Looking to improve

[Lebroba]

I have been modeling as a hobby for a few years. I'm always looking for ways to improve. I'm looking for advice on ways to add detail to a ship without pushing the polygon count in to the millions. When you model, what do you place priority on? Etc.

I've included a picture of my most recent project to give an idea of my skill level.


Thanks in advance for your advice and time.

[DrPR]

Nice model. What software do you use?

Where to stop? That depends upon several things:

1. What are you going to do with the model? If you will be viewing it "from a distance" you can forget about small details like cable runs, light switches, lights, etc. But if you are going to use if for close-up viewing, say a walk-through video, then you will need these small details to make it look real. So pick a minum detail size (diameter, etc.) to meet your needs. The more details you include the more realistic it will look at closer ranges.

2. How much patience do you have - or how much time to work on the model? You can flesh out all of the hull and superstructure shapes fairly quickly. If you try to put in a great deal of detail it will take a great deal of time. Larger models take much longer for file loads, rendering, view rotation, etc.

3. How large was the ship? The number of details on a ship seems to be proportional to the hull and superstructure surface area. An 800 foot long ship may have 10 times the number of details as a 300 foot long ship!

4. How accurate do you want the model to be? To achieve very high accuracy you will spend more time doing research than you will creating the model.

5. What is the largest project/file size your software will work with? Most CAD projects are pretty small - just a few megabytes. But if you add large amounts of detail the file size will grow rapidly. You may be surprised to learn that the programmers for your software never considered modeling something as huge as a ship. The program may have been compiled with variables that are just too small to work with huge models. There may be a file size or memory limit.

****

I have been modeling the USS Oklahoma City CLG-5 for nine years, and it is about 2/3 complete. I am working from the original blueprints and hundreds of photos. I am trying to put in everything that is 3/16 inch diameter or greater - all the nuts, bolts, screws and rivets (however, I do not include the threads). The hull is plated as shown in the blueprints. The total file size is about a gigabyte and growing. I do not have a polygon count, but some fairly small but complex details like winches are many hundreds of thousands of polygons.

http://www.okieboat.com/CAD%20model.html

If you look at the superstructure page you can see examples of different amounts of detail. The forward superstructure is just the basic decks and bulkheads with very little detail. The midships superstructure is much more detailed, but it lacks doors, lights, wiring, cables, etc. (I have almost finished it but I haven't posted the latest images). The after superstructure has just about every detail in the blueprints and photos. Just this superstructure alone is about 250 Mbytes.

Phil

[Lebroba]

Thanks for the advice. Your work on Oklahoma city has been an inspiration for me. Since my work is mostly built on preexisting designs or technology that is either available now or could possibly exist in the near future, I think details smaller than half a foot would be ideal.