3DShipWright

@Martes - Interesting... So there's no glass in any of them yet, but are you saying the outer ones are essentially 'open air' windows, or that the framing has a solid wood sheet behind it (as seen on the Black Pearl in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies)?

Roundhouses, bollards, taffrail in place. Quarter Pieces fixed.

Main head rails, cheeks, bolster plates, and the beakneck bulkhead (love saying that, lol) in place.

A few current screen captures:

I've got the general 'stencil meshes' for the upper/lower counters in place. A couple errors to be sure, but by and large a vast improvement over the original version I did, for which I basically said "screw it" and just randomly shaped the mesh until it was smooth. All the pretty decoration and textures will come later, but you gotta build a house (or an 18th Century frigate) on a sturdy foundation... something I didn't do the first time around... Here's two comparative shots just for fun: New Version (so far): Old Version:

Actually, Looking more closely at your model, I think the middle of your sails is billowed believably - its just the edges that look wrong. I would add the side edges of your sail mesh to the pin group you used in the cloth simulation, but at a low vertex weight. I think I used 20% for the outer edges and 10% strength for where the buntlines fall on the sail (on the sails that have buntlines, that is). Doing so will also give you that iconic 'segmented' look.

Hey Kurtis, Sorry for any confusion. There are two reasons behind my comment, but they may or may not apply to your model: 1. The braces can interfere with the sail just above its belaying point on the mast (see screenshot). In real life, you'll notice the bottom edge of certain sails will fall over the occasional brace or stay. If you do the braces first, you can use them as collision objects to achieve this effect... 2. If hardware performance is a concern and you have to make sacrifices, favor the running rigging to the yards over details on the sails... I've seen hundreds examples on CGTrader and TurboSquid where the artist favored the sails and neglected the lifts, halyards and braces. When they do this - no matter how good the sails look - the result always feels cartoonish and hollow (IMHO). If you can do both - Great! But I promise you, Braces and Lifts are far more important overall than modelling individual gasket and gromet ties. Other than that your approach is correct. When it comes to how sails interact with the gear rigging: Do any physics simulations on the sails first, apply the modifiers, then duplicate the sails to derive the curves of the lines that interact directly with the sail. Also keep in mind that on a ship of the line, the combined surface area of cloth is in excess of 40,000 square-feet! Ultimately, that makes each sheet extremely heavy, and unless your ship was in the middle of a hurricane, there's no way the sail could be that billowed out.

Hey Kurtis, Good update overall. So it's your decision of course, but I'd strongly recommend you pause work on the sails until you have the main components of the running rigging completed. So you know, most real-world sailors and historians I've watched or have spoken with compartmentalize rigging into three categories: Standing Rigging - The Standing Rigging structurally supports the Masts and Bowspirt. Includes the Shrouds, Stays, Backstays, Preventer Stays, Channel Ties, Crow's Feet, etc. plus some hardware such as the Deadeyes (plus lanyards), Chain Plates, and a few other misc. items. You have this modelled/installed for the most part so I won't dwell on this part Running Rigging - The Running Rigging is the set of lines used to move the Yards. These are the Braces, Lifts, Halyards (slings for the course yards), Throat Halyards (with parrels). This is where I'm suggesting you focus next, if possible. The 'Gear' - While technically part of the running rigging, the Gear is a layman's term used to differentiate the rigging that controls the Sails themselves. Includes the Buntlines, Bowlines, Clewlines, Sheetlines (Sheets), Tacklines, and Reef Tackles. While this is important in real-life, in a 3D model, you can omit much of this and still have a convincing ship Hope this helps, keep up the great work. P.S. Maybe I missed it, but had you landed on a final color/texture scheme yet? Just curious... -Nate

Well, it's been 1 month to the day since I started Confederacy. Framing 90% Complete Outer planking of the main hull complete! Starting the Quarter Board and Quarter Piece.

@Martes - The algorithms have improved, yes, but to your point they are not without fault. Not sure if this will make sense, but what is missing is the ability to solidify while locking a specific axis. Here's a perfect example: Take a look at the framing of the stern, specifically the counter and quarter piece timbers above the wing transom... These frames should have even thickness along the curve of the lower counter, which they do, but also extend straight forward. However, they actually move towards the centerline because the back of the mesh is arced because the quarter board is arched. Blender doesn't have a good answer for this. As a fix, I will end up deliberately over widening the front edges, then using the knife tool with x-ray on to cut these edges in line with the backs of each frame, but it's a huge pain lol

@Martes - Good eye! Actually, that notch has nothing to do with the modifier, it's an intentional marker I made to notate the start of the stepped scarf for the cant frames and the transition of the rabbet of the keel to the rabbet of them stem. I will remove it once I flush out the detail of the gripe and boxing joints

