin]

That's beautiful. Really love that turret interior!

[tea monster]

Thank you all very much!

Dean - I'm liking Cycles more and more. I'm still using Yafaray for this project, only due to not wanting to have to convert everything over to a new renderer this close to completion. Also, they have yet to implement a way of having textures with alpha render shadows correctly, so I'd be waiting for that to do the 'scene' renders. No doubt that will come soon though as progress has been swift and they are thinking of including a version in the next Blender release.

I've been testing Cycles on the 'Teaser' model I've made and on a few other projects, so I'll be using that for the Tennessee and other projects moving forward. There are several points that make Cycles very attractive - It's one of those renderers that clears over time, like Lux, but it's interactive, so you can adjust lights, turn layers on and off and tweak textures and get instant feedback on what the scene will look like. It's amazing how much time is saved by not having to wait till the renderer can spit out enough of your image to tell if it's worth the wait. Also, you get node-based materials, which are daunting to start with, but once you get your head around them, it's just really cool.

I think it's about as fast as Yafaray at the moment, maybe a tad faster, but with the interactive viewport, you are saving more waiting time on the tweaking and adjusting phase, that would make up for any slowdown on the actual 'waiting for it to cook' part of the deal.

Ziga - Yep, she's next.

Owen

[tea monster]

This is more what I was after with the turret interior.

Owen

[DrPR]

Owen,

This brings to mind a question. What did they use for interior lighting on the monitors?

Phil

[tea monster]

I'm pretty sure it was standard (for the era) oil lanterns. There is one visible in one of the contemporary turret interior illustrations. During the day, they opened the deck vents and let some light in that way, but I imagine it was like living in a cave most of the time - and one quite a way underground due to the heat!

Owen

[Roscoe]

Yeah, that last render is much better. Definitely looks like your getting the hang of Cycles, gotta love the real-time rendering...

Cheers,
Dean

[tea monster]

Cheers,

That was a Yafaray render though. The Tecumseh is probably going to stay with Yafaray as I don't want to swap all the mats and lights over. Though it may just make the jump if times don't improve.

I had to turn all the dials and levers to 'max' to get light into the turret and stop noise in the dark areas.

I'm still learning Cycles - I think everyone is as it's still alpha! Word is that some version of it will be in the next Blender, which is due out in December of this year.

Owen

[Roscoe]

That was a Yafaray render though.

Oops, don't know what I was thinking, must have Cycles on the brain or something. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the official December release with it, now I need to quit putting it off and just dig in and learn Blender.

Cheers,
Dean

[tea monster]

LOL, I have Cycles on the brain. The only thing it won't do is to display shadows on alpha-mapped textures. You can see the problem here on the shadows of the trees. This is my attempt at making a riverbank for the Tecumseh to cruise by.

TRASNPARENCYBUG.jpg (25.82 KiB) Viewed 1664 times

That's actually a Yafaray pic as well, but I figured out how to get it working after that one. I've been told that that bit isn't supported yet. As you can see, I need it for the monitor renders! No doubt, this will all be sorted out and Cycles will be all fan-dabbie-doozie for when I get onto the Tennessee. I was sold the other day, I was adjusting an HDRI image for my lighting setup on the Gunboat, and I could tweak the rotation settings and the whole thing updated in realtime in the viewport.



So I was kinda sold on that. I'm using the gunboat as a guinea-pig and trying to get some good results, so far so good. I'll post something when I get it more together.

Owen

[Roscoe]

Owen,

Here's a CSS Mannasa link I ran into... Funny, it shows both a twin and single stack, hmm...
http://www.cityofart.net/bship/manassas.html


Cheers,
Dean

[tea monster]

Cheers Dean!

To anyone interested, I've uploaded the Tecumseh to Turbo Squid. The Blender file contains all the Yafaray materials and a render scene (and the water material).

The Maya file contains basic materials and the UV Maps and smoothing groups have been applied. It will need further setting up for Mental Ray, but everything is in and working though.

I've just found out that Cycles has got the leaf thing sorted out, so I'll do some tests with the Teaser and post them soon.

Owen