Silgrad Tower from the Ashes

Hey mates,
How are ya, my name is Spankybus, well not really but it's kind been stuck on me for a few years now. I have been talkin to Razor here about this project and think I will be involved in the making of the Velothi Tileset for the ST project. I am a 3d Modeller using 3dstuidio Max, as well as Autocad (for projects using blueprints or exactling stuff) and messing with Maya 7 some (I am used to studio so it's really different toi me). I am a freelance writer, but have really taken recently to 3d modelling. I am trying to build a portfolio of work that I might break into the Industry as a 3d modeller, and razor has offerred to let me help out here to that end. I am really excited about the project and glad to be a part of this GiG. I am also working with JB and his up and coming Children of the Night Mod series as it will appear in Oblivion.

Currently, I am trying to wrap up a project for an up and coming MMO game called Pirates of the Burning Sea. I am building a 17th Century West Indiaman (merchantman/cargo carrier) of approximately 140ft and a poly budget of 85,000. It's been a lot of fun, and it's also the only project that i can post here so you can see previous examples of my work. She's still not done, but she's close, and I am waiting a lot now on feedback for corrections here, and tweas there, so I will be helpin some morrowind folks with their mods while i wait and after its done. CotN and this are going to be my only large projects for now, Apart from all the pervs asking me to make chicks with bigger boobs for them, and not any mod in progress lol.

http://www.flyinglab.com/forums/attachme...tid=143329 picture of the Ship as rendered by 3dstudio max

http://www.flyinglab.com/forums/showthre...genumber=1

1st page of the Work in Progress thread (WIP) as posted on the Flying Lab Software website, http://www.burningsea.com

Thanks for the welcome mates. As I get rampped up here and get to know the people I will be working with, I will post a Velothi Interior WIP thread as to keep everyone informed as to how things are going :yar:

btw I know I said I am a Freelance writer, but that doesn't ean I know how to spell, so get ready for some mad consufin typos :-D

welcome aboard,
thats some very interesting work

Spankybus: Hello again, and welcome to our little corner of the web

(we do the wave for all new forum members. It's our version of the fishy stick )

The screenie of the frigate (?) you posted is totally awesome! It's totally up there with the stuff Bethesda is creating for Oblivion, going by the recent ship screenie that came out. I know you're creating it for another game, but I can't help but hope that you release it for Oblivion as well. It might need it's own exterior cell at sea for that, because of the poly count, but I bet it would be an amazing place to experience in-game.

I can't fathom why some people are so obsessed with digital nudity when they can just do a google image search for "boobies" or something and get something much hotter than polys could ever be. It's much more fun to kill things in games than gawk at women, I say.

Looking forward to checking out the future Velothi development thread, when you're finished with your active projects of course. :goodjob:

I dunno that I am not allowed to use the ship wherever I want, in that I created her. However, her textures are the property of Flying Lab software, and that posses a problem. A bigger problem still is the poly count. I dunno what kind of poly counts a similar sized ship in Ob would be, since the use a lot of Normal mapping, they can make things look incredible with a lot less polies. My poly budget was given to me by the game dev's so I know its what they are looking for. But bethesda's has sewn its lips shut. Why they don't release the kind of information that is useful ot modders now I can't understand. at least infor like poly density, etc, stuff that would help us limit out designs to allow proper engine operation. I have already paid for, in full, one xbox360 and one copy of Oblivion (my wife likes the controller better than a PC) and I will be getting the PC version too, for obvious reasons :-D muhahaha

Actually, she's not a Frigate, she's not armed enough, but she is very close to a frigate for a merchant. She's got 9 guns a side, and 2 stern chasers (why they still call em chasers when they're only efffective aft is beyond me), and the gun calibre is fairly low, about 6 to 9 poundres, with perhaps 2 lonf 12lb'ers on the stern (more accuracte). 20 guns, is a lot for a merchantman, and they Indiaman (west and East) we're respected by pirates and privateers as formidable Prey (east Indiaman actually have gundecks and lost to 50 guns on some of the larger ones). Yea I love this crap, build the large wooden models of sailing ships, one of the USS Constitution (3ft) and currently building the USS Constellation 3ft).

Spankybus: Aah, now I get it - the ship you made is for a stand-alone software? Then I can certainly understand that it would be an exclusive for them. First I thought it was for a mod for another game. A bright gem for your portfolio, I'm sure =)

Still, perhaps there's a chance it can be simplified later on, so as to both reserve the extra quality for them and to make the poly count lower? With a lower poly count it could be docked at a bustling city harbour in Oblivion. I'll leave that to you to decide of course, I'm just babbling because the ship is so beatiful to look at.

Personally I can only tell the difference between frigates and galleons, but I do like them a lot from playing Pirates! in the eighties, which was an insanely entertaining game I though. I loved the Monkey Island series of adventure games too, I rather liked the blend of a humor game in a pirate setting.

wonder if there is a shipbuilding tutorial.

Ideas a forming

Head over to Burningsea.com and creep the user content forums, the sticky parts. There are some ship tutorials, some help in making a hull in Gmax (3d studios free-of-charge cousin), I have a deck cutter tutorial. Mostly, i just made her from a set of plans taken from this website.

http://www.maritima.se/Myndigheten%20SMM...%2052.aspx

My ship was taken from the lower set of plans, and she's hte largest ship on those plans. There are TONs of plans on this page. All were taken from abook written by a 17th centruy Swedish shipwright named Fredrick Chapman. There are plans from small sloops to large galleons and man-of-wars. You could make a whole range of player, aquirable vessels for Oblivion (start out with a small yacth and work your way up).

I will find out if I can use the ship in 2 different games. The textures are obviously off-limits, as they belong to FLS, so we'd have to come up with our own, and 85k polys is fair amount, but until we know what the Oblivion Engine can push, it's a mute point to speculate where the outside edge of our modding envelope will be, exactly.

lol okay.. one side issue.. did I get my fishy stick when I joined?? hmm..

I love your ship Spanky! Wonderful work. I was browsing TES IV's site last night and from what I can tell, anything we can conceive will run/work in that new beast. My comp however, is another story. lol

Oh boy, now Charles (aka Danath or my darlin PIA), is busy googling for viking ship plans and I think he'll be too busy to pester me for awhile. mwahahaha

Myself, I'm a part-time writer as well, although i've been rather lax the past few years (age will do that; if it doesnt interest me, I can't be bothered to do it anymore..hehe). Right now I'm a bit of a texture freak and love playing with photoshop to see what kind of trouble i can get into. (I went from PS5 to CS and still haven't figured out all the new goodies yet =) )

Anyway... I was wondering if you have ever thought about modelling a realistic mountain range? (yeah I know.. I'm obsessive) These over-grown boulders that pass for mountains in MW just don't look right to me. If I ever get the hang of 3DS I'll try them myself, but right now PS has my heart.. hehe

Quote:Originally posted by Galrina
lol okay.. one side issue.. did I get my fishy stick when I joined?? hmm..
hehe

Like I said, the wave is our variant on the fishy stick for new members, and Quentin did it for you (link) :elk:

ROFLMAO heck she didnt know that was a fishy stick