I tried plating it in Blender and I think it just wasn't designed to easily do stuff like that. I could possibly get something like that working, but after pulling what was left of my hair out, I decided to just try a bump map. It worked out pretty well I think, considering the scale and everything. Sunlight is now popping in Cycles and I am beginning to master light and materials there. I still love Octane, but Cycles is a great workhorse (with a few exceptions).
I've got the sailors done and they are just requiring a bit more texture work before they can walk the decks. Coming along (finally!!).
I love the ocean modifier, I can get some really decent results with that. With all things, a lot of tinkering seems to be required.
The smoke sim does work, but I found out that using the right brush and photoshoping it in can be just as convincing as a sim and shave at least a day of arsing around with particle systems off your production time.
Owen
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