@Martes - Hey Martes, So I don't know whether to call it procedural or manual, but here is how I'm doing hull planking on Confederacy: 1. The underlying topology of the ship has to represent the outer planking to begin with. Refer to the steps at the beginning of this topic for instructions on how I got the underlying topology to match the planks if you're curious. 2. In edit mode use 'mark seams' to visually outline the strakes, then the shape of each plank on the 2D mesh. Edge loop select makes this faster than you might think, I did the whole ship in under 15 mins NOTE: I'm only showing the bottom of the hull for tutorial purposes, but the rest of the planking works the same way. 3. Use the solidify modifier to add thickness as desired, HOWEVER, DO NOT FILL THE RIM. Apply the modifier to get two separate 'sheets'. 4. In face select edit mode, press 'L' to highlight the front and backs of each plank and separate them using 'P'. You can do this in groups of planks as long as they're not touching 5. Go to each separate plank set object, edge select in edit mode, and choose select boundary loops. 6. Then you can bridge edge loops together, just make sure 'Loop Pairs' is selected. 7. Finally, join everything back into one object and change the 'Transform Pivot Point' to 'individual origins' Go into edit mode, select everything and press 'alt+s' then '-.1' to shrink each island along the normals by .1 inches (or whatever value looks good in metric units, just keep it small)

Outer planking nearly complete. Rough tree rail complete. Caprails apart from the forecastle are finished. Trim pieces nearly finished. Mouldings will be fine-detailed later to a cohesive style. For anyone interested, the planking offsets from the hull frames are as follows: Rabbet to Wale: 3in Wale stringers: 5in Wale Hook-and-Butt blocks: 4in Top of Wale to Gun Deck Clamp (inboard on the Confederacy): 3in Gun/Channel Plate/Scuppers Wale: 4in Planking above Gun/Channel Plate/Scuppers Wale: 3in Channel Stringer: 5in Quarter Deck Stringer & Forecastle Stringer 5in Trim Pieces: +2in, maximum from surface of their respective perch Rough Tree Rail: 15in maximum

Yup - I'd echo what @Waldemar said. Well done indeed.

I'm trying out a new method of planking for the Confederacy, and gotta say - so far it's working out rather well. No overlapping geometry and equal gaps between the boards regardless of the twist of the hull...

@Martes Yep, good call and that's precisely what I'm doing now. I've added all filler frames aft of the bow cant frames and before the stern cant frames. I actually added narrow filler frames to sandwich in each pair of double around the ports. I'll end up joining these 'narrow' filler pieces with their neighbors and resplicing them to create the true doubles look, but even now the ratio and overall frame plan feels way better than it did before. Finally, I've added the hawse pieces and cut them short to accommodate the bow deck (name?). I'm keeping the cant frames from the 45-90 degree radials, but I will thicken and nudge them back on one another to form a more authentic shape and close in some gap space.

This is some good work! Given your extensive knowledge of frigates in particular, I was starting to wonder if you'd ever attempted a high poly model. If you're taking on volunteers, I'd be honored to collaborate on texturing her with you. Just let me know

Getting there - Frame by frame, piece by piece

@Martes And yes, I agree and will put additional framing between the ones I already have

@Martes All true, you're just jumping the gun a bit... Here, I went ahead and did a mockup of one of the frames as I want them all to look when I'm done framing.

Got the rabbet to twist properly!

@Martes So that's an excellent question, and something I've been stressing over as I do this part. Short Answer: At least as far as the main framing is concerned, Yes, I'm sure. As to whether or not the plans I'm using are complete I don't know. I'll be using the Constitution and Essex to fill in any gaps in documentation, but only as little as possible. Long Answer: There was only one set of Confederacy frame plans I could find online, but there are several things about it that lead me to believe they aren't 100% accurate. However, unlike my last project I did extensive research before I started this time. So here's what I do know: The frames depicted in the picture above are completely wrong. I've seen images of that cutaway model before, it's not unique to that museum. Even in the model, those frames are fake. Inside are solid cross section frames like on the Modelship Ways kit. A true tell is the placement of the doubled frames. There were many American frigates that utilized the classic British style, but in the revolutionary time frame those that did aligned them with the gunports and in Confederacy's case, the sweep ports. This meant an uneven spread along the keel, but structurally, a more sound design. Around this time Americans introduced pieces of southern oak into ship hulls. When they did, they utilized thicker but fewer frames overall. (How Ironic that "Ol' Ironsides" was technically softer than other ships) However, there do need to be either supplemental timbes or at the very least, filler deadwood around the steps, cant frames, hawses, etc. I still have alot left to do with just the primary frames, so I'm not risking anything by pushing the in between stuff off a bit. Best, -Nate

Basic Hull shape complete, starting to separate the keel 'stencil' into the various components adjoined with their correct wood joints (Nibbed scarfs, hook and butts, and rabbet joints - not to be confused with the rabbet line lol). Here a couple screenshots. From the images below, please note that I have yet to: Make the rabbet line twist correctly curve moving aft. Properly secure the main frames using the rising wood stringer and alternating sets of cross-chocks and rebates; i.e. the makeup of the keelson. Add the final cant frame or hawse pieces to the bow. Interestingly, the plans I'm following don't show Confederacy having any dedicated hawse pieces, only an additional two cant frames that continue to walk up the gripe/boxing of the stem... If you have any knowledge of this, I'd highly appreciate it

Step #2 (Finale) So joining the pieces together is actually fairly simple, but I do want to call out a couple nuances and "got-ya's" as I go along... 1. I first want to apply the modifiers for the plane arrays along each station line curve, and once again, do this segment by segment. Ergo: I select all planes along the rabbet to bottom of main wale segment Second, I duplicate and apply all modifiers - I duplicated them so I could retain a backup (which is actually what allows me to present this as a tutorial) ['Shift' + 'D', then 'Enter'] for blender users. VERY IMPORTANT - I must apply the modifiers on each object BEFORE I join them. Fortunately, Blender has an add-on that allows modifiers to be applied to every object you have selected. It's called 'Interface: Modifier Tools'. It can be found it under the main menu bar. Select 'Edit' -> 'Preferences' then a box will pop-up. Then select 'Add-ons' on the left-side menu then scroll down till you find 'Interface: Modifier Tools' Click the check box and close the window. There will now be 4 extra buttons at the top of the modifier stack, and the very first one just happens to be 'Apply All'. So with all duplicated planes selected, press 'Apply All', the join them into a single object by pressing ['Ctrl' + 'J']. I then hid the backups from view. Fig 2. The add-ons menu in Blender. Fig3: Screenshot of the plane arrays joined as one object. 2. Now that I have the plane arrays as one object, I want to connect them into one continuous mesh. There are a few ways to do this, but I did it by going into edit mode and loop cutting [Ctrl +R] each array down the middle like so: Once I've bisected at least two plane arrays, I can then select the edges nearest one another and bridge the edge loops. TIP - make sure x-ray is turned on or not all verts may be selected. IMPORTANT - the 'Bridge edge loops' command has several options in the resulting pop-up window. Make sure that 'Connect Loops' is set to 'Open Loop' and that you have the 'Merge' checkbox checked. This may sound strange, but I then need to dissolve the resulting edge so that the only vertical lines in the mesh are that of the station lines. I will be adding interpolated cuts later, but I'm speaking from many of my past mistakes when I say that now is not the time to add them Anyway with the edge still highlighted just press 'Delete' and choose 'Dissolve Edges' from the pop-up box. Caveat - the bookends: When I got to work on the arrays nearest the bow and stern, I have an extra edge of vertices (because there's not an array beyond that to which a connection can be made). Simply delete these vertices. 3. Lastly, I just repeat the above steps for each plane array, then do the same for the upper hull segments. Note that each hull segment will be it's own object for now, and that is fine. (FYI - I'll explain the use of the subdivision and why the foremost array is off the ground in the next step. Smooth sailing to you all, - Nate

Step#2 (Continued again...) Before we can join these together, we need to repeate the process for the upper segments. My segments are as follows a. The top of the rabbet (which also the origin of the overall ship , same as it is on plans) to the bottom of main wale (already covered in last post) b. The main wale c. The top of the main wale to the bottom of the channel stringer. FYI - I'm calling this the 'gun wale segment' because within this area runs a gunwale stringer, though interestingly, it neither follows, nor influences, the overall run of the strakes (more research req'd) d. Bottom of the channel strake to the top of the lowest cap rail (forgive me, I don't know the proper name for this piece if there is one) e. The top segment, which is actually multiple segments, but luckily the change in the arc along between the curves is minimal - so I was able to do it as one piece. The 'yucky' part is that on ever level above the first one, we need to also align the 'floor' of each plane before we scale it vertically. This, sadly, doubles the workload on each one... The next level up would be the main wale. Now, the models I've seen depict two heavy duty stringers along the top and bottom edges, and the planking in the middle is cut into a series of scarfs, lap-joints, and other assorted jigsaw pieces lol. However, the total width appears to be around 5 strakes, so that's what value I used. If you're interested in following along the steps are: 1. duplicate the plane array from the lower segment along the same station line 2. change the array modifier to the number of strakes in the new segment (5 in this case) 3. In object mode, press 'g' to grab the whole thing, then 'z' to move it upward to align the bottom of the new array with the top of the array segment below it. 4. Go into edit mode and move the top edge up or down so the highest strake aligns with the next curve up (same as we did for the previous section) After the main wale was done it was simply wash, rinse, repeat until all station line curves within each hull segment had an array of planes on it. And, thankfully, I was finally ready to join the hull into a single object...